Last week, Angarsk thundered throughout the country twice. In both cases, the reason for fame, unfortunately, was negative - a bomb exploded at a bus stop and Mikhail Popkov was sentenced to life, Serial killer and a former police officer. The Angarsk maniac, who calls himself the Cleaner, is already being put on a par with Chikatilo and other famous maniacs. The story of Popkov's adventures has been translated into English language and published in foreign media. In terms of the number of victims, the Angarsk maniac surpassed Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac - serial killers about whom many films have been made. We visited Angarsk to talk with a man who long years tracked down the maniac and personally participated in his arrest. Senior detective of the department for solving crimes against the person of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Irkutsk region Artem Dubynin spoke about what could have been the impetus that awakened the maniac in Popkov, and also why, while in a pre-trial detention center, he tried to commit suicide and why the Angarsk Chikatilo could not be caught for so long.
IN best traditions films about maniacs, the wall in Artem Dubynin’s office is covered with newspaper clippings. Most of some of them have already turned yellow with age. It took a long time to catch the monster, no one denies this. A glance through the yellowed pages reveals several milestones in the investigation of crimes that have plunged the city into fear; about the impasse in which operatives found themselves in the 90s, trying to find the killers of women; about the findings of criminologists, who came to the conclusion that all the women were killed by one person using a thin, sharp object similar to a sword (this is how the killer received the nickname Maniac Ninja); about the labor-intensive work in the early 2000s, when an investigation team was created, headed by a senior investigator for special important matters Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation Valery Kostarev.
Even before the criminal is caught, investigators draw up a portrait of him: careful, calculating, unblemished in life, sociable, charming, liked by women, but inside a maniac. These werewolves are the most difficult to catch. Here in newspaper article, dating from 2002, there is an identikit of Popkov. AND psychological picture, and the sketch almost perfectly matches the appearance and character traits of the killer.
While we are looking at the notes on the wall, Artem Dubynin is addressing an issue related to Mikhail Popkov’s visitors over the phone. Journalists from one of the federal channels want to talk with the convicted murderer. The regional court gave the correspondents the go-ahead to visit. Artem Dubynin, who is well acquainted with Popkov’s behavior and character, predicts his reaction to the press visit.
Most likely, he will refuse to talk to them; he doesn’t like the press at all. After his arrest, he asked that we not advertise his face, real name and surname. We hid him from the press behind a curtain, transported him in this mask,” the operative pulls out of the closet a black cap with slits for the mouth and eyes. - But journalists found his photo somewhere, some posted it with blurry eyes, some did not hide his face. This made Popkov very sad; he was afraid that if everyone found out who he was, people would try to take revenge on his family.
By the way, when during the announcement of the verdict the regional courtroom was flooded with cameramen and photographers, Popkov did not even think about hiding his face.
And when the judge read out the verdict, unlike other criminals who bowed their heads downcast, he listened to the verdict about his fate, standing at attention. According to operatives, he looked quite impudent at that time.
As we wrote in the last issue, the killer of 22 women received a life sentence in a special regime colony. Popkov considers the sentence too harsh. He began to cooperate with the investigation only because he was counting on a lighter sentence. The killer hoped that some of the crimes would not be charged to him due to the statute of limitations. Popkov thought that he would be given 25 years, but he received it to the fullest extent, and there is hardly a person other than himself and his loving wife who would consider the sentence unfair. Now the maniac is preparing an appeal.
Many residents of the Irkutsk region are surprised why it took so long to find the Angarsk maniac. Of course, it is clear that he was a police officer and skillfully covered his tracks, but the best, most experienced investigators and operatives in the country worked on this case; they had at their disposal Hi-tech. Nevertheless, the search for the maniac dragged on for 10 years.
Let's start with 1994, when Mikhail Popkov started killing, says Artem Dubynin. - Initially, the police did not know that there was any connection between the murders of girls and young women. After analyzing all the circumstances, in 1998 the Angarsk prosecutor’s office came to the conclusion that all these crimes were committed by one person.
In the 90s, the war between two Angarsk criminal groups prevented the investigation from being carried out closely. As a result of their showdown, there was a murder literally every day in the city. When members of the criminal gang were caught, it became possible to more carefully and thoroughly investigate the activities of the maniac ninja. Initially, the circle of people with signs similar to those of the killer was 40 thousand people. Gradually the circle narrowed. In 2010, there were 589 of them left.
At first it was determined that he had blood type 3. Then its genotype was isolated. Valery Kostarev insisted that a molecular genetic examination be carried out in Moscow, and at that time it was done only in the investigation of terrorism cases.
Biological samples were taken from the bodies of the victims and the epithelium of people who might have been involved in the crimes.
A sample belonging to former Angarsk police officer Mikhail Popkov fired. When they took a smear from him, the maniac already realized that he didn’t have long to walk in freedom, so he went to Lipetsk region to mother. I didn’t tell her anything, I just stayed with her for two weeks.
Popkov had an idea to go for permanent residence in China, but something didn’t work out. When he was detained near Vladivostok with the help of SOBR, Popkov was not too surprised. It was felt that he was mentally prepared for this. However, once in jail, he was so broken that he tried to hang himself. The attempt failed, and the Cleaner began to be watched even more carefully.
There are several remarkable episodes in the biography of Mikhail Popkov.
In 1992, his beloved wife cheated on him. The future killer forgave the betrayal, but it became a crushing blow to his psyche. It is not known what the circumstances of the betrayal were, but Popkov was inflamed with hatred for women who love to drink, take walks, and have fun with unfamiliar men. As operatives suggest, betrayal could have been the trigger. Popkov is not the first to whom his wife cheated, and horny husbands may be sulking all over feminine, but they don’t kill anyone. The fact is that, according to experts, Popkov suffers from homicidomania with sadistic elements, that is, an attraction to killing people.
In 1994, the maniac began his deadly journeys. Popkov's position played into his hands. Sometimes he committed murders while on duty, but he did not like to travel “to work” in a company car and tried to use personal transport. His police uniform, policeman's identification, and kind, charming smile disarmed his victims.
