SENSATIONAL MURDER TRIAL

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 333, 8 March 1910, Page 5

SENSATIONAL MURDER TRIAL

OPEXED IX VEXICE. ; PASSIONATE SCENES. TWO HUNDRED AXD FIFTY WITNESSES. By Came.—Press Association.—Copyright Received March 7, 10.45 p.m. Rome. March 7. Passionate scenes niarki.,, the openinrr .of the Kamarowski murder trial in Venice. Xaumoff, speaking from th« ironcaged dock, and sobbing throughout, re. lated the full details of the crime i'rom his first meeting with Countess Tarnowska, how his fascination for the woman led him to promise to go trom Moscow to Venice to murder Count Kamarowski as the only means of preventing Countess Tarnowska's threat to go to another lover. The Judge expects sixty sittings of the court to examine 250 witnesses. During their imprisonment the prisoners have learnt the Italian language. Countess Tarnowska is the victim "of intense hostility from the populace during her daily journey in a gondola to the courthouse. She is displeased at the extraordinary impassivity in court. In September, 1907, a Russian named Xaumoff presented himself at the residence of Count Kamarowski, a Russian, living in the Campo Santa Maria del Giglio, Venice. In spite of a servant's refusal to admit him, Xaumoff forced his way into the apartments of Count Kamarowski, and, drawing a revolver, emptied five chambers at the Count. The victim died not long afterwards. The persons who now stand their trial for the murder are—(l) Xaumoff, who fired the fatal shots, and who is said to have been madly in love with the Countess Tarnowska, a Russian divorcee, who was betrothed to the deceased Count. (2) The Countess Tarnowska. who was entitled to an insurance of £20,000 on the life of the Count, and who is said •to have influenced Xaumoff, (3) Prilukoff, a formerly well-to-do Moscow lawyer, who is charged with having instigated the Countess's plot, and who is said to have previously embezzled monev in Moscow in the interests of the Countess. The Countess's maid, named Perrier, is also arraigned. At the timp of the crime, the Countess Tarnowska confessed to complicity in it, alleging that Xaumoff fell desperately in love with her. She was betrothed to Count Kamarowski. and Xaumoff determined to get rid of the latter, whoso life insurance of £20.000 was in her favor. PrilukofT confessed that he. and the Countess planned the murder in order to get the insurance money. ALLEGED PLOT BY LAWYER AXD COUXTESS. XAUMOFF DEEMED A TOOL. The hypothesis constructed by tile police immediately after the shooting of Count Kamarowski at Venice, that the crime was committed at the instigation of tile Russian lawyer PrilukofT and of the Countess Tarnowska, was held to be confirmed by the confessions of PrilukofT and the Countess Tarnowska themselves. "Each (wrote The Times' correspondent) seeks to throw as much a.s possible of the responsibility upon the other, but neither denies connivance and complicity. II appears, that in addition to Insuring his life for -£20,000 in favor of the Countess Tarnowska, the late Count Kamarowski had been induced to make the Countess the sole legatee of his large 'fortune. The plan of the two accomplices was to eliminate both Kamarowski and Xaumoff by procuring the murder of the former and the arrest for murder of the latter, who, blinded by jealousy, was a willing tool in the Countess Tarnowska's hands. "Prilukoff, a fermerlv well-to-do Moscow lawyer, appears also to have been the victim of the Countess Tarnowska before becoming her accomplice. In order to satisfy her financial demands upon him he had embezzled moneys belonging to his client= and had escaped from Russia to avoid arrest."