MOSCOW, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- A Moscow jury convicted a former supermarket worker Wednesday of 48 murders and three attempted murders.
Alexander Pichushkin, who claims to have killed 63 people, was convicted on all charges without mitigating circumstances despite his defense team's attempts to clear him of 18 of the murder charges, RIA Novosti reported.
Pichushkin, 33, had reportedly planned to kill a total 64 people to match the number of squares on a chessboard.
The defendant is believed to have committed most of the crimes between 2001 and 2006, but told the court he began killing in 1992.
Most of the victims were elderly people walking alone in the park, but three of those killed were younger women and one was a child, the report said. Pichushkin said his early victims were disposed of in nearby sewage works, but he began leaving the bodies out in the open after becoming frustrated that his crimes were going unnoticed by the public.
Prosecutor Yury Syomin recommended that Pichushkin be sentenced to life in a high-security prison.
