I had baby with ‘world’s worst’ serial killer – I knew he murdered 100 people and was 40 years older but I didn’t care
A WOMAN who had a baby with the "world's worst" serial killer who was 40 years her senior knew he murdered over 100 women - but didn't care.
Elena Bulkina, 30, turned a blind eye to Serhiy Tkach's terrifying past after becoming besotted with him while he was behind bars.
Despite the former Russian police officer being convicted of the murders of 37 women, smitten Elena swooned over his TV appearances following his arrest.
Tkach had terrorised the streets of Ukraine for over two decades before he was finally snared in 2005 - after sickeningly attending one of his victim's funerals.
He is suspected to have brutally murdered over 100 more women and girls from 1984 to 2005 - including one as young as eight.
The monster raped and suffocated his victims before sexually defiling their corpses - while using his knowledge as a cop to cover his tracks.
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But as a 23-year-old Elena watched the brute discuss his atrocities on TV, she was drawn to Tkach's "manners" and was somehow charmed.
She believes "some sort of magnetism" brought the star-crossed lovers together - despite him being locked up in Zhytomyr penitentiary for his heinous crimes.
She ignored the media circus which dubbed Tkac the "Pologovsky maniac" and penned a letter to him, doused in her perfume.
Elena said in an interview for Netflix series World’s Toughest Prisons: "I wrote, truthfully, that I saw his interview, and wanted to communicate, to have a conversation.
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"And just to get to know him better."
Before agreeing to the interview, she had insisted that no other women could be present whilst filming, because she believed that her husband "was irresistible."
After becoming penpals, Elena began to visit the fiend at the terrifying jail and even married the monster in 2015 - allowing them to enjoy conjugal visits.
Under Ukrainian law, all married prisoners are allowed a three-day conjugal visit every two months - even the most depraved.
Recalling their first meeting, infatuated Elena insisted she never feared for her safety or felt concerned by the killer's dark past.
She gushed about how they sat smooching together when Tkach was allowed out of his cage, to "hug and kiss freely".
Elena stoked a similar sense of fear among interviewers as the killer when discussing her possessive nature over her husband.
She said: "If I had to deal with his previous wives they wouldn’t be walking this earth anymore.
I’m not scared by his conviction. Good women are scared of him. If that’s the case, there is less competition for me.
Elena Bulkina
"I wouldn’t let anyone within a mile of him. I’m a very jealous woman.
"I’m not scared by his conviction. Good women are scared of him. If that’s the case, there is less competition for me."
The documentary makers told how she "relished" in any attention Tkach gave her, while "dominating" the conversation.
It was at one of their many conjugal visits in the dingy prison flat that Elena conceived a child with the 63-year-old killer.
The Russian national gave birth to a girl named Elizaveta in 2016, but was forbidden from bringing the tot to visit him.
Despite her unorthodox family dynamic, she said she felt "happiness" when she realised she was pregnant.
The mum explained: "I wanted this baby and he wanted this baby but she was born in Russia and my parents and the officials won’t let me bring her to this country."
Elena’s horrified parents are said to have pleaded with the courts to strip her of parental rights to Elizaveta.
DIED FROM A BROKEN HEART
But the serial killer's wife brushed off any criticism, saying she had no guilt because she "did not commit the crimes".
The defiant Russian added: "I’d not wish this on anyone and if it happened to my family I’d punish that person. But I didn’t do anything."
Elena barely even flinched at the fact several men were wrongly convicted for some of Tkach's killings over the years, including one who committed suicide.
But the pair's bizarre love story took a dramatic twist in 2018, as the notorious serial killer died "from a broken heart".
Prison officials suggested the 66-year-old was consumed by the fact his young wife had suddenly stopped visiting him.
Tkach, who blamed alcoholism for his atrocities, said that that his only motivation to keep living was "for the love of my daughter and my wife."
He was buried in an unmarked grave in a cemetery in Zhytomyr dedicated to the homeless and persons who cannot be identified.
Elena later deleted her social media accounts for the sake of "going underground", telling her followers her personal data was being hunted.
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According to , she now lives in Moscow with her six-year-old daughter and has changed her last name.
She reportedly didn't say goodbye to her husband in wake of his death due to heart failure, but has since rebuilt her relationship with her parents.