TWENTY-FOUR MURDERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 91, 26 April 1901, Page 1

TWENTY-FOUR MURDERS.

Berlin, March 23. In the province of Wolhyma, South Russia, an old man and his wife have been arrested and charged with the murder of twenty-four persons within the past three years. The village of Ivallinoeka, whore those persons lived, is not far from a wellfrequented railway, but tho authorities know nothing of the crimes until they were discovered by accident. The two were in the habit of travelling through the provinces of Wolliynia, Kherson and Bessarabia, dealing in love philters, and it is believed, in poisons. They confess to twenty-four murders by violence, but the police believe that the list of the murderers’ victims by poison is greater. In Bessarabia, near tho fortress of Bender, tho authorities have happened on a grave of a number of persons, who, judging by the position of their bodies, must have been buried alive. It is believed that they are members of the sect of self-immolators, who suddenly disappeared from the neighborhood of Bender some years .ago. The police are searching for two women, who, at one time, were leaders of the sect, but disappeared as soon as the grave was discovered.