SHOCKING MURDER IN RUSSIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2605, 23 March 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

SHOCKING MURDER IN RUSSIA.

A TRIAL which has just concluded in the Government of Kurafe, in Southern Russia, with the conviction of four peasants, for the murder of a girl of 11, they being sentenced to penal servitude for terms varying: from eight to twenty years each, rominds the reader, in certain details, of the hideous and grotesque superstition about "thieves' candles" described by Dr. Bloch, a member of the Austrian Parliament. The four peasants belioyed in the strange superstition that candles made from human fat render them invisible. In order to obtain this necessary material, they first attempted to murder a boy in a f orrest; next they tried to kill an old peasant, and afterwards a Kussian clergyman, whom they met in a field. In all these cases they were unsuccessful, being disturbed before they could accomplish their fell purpose. On the 15th of October last, howover, they came across a young girl, Lukeria Cherkashina, in a lonely spot, and at once proceeded to strangle and mutilato her. Out of the fat from this child's body they made candles, with the help of whose supposed protecting rays they attempted a robbery. They were, however, caught and put in prison, where they confossed everything. It was stated in court that the superstition nf " thieves' candles " is widespread in Russia, which confirms Dr. Bloch's statement that it still exists among tho thieves of nearly all nations.