Police Crimes.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13892, 1 May 1909, Page 3 (Supplement)

Police Crimes.

ASTOUNDING PLOTS. ST. PETERSBURG. February 24. Revelations which rival those connected with Azetf, Bakai, and the other - characters in the Lopukhin drama, will shortly form the subject of an interpellation in the Dnma. The ' accusations brought against Lieut.-Cotoual Zavaritsky, former head of the secret police at Vladivostock, constitute an indictment for which it is difficult to find a parallel outside the pages of fiction. The indictment alleges that among the secret, agents employed by Colonel Zavaritsky were a peasant named Bugovsky, arid the son of a college secretary named Badiroff. - Colonel Zavaritsky, in the apprehension that he would he held responsible for negligence and breach of duty, summoned Badiroff and Bugovsky, and asked for their assistance to extricate him from the invidious position. He made the proposal that he and the two men should achieve a series of fictitious detective-exploits, the success of which would impress the authorities' with his -vigilance and zeal, and prevent suspicions being entertained of any lapse of duty on his part. According to the evidence of the two men. one of the schemes was that a number of bombs should he deposited in certain houses, and that an ante-dated report should be addressed to him, warning him of an attempt planned on the- livts of the fortress commandant, the military governor, and himself. Colonel Zazaritsby would make a timelv discovery, thereby obtaining • much commendation. . The second scheme was even more imaginative.A duplicate of the stnrrrrt of the Central Committee of the social revolutionary military organisation was to b« fabricated, and the stamp was to he imprinted on various illegal publications lyine at the secret police department. * These publications were then to be deposited in the houses of persons whose names were to be given to him in : another ■ pre-dated report; and would be discovered there when thp colonel .had the premises searchkl. thereby enabling him to gain, additional credit- for unearthing a criminal association. Zavaritsky offered to pay Badiroff and Bugovsky handsomely for their services, and they agreed to adopt his plan. ■ - A DEEPER SCHEME-

•Badiroff was unable at the outset to obtain the necessary amount of powder fqr the bombs. Colonel Zavaritsky told'him" to go to the" shop where he (Badiroff) had purchased a revolver the previous month. Zavaritsky added to Radiroff's revolver .permit the words, "and ten pounds of powder," and Badiroff had no difficulty in obtaining that amount from the shop. Bugovskv went to the shoo or a Chinaman and bought tin boxes, which were to he used as the envelopes of the bombs. He also hotfght. chemicals and prepared four of the bombs himself. Colonel Zavaritsky assisted in the preparations of the-other two. - Five of the bombs were then made into two parcels, wrapped in newspapers! and Badiroff • and Bugovsky placed them under a. staircase in one of the houses. Badiroff placed the MXth bomb in the vicinity .of-the ..-fortress • poard-rooin, and Bugovsky wrote the stipulated predated letter of warning to Colonel Zavaritsky. - The latter reported :to the authorities that he had, received inforuiation- that an attempt was being prepared on the life of tho fortress commandant, and added that he was instituting: a rigorous search in order to baulk the revolutionaries. The six bombs were discovered (I) the same night. As regards the. second plot, Colonel Zavaritsky gave. Bugovsky an imprint of the. revolutionary military organisation's stamo.- torn from some proclamation, and Bugovsky ordered a copper stamp to be made. • ' Knowing that a search was to he made at the house of a man named Mironenko, * ColonelZarflritsky % . *u<leu by Badiroff and Bugovsky, stamped the military organisations seal, on-seve-ral - illegal publications 'at'his disposal. - and gave instructions that a packet of them should be " d iscovered, during the-search.. Badiroff, whp^wore. ; the uniform of a non-commissioned officer of gendarmery, was entrusted with this task He performed it so clumsily thot* Mironenko himself was the first person to see the publications, and attributed this false evidence to Sub-Lieu-tenant'Tserpinsky, who, was in command of the search party. Lieutenant Tserpinsky has testified- that from the shape of "the packet it looked as . if it had been carried in a revolver case. A search at the house of a man-named Makoldin resulted in the seizure of some illegal books, which Lieutenant Tserpinsky handed" over to. Colonel ZsT&ritskr* .Unhappily for himself, Colonel Zava-. ritsfcy was premature in his assurances to thfe public prosecutor that the confiscated .books were part of a political propaganda, and bore* the seal of the social revolutionary military organisation. Lieutenant Tserpinsky had noticed during-the search that there was no seal on any of the. bopks, and C**~ lonel Zavaritskv, Bugovsky, and Badiroff were actually engaged in stamping the books when the public prosecutor arrived, and asked to be shown the inscriptions of which the colonel had spokINNOCENT WORKMEN" TRAPPED. A meeting of workmen, which was held in an empty building at the mill—- ■ tarv port, gave Colonel Zavaritsky a further opportunity for the display of . his activity.. The workmen could be represented as the members of a widespread revolutionary and ihe counterfeit stamp might again be of valuable service. U'hen some of the hands were paid off at the port Colonel Zavaritsky, on the strength of a report made bv "Badiroff, gave orders for the arrest of thirtv-two of them for " political unreliability." The evening liefore the raid at the port, Colonel Zavaritskv instructed -Bugovsky to write a list of workmen who, it was to he made out, had been given illegal books for distribution. The names of the hooks were also to he mentioned. Badiroff dictated to Bugovsky the names of fourteen workmen contained in his own list of denunciations. The seal of the revolutionary military organisation was th£n affixed to Bugovsky's list which was placed in a portfolio together with a number of social revoinHonary proclamations, also stamped hv Colonel Zavaritsky and his assistants, the counterfeit stamp, and two designs of the bombs which Bugovsky liad°made by Colonel Zavaritskv's ° r The" portfolio and its contents were oiven to Badiroff, who again donned a "endarmerv uniform, and went to the port at the time of the great rounil-up, attaching himself to a party of Rifles told off to search some mechanical workshops. Choosing *n favourable moment, he placed the portfolio in an open cupboard in a part of . the building whieh had not yet been searched. - The portfolio was. of course, found, and the fourteen workmen enumerated in Bugovskys list were immediately arrested. ' Colonel Zavaritsky, who still retained possession of the copper stamp, ordered Bugovsky to write a letter in printed characters to Baron Fersen, Commander of the Vladivostok military port, threatening him with death at the hands of a group of working men members of the revolutionary militarv ornanisation. The letter was stamped jvith the revolutionary mark and dis-

patched to Baron Fersen on December 6. A few days before this Colonel Zavaritsky drew up a supposed sentence of death passed on himself by the military organisation. The document was placed in an envelope and addressed to the Colonel by Bugovsky, who then hired a number of Chinese coolies and ordered them to take the letter anil a coffin, which ho had previously bought, to tho staff quarters of the fortress. (The carrying of a coffin to an enemy's door is a form of terroristic menace in Russia.) It had been arranged with Colonel Zavaritsky that the coolies should be arrested on making their appearance, and this programme was successfully carried out. Through the machinations of Colonel Zavaritsky and his accomplices five men have been executed and 24 have been sentenced to penal servitude or fortress imprisonment. —Renter.