Some women agreed for the policeman to take them home; others were not averse to drinking champagne with him. Whatever offer the victim agreed to, her fate was sealed. The Cleaner looked after his victims, bought them alcohol, could drink a can of beer himself, and had intimate conversations.
Sometimes he dropped off women he knew - saleswomen from the Central Market, from whom Popkov bought groceries, and girls who had previously been delivered to the department. Popkov sometimes put two ladies in the car at once. Arriving in the forest, he took one girl away to talk, dealt with her, then took on her friend. Two girls managed to survive: one, bleeding, was found and saved by mushroom pickers, and the rescue story of the other can only be described as a miracle. Thinking the victim was dead, the Cleaner abandoned him in the snow. It was a frosty December outside. Early in the morning, the unfortunate woman, who did not have a scrap of clothing on, was found by sawmill workers who had taken their shift. They brought the girl into the room, wrapped her up, trying to warm her up, but she became very numb, and the doctors who arrived pronounced her dead. The girl was taken to the morgue. There she suddenly woke up and was terribly frightened when she saw the situation around her.
After 5 years of adventures, Popkov considered himself an invulnerable city orderly. In 1999, a maniac woke up in him right at his workplace.
The policemen, who knew the balanced, self-possessed Popkov well, were amazed when he brutally beat the man, who was taken to the duty station in a state of disrepair. alcohol intoxication. After this incident, Popkov resigned from the authorities - his retirement pension came up, and he didn’t like the sidelong glances of his colleagues. In 2000, the killings seemed to stop.
After Popkov’s arrest, rumors appeared that he stopped raping and killing, allegedly because he had contracted a venereal disease and became impotent.
This is not so, especially since with such a diagnosis as homicidomania, a person, if you can call him that, lasts for 2-3 years, then starts killing again, says Artem Dubynin. - While it was going on trial, Popkov admitted to 20 more crimes.
Now his involvement in similar episodes that occurred near and inside will be checked settlements from the Far East to Angarsk.
During our conversation with the operative, Evgeny Karchevsky, an investigator for especially important cases of the regional department, came into the office Investigative Committee Russia, which investigated many high-profile cases, including the case of the hammermen. An experienced investigator will now work with Popkov. When the investigation of the case is completed, the maniac will go to a colony, where he will be in solitary confinement for the first 5 years.
There is one fact that amazed seasoned operatives - this is the behavior of the Cleaner’s wife. She never thought of renouncing her husband.
What is going on in the soul of this woman, what excuses she found for the monster who killed so many people and cheated on her at least 24 times, is a mystery to everyone. The wife constantly visits Mikhail Popkov, tenderly kisses and hugs, the spouses confess their love to each other.
It is unlikely that in the past this woman knew what her husband did at night; he went out on business in his work time or when the wife was away for 24 hours.
The residents of the house where Popkov lived with his wife and daughter were tired of the attention of the press and simply curious people, to put it mildly. As soon as the maniac was detained, his family sold the apartment and moved out. They say someone even broke the windows in their apartment. After Popkov’s arrest, the press besieged this house for almost days; journalists knocked so insistently on the maniac’s apartment that the neighbors even had to call the police.
It was an exemplary family,” says Maria, a resident of the neighboring house. - It was nice to look at them: well-groomed, sporty, a tall man, wife and daughter are beauties. When he went to work, his wife saw him off, standing by the window. He always raised his head and waved at her. And they always walked holding hands.
Women living in the neighborhood set Popkov as an example to their husbands - he doesn’t drink, doesn’t smoke, plays sports, goes skiing with his family, earns good money. During a conversation with residents from neighboring houses, it turned out that Popkov even rescued the neighboring teenagers from the police, who were taken to the department for being too noisy. One of those rescued, now an adult man, said that after his maniac neighbor was detained, he learned that it was Popkov who killed his girlfriend.
The operatives transported the Angarsk maniac wearing only this mask. After his arrest, the serial killer asked that his face be hidden.
In case of danger, threat to life or other difficult life situations the person contacts the police. Everyone needs protection, and who else but law enforcement agencies can provide it in difficult times? But what if there is a maniac hiding behind the mask of a law enforcement officer? Angarsk policeman Popkov proved by example that you can successfully live a double life for several years. At work he is a decent employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in free time- a terrible Angarsk maniac.
Biography
Born on March 7, 1964 in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Three years later the family moved to Angarsk. left much to be desired, and at the age of 16 Popkov got a job in a cemetery to dig graves. After graduating from college, he joined the army, where he served as a senior radio interception operator for two years. He began working in the police in the mid-90s of the last century. Colleagues spoke of him with positive side. The assistant operational duty officer carried out favorable impression. A tall, athletic man received the nickname Misha Smile, for his friendliness and good spirits. He was kept on good standing, no errors were found in its work. His former colleague described Mikhail Viktorovich Popkov as executive and a determined person. For this he received an officer rank. However, in 1996, an incident occurred that no one paid attention to at the time, although it could have been the first bell.
While detaining a gang of robbers, Popkov shot one of them in cold blood. At that time, this did not become a high-profile case, since the rampant behavior of all kinds of criminals was rapidly gaining momentum. Resistance to arrest became a pretext for murder. For Popkov himself, this episode had no significance at all - by that time he was already operating with might and main on the territory of Angarsk and keeping his bloody account.
Family
The Angarsk maniac hid for a long time behind the guise of an exemplary family man. In 1986, he married Elena Mishurova, who a year later gave birth to his daughter. The wife held the position of passport officer in the same duty department as Popkov. Their daughter was growing up, and from the outside they seemed like an ideal family. But this was just an illusion. One day, an Angarsk maniac returned home and found used condoms in a bucket. He did not kill his wife - he thought that his daughter should grow up in complete family. But he could not forgive his betrayal of his wife and harbored a cruel grudge against the entire female race. He suspected that his wife's betrayal was far from an isolated incident. They lived only 50 meters from the site, and no one had ever heard screams or scandals in their house. As Mikhail Viktorovich Popkov later admitted during interrogations, he was afraid every morning that he had killed his wife at night.
