Cop serial killer 'The Werewolf' murdered 80 people and said he was a 'cleaner'

dailystar.co.uk:

Russia.Popkov had already been imprisoned for killing 22 women in 2015.The murderer, known as a 'maniac' and given the nickname of 'The Werewolf', used a similar tactic for a large chunk of his crime.He would stop women and offer them a lift late at night while he was off-duty as a policeman in Angarsk, in the south-eastern part of the nation.

He killed his victims using weapons including a hammer and an axe.He would then dispose of their bodies in the woods, at the side of the road and in a cemetery.He was also found guilty of raping 11 of the women.

In interviews with police, Popkov described himself as a "cleaner" who believed he was purging his area of prostitutes. Russia's bloodiest serial killer was later convicted of murdering his 82nd and 83rd female victims.The latest convictions relate to killings in 1995.The 82nd victim was Natalya Zvereva who was sexually attacked and murdered in a Siberian forest.Married father-of-one Popkov told interrogators he raped Zvereva then “we quarrelled and I murdered her.“I hit her on the top of her head….

She fell down and did not show any signs of life.”He threw her body into a river, he said.The name of the 83rd victim was not disclosed.Police believe Popkov - also called the Angarsk Maniac - may eventually confess to dozens more victims, with one investigator forecasting his macabre murder toll could be “closer to 200”.A chilling video from his family archive shows the killer in the 1990s walking towards the camera clutching a knife and reciting a post-war nursery rhyme based on Nazi prisoners of war attacking locals.“I will slash you.