The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-03-06 00:00:00

A RUSSIAN TRAGEDY.

A trial of a remarkable character has just been concluded

at St. Petersburg.
In June, 1867, four persons were found assassinated
in the Croussew Pereoulok, a cul-de-sac at St. Peters-
burg, theft being the motive for the crime. An in-
vestigation, which has lasted eighteen months, placed
four accused persons at the bar of the criminal court.
Three of these are acquitted, and the fourth, a woman
named Darla Souolow, declared not guilty of the mur-
der but convicted of the robbery, is condemned to
twelve years of Ira sour forth—a result which has much
surprised the public.
About ten in the morning on the 4th of June, 1867,
the district police commissioner was informed by the
owner of a house in the Goussew Pereoulok that the
suite of rooms inhabited by half-pay Major Aschma-
renkow and Madame Gregorietf was still shut up, and
that on knocking at the door and windows no answer
was returned. The police, on proceeding to the house,
proved that both doors of the appartement, which is on
the rez-de-chaussee, were closed from within, and no-
thing but the barking of a dog replied to repeated ring-
ing at the bell. Entrance was at last gained through the
dining-room window, the casement of which was open;
and in the first room were seen the bodies of Major Asch-
marenkow and Madame Gregorieff, stretched on a
bed and bathed in blood. From the next room groans
proceeded, and there a student named Petrow was
lying under a divan mortally wounded, though still
breathing. The lifeless body of the servant-girl,
Agrippine Babaieff, lay, face downwards, in the ante-
chamber. In the kitchen were found two laundry
irons and a log of v7nocl, to which human hair was still
sticking, and a pair of old shoes in a corner. All these
articles were stained with blond. Between the outer
and inner kitcnen doors the dog was found, with
bloody paws and thigh gashed open, and half-strangled
by a towel tied round his throat. Further search
discovered hidden in the oven a packet wrapped in
calico, containing papers representing a sum of
5,100 roubles, part of a chemise, and a towel,
both stained with blood. The woman Sokolow
having slept in the house the night of the murder,
was arrested. At first Sokolow confessed that she
was guilty of the murder, but afterwards denied it,
saying that during the night she spent at Madame
Gregoriefls she had lmard cries of distress, and had
hidden herself under the divan on which Petrow was
sleeping; that she had seen the feet of two men, and
recognised the voice of the yard porter of the house.
She had stolen fifteen roubles and gone away. Os the
journey she saw for the first time that she had taken
a bag which did not belong to her. In accordance
with these facts, and others brought to light by the
police, the woman Sokolow, Fedorow, the porter, a
laundress named Marie Karneiew, awl a widow,
Anne Andreiew, were brought to trial for the
murder.
On the occasion of the trial Sokolow persisted that
she was only present at the assassination, and attri-
buted it to her fellow prisoners, notably to Fedorow.
The crime, however, was not proved against any of
them to the satisfaction of the court.