Pies and the first victim
The history of the Angarsk maniac began in 1992. One of the first victims was a twenty-year-old girl who was rushing to the station to meet her mother. Popkov, in his service Niva, offered to give the lonely traveler a lift to her destination. At five in the morning he asked his boss to go get some pies, and met his first victim. He did not take the girl into the forest and dealt with her right there - near the station. Two hours later, the body was discovered, and Popkov, as if nothing had happened, went to the scene of the murder as part of the operational investigation team.
Motivation
To justify his crimes, Popkov came up with a good motive - he killed only those women whose behavior seemed defiant to him. He stopped if he saw a tipsy lady voting and offered to give her a ride home. During the trip, he entered into a dialogue and invited the girl to continue the fun at his apartment. If the victim gave consent, then he dealt with her without regret. If she refused, he honestly took her home. During the investigation, he received the nickname “cleaner.” He himself explained his crimes by the desire to cleanse the city of fallen and unfaithful women. When meeting another woman, he asked if she had a husband and children, and then offered to spend time with him. The victim's response influenced his decision.
It is believed that this is how he took revenge on his wife in the person of all the “walking” women. But the investigation found that among his victims were non-drinkers and single girls. How could he justify such cruelty towards them? The Angarsk maniac could not find an answer to such questions or said that he did not remember such cases.
Got a taste for it
Working in the authorities allowed Popkov to completely control the investigation. He was among the first to arrive at the crime scene and had access to all the collected materials. It didn’t cost him anything to “clean up” his tracks already during the investigation. Operatives did not rule out this possibility. In addition to the fact that the maniac carefully cleaned up after himself and did not leave any evidence, he could easily destroy even those grains that fell on the investigator’s table. No one could have imagined that the beast was hiding among the law enforcement officers themselves. The years 1997-1998 became the bloodiest for him, because it was then that several of his victims were discovered at once.
At this time, he feels as safe as possible and does not seek to get rid of bodies. On the contrary, he throws them in accessible places, so that he can then watch as his colleagues struggle to catch the criminal. But even such a “professional” made serious mistakes a couple of times.
Surviving victims of the Angarsk maniac
Among the many women who were unlucky enough to find themselves in the path of a serial killer, only two managed to survive. Svetlana Misyavichus and Evgenia Protasova were found in terrible condition. The first was considered dead and sent to the morgue. Where she suddenly came to her senses. But after the injuries she received, she was unable to identify the maniac by sight. Both girls were on the verge of life and death. They had to go through many operations and long rehabilitation. But still, they were able to provide the investigation with important data - thanks to them, it was established. That the maniac's name is Mikhail and he works in internal organs. This was confirmed by a button from a jacket found near one of the victims.
Covering my tracks
Popkov understands that such information may sooner or later lead to him. IN Lately he did not try to cover his tracks and often left behind biological material on the bodies of his victims. It's time to correct the mistakes. He retired from the police in 1998. This did not surprise either his friends or colleagues. Times were hard and few people remained in service after retirement. Having settled in a private security company, he was unable to establish himself as good employee. Soon he leaves this job too. He no longer gets a job and earns extra money as a private driver.
Methods of murder
The victims of the Angarsk maniac were women and girls aged 15-40. The murderer had no special preferences. His lethal kit included: Phillips screwdrivers, a sapper blade, a knife, and an axe. He always carried all these devices in his car. As the maniac later admitted, sometimes he would let the victim go in the forest and then play “catch-up” with her. All the girls were raped before they died. It has been proven that sometimes victims died from one strong blow to the head with a screwdriver. As the maniac later admitted, he did not feel any regret or remorse. However, he did not experience this feeling even in prison.
Consequence
The Angarsk maniac Mikhail Popkov was detained only on June 23, 2012. By that time, according to investigators, the killer had already recorded 22 murders. It was possible to shed light on the personality of the maniac with the help of molecular genetic examination. In 2003, biological materials were collected from the body of his next victim, and this bore fruit almost ten years later. Popkov himself by this time was engaged in ferrying cars from Vladivostok. He was detained right on the train. During interrogation, he admitted that he had a venereal disease and therefore stopped the series of murders. If it were not for premature impotence, there would be many more victims.
Court
The victims' parents, children and close relatives were present at the trial. None of them saw remorse on the maniac's face. He himself did not admit his guilt and refused to ask for forgiveness from those present in the hall. Many noted that, looking at this man, it was impossible to assume that he was a maniac. There was not an ounce of madness in him or a wild sparkle in his eyes, like the same Chikatilo. He looked absolutely calm and listened to the sentencing with indifference. The life sentence did not upset the bloodthirsty maniac. Still smiling, he gave interviews to journalists. He seriously thought about how he would live if he was released after 25 years. And he still believed that he was doing a good deed by clearing the city of fallen women.
The worst is yet to come
After the trial, Popkov suddenly began to confess to his crimes. He not only admitted the 22 murders charged against him, but also spoke about the remaining cases. He was in no hurry to reveal all his cards and tried to prolong the investigation. The Angarsk maniac not only took upon himself 62 more murders - he remembered all the details and indicated the places where the crimes were committed. Among his victims was his colleague, police captain Evgeniy Shurikhin, who was strangled in 1999. The investigation immediately latched on to this information and suspicions arose that this particular person was Popkov’s partner. It was impossible to imagine that 84 murders could be committed by one person, without anyone's help. The maniac himself neither confirmed nor denied this information. Soon this version was recognized as untenable.
He was regularly taken to crime scenes for investigative experiments. It turned out that Popkov has a phenomenal memory and remembers every crime in frames. How the sun shone, what instrument he used to kill the victim, and what time it was at that moment. The monster with a smile told and showed the places and details of the crimes. The investigators' last doubts disappeared - this man really killed so many people.
Five years later
In 2017, several programs were broadcast on television about the Angarsk maniac Mikhail Popkov. Mother and sister came to the programs and declared their relative’s innocence. They convinced him that he was an exemplary family man and in his letters denied involvement in all the episodes of which he was accused. Even after watching the footage of the investigative department and his confession on camera, they did not waver in their confidence. However, the mother said that even if he is guilty, she will not stop loving him like a son. But he must be punished.
