Jury Convicts Chessboard Killer

A Russian jury today convicted the so-called Chessboard Killer, who terrorized a Moscow park for 14 years, on 48 counts of murder. Alexander Pichushkin claims to have killed 61, placing a coin on a chessboard square for each victim. But although many would like to see the country's most infamous serial killer put to death, the BBC reports, Russia has suspended capital punishment.

Although Pichushkin said he orginally meant to fill only the 64-square chessboard, he later claimed he would have gone on killing indefinitely had he not been caught last year. He mostly drowned or bludgeoned elderly men who drank with him at Moscow's Bittsa Park, though he did kill three women. He’ll be sentenced later this week. (More Chessboard Killer stories.)