What Happened To Serial Killer Andrei Chikatilo's Son?

Andrei Chikatilo, otherwise known as the Rostov Ripper, made international headlines when he was captured on November 20, 1990 (per Biography). Claiming to have taken the lives of 56 people in a killing spree that spanned a little more than a decade, Chikatilo faced trial in post-cold war Russia in 1992. To keep him away from the many family members of his victims, he was placed inside an iron cage as the trial commenced. Altogether, the court found Russia's most prolific serial killer guilty of 52 murders and handed him a death sentence for each count. 

Rather than have a "type" to prey upon, Chikatilo's victims were varied, with ages ranging as young as 7 and as old as 45 (via Murderpedia). Citing his motive as wanting to rid the Soviet Union of people he considered undesirable, he would lure his victims into secluded areas where they were viciously attacked and killed (per Thought Catalog). The killer that the world learned about in the courtroom was starkly different from the man who, at one time, was a husband and a teacher. He even fathered two children, a daughter named Lyudmila and a son, Yuri (per Murderpedia). While his daughter has stayed out of the headlines, his son has been another matter. As recently as 2009, the son of one of the most prolific serial killers of our time was arrested for attempted murder (via Unian). 

The incident involving Andrei Chikatilo's son was first reported by RIA Novosti, a newspaper in Donbass, Ukraine. According to the media outlet, a senior police official named Sergei Karakutsa gave the details outlining the crime. Yuri, who had changed his name to Yuri Odnacheva years before, was in the city on business with a colleague. When the two were in a public restroom, Odnacheva pulled out a knife and began stabbing him in the stomach. 

With several severe wounds, the stabbing victim fled to his vehicle. He drove to a local market, where an ambulance was called. Though he had lost a lot of blood in the altercation, he was able to undergo emergency surgery. Ultimately, he survived the attack on his life. Odnacheva told police an alternate side of the story. According to him, the man he stabbed had stolen his car, and Odnacheva only stabbed him in self-defense.

This wasn't Odnacheva's first brush with the law, either. He had previously been arrested and convicted on charges of fraud, rape, extortion, and racketeering (via The Daily Mirror).

Though criminal, the actions of Yuri Odnacheva pale in comparison to those of his father. Being the son of a serial killer would probably have a detrimental impact on a person's mental faculties, that's for sure. But no matter how horrific Odnacheva's childhood was, it paled in comparison to the one experienced Andrei Chikatilo. Born amid the collective farming that was imposed on Ukraine by Stalin, Chikatilo saw his friends and family starve. Compounding the harsh physical environment the famine created was the psychological issues that the young Chikatilo experienced. According to Biography, he was believed to have had hydrocephalus, more commonly known as "water on the brain." This resulted in his being impotent, though he was still able to ejaculate.

When Chikatilo married in 1963, he was able to father his two children. While hardly a candidate for Father of the Year, Chikatilo was at least able to say that he put a lot of effort into becoming a parent.