In June 1876, Deutsch was living illegally in Elisavetgrad when a former student named Gorinovich sought to join his group. Gorinovich had been arrested for taking part in the 'to the people' movement in 1874, but was released. Deutsch believed that he had gained his release by denouncing others, and was an active police spy, and resolved to kill him. He and a fellow revolutionary, V.A.Malinka, persuaded Gorinovich to join them on a trip to Odessa, and on the way attacked him and left him for dead, though he recovered and named his attackers. Malinka was hanged for his part in attack in December 1878. This was the first act of violence committed by Russian revolutionaries during the 1870s, and made Deutsch so notorious that when a young Jewish woman was arrested as one of the conspirators who had assassinated the Tsar Alexander II in 1881, the Russian press wrongly assumed that she was Deutsch's sister.