The murderous former police officer has reportedly confessed to killings which, which have brought his total number of victims to 81.

Russian media reports say a former Russian policeman Mikhail Popkov convicted of killing 22 women went on trial last year.  He was charged in March 2017 with murdering 59 more women after authorities said he confessed to the crimes.  Popkov has got the second life sentence.   

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.

He is already serving a life sentence after being convicted in 2015 of raping and killing 22 women and attempting to murder two more women between 1994 and 2000. 

Popkov 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 reportedly killed his victims after offering them rides late at night.  Authorities said he committed some of the killings while on duty, using his police car and uniform to trap his victims.

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

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" Alexander Pichushkin was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 for 48 murders.