Policeman Receives Two Life Imprisonments For Killing 78 Women

A former Russian police officer who was sentenced in 2015 to life in prison for the killings of 22 women has received a second life sentence for murdering 56 more women.

The Irkutsk Regional Court in southeastern Siberia also ruled on December 10 to deprive the convicted serial killer, 54-year-old Mikhail Popkov, of the rank of police sergeant.

Dubbed the Angarsk Maniac by Russian media, he is the most prolific known serial killer in Russian and Soviet history.

Popkov, a former police officer from the nearby city of Angarsk, was arrested in 2012 after a series of DNA tests linked him to rapes and murders of three women in 1997.

In January 2015, he was found guilty of the murder of 22 women and the attempted murder of two women between 1994 and 2000 and was sentenced to life in prison.

Popkov was charged in March 2017 with murdering 59 more women after authorities said he confessed to the crimes.

But Popkov was convicted of 56 murders only on December 10 because investigators could not prove that three of the crimes actually took place.

Authorities said he committed some of the killings while on duty, using his police car and uniform to trap his victims.

Andrei Chikatilo was convicted in 1992 and executed in 1994 for raping, butchering, and in some cases cannibalizing as many as 52 people.

"Chessboard Killer" Aleksandr Pichushkin was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for 48 murders.

Based on reporting by TASS and Interfax