Anatoly Onoprienko

 

Anatoly Onoprienko Mugshot

Early Life

Anatoly Onoprienko was born Anatoly Yuriyovych Onoprienko and is a well known serial killer within his home country of the Ukraine and was known as “The Terminator” and “Citizen O”.

He was born on July 25 1959 in the village of Laski, in the Zhytomyr Oblast province of the Ukraine.

Anatoly was the younger of 2 boys, his brother, Valentin Onoprienko was 13 years older than Anatoly.

Anatoly along with his brother were cared for by their mother who died when Anatoly was at the young age of 4 years old.

After the death of their mother they were cared for by their grandparents.

In later years Anatoly was sent to an orphanage in the Ukrainian village of Privitnoe, while his brother was sent back to live with their father who was a War hero decorated for bravery during World War 2.

Anatoly was outraged because of the abandonment of his family and during his life at the orphanage, Anatoly started hearing voices.

Anatoly during documentary interview

Murders

Anatoly’s first murder was committed next to a motorway where he saw a couple trying to fix their car, Anatoly stopped his car next to them and shot and killed them in cold blood with a hunting rifle.

Not all of Anatoly’s murders were committed solo.

In 1989 in the village of Bratkovychi located in the province of Lviv Oblast in the western Ukrain, Anatoly and his friend Serhiy Rogozin who he met at a gym, decide to rob a house.

During the robbery Anatoly and his accomplice were caught by the owner of the house, Anatoly and Serhiy reacted by killing the owner of the house along with the owner’s wife and five children.

Anatoly and Serhiy parted ways a few months after their crime.

Another one of Anatoly’s crimes was killing a family asleep in their car, shooting them at point blank range.

After Anatoly killed them he realized he did not now what to do with the bodies, he climbed in the car and sat with the corpses for over 2 hours, afterwards he set the vehicle on fire.

After these crimes Anatoly started following a pattern for his murders.

He would locate and mark isolated houses, force entry and started his murders by killing the adult male of the house, he would then rape the adult female and then batter and murder the children.

Anatoly’s murder weapon of choice was a 12-gauge shotgun that he used to kill his victims at point blank range.

After the murder Anatoly would steal what he could, set the house on fire to destroy any evidence and flee the scene.

On December 24 1995 he broke into the home of the Zaichenko family in Garmarnia, central Ukraine.

Anatoly used a double barreled shotgun to kill the family of 4 which included 2 young boys.

On January 6 1996 Anatoly committed 3 murders following the same formula for each incident.

Anatoly would park next to a motorway and flag other cars giving the impression that he needs assistance fixing his car, when the victims would stop to give assistance he would shoot them at point blank range.

These incidents are only a few of the murders and crimes that Anatoly had committed

Anatoly’s total bodycount comes to 52 killings of which 21 were children no older than 15 years.

 

Wrongful Arrest

During the hunt for Anatoly, a man named Yury Mozola was arrested on suspicion of committing the murders that Anatoly was actually guilty of.

During the questioning, Yury was tortured to force a confession, but Yury refused to admit guilt to something he did not do and died during the questioning.

Anatoly with his girlfriend

Arrest

Pyotr Onoprienko, a cousin of Anatoly, allowed Anatoly to stay with him.

After sometime living with his cousin, Pyotr found a stash of weapons in Anatoly’s room.

Pyotr fearing for the safety of his family, told Anatoly that he will have to find sanctuary someplace else.

Anatoly became very angry, once again he was being abandoned by family and he started making threats towards Pyotr and his family but ultimately left without a serious consequence for Pyotr’s family.

After he was kicked out of his cousin’s house Anatoly moved in with his Girlfriend and her 2 children.

Pyotr was deeply disturbed by the threats made towards him and his family by Anatoly, so much so that Pytor reported the weapons cache found while Anatoly was staying with him, to the local deputy police Chief Sergei Kryukov.

Pyotr also informed Sergei of Anatoly’s current whereabouts.

On the 7th of April 1996 a taskforce was assembled to investigate Anatoly and ultimately arrest him.

9 days after the assembly of the task force Anatoly was arrested at the residence of his girlfriend.

Evidence

At the residence were Anatoly was arrested, officers found many pieces of incriminating evidence.

Among the items found was a stereo system of the same make and model as one stolen from one of Anatoly’s victims and upon further investigation investigators concluded that it was the exact same stereo system stolen form the victim’s house.

Also upon her return officers noted that Anatoly’s girlfriend was wearing a ring that belonged to one of Anatoly’s victims.

In total over a 120 pieces of evidence was collected tying Anatoly to the murders, including a 12 gauge shotgun, hunting rifle and pistol.

Anatoly during a documentary interview

Trail and Conviction

Anatoly ultimately confessed to killing 52 people and stated that the voices he started to hear while he was living in the orphanage told him to commit the murders, in light of this fact Anatoly’s Lawyer Ruslan Moshkovsky pleaded insanity, this was overruled as Anatoly was deemed mentally sane by a psychiatrist.

Anatoly appeared in court in big brown cage, not for the safety of others but for his own as people were so outraged by his crimes and wanted to kill him.

The crowds were causing such an uproar that it was feared they would start a riot, police officers were employed to insure the safety of the court and Anatoly during the time of the trail.

On the 31^st of March 1999 Anatoly was sentenced to death by Judge Dmitro Lypsky and in accordance to Ukrainian law stated that he had to be shot.

A few years later Capital punishment was abolished in the Ukraine and Anatoly’s sentenced was changed to life in prison.

Anatoly in the cage while in session