Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-09-16
POISONING BY WHOLESALE.
An Awful Story of Crime Among
Hungarian Peasants.

a letter from Vienna to the London
Standard says :-Thekla Popoy, the
peasant woman who is being tried on a
charge of aiding and abetting upward
OF. hundred women in poisoning their
husbands, is very remarkable charac-
ter-destined to occupy q position at
once unique and picturesque in the
annals of crime. She is a gypsy, and
is now some 20 years of age. She lived
in a little village named Melencze, and
her trade. People say she had her
agents aud emissaries, whose business
it was to keep up her connection,
and it must have been horrid and
gruesome spectacle to see the grizzly
hag seated in her arm chair every day,
receiving her customers during business
hours, and giving them the diabolical
advice and aid they sought.
They we're all married women from
the ne;ghboring country side, eager, for
some reason or another, to get rid of
husbands who obstinately refused to die
in tho ordinary course of nature, but
who, by Thekla's friendly offices, might
be made umeGable to the resources Of
art. Tie wretches paid the old gypsy
fee of from fifty to a hundred flcrins
for each bottle of poison, aud We're duly
instructed by her III the safest methods
of is exhibition.
Thekla POpoy's clients were, however,
not always married women. Sometimes
she had dealings with young girls who
quarreled with their sweethearts, and
who, from jealousy or rage had deter
,,,inaJ 10 LYiii fhai,, Ihts xvon,onbe tar
rible trade prospered amazingly for two
years. She excited no suspicion, because
the drugs she Administered acted slowly,
though surely, and in their effects slim.
ulated the symptoms of disease. Even
now that the bodies of some of her vic
TINS have been exhumed, 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 Joczl Kukin, a
rich peasant, who died at Melenczo two
monhs ago. Ugly rumors about his
death were spread, and the gcsaips
whispered mysterious hints of foul play
There was in consequence an inquest
but the most careful post -mortem exam
ination failed to reveal any traces of
poisoning Ill his case.
The whole story was slipping out of
the memories OF the villagers, when sud
denly dreadful revelation was made.
A gypsy girl, the daughter of old
Thekla Popoy, came before the court at
Gross Bed kerek, and horrifcd il bv the
tale she had to tell. She confessed that
she gave the wife Of Jccza Kukin q bat
tie of some red liquid poison prepared
Iav. ,,,aihnr 4
mothers instructions. Having had
quarrel with her respected parent over
some property she determined to betray
her.
Thekla Popoys daughter further de-
clared 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,
"Oue day l will poison you also unless
you hold your tongue" F."
OF course this statement caused Thick.
la Popt y and the widow of Kukin to be
arrested. They, however, denied the
charge brought against them. Oddly
enough, the Judge, by a clever ruse not
quite in keeping with English notions
of fair play to accused prisoners, man
aged 10 oyerhear the two women talking
the affair over in iail. Among other
things lie overheard was Kukn's widow
saying to her acconplice:
"Wel, am young and pretty. He
was old and ugly. Why should he not
die?" The Judge after that had little
doubt that the prisoners were guilty.
They were therefore put on their trial,
and the clue thus unex. ectedly placed
in the hands OF the authorities was ac-
lively followed up.
Strange discoveries were soon made,
showing that, from the woman Thekla
Popoy as centre, a vast and complex
ramiiication OF crime extended far and
wide throughout the community The
trial has been deferred for several
weeks, so that the bodies of men sup
posed TO have been murdered by their
wives may be exhumed aud examined.