[2] Known by the nicknames The Beast of Ukraine, The Terminator, and Citizen O, Onoprienko confessed to killing fifty-two people upon being apprehended in April 1996.

[3][4] Anatoly Onoprienko was born in the village of Lasky in Zhytomyr Oblast, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union.

His father, Yuri Onoprienko, was decorated for bravery while serving on the Eastern Front during the Second World War.

[6] In one interview, he later alleged that it was this that predetermined his destiny, and remarked that seventy per cent of those brought up in orphanages end up in prison as adults.

Onoprienko confessed that he and an accomplice, Sergei Rogozin, committed the murders with weapons that they carried for self-defense.

On 24 December 1995, the Zaichenko family of four were killed with a sawed-off double-barreled shotgun during a robbery in their home at Garmarnia, a village in central Ukraine, which was set ablaze afterwards.

The murders were quickly followed by that of a male pedestrian whom Onoprienko killed in order to eliminate potential witnesses.

On 30 January 1996, Marusina, her two sons, and a 32-year-old visitor named Zagranichniy were all shot dead in the Fastiv, Kyiv Oblast, region of Ukraine.

An hour later, Onoprienko then allegedly shot and killed a neighbouring businessman named Tsalk who was wandering around the Bodnarchuk property, hacking his corpse with the axe afterwards.

[6] Onoprienko's modus operandi consisted of choosing an isolated house and gaining the attention of the occupants by creating a commotion.

In March 1996, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and Public Prosecutor's Office specialists detained 26-year-old Yury Mozola as a suspect in several brutal murders.