WHOLESALE BABY FARMS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 293, 3 May 1913, Page 10

WHOLESALE BABY FARMS

St. Petersburg, March 28. The most colossal murder trial in the annals of history will be begun at Archangel next month, when a woman "philanthropist," Mine. Kusnezowa, will be placed in the dock charged with murdering 1012 children by poison. The "ogress," as such she is termed here, kept a "baby farm" outside the town, where illegitimate children were adopted for .C.") and upwards. Special prices were made l'or aristocratic mothers. The fact that ever since the place was opened five years ago the death-rate among the infants had been tragically high (I!2U died in the year 190!)) did not attract attention, as child mortality in this icy northern region is normally high, liveiiti'ially, however, the police began to make enquiries. After exhuming a score of bodies in the cemetery adjoining mc home, they arrested the woman. A remarkable feature of this wholesale massacre of innocents is that proper death certificates were given in each instance. Several of the children, of course, had died from natural causes, but the vast majority were found to have been poisoned. At one period there were J.iO children ill the home. Search is being made for the doctor, while several of Mmc. Kusne/.owa's stall' are under suspicion. The trial, in which the greatest interest is being taken, is expected to last several months, as each case will be taken more or less separately, and the evidence of over SOU mothers will be heard.