WHOLESALE MURDER OF HUSBANDS.

Thames Star, Volume XIII, Issue 4341, 29 November 1882, Page 2

WHOLESALE MURDER OF HUSBANDS.

A horrible story of wholesale murder* ing has just come to light in the quiet little town of Gross Bedskerek in Southern Hungary. To look at, Gross Bedskerek is the personification of arcadian simplicity, but, unfortunately, it looks a good deal better than it really is. A hundred women have just been tried there for murdering their husbands and sweethearts, by means of poisons purchased from a Meg Merriles of the district. Of the hundred women 30 have been conmcted, and the remainder hare been acquitted under highly suspicious circumstances. The poisoning of husbands of whom their consorts are a little lired used to be a favorite crime in Southern Russia, and it does not give rise to the pleasantist of considerations to find the crime growing in this wholesale way. Analytical chemists have struck a blow at the trade of the poison vendors in the more civilised portions of the world. By tbeir assistance discovery is rendered pretty certain, and one can but regret that there existence had not been known in South Hungary. In all the cases—in those where the women were convicted at least- the object prompting the crime was a desire to change an old husband for a new lorer; and there is reason to fear that although the crimes have only just been discovered, they have been constant occurrences for many years past