Decades later, relatives found out who was responsible for the deaths of their mothers, daughters and sisters. They had to listen to the maniac’s terrible confessions and learn all the details of the murders of people close to them. On the question of where the Angarsk maniac sits. Popkov confessed to sixty murders while still in the Angarsk pre-trial detention center. In January 2017, he was transferred to pre-trial detention center No. 1 in the Irkutsk region. No one can rule out the fact that after some time he will continue to confess to murders. After all, while he talks about his crimes, he has the opportunity to go to the scenes of murders and enjoy hours of illusory freedom.
The Irony of Fate
Just recently, journalists again attended a meeting with the maniac and this time brought him unpleasant news. He did not know that his wife filed for divorce immediately after his arrest. But the biggest blow for the maniac was the news that she had married the investigator who was leading his case.
The woman, because of whose betrayal he began to kill innocent victims, struck him again. This news had a noticeable impact on his emotional state.
For 20 long years, Siberian and Moscow detectives searched for the bloodiest maniac in Russia. Angarsk resident Mikhail Popkov, also known by his nickname Misha Guinplaine, led double life. For everyone, he was an exemplary police officer and a decent family man, but it later turned out that this man killed more than 80 girls. Popkov committed his first murder in 1992, he was arrested only in 2012, and the investigation into his case is still ongoing.
Popkov worked in the police and often, together with task forces, went to the places where the bodies of the victims were found. Everything happened according to approximately the same scenario: a maniac drove up to a lonely drunk girl in a car and offered her a ride. He then took the victim into the forest, raped and killed. He acted according to this scheme for 15 long years.
Initially, Popkov destroyed the bodies of the murdered girls, but then left them and only got rid of the murder weapons. He liked to undress the bodies in a special way and leave scars on the faces of the victims. The criminal could even go out in search of victims in uniform and in an official car; he calmed the girls’ vigilance with his official ID.
In 1999, one of Popkov's victims survived, but was left without memory. She only told the investigators that the maniac’s name was Mikhail and he worked for the police; this was confirmed by a uniform button found at the site of one of the murders. That same year, Popkov resigned from service and went to work at a private security company.
To catch Popkov, police tested the saliva of more than 3,500 suspects, including former police officers, and compared it with the killer’s material. Having passed the test, Popkov realized that his detention was only a matter of time. He did not hide, destroyed all the evidence, burned old clothes and uniform, and waited for them to come for him. The maniac was detained in 2012, when he was already driving cars from Vladivostok. He was handcuffed on the train while he was on his way to buy a new car.
Now Popkov is actively cooperating with the investigation, giving sincere confessions and telling everything in the smallest detail. According to one version, the criminal cooperates with the investigation only in order to stay longer in a pre-trial detention center, where conditions are milder than in a colony strict regime. He calls himself a “cleaner” and says that he rid the city of girls of indecent behavior, which he was allegedly prompted to do by his wife’s infidelity. Investigators have proven 22 murders committed by Popkov, and they are ready to send another 47 cases to court. 12 murders remain unproven, which, according to investigators, also lie on the conscience of the Angarsk maniac.
According to information published by a number of Russian media, a serial killer has been found who has “outdone” Chikatilo himself. He is called the "Angara maniac", it was in the vicinity of this small city in the Irkutsk region that he committed most of the famous this moment crimes.
Since 1994, young women and girls began to disappear in Angarsk, whose corpses were found quite quickly - the killer did not particularly hide them. In 1997-1998, 13 murders occurred at once. The women began to be afraid to walk alone, but the criminal began to kill two victims at a time. However, the victims were not robbed, and not all were raped. The method of committing crimes allowed law enforcement agencies to draw a terrible conclusion - a serial killer had begun to operate in the city.
The number of victims of the maniac kept growing, and the manifestations of his cruelty intensified. If he killed his first victim in 1994 with a blow to the head from a bottle, then in the summer of 2000, when he dealt with two girlfriends in the forest at once, he killed one with 17 blows to the head with a screwdriver, and on the body of the other there were 70 wounds inflicted by various objects .
In 2000, the series of murders suddenly stops. But the work of investigators does not stop. The search for the “Angara maniac” lasted 18 years. In 2002, on instructions from Moscow, an investigative and operational group of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation was created in the Irkutsk region. The leaders of the group also come from Moscow: from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the work was organized by the senior commissioner of the criminal directorate of the ministry Sergei Derzhavin, from the Prosecutor General's Office - senior investigator for especially important cases Valery Kostarev. Operators and investigators were recruited from local employees who knew regional specifics well. Among them are the head of the specialized operational group of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Irkutsk Region, police major (then police) Artem Dubynin and the detective officer of this department, Major Denis Pavlov. It is they who, ten years later, will bring the matter to an end, and Artem Dubynin will take personal part in the pursuit and capture of the killer.
While hunting for the "Angara maniac", investigators simultaneously uncovered several no less dangerous crimes and defeated two organized criminal groups. In essence, Angarsk was cleared of organized crime. But the serial killer was never caught.
In 2008, the criminal case was transferred to the Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Siberian Federal District. The investigation was headed by investigator Andrei Chernus. Operational support was provided by police officers led by Artem Dubynin.
Since the murders that could be included in the “series” had stopped by that time, a version arose that the criminal had left the city forever or had simply died. Trying to find out, operatives sent requests to colleagues in other regions, prisons and colonies, courts and mental hospitals, even to morgues. But the unpleasant prospect of slowly closing this business as unpromising loomed more and more clearly.
The results of the examinations were, to put it mildly, meager. They knew that the killer had blood type 3 with positive Rhesus, that blood was found in the semen (a disease of the genitourinary system), that some victims were hacked to death with the same ax, that near some places of the murder there were traces of the Niva's treads. And that's almost all. Moreover, not all crime scenes contain any traces at all. All collected traces, including biological ones, were carefully stored. And they eventually played their role.
The operatives decided to Once again summarize all the information collected and understand who to look for. Arranged" brainstorm"and created a so-called psychological portrait of the criminal. As it turned out later, the result was an almost exact copy.
