AN EXTRAORDINARY CRIME.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12712, 24 March 1911, Page 3

AN EXTRAORDINARY CRIME.

USING MICROBES AS POISON

A most extraordinary trial was proceeding at St. Petersburg when the last mail left London for Australia. Patrick Sasimir O'BritM de Lacy, a Russian of Irkh descent, and Panchenko, a doctor, Avere accused; of murdering a civil servant named Buturlin, de Lacy's brother-ir.-law, by inoculating him with deadly microbes, which wore procured and injected by the doctor. The motive was to secure for de Lacy's wife part of a. fortune which was com- ' ing to Buturlin, hor brotlier, through tJie d^ath of their mother. Panclienko '(rays the "Daily Telegraph's" correspondent) is a needy and untidy prac- j titioner of <30, dominated by a uniquecare—how. to make money for his mistress, a widow, whom ho worshipped. O'Brien offered him, it is said,' 20,000 joublcs for tils.' death of his brother-in-■law, 100,000 roubles for the disappearance- of hk father-in-law, and ooO,<H)0 icubles if he put a speedy end to the career of his mother-in-law, who was the richest of their, all. La-st year young Buturlin died at St. Petersburg, after a woek's illness. He was an employee of the Ministry of the Interior. No symptoms during the sickness, no tokens- after death, suggested foul play, yet General Buturlin, on arriving from Vilua, vetoed the interment </f his son's body, and demanded a post-mortem. Investigation elicited blood-poisoning as the cause of death. On the very same day Bobroff, a bookkeeper, called upon the chief of the secret police, and announced that a comrade of his, named Petropavlovsky, possessed proofs that young Buturlin's death was eatised by Dr. Panclienko. Petropavlovsky next revealed what hehud learned tlir-yugh spying on the doctor at the bous9 of the widuw, Madame Muraviova, his own landlady. '' Tlie door and walls being thin, I have heard snatches'of conversation, which I have pieced together, and I find they point j to Dr. Panclienko as the instrument of ' young Buturlin's death, and O'Brien do Lacy ss t!ie employer of that instrument. The penniless Dr. Panclienko often journeyed to Vilna, where O'Brien de Lacy resides, and always returned with a fat, purse and high hopes. Madame Muraviova, too, blab- ; bed about her improving prospects, say- i ing she was shortly coming into 300,000 i roubles. " ■■ ". ,' " One day in April Dr. Panclienko left fcr Cronstadt, where plague- ' stricken dogs are studied, and after Jus return he talked of little else. Soon afterwards young Buturlin, Panclienko, ' and O'Brien de Lacy went on the spree ■ together. The next thing I noticed' was that Panclienko was weeping, and sobbing. I entered the common sittingroom, found him beside himself with excitement, while his para move was burning- heaps of papers. She spoke first, saying that she had been scolding him for visiting a diphtheria patient without disinfecting himself. In an aside to Dr. Panclienko, she asked, 'Did you do it properly?' He answered, 'Well,. I squirted two full desec, 'although one would have been enough.'" Gentral Buturlin had a son and daughter and a divorced wife, who had remarried, and resided in Paris. Her: property, estimated at 1,000,000 roubles, would on her death pass to the two surviving children of her first marriage. The son, having wedded, serveu in the Ministry of the Interior. The •daughter had taken asj life partner a cousin, named Buturlin, but she fell in love with O'Bried de Lacy, who represented himself as possessor- of a wliart at )Phi'3k. 'As generally happenp .in Russia in such cases, the higher clergy were cajoled into granting a divorce, and Madame Buturlin became Madame O'Brien de Lacy, but General Buturlin I disapproved of the match. It 'was understood that the General, in a will' madei eight years- ago, had bequieathed a million roubles to. his son, and only -100,000 to his daughter. This is what the authorities got out of Panclienko by interrogating him in, prison : —• . "Patients were brought to nw occasionally by a friend named Raffoff, who acted as a tout, receiving a share of the profits. One day he»introduced me to O'Brien de Lacy. W© adjourned to a private room in a restaurant, where O'Brien, in Raffoff's presence, asked me would I perform a certain illegal operation for 1,500 roubles. 1 assented. O'Brien d*3 Lacy seemed pleased, and gave mo 100' roubles. .1 asked him to visit me in m.y own study. I was a physician of the St. Petersburg district of' the Northern Railway. " Subsequently O"B:rieni intimajtea that he would prefer to talk with mo without a witness. I acquiesced. He told me he h.vl just become a bridegroom, and the operation h© really wanted-was-to have his future brother-in-law made away with. Fcr this service he would pay 10,000 roubles After that it would bo necessary to remove tho father-in-law. For that riddance 1: would be paid 50,000 roubles, and, ■ lastly, the old man's divorced wife must be launched into eternity: For this iob he- would not grudge 500,000 roubles. Ho advised me to begin with young Buturliii, to whom he .proposed 1 should administer cholera germs on bread, buttered jiiic! 'Covered with caviar. Death by cholera, he explain." cd, would evoke no surprie at a moment when that epidemic, was making havoc in St Petersburg, and informed ma that voting Buturlin was using anticholera subcutaneous injectionl?. "By this time I had extracted 2.000 roubles from # O'Brien. Ho introduced mo to Buturlin. on tho ground that we were interested in founding a sanatorium, but 1 was to Avhet his curiosity about a certain drug, and get him as a patient, and then, instead of the drug, 1 wus to inject ianr-e poison or other, and, having done the job, to abstain scdu.lou.sly from writing or telegraphing, as a kinsman of his, Count "Ro-ni-kcr, who hod been charged with nnirdor in Wai saw, had beon tu-ipped up by ;i telegram. The plan wan successful; I treated young Butuvlin, substitutiiis diphtheria toxin for the "other drug. '1 l-toceived the germs from a chemist, who believed my story that it was required for experiments xm rabbits. I injected two .'arge- doses inta the vicbms thigh. Later, I learned he was very ill, and, being ccnsciehce-smTtten, I wired for O'Brien die Lacy, who was iunouG that the telegram should have been sent. He exclaimed, 'You may ac well give yourself up now.' I visited young Buturlin after tlus, and learned l,rom Jus own lips that he had had high tcver and s l-.arp pains, but was nmv I"" 011 !^ r- ih?,otlier physician wlio death in .tho papers. It occurred exJCtly a-s had been Ciuci:iat«l, seven days niter the injection.- T *-lUll>ti Uwtjittin- Nolnhty «f the- pivivinsc of

