A Moscow court began trying a supermarket porter who prosecutors say murdered 49 people over a 14-year period, which would make him Russia's worst serial killer in a decade. Pichushkin is accused of luring victims to his flat before smashing them to death with a hammer, Reuters reported. His lawyer said 33-year-old Alexander Pichushkin had confessed to most of the murders, but it was unclear how many. The jury must decide whether or not he is of sound mind. "My client understands that he is to blame for most of these murders," Pichushkin's lawyer, Pavel Ivannikov, told reporters outside the courtroom after a fifteen-minute hearing. If convicted, Pichushkin -- called the "Bitsevsky Maniac" by Russian media after the Moscow park where many of the alleged victims were killed -- would be Russia's most deadly serial killer since Andrei Chikatilo, convicted in 1992 of 52 murders.
