Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-09-22
Poisoning Husbands.

Thekla Popov, the peasant woman who is
| being tried on a charge of aiding and abetting
| upward of a hundred women in poisoning
| their husbands is very remarkable character
destined TO occupy position at once unique
and picturesque in the annals of crime. She
| is gypsy, and is now some seventy years of
| age. She lived in little village named Me.
lencze, an it may almost be said that murder
was her trade. People say sh had her agents
and emissaries, whose business it was to keep
up her connection" and 1t mu t have been a
horrid and gruesome spectacle to see the
grizzly bag seated in her armchair every day,
receiving her customers during business
hours, and giving them the diabolical advice
and aid they sought.
They were all married women from the
neighbor ng country side, eager, for some
ieason or another, to get rid of husbands " no
obstinately refused to die in the ord nary
course of nature, but who, by Theklas friend
ly Offices, might be made amenable to the re-
sources OF art. These wretches pad the old
gypsy fee of from fifty to one hundred
HORNS for each bottle OF poison, and were
duly instructed by her in the safest methods
of its g exh bition."
Tnekla Popov's clients were however not al
ways married women. Sometimes she had
de ilings W tn young rls who gu ,rrelIed with
their sweethearts. and who, from jealousy or
rag :, had determ ned to kill them. This wo-
mans terrible trade prospered amazingly for
two years. She exc ted no suspicion because
tn drugs she admin stored acted slowly.
ough surely, and in their effects simu ated
symptoms of d sease. Even now that the
bodies OF some of her victims have been ex-
humed they show no signs of poisoning
though the stomachs are eaten away.
The first case that set people on the alert was
that of one Jocza Kuk N, a rich peasant, who
died at Melencze two months ago. Ugly rrl-
MOI QtOr
gossips whispered mysterious hints of foul
play. There was in consequence an in ,uest;
but the most careful post-mortem examination
failed to reveal any traces Of pois ming I'm his
case. The whole story was slipping out of
the memories of the villagers, when
suddenly a dreadful revelation was
made. gypsy girl, the daughter of old
Tnekla Popov. came before the court at
Gross Bedskerek, and horrifed it by the tale
she had to tell. She confessed that she gave
the wife of JOcZa Kukin q bottle of some red
liquid poison prepared by. her mother. She
this by her mothers Instructions Having
had a quarrel with her re pecte1 parent over
some p operty, she determined to betray her.
Thekla Popov's daughter further declared
that she actually saw Kukin's wife pour this
poison into his coffee. and that she told her
mother what she knew and had seen. The
gypsy replied: Zone day VII poison you un-
less you hold your tongue
OF course this statement caused Thekla
Popov and the widow of Kulin To be arrested
They, however. denied the charge brought
against them. Oddly enough the judy, by a
clever ruse not quite In keeping with English
notions of fair play to accused prisoners, man
aged to overhear the two women talking the
affair over lin jail Among other things he
overheard was Knknis widow saying to her
accomplice: well 7 am young and pretty.
He was old and ugly. Why sh uli hs not
der IheJuige after that had little double
that the prisoners were guilty They were
theiefore put on their trial, and the clew thus
unexpectedly plaeedfn the han Is OF the au-
'fnorities was actsyely followed up.
Z strange d -scoyeries were soon made, show
Ing that from the woman Thekia Pepov as a
center, vast and csmplex ramiAcation OF
or me extended far and wide throughout the
community. The tr al has been deferred for
several weeks, SO that the bodies OF men SIP
posed TO have b. zen murdered by their wives
may be exhumed and exam pel-Vssnna
august 2D Cor. London Standard.