Grot* no. He is a man of middle height, fair- laired, with a r€-<ichsh_board, and fitfu/, nervous gestures. A' tho opening of the trial the patnfircl' ;1 Pancberiko carried himselt with iinn itjibie dignity, except when gazingwitJ. loving eyes upon tho female form lies ta him whose face was hidden by a thick veil'; Outside the hall of justice, in the great corridor before the holy image, with which all public buildings in Russia aw provided, another female form knelt, and prayed with the fervour of fire kino led by despair. She , Mas attired in deep mourning. "It's Madamo O'Brien do Lacy," people whispered.

General Buturlin, in giving evidence. ?a:d lie had endkss misgivings when he first made O'Brien -le Lacy's acquaintunce, but " intcrcr-xirso with him dispelled them all. His gift of tongue is unparalleled. He can persuade people ugainst their better judgment. ■ s " I met him in 1905, wheni I was commnncling a regiment of infantry. My daughter, who *.vas paying me a visit, became acquainted with him. She was married. Shortly afterwards sh© talked of divorcing her husband, and miarryO'Bnem I endeavoured to di suade her, because his aiiltecedents werd shady, His estates wer3 all technically owned by men of straw, co that the bailiffs could nt>b touch him.

"People toH met thut he was en<Jo\ved w;th exuberant fancy, and could weave plans that eclipsed fairy tales, and in his efforts to reals-3 them, recoiled beforo nobody nnd nothing: but my daughter was 31, and followed her own bent. They were married in the Russian Church in Paris. Afterwards I changed my opinion of O'Brien, owing to his eloquence and magnetic influence. None the ies*, I.warned my con not to go hunting with him, or for walks in the forest.

"In 1909 my son .spoke to me about Panchcuko, describing him as a fascinating person, and a splendid doctor, and strongly advising mo to consult him. He assured me that Panchenko coxild make me ten year.? younger. 'Although 1 take great pleasure in medical t]x.-a,tment,' I replkd, 'I would not eraploy such a physician,' whereas my son, who hfited medicines, had recourse t:> Panchenko, and ended tragically." The General then characterised O'Brien from the standpoint of his money dealings,- stating that he had advanced his son-in-law various sums which were not all refunded; had given him bills of exchange, which wcire tarn-

pertd with; and had issued powers of attorney, iiijto which a fresh clause was suiT£i/titiously interpolated authorising O'Brien tD sign bil's of exchange In Butmrlin's name.

In id'oss-examination, tha Genei*al admitted that, at his daughter's entreaty, he was paying the expenses of do Lacy's defence, adding, "My daughter said she wo aid gladly s>co Pancheuko's legal ccsts paid for if ho would consent to withdraw' Irs confession."

At this conjuncture O'Brien do Lacy cut into the dialogue, saying, "General Buturlin is in the clutches of a .Jewess named Mary Salna, the ■ex-proprietreis of a disorderly house, and a. receiver of stolen goods. Tli<i forged bills of nxrhange were issued by Mary Salna from motives .of revenge She ako threatened to poison me- with sweets.":

During the proceedings the request was made by Panchenko's lawyer that ho and do Lacy should be kept apart iii court-, as de Lacy would exti/eiss such ail influence ever the doctor as to induce him to modify his confession, as indeed happened, and an extra soldier was stationed betw.eem the two.

An • incident of the case was the original informer Bobroff's ■ ch|.i(itering volubly about himself, and claiming to havo played the part of a Sherlock Holme-*, fcr Avhich ho hopsd to be> rewarded by the General. The court was well dressed each day. The ladies, who constituted the bulk of tlte. auditory, were living models of aesthetic taste; the barristers were tlie newest things in %vaistcoats; the prisoners were spruce, smart, embarrassingly conscious of playing a role. As ha.s subsequently been reported by cable, both prisoners were found guilty. De Lacy wa.^ sentenced to penal servitude for lifei, and -Panchenko to 15 years 7 imprisonment.