Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-09-21
THE HUSBAND PRISONERS.
Details of the Remarkable Crimes Perpe-
froted tss Hungary.


TheVienna correspondent of the London
Standard gives some further particulars
respecting the extraordinary trial in Hun
gary. He states that Thekla Popov, the
peasant woman who is being tried on a
charge of aiding and abetting upward of
a hundred women in poisoning their hus-
bands, is very remarkable character
destined to occupy position at once
unique and picturesque in the annals of
crime. She is a gypsy and is now some
seventy years. of age. She lived
in little village named Mel
encze, and it may almost be said that muir
der was her trade. People say she has
agents and emissaries, whose business it
was to keep up her connections" and it
must have been horrid and gruesome
spectacle to see the grizzly bag seated i'll
her armchair every day receiving her
customers during business hours and Civ
ing them the diabolical advice and aid they
sought. They were nearly all married wo-
men from the neighboring country side,
eager, for some reason or another, to get
rid of husbands who Obstinately refused to
die ia the ordinary course of nature, but
who, by Thekla's friendly Offices, might
be made amenable to the resources of art.
These wretches paid the old gypsy fee of
from fifty to hundred forms for each
bottle of poison they bought, and were
duly instructed by her in the safest meth
DDS of its exhibition" Thekla Popov'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 determined to kill them. This wo-
mans terrible trade prospered amazingly
for two years. She excited no suspicion,
because the drugs she administered acted
slowly, though surely, and in their effects
simulated 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 Jocza Kukin, a rich peas
ant, who died at Melcenze two months ago.
Ugly rumors about his death were spread,
and the gossips whispered mysterious
hints of foul play. There was in conse-
quence an inquest, but the most careful
post-mortem examination failed to reveal
any traces of poisoning in his case. The
whole story was slipping out of the mem
cries of the villagers when suddenly a
dreadful revelation was made. A gypsy
girl, the daughter of old Thekla Popov
came before the court at Gross Bedskerek,
and Mortified it by the tale she had to tell.
She confessed that she had given the
wife of Jocza Kukin bottle of some
red hqEid poison prepared by her mother.
She had done this by her mothers instruct
ions. Having had quarrel with her re-
| spected parent over some property she de-
| termined to betray her. Theckla Popov's
| daughter further declared that she had
actually seen Kukin's wife pour this poison
into his coffee, and that she told her mother
| what she knew and had seen. To this the
| old gypsy replied, ''One day L will poison
| you also unless you hold your tongue"
| Of course this statement caused Thekla
Popoy and the widow of Kukin to be ar
| rested. They however, denied the charge
brought against them. Oddly enough, the
judge, by clever ruse not quite in keeping
| with English notions of fair play to accused
prisoners, managed to overhear the two
women talking the affair over in jail.
| Among other things he overheard was
Kukin's widow saying to her accomplice,
well, 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 there
| fore put on their trial, and the clue thus
unexpectedly placed in the hands of the
| authorities was actively followed up.
Strange discoveries were soon made, show
ing that from the woman Thekia Popoy as
center vast and complex ramifcation
of crime extended far and wide through
out the community. The trial has been
deferred for several weeks, so that the
bodies of men supposed to have been muir
dered by their wives may be exhumed and
sub iected to post mortem examination