POISONED COUNT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1041, 2 February 1911, Page 5

POISONED COUNT.

SENSATIONAL RUSSIAN TRIAL. A DOCTOR'S CONFESSION. MURDER OF A YOUNQ OFFICER DIPHTHERIA GERMS USED. (Rec. February 2, 0.15 a.m.) By Tclesraph-Prtss Assoclatlan-Caprdcht St. Psiorsburn, February 1. Two hundred and fifty witnesses are to be called in connection with the trial of Doctor Patehenko, Count de Lassy, and Madame Muriivieva on a charge of muv, doring Count Bontui'lin and conspiring to murder General Bouturlin, the Count's father, also Madame Lazardi, the General's divorced wife. Doctor Palchenko has confessed that Count de Lassy promised him .£IOOO for murdering Count Bouturlin, .£SOOO for poisoning the General, and £50,000 for removing Madame Lazardi. i Fearing that cholera germs would be detected, Dr. Patehenko substituted diphtheria, i Count de Lassy's motive was to secure a" quarter of a million sterling for his wife, who is Madame Lazardi's daughter. Evidence is being called to corroborate the confession. Count de Lassy denies that he instigated the murder.

STORY OF THE CRIME. MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF AN HEIR TO ,£71)0,000. Count Bonturlin, an officer of the Imperial Guards, belonging to a niost distinguished family, and heir to a fortuno of .£700,0(10, died suddenly. Two arrests wero made, it being alleged that tho deceassd count was poisoned. The prisoners aro the dead man's brother-in-law, Count de Lassy, and his physician,. Dr. Patachenko. Count de Lassy was Count Bonturlin's heir, and he is accused of having bribed tho doctor to poison Ins patient. Count Bonturliu's elder brother died very suddenly. The bodies of two brothers of tho dead count were exhumed, and traces of poison wero discovered in them, and it was asserted that another member of tho family, tho seven-year-old Count Ronicker, who died suddenly at Warsaw, was also poisoned. • • When Count Bonturlin, a wealthy young officer, became indisposed his brother-iu-law, Count O'Brien do Lassy, advised him to-call in Dr. Patcheuko. Instead of recovering, however, the count grew rapidly and unaccountably worse. Then he died, and the physician and Count do Lassy weve arrestel. Dr. Patehenko subsequently confessed to having poisoned his patient. Nor was this. all. The charges against the doctor and Count-de Lassy were followed'by still graver accusations against Patehenko. The police alleged that he-had mado a practice of murdering persons of great wealth on ber half of their heirs, from whom he exacted a recompense of ,C 50,000 for each death.

Patehenko , capped his confession of the younj count's murder by admitting tliß truth of these other allegations. He committed u series of these crimes, it seems, during the cholerj epidemic nt'St. Petersburg, poisoning tho victims under the plea of inoculating them against the disease. Instead, ho actually inoculated.tliem with cholera bacilli. - - ■

Another arrest took pl.ice in connection with the case. The, prisoner is a rich merchant of .a well-known family of. the capital, who is accused of haying .cm-; ployed Dr. Patehenko to poison a num r ber of his creditors.- . ■ "

Count de Lassy denied that lie had any share in his brother-in-law's murder. ' Another of the prisoners in'tho casoeis Mm<v Muravieva, a woman who is alleged to have been associated. with Dr.Patehenko iii his "murder agency." The doctor is quite an old man. The count; his victim; wns only tWenty-six years of age.. . ..:....'

Count Borifurlin was obliged to , resign' from the armj- owing to his marriage with-n German mnsic-hull singer. Count O'Brion dc Lassy is n Vilna'landowner, ami ii descendant of (he famous French Marshal do Lassy, while on his mother's side he descends from an Irish family. 'J'li3 poisoning of Count Bonturlin occurred almost simultaneously with a similar caso at Warsaw, whera ■ tlio son of n wenllhy Polish landowner named Krjaiiowsky Was murdered in some furnished • rooms. By a most.extraordinary coincidence his brother-in-law, Count Ttonikcr, who was arrested on suspicion of having' instigated tlio crime, is a connection of Count O'Brion de Lnssy. TonngKrjanowsky, wlio was only seventeen years old, was apparently killed with a blunt instrument after a desperate struggle. Tlio doors and walls of the room in which his body "was found were splashed 'with blood. ' When Count . Roniker was , arrested marks of scratches were found on his throat. The count is described as being of very engaging personality. He enjoyed great popularity in Polish society, arid is the author of several novels and successful plays.