Russian Ex-Cop's 82 Murders Make Him World's Worst Serial Killer?

A Russian ex-cop with 82 murders on his head is the most prolific serial killer in the country, and perhaps the world. Nicknamed "the werewolf," Mikhail Popkov is on trial in Irkutsk.

Popkov, 53, who has already been convicted of killing 22 women, is on trial for additional murders, the BBC News reported. Russia's Interfax news agency reported that Popkov confessed to 60 new murders that were allegedly committed from 1992 to 2010.

Also known as the "Angarsk maniac," Popkov was given a life sentence in 2015 for the original 22 murders and two counts of attempted murder, the BBC News said.

Popkov's victims and alleged victims were women from 16 and 40 years old, the BBC News stated. He was also charged with killing one male police officer.

In reported testimony leaked to the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, Popkov told investigators he led a "double life," The Independent reported.

"In one life I was an ordinary person … In my other life I committed murders, which I carefully concealed from everyone, realizing that this was a criminal offense," Popkov said in testimony, The Independent said, according to Komsomolskaya Pravda.

Popkov reportedly said he wanted to "cleanse" the streets of "prostitutes," in an effort to justify the alleged killings.

"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,” Popkov allegedly said, per The Independent.

"Not all women became victims, but those of a certain negative behavior, I had a desire to teach and punish."

Prosecutors said, per The Independent, that they have secured one additional confession Popkov on top of 59 new confessions, leading to 82 total victims.

That total would top other Russian serial killers like Andrei "Butcher of Rostov" Chikatilo, who killed at least 52 women and children from 1978 and 1990, and Alexander Pichushkin, the Moscow "Chessboard killer" who was convicted of 49 deaths but may have killed as many as 60, The Independent said.

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