It is clear that the killer is a man: this was evidenced by the composition of the blood and semen found on the victims’ bodies. Detectives determined his age as being born between 1963 and 1968. Works on a shift schedule, has a car. Secondary education. He looks neat, but he looks not like an intellectual, but like a worker. Tall, well developed physically. At the same time, a version was put forward that the wanted criminal could be an employee or employee of any security or law enforcement structure, including a policeman, military personnel or rescuer. The opera made only one mistake - they thought that he was either divorced or had an incomplete family. In fact, the killer was married, was considered an exemplary family man and loving father, raised a daughter.
The detectives had a portrait of the alleged killer, drawn from the words of a random witness. In November 1997, one of the future victims, Nina R., a few hours before her death, went into a convenience store to buy alcohol and snacks. There was an unknown man with her. It turned out that Nina worked here as a salesperson, and her partner was standing behind the counter at that moment. But she decided to describe the appearance of her murdered friend’s companion only in 2004.
And finally, after for long years search, science came to the aid of the investigation and made it possible to identify the monster. In 2007, the latest equipment for the biological department appeared at the Expert Forensic Center of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Irkutsk Region. In fact, a modern laboratory was created from scratch to study human tissues and secretions using DNA analysis. Materials on all murders and rapes (not only those related to the “Maniac” case) were sent for examination. And finally, in March 2009, the head of the laboratory, police colonel Pyotr Arzamazov, established the genotype of the person whose sperm was found in the bodies of three women killed in Angarsk. Now all that remains is a mere “trifle” - finding a person with a suitable genome. His search took another three years.
First, based on the available search characteristics, it was necessary to determine the circle of people of operational interest. All Niva drivers ended up here, especially those who in one way or another came to the attention of law enforcement agencies - for example, those who violated traffic rules, sold their car, or contacted about theft. All patients who consulted doctors about hemospermia (blood in semen) were checked. They checked prisoners with the third blood group and the same disease. We checked the relatives and acquaintances of the murdered women. And also - all former and current employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Penitentiary Service, the prosecutor's office, etc. in the Irkutsk region. Even disabled people. The initial list, organized in alphabetical order, amounted to over 46 thousand people. The list was sifted, as they say, through a fine sieve - the cost of a mistake was very high. Electronic program revealed repetitions or coincidences of names and facts, which could indicate involvement in the notorious “series.”
The final list was reduced to 589 of the most “promising” people, who were asked to take a DNA test. Over 3.5 thousand examinations were carried out. Former employee of the Angarsk police department Mikhail Popkov was also on this list. He provided biological epithelial samples and in June 2012 was identified as a wanted serial killer. The examination was again carried out by Pyotr Arzamazov. But by the time the identity of the killer became finally known, the maniac had disappeared.
He came to Angarsk with his parents and younger sister from Norilsk in 1967. The family was considered quite prosperous. Mother is a teacher at a technical school. My father has a more specific profession: gravedigger.
By the way, is this not where the root cause of the fatal shift in Popkov’s psyche lies? From about the age of 8, he began working part-time at a cemetery, helping his father dig graves. He would briefly return to this profession in 1994 - on the eve of committing his first murder. Maybe frequent contact with someone else's death has become a habit, turned into a routine routine for him?
In general, everything was fine with him, like everyone else - school, polytechnic school, emergency service V radio technical troops. In 1986, he got married and got a job as a machinist at the Angarsknefteorgsintez plant. Here, a year later, there was a turn in his biography - factory meeting gave him Komsomol voucher to serve in the police. He was a conscientious guy, a non-drinker, a family man, politically savvy, and served in the army.
The opinion of others about the serial killer (as often happens) was only positive. Popkov was known as an excellent tourist, skier, and advocate healthy image life. He was constantly involved in physical education and even received the title of candidate master of sports in biathlon. Popkov was also a jack of all trades. Therefore, no one was surprised that in Popkov’s trunk there were constantly dozens of different tools, including an axe, hammers, saws and chisels, which he used as a weapon for murder and dismemberment of corpses.
Popkov worked for four years as a patrol policeman at the Angarsk station and retired in 1991. at will- I wasn’t happy with the salary. True, he did not go into business, but into the fire department, where he worked for another two years. Then - a short episode work history at the city cemetery and again for almost six years of service in the police.
In the police, after a short internship, senior sergeant Mikhail Popkov first becomes an assistant to the operational duty officer of the Central Department of Internal Affairs of Angarsk, and then an operational duty officer, receiving the rank of “junior lieutenant”. This position allowed him to be aware of all criminal events and operational activities taking place in the city. Moreover, having received a signal to call the police, he himself sent a squad to the scene of the incident, reported what had happened “on command” and transmitted orders from his superiors to patrols and rapid response groups. In addition, he accepted all kinds of applications and appeals from citizens.
Mikhail Popkov proved himself with the best side from the very first days of service. In addition to punctually fulfilling his duties, he, on his own initiative and even in his personal Niva, began to take part in trips to incident sites and to participate in the arrest of criminals. The management treated the manifestation of such consciousness not only kindly, but also with gratitude. Of course, there are not enough people and cars, it’s the dashing nineties. Moreover, Angarsk was built by prisoners and is still surrounded by colonies. After serving their prison sentences, many remained in the city, which made the situation in the city consistently criminal. Once, during his arrest, Popkov cut down a dangerous criminal who was trying to escape with a machine gun burst. The prosecutor's office checked and found the use of weapons lawful.
Popkov retired in 2000, having earned a minimum length of service pension, which caused general surprise. And since then he has formally worked in various private security companies. And informally, since 2004, he has been driving foreign cars to the Irkutsk region from the Far East.
Immediately after taking the DNA test, Popkov went on the run. First I went to my mother in Lipetsk to say goodbye, then to my sister in Moscow for a couple of weeks. And then he boarded train No. 1 "Russia", traveling along the route Moscow - Vladivostok. He was going to either settle in the Primorsky Territory, which he knew well (the taiga is large), or cross the border and take refuge somewhere in China.
