The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-02-04
A a,anstai or crime.


A Capital or Crime.
| A trial Is at the present moment taking
| place In szegedin, In Hungary, the extraor,
binary. complicated, and dramatic history OF
| which Is destined to occupy q conspicuous
place amongst the criminal records OF all
countries and epochs. The individuals in
| volved may be counted by hundreds, their
| crimes and offences BY thousands, and the
frst arrests took place as far back as 1861.
The Lloyd Of Pest. gives an outline Oh
the case under the title Of the
! "Praccs Sandor"- Sandor being the name
of the chief Of band of malefactors
whose dcpredations and atrocities rendered
them the terror of Szegedn and the sur
| rounding district. According to the Pesth
journal, ever since 1860 the inhabitants OF
Sezegdin had become so terrified in conse-
quence Of the daring exploits OF Sandors
band of brigands that they locked and barred
themselves in their houses every night or
dusk, and dared not to venture into tue
streets even during the day without being
armed with revolyers and sword'sticks.
Robberies, incendiary fires, and assassina-
tons were the order Of the day, and the
malefactors carried their audacity so far as TO
| attack the diligences in the open day, and in
the very midst of the town ITSELF
For long time the criminals escaped,
whilst number Of innocent inhabitants
were arrested On suspicion; and it was I'M
der these circumstances that NJ. de Raday
was sent as Royal Commissioner TO Siege
din. charged with full powers, and having at
his disposition the forces and the resources
necessary to put On end to state OF things
so deplorable and alarming. N. de Raday
soon became convinced that not only Siege
din, but the whole combat and the surround
ing districts, was infested by formidable
81 companies of brigands, whose organiza-
ton was complete and their circle OF action
clearly defined. When one of these compa-
MES was not sufficiently numerous to carry
out daring enterprise, assistance was lent
by the other companies. Two OF these bands
of brigands, leagucd together, not long ago
succeeded In entering the cellar of a bank
and in carrying the immense safe into the
street. They fuiled. however, iii getting it
into q cart which they had brought for the
purpose, and found themselves compelled to
abandon their valuable booty. The safe was
found intact at the door of the bank on the
following morning, and the operation had
been carried on without any ones attention
having been called to it, or without any one
daring to give the alarm: After careful and
minute inquiries the Royal Commissioner
found. to his Amusement, that number Of
administrative and judicial functionaries were
acting as accomplccs of the various bands of
brlgands-that even the titled nobilities of
the district acted as receivers of the stolen
prn,atrty. A number of these companies
were soon tracked, and several OF the
bandits were arrested and given up to justice.
1t was then found that the police agents
were in league with the malefactors.
At Szecedin a commissary Of police, two
Judges, four employees Of the Treasury, and
forty.six detectives were arrested as being
| implicated in The depredatijns Of the bands.
Crimes have been brought to light which
were perpetrated thirty years ago, and an
old man of seventy was condemned some
short time ago for q crime committed when
| he was forty Years Of ege, The novel and
peculiarly !" psychological system pursued
by the Royal Commissioner in order to find
out the guilty parties amongst the hundreds
| of individuals arrested is worth recording.
| The prisoners were completely isolated
from the rest of the world during their con-
| finement; and their eyes were bound in
order to prevent any conversation by sign
usually rcSolted to by accomplished thieves.
Companions in captivity totally unknown
to them, were placed in the same cells, who
soon insin!mted themselves into theconhdencc
ofthe prisoners, studied their characters, made
themselves acquainted with their secrets, and
used all their efforts to bring about q full con-
| fession. All the malefactors arrested, it
must not hc forgotten, are kept in the ut
most ignorance rs to the charges which weigh
against them. On their first examination
| tHcv were not questioned az to the perpe-
tration Of such or such crime: they were
simply asked to give an account Of any Of
fence OF which they might acknowledge
themselves guilty. BY this means number
of crimes have been brought to light hithcr-
to totally unsupported. An idea Of how de-
siribe place :Sze@edin must have been to
| live in may be formed from the following
| enumeration of the cases which are now
| being tried before a specially appointed
court When the Royal Commissioner first
arrived at Szegedin there were one thousand
| five hundred and six criminal charges to be
heard: a little later 800 more charges were
made; and when the Royal Commission had
terminated its duties. $50 fresh cases were
brought to light making in all nearly 5000
crimes of the gIaycSt character. Or this TO-
| tai, 1000 judgments have already been
given: and nearly all these judgments have
Teen confirmed on appeal. The crimes and
offences discovered by the Royal Commits
sion amount to 5000. The principal charges
are those of murder, robbery, piIlage, incen-
tliarism, &c. the cases of robbery alone ex.
ceeding 10000. The trial Of this unprecc-
denied batch of hishwaymen, which COM
menced on tho 18th ultimo, was not expected
| to terminate before the end of the month.
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