Did Pranzini Murder Madame Skobeleff?

Evening Star, Issue 7337, 8 October 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

Did Pranzini Murder Madame Skobeleff?

Pranzini being under sentence of death, I La France' does not think it any harm to give the following communication from one who has long lived in Russia:—" Prauzini said he brought back 3,000 francs from Central Asia, and that he made his last caravan journey there after he was with Skobeleff. Now, in 1879 Modame Skobeleff went to Bulgaria. As she was returning to Russia she was murdered in a postchaise. I was then in Russia, and heard that the murderer was an interpreter, who spoke four or five languages. The head of the unfortunate lady was almost severed from her body. All her money and a casket of jewels disappeared. The assassin has never since been heard of. Could he be Pranzini ? When Skobeleff was last here I saw him nearly every morning, and he used to walk up and down the room telling me of adventures, dreams, presentiments, and curious coincidences that had a large share in directing his singularly brilliant career. I one day asked him whether his mother, whose memory heseemed to worship, really was ambitious of obtaining for him the Crown of Bulgaria. He said that she was, but that it was a mere maternal whim, because he could never be anything but a Russian, and would have only gone to Sofia as a Viceroy of the Czar. This brought the conversation round to the murder of Madame Skobeleff. The General, hardly able to speak from emotion, said: "It was my fault that she was murdered. There was a wretch in my Intelligence Department whom I urged her to take against her better judgment as courier, interpreter, and secretary. He had made himself very useful to me. He once stole money from me, was detected, and became so penitent that I forgave him. He also won my pity by saying that his mother was in poverty, and that he had robbed me to aid her. On subsequent occasions he risked his life to get me information. I did not ask Skobeleff any further questions, the subject being a painful one; but he said that his mother's flesh crept when her future assassin was introduced to her; and yet he so got round her that the last letter she wrote her son was to thank him for having given her such a useful assistant." Pranzini has been transferred to the prison of La Roquette. He has signed an appeal to the Court of Cassation, so that it is probable he will have a second trial.