The fact that the killer was Popkov became known on June 13, 2012. Now it was really a matter of technology to catch him. Police Major Artem Dubynin went with an operative and two security officers to arrest him. They caught up with him on June 24 on the train, when there were two stops left before Vladivostok.
Perhaps Popkov was preparing to resist - he had a backpack between his legs, in which there was a hunting carbine with a folding butt. Moreover, it is ready to immediately open fire - with a loaded magazine attached and a cartridge in the chamber. But what kind of resistance was there - the maniac did not even notice how two special forces materialized in the compartment, took him to a painful hold and fastened the handcuffs.
For everyone who knew Mikhail Popkov, the news that he was the same serial killer sounded like thunder among clear skies. No one could believe that this pleasant, non-drinking and generally completely positive person- maniac. Popkov, as typical of a classic serial killer, led a double life. The mother, wife and daughter did not believe the investigators for a long time; they brought parcels and notes with words of support to the pre-trial detention center. When Popkov's guilt was irrefutably established, the family had to leave the city.
Popkov almost immediately began to give frank testimony. The pattern of the crime was the same: driving his own or an official car, Popkov (often dressed in a police uniform) offered to give a ride to this or that woman, or even two people at once. During the trip, he chatted nicely with them and got to know them Family status, then offered to relax together in nature. If a woman refused, citing the fact that she was married, or had a loved one, or was avoiding casual acquaintances, Popkov would give her a ride home and even accompany her to the entrance. If a woman, succumbing to the charm of a handsome policeman, agreed to spend time with him, she signed her own death warrant.
The algorithm of his actions never changed: buying strong alcohol, arriving at the place, drinking the woman until she is unconscious, depending on the mood - rape, and even already dead victims. Murder, usually by blows to the head with a heavy instrument. His experience as a police officer allowed Popkov to leave virtually no evidence.
Popkov committed some of the murders while on duty - the image of an enterprising campaigner came in handy. Like, I went personally on call - there was no one else to send. But the call, alas, turned out to be false. And this happened more than once. Moreover, he often himself brought task forces to the places of detection own victims. And he watched with interest as his colleagues examined the bodies and discussed versions of what happened. He listened especially carefully to the operatives' plans to find the killer.
Miraculously, she survived the attack of serial killer Evgeniy Protasov: “I got into Popkov’s car only after he showed me his police ID. In general, I would never go with a stranger, because our parents teach us this from childhood. At the confrontation, I recognized him immediately, but he said that he didn’t remember me. I then told him: “You don’t remember me, but I remember you.”
Popkov, according to his own statement, was engaged in cleansing the city of “sluts” and for this reason he calls himself a “cleaner.” According to some sources, as a result of some random relationship, Popkov became infected with syphilis and thus took revenge on the “loose women”; according to others, Popkov found his wife with another man, but saved the family for the sake of his daughter, and took out the accumulated hatred on “frivolous” victims. Popkov stopped his crimes, according to his explanation, as a result of the onset of impotence.
Twenty-two murders and two counts of causing grievous bodily harm were proven and included in the guilty verdict dated January 14, 2015, according to which Popkov was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The defendant then claimed to have killed more than a dozen more people. At first, investigators were skeptical about the ex-policeman’s words. However, the information received from Popkov began to be confirmed during the inspection. Two years later, the result of the work of investigators, operatives and forensic experts was materials on another 47 episodes of murder, charges for which were brought against the ex-policeman. The verification of data on the deaths of another 12 people continues, since in total he spoke about 59 victims (in addition to the 22 indicated in the court verdict).
Thus, we're talking about about the lives of 81 people tragically interrupted by the Angarsk serial killer. Even without taking into account the 12 episodes that have not yet been identified by the investigation, the “Angarsk maniac” can be called the most bloody maniac in the history of Russia and the USSR. For comparison, Andrei Chikatilo has 53 proven murders, and the “Bitsa maniac” Alexander Pichushkin has 49.
But this may not be all of his crimes. Investigators are now carefully studying the period of Mikhail Popkov’s biography associated with trips to Far East for foreign cars. Did he kill somewhere else? Despite the fact that Popkov was declared sane and fully aware of what he was doing, he is susceptible to homicidomania. This is a mental disorder that causes an irresistible desire to kill. There are periods of "calm" for 2 - 3 years, and then again you want blood. It’s scary to imagine what else he could have done in 12 years outside of Angarsk and the Irkutsk region.
If Popkov, during the DNA test, had suddenly written a confession (after all, he had already realized that he would definitely be found out), then he would not even have been given a life sentence, he would have been given 25 years, and then this “positive” type could have come out on parole. Even in prison he tries to maintain good physical fitness, hopes that fate can still make a sharp turn in a favorable direction.
Recently, information has appeared in the media every now and then about murders committed former employees law enforcement. What is this frightening trend and why does the honor of the uniform sometimes interfere with solving obvious crimes?
Angarsk maniac Mikhail Popkov
mirror.co.uk
Mikhail Popkov, a police officer in the city of Angarsk, Irkutsk region (he worked in the police until 1998), began counting his brutal murders in 1994. As a rule, Popkov offered women a ride in a car, took them out of town, where he killed and then raped them. Popkov had a variety of murder weapons: an axe, a knife, a screwdriver, an awl. Sometimes he used several tools at once, leaving numerous wounds, in other cases he strangled, and cut out the heart of one of the victims. All but one of the victims were intoxicated at the time of death. Popkov himself later said that in this way he cleared the city of unworthy and dissolute women.
Sometimes Popkov used a company car for attacks, offering the next victim a “lift home.” Popkov’s only surviving victim, Evgenia Protasova, told investigators after the attack that the maniac showed her his police ID. The girl miraculously survived after mushroom pickers found her in the forest.
He showed me his ID, I didn’t get into the car, he showed it to me, I believed and got into the car, he smiled, I believed, I literally needed a three-minute ride home. He took me away, beat me severely, I ran away from him, but he was playing sports, I could not escape, he beat me severely and thought that he had killed me, but they saved me.
