Madame Popova

Case record: Madame Popova

Madame Popova (1879-1909) operated a murder-for-hire service in Russia that specialized in murdering married women’s husbands for a fee. She murdered over 300 victims, using poison, her own hands, a weapon, or hiring an assassin.

Background

Madame Popova was a native of Samara, Russia. She was distressed by the travail of peasant wives held “captive” by their brutish husbands and volunteered an inexpensive, lethal remedy.

She ran a small disposal service for her female neighbors for thirty years before her arrest in March 1909, picking up spare change and executing commissions.

The offence

Madame Popova’s victims were husbands who wanted to get rid of them. She charged a nominal sum prior to the murder and the remainder after the victim was killed.

She made the acquaintance of the man she was to kill and then managed to put poison in his food or drink.

In custody, she confessed to “liberating” some 300 wives in her career and also boasted of her work. She said:

“did excellent work in freeing unhappy wives from their tyrants.”

In her own defense, Madame Popova told her captors:

“she had never killed a woman.”

Investigation and arrest

Russian police were tipped off by a liberated woman who experienced remorse. The remorseful client sent for the police, made a full confession, and a squad of policemen were sent to the home of Madame Popova.

After the charge against the prisoner became known, police were surrounded by a mob of several hundred persons before they started from her home for the prison. The mob demanded that the prisoner be turned over to them so they could burn her at the stake.

Czarist soldiers saved her from the mob by driving the child back and held the situation until she could be taken to jail.

Trial

Madame Popova made no effort to conceal the fact that she had been a wholesale murderess after she was taken to the prison. She justified her work by stating that the only persons she killed were men who had abused their wives and that her actions saved the women further misery.

She was unrepentant as she stood before the firing squad.

Outcome

Madame Popova was executed by firing squad in March 1909.

Other details

A native of Samara, Russia.

The Stanstead Journal (Rock Island, Quebec, Canada) published reporting dated Jun. 24, 1909. The article states:

“St. Petersburg, Russia. – Arrested after a full confession has been made by one of her conscience stricken employers, a woman who is believed to have killed more than three hundred men within the last thirty years is in prison at Samara.
The only name given by the police of the wholesale murderess is Popova. All the murdered men were husbands who wanted to get rid of them. The woman charged a nominal sum prior to the murder and the remainder after the victim was killed. She would make the acquaintance of the man she was to kill and then manage to put poison in his food or drink. After one woman whose husband had been murdered became stricken by her guilty conscience she sent for the police, made a full confession, and a squad of policemen were at once sent to the home of the Popova woman. In some way the charge against the prisoner became known, and before the police started from her home for the prison they were surrounded by a mob of several hundred persons. Infuriated at the atrociousness of the woman’s deeds, the mob demanded that the prisoner be turned over to them and that they might burn her at the stake. With drawn revolvers the police held the mob at bay until soldiers, who had been sent for, arrived and drove the child back. Then the woman was taken to the jail. After she had been taken to the prison the woman made no effort to conceal the fact that she had been a wholesale murderess. She declared that she was justified in her work, for the only persons she killed were men who had abused their wives and that her murdering them had saved the women further misery.”