re: #261 Dr Lizardo

In the real-life Chikatilo case, one innocent person was indeed executed for one of his murders - that person was posthumously declared innocent. From what I recall, this chap had confessed, and to the Soviet authorities, that was good enough - they never stopped to think that there’s always “false confessors” who almost invariably turn up. The Soviets actually ended up hassling a lot of otherwise innocent people in their manhunt for Chikatilo before they finally caught him

There was an outstanding HBO made-for-TV film about it. Citizen X. Though I’m looking forward to Child 44, Citizen X is, for me, sort of the go-to film regarding the Beast of Rostov.

I’ve seen Citizen X and it is indeed an excellent movie. Well cast, too, as the dynamic between Stephen Rea and Donald Sutherland’s characters is really allowed to form and grow in the movie. Too often in movies things are made to change between characters as a result of sudden crisis, whereas in Citizen X it shows how two men adapt to each other and become friends over a period of several years.

Max von Sydow’s reluctant hero psychiatrist is also a very well-drawn character.