Surprisingly, the investigative and operational group in Angarsk was formed only in 1998, when the killer already had 24 victims. Locals They suspect that for the time being it was convenient for their police to attribute the “hangings” to an uncaught maniac. Moreover, Popkov himself often went with his colleagues to crime scenes and helped keep records.
serial-killers.ucoz.com
After a year and a half of the group’s work, the investigation made no progress, and in 2000 a new one was created. It included Nikolai Kitaev, a talented investigator who wrote a dissertation on unconventional methods of exposing murderers, a kind of local Sherlock Holmes, and his colleagues called him an investigator from God.
wikimedia.org
He examined 15 operational search cases that related to unsolved murders of women in the Angarsk region, and concluded that the investigative measures were carried out poorly. After this, Kitaev offered to give him the appropriate powers and promised that then he would catch the criminal in 6 months. As journalists who investigated the trail of the Angarsk maniac wrote, after Kitaev’s report, silence reigned in the office. After some time, Merzlyakov said: “Everything that was said here should not go beyond the boundaries of this office. IN otherwise Moscow is kicking us all out.” Soon after this, in March 2001, Kitaev was fired from the authorities due to the dissolution of regional transport structures. Many believe that if Kitaev had been given the appropriate powers, the rapist would have been caught much earlier.
ren.tv
Kitaev told reporters how his colleagues did not take into account the testimony of Popkov’s very surviving victim. At first, Ekaterina Protasova was completely refused to initiate a criminal case, as Kitaev noted, on far-fetched grounds. The case was opened only six months later. After Protasova said that a policeman had attacked her, she was brought to the station, and the girl even identified Popkov. However, he found an alibi - it was provided by the man's partner. The similarity between the policeman and the maniac was explained by the fact that Svetlana was in a state of passion. The case was sent to the archives.
ren.tv
In the same year, Sergeant Popkov retired - immediately after he was promoted to officer rank. Colleagues were surprised, but no one seemed to admit the obvious. This is despite the fact that the days when the crimes occurred never coincided with Popkov’s duty. Thus, the investigation dragged on for another 11 years. Since 2000, a group of investigators in the capital began to work on the theory that the killer was wearing a police uniform. However, the criminal was identified only in 2012 using DNA and car traces that he left at the crime scene. By this time, there had been no new victims for a long time: the killer knew about the progress of the investigation, and when the capital’s law enforcement officers began to look for the criminal using DNA, he hid. Former police officer Mikhail Popkov was arrested on June 23, 2012, when he was trying to drive a newly purchased car from Vladivostok. He surrendered without resistance, although he initially confessed to only three murders. Also, Popkov never admitted that he raped his victims. Two years have passed since the sentencing of ex-policeman Mikhail Popkov. He was sentenced to life for 22 murders of women and two attempts committed from 1992 to 2000. But after Popkov confessed to 59 more murders. If Popkov's involvement in these murders is proven, then total he killed 81 women.
mirror.co.uk
Popkov's relatives - his wife, daughter and sister - did not believe that their loved one was a serial killer. Mikhail's wife Elena Popkova described her husband as kind, faithful and loving person. In addition, the woman was perplexed: how could her husband come home without traces of blood on his clothes? The woman claims that she never noticed anything strange either in Mikhail’s behavior or in his appearance.
mirror.co.uk 
If he were released now, I wouldn’t say anything, we would continue to live. I love him, I support him, he hasn’t done anything bad to me for so many years. I really feel like I'm behind a stone wall.
Daughter Ekaterina, who is now about 30 years old, also came to the show. She, too, did not believe until recently that her father could have committed all these murders.
1tv.ru 
After the identity of the criminal was finally revealed, Mikhail Popkov’s acquaintances began to discuss this news on Angarsk forums. Many are shocked, because half the city knew Popkov personally. Some believe that Popkov had an accomplice, others believe that Popkov was physically unable to commit so many crimes and admits to the murders intentionally. Some are also outraged by the fact that investigators did not consider Popkov’s wife an accomplice: according to commentators, almost all the victims were wearing gold and silver jewelry, which no one bothered to look for, and perhaps Elena was hiding them.
Why is Popkov’s wife not recognized as an accomplice? Or was it not she who washed the blood from her husband’s police uniform? Or wasn't she the one who wore the victims' gold jewelry? Or was it not she who didn’t ask unnecessary questions to her gentle husband?.. How many other Angarsk policemen have such devoted wives?
Mishanya is not a fool. Fuck him in the zone. In the pre-trial detention center, he will sit out until he stops and confess to more murders. He is a former cop and knows how to delay his arrival at the zone.
Knew him personally. He was always cheerful, joked, and was interested in cars. His nickname was Misha Subaru. When I found out that he was the murderer, my first desire was to go wash the hand I shook hands with him.
Pedophile Yuri Tiunov
mk.ru
In January of this year, a 12-year-old girl, Nastya Dyakova, was kidnapped in Orenburg. This was done by a 29-year-old Perm loader, who previously worked for a year in the Krasnokamsk traffic police, Yuri Tiunov. At about 15:00 Nastya was near a residential building on Rodimtseva Street, where she was abducted by an attacker. A man pushed a girl into a Lada Granta car white and taken away in an unknown direction.
orenburg.bezformata.ru
From the trunk of the car, Nastya was able to call her mother and ask for help. The Interception plan was announced in the city, but it did not produce results. More than 160 volunteers joined the search for the schoolgirl. After analyzing recordings from surveillance cameras, investigators compiled a description vehicle kidnapper. As a result, one of the groups of volunteers discovered a similar car around 21:00 in the area of the city dump on a country road. Volunteers passed information about the suspicious car to law enforcement officers, who arrived at the scene and detained the driver of the car, who turned out to be Yuri Tiunov. A kidnapped girl was found alive and unharmed in his car. As it turned out later, Tiunov drugged her with an unknown liquid, apparently so that the child would stop resisting. Tiunov himself was also under the influence of alcohol and drugs at the time of his arrest.
