Full story at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/world/europe/25serial.html?hp

By MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ
Published: October 25, 2007
MOSCOW, Oct. 24 — A former supermarket worker, nicknamed the “Bittsa Maniac” in the Russian news media after the wooded park where he lured victims into drinking sessions before killing them, was found guilty of murdering 48 people in Moscow today .

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Kostya Smirnov/AFP-Getty Images
Aleksandr Pichushkin, who was convicted of murdering 48 people in Moscow on Wednesday, escorted to a courtroom in August.
The worker, Aleksandr Y. Pichushkin, 33, testified during the trial that his initial murder was “like first love.” He often killed his victims by bashing their heads with a blunt object or drowning them in a sewer. Saying he hoped to become Russia’s most prolific serial killer, he confessed to killing 63 people, one shy of his goal of one murder for each square on a chessboard.

He was trying to best the bloody toll of Andrei Chikatilo, dubbed the Rostov Ripper, who was executed in 1994 for raping and murdering 52 people.

He was arrested in June 2006 after a note left at home by one of his victims tipped off police.

Prosecutors initially charged that Mr. Pichushkin killed 49 people, but dropped one of the charges during the trial because of lack of evidence. The jury took less than three hours to reach its unanimous decision, news agencies reported.

In a glass cage to one side of the courtroom, Mr. Pichushkin sat emotionless, frowning occasionally, as Judge Vladimir Uzov read out convictions on 48 murder counts and three attempted murders, most over a five-year period, news agencies reported.