Ruthless rapist and killer Mikhail Popkov - generally known as The Werewolf - has confessed to killing a complete of 81 girls, Russian state investigators confirmed right now.
This makes him the third worst identified serial killer in historical past, and probably the most prolific within the former Soviet Union, overtaking his idol Andrei Chikatilo, aka the Butcher of Rostov, who was executed for committing 53 murders, and the Moscow maniac Alexander Pichushkin, generally known as the Chessboard Killer, who killed 49.
His loss of life toll additionally outruns Ukrainian Anatoly Onoprienko, who was convicted of a complete of 52 murders between 1989 and 1996 and died in jail in 2013.
Popkov (pictured) is serving a life sentence already for 22 murders. Russia banned the loss of life penalty in 1996, though some politicians have been calling for it to be restored
Legislation enforcement officers acted right now to make clear confusion in Russian experiences yesterday over the married father-of-one's grotesque reign of terror.
They are saying Popkov, who has already been discovered responsible of 22 murders, has now admitted one other 59, a toll which is accepted by police.
The Siberian beast, a former policeman, sexually assaulted his younger feminine victims earlier than slaying them with axes, knives or screwdrivers over an 18 yr interval instantly following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
'To make clear the numbers, Popkov has confessed to 59 new murders,' mentioned Lieutenant Karina Golovacheva, an official of the Russian Investigative Committee, equal of the FBI, in Irkutsk area, instructed The Siberian Occasions.
Lieutenant Karina Golovacheva (pictured, left) mentioned Popkov (proper) had confessed to 59 extra murders, taking his whole tally as much as 81, the third worst serial killer in historical past
THE BUTCHER OF ROSTOV
The hunt for Andrei Chikatilo (pictured) was featured within the 1995 movie Citizen X
Andrei Chikatilo was born in 1936 within the Ukraine, then a part of the us. As a toddler he witnessed the horrors of the Second World Battle.
Later a medical situation led to bedwetting episodes and in an incapacity to take care of an erection. His first sexual episode led to ridicule, triggering a violent inside rage. A trainer by career, he spent most of his life within the southern metropolis of Rostov.
A Soviet detective, Viktor Burakov, suspected him however was prevented from arrested him as a result of the Russian Communist Get together believed serial killers had been a Western phenomenon. Finally he confessed to the grotesque murders of 52 individuals and was executed in 1994, two years earlier than the loss of life penalty was abolished
She mentioned: 'We aren't counting on this whole these 22 for which he was already sentenced. These instances are already closed.
'So there are 59 new murders. Which means, if we add them to the sooner 22, will probably be 81 murders in whole.'
Of the brand new 59 instances, he has been charged with 47 to this point. However an extra dozen expenses will probably be laid 'within the nearest future', she mentioned.
'We're fairly positive concerning the 12 different instances,' mentioned Lt Golovacheva.
She mentioned the investigation is ongoing and his closing toll might be even increased.
'When the investigation is completed, and Popkov has learn the case supplies, the trial can start,' she mentioned.
If he killed 81, solely two serial killers on the earth would have killed extra - Luis Garavito and Pedro Lopez, each of whom operated in South America.
Garavito - generally known as La Bestia (The Beast) - killed 138 younger boys in Colombia whereas Lopez, the 'Monster of the Andes', raped and murdered 300 women in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Specialists imagine Popkov intentionally waited to offer his full confession to delay the second when he's despatched from his present jail, with comparatively comfy circumstances, to a harsh penal colony to serve his life sentence.
In a court docket look in Irkutsk this week, he was requested by decide Pavel Rukavishnikov what number of girls he had killed.
As is frequent with murderers in Russia, Popkov (pictured) was taken again to the scene of his crimes - in handcuffs - and requested to reconstruct what occurred. He's seen right here close to the village of Savateevka, close to Angarsk
He shrugged and replied: 'I am unable to say precisely, I did not maintain a report.'
However the mass killer instructed the court docket: 'I admit my guilt in full...committing the murders, I used to be guided by my inside convictions.'
After he was detained in 2012, he instructed police he wished to 'cleanse' the streets of 'prostitutes'.
THE BEAST OF THE UKRAINE
Anatoly Onoprienko (pictured) died in jail in 2013
Anatoly Onoprienko's mom died when he was 4 years outdated and he spent a lot of his childhood in an orphanage within the Ukraine.
When he grew up he studied forestry however drifted by life, incomes a dwelling reducing down timber.
