The Aftermath

Onoprienko decided to talk after the trial and allowed himself to be interviewed by the media, in his prison cell. Stating he had no regrets over what he had done, he explained further by saying he was under the control of conspiracies of higher powers from another world. It was their mission to destroy humanity and the fact that he possessed special hypnotic powers meant that he was able to communicate with these higher forces.Onoprienko told of feeling ‘like a robot driven for years by a dark force’, that he was commanded to do violent things by voices in his head. He argued that his trial should have been postponed until the authorities could find the source of this dark force. He also maintained there was a conspiracy against him and that he was part of some kind of experiment. He claimed to love all people, including his victims, stating that he would have killed his own son if commanded by the higher powers.In an extensive interview for the London Times, Onoprienko spoke about the first time he had killed. He had been in his early 20s and had shot a deer in the woods. The sight of the dead animal had upset him and he had felt sorry for it but that was the first and last time he felt that way about murder. Killing people became like hunting to him. He would be sitting at home feeling bored and would be struck by the idea of going out to kill.Chillingly, Onoprienko believes he should have been executed as, if he were ever to be let out of prison, he would begin killing once more. “But this time it will be worse, ten times worse. The urge is there… Seize this chance because I am being groomed to serve Satan. After what I have learned out there, I have no competitors in my field. And if I am not killed, I will escape from this jail and the first thing I’ll do is find Kuchma (the Ukrainian president) and hang him from a tree by his testicles.”Onoprienko was included in the book ‘River of Blood: Serial Killers and Their Victims’ (2004) by criminologists Amanda Howard and Martin Smith.