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'I was good husband and father - as I killed 82 women'

By 0 and 0 and 0
27 March 2017

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Nicknamed The Werewolf, he has confessed to all the new murders - the women were aged 17 to 38 - ahead of his trial. Picture: NTV

Former policeman Mikhail Popkov, 53, from Angarsk in Siberia, has been charged with 60 new killings of women, on top of the 22 for which is is already serving a life sentence. 

Nicknamed The Werewolf, he has confessed to all the new murders - the women were aged 17 to 38 - ahead of his trial, and assisted investigators in finding bodies of many of his victims, say law enforcement sources. 

The figure is said to be his 'final' toll, following an exhaustive investigation. 

Popkov often raped his victims before killing them, say police. A leak of his testimony to police today gave an insight into his life, and how he separated his 'ordinary' family life from his other existence as one of history's worst and most bloodthirsty serial killers using axes, knives and screwdrivers to murder his victims. 

Popkov family


Popkov with daughter Katya

'My wife and daughter considered me a good husband and father, which corresponded to reality.' Pictures: NTV

'I had a double-life,' he told investigators working on his case. 'In one life I was an ordinary person, I was in the service in the police, having positive feedback on my work. I had a family. My wife and daughter considered me a good husband and father, which corresponded to reality. 

'In my other life I committed murders, which I carefully concealed from everyone, realising that this was a criminal offence. My wife and daughter never knew about the crimes I committed and did not even suspect this.' 

He spoke about how he selected women to kill during his 18 reign of terror in Irkutsk region between 1992 and 2010.

'The victims were those who, unaccompanied by men, at night, without a certain purpose, were on the streets, behaving carelessly, who were not afraid to enter into conversation with me, get into my car, and then go for a drive in search of adventures, for the sake of entertainment, ready to drink alcohol and have sexual intercourse with me.' 

Music teacher

On one occasion he murdered a teacher at his daughter Katya's music school, he said. Picture: NTV

Previously it has been reported he wanted to clean the streets of women he believed to be immoral. 

'Not all women became victims, but those of a certain negative behaviour, I had a desire to teach and punish. Others did not behave in such a way, they were afraid ... The exception was the murder of (victim) Elena Dorogova, who was hurrying to the [railway] station to meet her mother. On this occasion, the woman was sober.' 

Popkov admitted in the testimony, obtained by Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, that he stole knives and other weapons from the police. They had been confiscated from criminals. 

'I had the opportunity then to take them,' he said. 'Then I threw them away either at the crime scene or nearby, wiping them with something to remove my fingerprints ... 

Popkov's token


Marina Lyzhina


Marina and Liliya

Mikhail Popkov's police identity token. Marina Lyzhina. Maria Lyzhina (left) and Liliya Pashkovskaya (right). Pictures: NTV, Channel 1

'The choice of weapons for killing was always casual. I never prepared beforehand to commit a murder, I could use any object that was in the car - a knife, an axe, a bat. I never used rope for strangulation, and I did not have a firearm either. I did not cut out the hearts of the victims.' 

On one occasion he murdered a teacher at his daughter Katya's music school, he said. 

'Her corpse was found in the forest along with the body of another woman,' he said. 'My daughter asked me to give her money, as the school was collecting to organise funerals. I gave her.' 

Once he went back to the crime scene after leaving two women for dead, because he realised he had lost a police identity token at the site. 

'I found the token right away, but saw that one of the women was still breathing,' he said. 'I was again shocked by the fact that she was still alive. I finished her with a shovel.' 

Mikhail Popkov


Mikhail Popkov


Elena Popkova

Popkov led ordinary life. His wife Elena did not even suspected he is the worst Russian serial killer.  Pictures: REN TV, MVD of Irkutsk region, The Siberian Times

This was in 2000 and his victims were Maria Lyzhina, 35 and Liliya Pashkovskaya, 37. 

'I never thought of myself as mentally unhealthy. During my police service ,  I regularly passed medical commissions and was recognised as fit.'

His wife Elena and daughter have started new lives in different cities after initially refusing to believe he was guilty. 

Katya, a teacher, now 30, and expecting a child, told how she found it impossible to believe that her 'loving' father could be the man who violently raped his victims before butchering them.

She has not seen him since he was convicted of 22 murders in 2015, but she now said she wants to 'look into his eyes and understand if he really could be that killer'.

Ekaterina Popkova

Katya, a teacher, now 30, and expecting a child, told how she found it impossible to believe that her 'loving' father could be the man who violently raped his victims before butchering them. Picture: Channel 1

He told a court in Irkutsk: 'I admit my guilt in full.... Committing the murders, I was guided by my inner convictions.' After he was detained in 2012, he told police he wanted to 'cleanse' the streets of 'prostitutes'. 

'They abandoned their husbands and children at home and went out to party as if it was the last day on earth,' he said. 

He often offered victims nighttime lifts in his police car before taking them to remote locations where he raped and killed them, leaving their naked bodies in woods on roadsides. 

Comments (2)

With present day technology, it wouldn´t be possible such a large number of murders.
Enrique, Spain
10/04/2017 20:29
1
1
Justice would best be served if the murderer of 82 women was executed.
Doc, U.S.
05/04/2017 07:24
5
1
1

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