Onoprienko's homicide nearly precisely coincided with the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1989 he and a good friend killed a household of seven - together with 5 youngsters - in a home in Bratkovychi to remove witnesses after breaking in to steal valuables.
However his price of killing accelerated for some purpose in December 1995. He would typically break into homes in rural Ukraine, in search of one thing to steal, and would shoot useless complete households to forestall them figuring out him.
In March 1996 Ukrainian police tortured to loss of life a person they wrongly suspected of committing a number of the murders. Just a few days later Onoprienko was caught, convicted and jailed for all times for 52 murders.
He died in jail in 2013
'They deserted their husbands and kids at dwelling and went out to occasion as if it was the final day on Earth,' he mentioned.
He typically supplied victims lifts late at evening in his police automobile earlier than taking them to distant areas the place he raped and killed them, leaving their bare our bodies in woods by the roadside.
Regardless of detailed proof of rapes earlier than killing his victims, his is charged solely with murders.
Senior investigator Andrei Bunayev disclosed final yr: 'The investigation will probably be very lengthy as a result of there are quite a lot of instances.
'He names the locations the place our bodies are hidden. We discover these our bodies, and verify his involvement.'
He mentioned Popkov 'left organic traces in some instances which weren't studied earlier - however now there is a chance to look at them'.
In different instances, websites had been dug up guided by the convicted mass assassin.
'He confidently guides us to the place the place a physique is discovered and explains what occurred, what accidents he triggered,' mentioned Mr Bunayev.
When he was a serving policeman, he was twice referred to as to research homicide he himself had dedicated.
After he stop the power in 1998, it's identified Popkov drove between his dwelling metropolis of Angarsk, in Irkutsk area, the place a lot of his crimes had been dedicated, and Vladivostok, on the nation's Pacific coast, a distance of some three,900 kilometres.
But a painstaking search has not discovered proof of crimes in different areas - to this point.
Popkov was a policeman for a few years in Angarsk (pictured) and after he left the power he started promoting vehicles, which he introduced from Vladivostok
Viktoria Chagaeva (pictured) holds an image of her sister. She says: 'The ache doesn't go away - it was me who gave Tanya a ticket to go to a live performance, and he or she was killed after attending it'
Two of his earlier victims had been Tanya Martynova, 20, and Yulia Kuprikova, 19, discovered useless on 29 October 1998 in an Angarsk suburb following an evening out.
'The ache doesn't go away - it was me who gave Tanya a ticket to go to a live performance, and he or she was killed after attending it,' mentioned her sister Viktoria Chagaeva, 49, who owns a magnificence salon in Angarsk.
Popkov's spouse Elena, 51, and daughter Ekaterina, 29, a trainer, initially stood by him, refusing to imagine he was a mass killer.
Mikhail Popkov along with his daughter Ekaterina, as a toddler. Now 29, she says: 'I don't imagine any of this. I at all times felt myself as 'Daddy's woman''
However since his first trial they've moved to a different metropolis to start new lives.
One idea is that he started his homicide spree after - wrongly - suspecting his spouse of dishonest on him.
'I simply had some causes to suspect her,' mentioned Popkov, of his perception that his spouse had slept with one other man.
He admitted to having a unfavorable view of ladies who went out at evening to drink with out their husbands or boyfriends.
Now he says: 'I had no proper to guage individuals, their behaviour ... that is my repentance.'
Popkov's daughter Ekaterina (left) and spouse Elena (proper) have moved away from Angarsk
He evaded seize for years as a result of police couldn't ponder that one in every of their very own officers might be a mass killer.
He daughter at first refused to imagine he might be a mass killer.
'I don't imagine any of this. I at all times felt myself as 'Daddy's woman',' she mentioned.
'We walked, rode bikes, went to the outlets, and he met me from college.'
Her father 'does not appear to be some maniac', she mentioned.
Popkov has earlier instructed journalists that he was solely caught due to advances in DNA know-how used to deal with crimes.
He mentioned: 'I couldn't anticipate the examination of DNA. I used to be born in one other century. Now there are such trendy applied sciences, strategies, however not earlier. If we've not obtained to that degree of genetic examination, then...I might not be sitting in entrance of you.'
Requested he may flip again time, what he would do otherwise, he mentioned: 'All initially ought to have been modified. Straight from college. Since childhood.'
After he left the police, Popkov started shopping for vehicles in Vladivostok within the Russian Far East and promoting them in Angarsk
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