For nearly two decades, a former police officer from Siberia committed crimes that shocked a nation and evaded justice partly because of the very badge he carried.
Among the darkest chapters in modern criminal history, few cases carry the weight of what happened across Siberia between 1992 and 2011. Over nearly two decades, women across the Irkutsk region were disappearing and being found murdered in forests and along remote roads. Investigators worked the cases for years. The killer, it turned out, was one of their own.
Mikhail Popkov known by the aliases “The Werewolf” and “The Angarsk Maniac” is a former Russian police officer now serving multiple life sentences for crimes that have made him the most prolific serial killer in modern Russian history. With more than 90 murders officially linked to him and convictions spanning four separate trials between 2015 and 2023, his case remains a landmark in both criminal investigation and forensic history.
Who Was Mikhail Popkov?
Born on March 7, 1964, in Norilsk, in Russia’s Krasnoyarsk Krai, Popkov grew up in the Soviet era and eventually built a career in law enforcement. He served as a police officer in Angarsk, an industrial city in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, before later working as a security guard.
On the surface, he lived an unremarkable life. He was married with a daughter. He held a position of public trust. Neighbors and colleagues described him as ordinary. The reality behind that exterior was, as investigators would eventually discover, something else entirely.
| Category | Details |
| Full Name | Mikhail Viktorovich Popkov |
| Date of Birth | March 7, 1964 |
| Birthplace | Norilsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Soviet Union |
| Former Role | Police officer; later security guard |
| Known Aliases | The Werewolf, The Angarsk Maniac, The Wednesday Murderer |
| Active Years | 1992–2011 |
| Confirmed Victims | 91+ (officially linked/confessed) |
| Arrested | June 23, 2012 |
| Sentence | Two life sentences plus additional prison terms |
The Crimes: Nearly Two Decades of Violence
Popkov began his killing campaign in 1992 and continued for nearly twenty years across the Irkutsk region. His victims were predominantly women between the ages of 16 and 50. Investigators determined that he typically approached women late at night, often using his police status or access to a police vehicle to gain their trust before driving them to isolated locations, forests, remote roads, areas where discovery was unlikely.
The murders were carried out using a variety of weapons, including axes, knives, hammers, and screwdrivers, and through strangulation. Post-mortem mutilation was a recurring feature of the crimes. The level of violence, combined with the calculated method of selecting and approaching victims, pointed to someone who felt significant confidence in their ability to avoid detection.
“Investigators later discovered that Popkov had participated in murder investigations as a police officer sometimes visiting crime scenes he himself had created.”
That confidence, investigators later concluded, was partly rooted in his professional position. He understood how police investigations worked. He knew what evidence mattered and what to avoid leaving behind. And when investigations did launch, he was sometimes part of the team examining his own crimes.
How He Escaped Detection for So Long
The Police Connection
The fact that Popkov worked in law enforcement was central to why he remained undetected for so long. His access to police vehicles removed suspicion from his late-night movements. His professional knowledge allowed him to understand the investigation process from the inside. And his participation in murder inquiries meant he could monitor how close investigators were getting without raising an alarm.
The DNA Breakthrough
What ultimately broke the case was DNA testing. Russian investigators launched a mass screening of thousands of former and current police officers in Siberia, a significant undertaking that reflected both the scale of the investigation and the growing certainty that the killer had law enforcement ties. When Popkov’s DNA was matched to evidence recovered from crime scenes, the investigation that had stretched across two decades finally had its answer.
He was arrested on June 23, 2012, nearly twenty years after his first confirmed killing.
The Trials and Convictions
What followed the arrest was a series of trials that unfolded over more than a decade, each revealing more about the true scope of the crimes.
| Year | Event |
| 2012 | Arrested following a DNA investigation |
| 2015 | Received first life sentence after conviction for 22 murders and 2 attempted murders |
| 2017 | Charged with dozens of additional killings |
| 2018 | Received second life sentence after conviction for 56 further murders |
| 2021 | Convicted of 2 additional murders |
| 2023 | Convicted of 3 more murders |
The total officially connected to him now exceeds 90 murders. Some Russian investigators and media reports have speculated that the true number of victims may be significantly higher, potentially approaching 200, though no official determination has been made to support that figure.
Stated Motive and Psychological Profile
During questioning, Popkov claimed his killings were motivated by a desire to “cleanse” society of women he regarded as immoral or promiscuous. Investigators and psychiatrists who examined him described a condition termed “homicidomania” an obsessive and escalating compulsion to kill. Reports also indicated he attributed some of his hatred toward women to suspicions of infidelity by his wife, though there is no verified evidence those suspicions had any basis in reality.
Despite these psychological assessments, Russian courts ruled that he was legally sane and fully responsible for his actions. He was not granted any diminished responsibility defense. The court’s conclusion was that he understood what he was doing and chose to do it across a span of nearly twenty years.
His Place in Criminal History
Criminologists and law enforcement analysts frequently compare Popkov to two other infamous figures in Russian criminal history: Andrei Chikatilo, who was convicted of 52 murders in the 1990s, and Alexander Pichushkin, known as the “Chessboard Killer,” convicted of 48 murders in 2007. Based on confirmed convictions and confessions, Popkov stands above both as Russia’s deadliest known modern serial killer.
The case also prompted significant reflection within Russian law enforcement about internal oversight, the risks of investigative access being used by perpetrators, and the role of forensic DNA databases in solving cold cases. The mass police screening that eventually identified Popkov was unprecedented in scale and became a reference point for how similar investigations might be approached in the future.
Reports have suggested Popkov has on occasion expressed a form of regret, including statements that he sometimes wishes Russia had retained capital punishment. Those comments emerged from interviews and secondary reporting rather than official court documents, and should be understood in that context.
Conclusion
The case of Mikhail Popkov is a landmark in the history of criminal investigation not because of the notoriety of the crimes alone, but because of what it revealed about how institutional trust can be weaponized, how investigations can be compromised from within, and how modern forensic science can eventually close cases that seemed almost impossible to solve.
His victims were ordinary women going about their lives in Siberian cities and towns, none of whom could have anticipated the danger represented by a man in uniform offering assistance. Their stories deserve to be remembered with the same clarity as the investigation that ultimately brought their killer to account.
Popkov remains imprisoned in Russia under consecutive life sentences, a conclusion that took two decades, thousands of DNA tests, and four separate criminal trials to reach, but that finally arrived nonetheless.
This article is written for informational and educational purposes. All details are sourced from publicly reported court records, law enforcement statements, and verified journalism. Speculative figures regarding victim counts beyond officially confirmed numbers are noted as unverified.
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