Little is known about the early life of Alexe Katherina Popova, aka Madame Popova, one of the most prolific female killers in history. She was born in Samara, Southwest of Russia in mid 1800s. She was trapped in an unhappy marriage which gave her the idea of women liberation, which was a very disregarded and not recognized cause making her one of the earliest advocates for it.

Popova was distressed how the women were treated by their abusive husbands as “captive peasants”. She advertised her business to women who suffered “to free them of their tyrant husbands”. Popova

would take a small fee from her employers, get acquainted with their husbands and poison their food or drink with arsenic. Popova remained in business for thirty years in which she killed approximately 300 men.

She was arrested after one of her clients confessed to the police. When she was arrested, a mob attacked insisting that her punishment be handed over to them with threats of burning her at stake. The

police were able to handle the situation only after using force. At her trial she admitted to murder but proudly stated she had never killed a women. She was sentenced to death by firing squad.