Tiunov later confessed to other crimes. It turned out that in 2011 he raped two boys skiing in the forest, and two years later he killed 7-year-old first-grader Kirill Usoltsev, who had been searched for for more than three years without success. This became clear after the genotypes of the detained kidnapper and the maniac who committed crimes in Perm region, coincided. The remains of Kirill's body were found on summer cottage the killer's parents.
spb.kp.ru
Tiunov's acquaintances could not believe that Yuri could do such a thing, although they admit that he has recently, apparently, become addicted to drugs:
We studied together to become electricians at a technical school. He seemed to be a good kid, he played sambo, football, and volleyball. His family is very ordinary. He lived with his mother and his older sister. Yura was late child, his mother was just over forty when he was born. The woman was shaking over her son, doing everything for him. He was an average student at the technical school. There weren’t enough stars in the sky, but he was a leader in any company. But after studying, I wilted a little. I remember I still couldn’t get a job. The guys said that that’s when he started borrowing small amounts from his friends. I didn’t repay the debts to anyone. I think something happened to him at that time.
There are many drug addicts and hucksters in our city, which is why we are famous throughout the country. Tiunov and I studied in the same class. I often saw Yura in the yard. I ran into him in the store. He hasn't looked well lately. Once I said hello to him, he looked at me so strangely and asked in surprise: “Who are you?” That's when I suspected something was wrong. Well, later our mutual friends said that Yurka was addicted to drugs.
We worked together. He was listed in warehouses and was engaged in assembling goods. He didn’t seem to be a mean guy, but he often came in smothered. He got irritated over little things and lashed out at his employees. However, things didn’t go beyond words. He didn’t raise his hand to anyone.
Ritual killer Arsen Bayrambekov
vesti-ural.ru
ABOUT ritual murders became known after they discovered in the Verkhnyaya Pyshma cemetery near Yekaterinburg mass grave: human bodies, burnt and covered with tape. After identification, it turned out that the dead were homeless people who lived in the same cemetery. However, the operatives might not have been able to get on the trail of the 39-year-old former policeman if not for chance.
A little history: Arsen was born in Makhachkala, went in for sports, and in 1999 got a job in the patrol service at the city police department. Afterwards he was sent on a business trip to Dagestan, and in 2000 he resigned from the authorities and became a coach of the Thai Boxing Federation. Investigators believe that Bayrambekov committed the first murder for the sake of making money: in 2003, a businessman involved in trucking ordered a former policeman to kill a competitor. Bayrambekov borrowed a Kalashnikov assault rifle from a friend and waylaid the victim near the entrance to the shopping pavilion. I received 1.5 thousand dollars for this. Bayrambekov committed the next murder seven years later. As the investigation established, he was hired by another entrepreneur who sold food at vegetable base No. 4 in Yekaterinburg. The businessman promised 500 thousand rubles for the elimination of a competitor.
That same year, the former policeman became interested in the occult. The former policeman worshiped, as he admitted, pagan gods. During prayers and rituals, they allegedly convinced him of the need for sacrifices.
Slavic pagan gods do not need worship and prayers. There are peculiar commodity-money relations here: a person can ask God for certain benefits for himself and give something to God for this. When turning to God, it is necessary to give what is required - an offering. The more complex the request, the more required. When communicating, the gods themselves say what they need as a requirement. The light gods need to offer food as a sacrifice, the dark gods need a more powerful sacrifice in energy terms. You can offer a blood sacrifice, raw meat or strong alcohol to the dark gods.
Bayrambekov built something like an altar out of stones and brought “sacrifices” there. First - in the form of killed animals: goats, cats, chickens. Afterwards, Arsen met a like-minded woman (her name is now being hidden by the investigation), and together they decided to find the so-called sixth victim. In the ideology that Bayrambekov shared, killing a person is considered the sixth victim - the most high measure. The first sacrifice, for example, is bread.
lenta.ru
This is how the attackers killed a 20-year-old boy from dysfunctional family, whom the occultists met by chance on the street. Offering him a drink, the couple put the guy in the car and drove him into the forest. Already in the forest, Bayrambekov, athletic and physically strong, tied the victim hand and foot, and stuffed a gag into his mouth. Then he took the guy to an improvised altar - a circle made of stones. He cut the guy's throat in cold blood and, after reading prayers, took off the clothes from the corpse. Then he lowered the body into a pre-dug hole nearby.
The next victim was a drunk 36-year-old man lying on the side of the road. Bayrambekov and his accomplice loaded the drunken man into a car and drove him into the forest. He lost his life without regaining consciousness. The fourth was an ordinary worker voting on the road. Bayrambekov offered his fellow traveler a drink, and he agreed. They killed the unfortunate man according to the same scheme. The occult fan chose a no less mystical place for his rituals - Ganina’s pit, where the remains of Emperor Nicholas II and his family were buried.
ural.kp.ru
Law enforcement became interested in missing people. During the operational activities, detectives heard about a woman who told her friends that she had witnessed the murder. This witness turned out to be Bayrambekov’s friend. She was detained and pointed to an accomplice. The former policeman was arrested on August 1, 2015. Already on August 3, he confessed to everything, but in his testimony he often mentioned Slavic gods who supposedly come to him and ask him to kill. The examination showed that Bayrambekov is completely sane. Bayrambekov’s case will be considered by the Verkhnepyshminsky City Court of the Sverdlovsk Region.
- The serial killer from Angarsk - former policeman Mikhail Popkov - killed not only women. It became known that among his victims was police captain Yevgeny Shkurikhin. In 1999, Popkov gave a lift to his colleague. A conflict broke out between the men. Mikhail took his opponent to the forest, where he inflicted several knife wounds on him, from which Shkurikhin died.
- Investigates the murders of the Angarsk maniac the whole team, which was allocated a separate two-story building in the center of Angarsk. There are already more than 300 volumes in the criminal case.
- In psychiatry, the diagnosis “homicidomania” is known: literally, a passion for murder. In mentally ill patients, homicidomania is usually not a symptom. mental disorder, but develops on the basis of corresponding other personality qualities. For this reason, many patients with homicidomania are recognized as sane by forensic psychiatrists and the court in relation to the murders or attempted murders they are accused of.
- Violence - main reason deaths of people aged 15 to 45 years. More than 1.6 million people die every year on earth from violent causes. Thus, every minute in the world a person dies as a result of an attack.