WHOLESALE MURDERS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3112, 25 June 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHOLESALE MURDERS.

Recter'.s correspondent souds a terrible story of murder from Warsaw. The brothers Koulikovsky were recently ar- | rested near Bielostock, a Russian frontier town, and charged with the murder of a number of .Russian emigrants. Tliey lived in a village near Mould, the elder of the two being uo father of a family, and and the younger a time-expired soldier. The wife of tiie former—qui to a youngwoman, and the mother of two children — is charged with aiding and abetting the brothers iu their diabolical plots, iiiviug near the frontier, and intimately acquainted with the movements and regulations of the frontier police, the Kouiikovskys developed a traffic in smuggling across the boundary intending emigrants, fugitives from justice, deserters from the army, and others not, furnished with passports. During the prevailing distress, however the profits accruing from this nefariutis industry seriously declined, and tke smugglers conceived the idea, ot killing t,ho persons who hjul recourse to their services, in order to possess themselves of their money and utlier belongings. They selected chieiiy as victims small farmers desiring to emigrate to Brazil, these being invariably provided with their passage-money and an outfit. Under the pretext that precaution was necessary, the emigrants were conducted towards the frontier one by one. The path lay through a dense forest. While one brother act 3d as guide, the other went on in advance, and lay in wait in a secluded part of the wood. When the appointed spot was reached the two brothers, at a prearranged signal, simultaneously fell upon the traveller, murdered liim, and stripped him of all he possessed. At first the assassins made a point of burying the bodies of their victims; but, their crimes remaining undetected, they grew more reckless, and contented themselves with dragging the corpses aside into the brushwood or leaving them m che snow. In this manner they are believed to have made away with soma 30 or 40 persons. Five naked bodies have beeu found, and it is expected that, when the snow melts and the woods can be throughly searched, many more discoveries will bo made. So far as the police have been able to ascertain, the last victim was a belated peasant who sought shthelter in the Konlikovskys' hut. In the middle of the night, when fast asleep, he was put to death in the most horrible manner, for the sake of a small sum of money he had upon him. The elder brother took a kit'ge pot of boiling water and poured it over the sleeping man's face, thus depriving him of consciousness. Koutikovsky then, assisted by his wife and brother, compressed the victim's throat until life was extinct, and the body, 'laving been stripped,_ was hidden away among some straw in the stable. It was accidentally discovered there by a neighbour, before the murderers had found a convenient opportunity to carry it into the forest. The elder Koulikovsky and his wife were arrested ou the soot. The younger brother absconded, but was subsequently captured.