The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1882-09-21
Poisoning Husbands.

Thekla Popov, the peasant woman who is
being tried on a charge of aiding and abetting
upward of a hundred women i'm poisoning
their husbands, is a 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 a little village named Me-
lencze, ana it may almost be said that murder
was her trade. People say she had her agents
and emissaries whose business it was to keep
up her " connection" and it must have been a
horrid and gruesome spectacle to see the
grizzly hag 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
neighboring country side, eager, for some
reason or another, to get rid of husbands who
obstinatelt refused to die in the ordinary
course of nature, but who, by Theklas friend
ly offices, might be made amenaDle to the re-
sources of art. These wretches paid the old
gypsy a fee of from fifty to one hundred
forms for each bottle of poison, and were
duly instructed by her in the safest methods
of its " exhibition"
Thekla PopoY's clients were however, not ale
wfiys married women. Sometimes she ba |
dealings with young girls who quarrelied 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 exeited no suspicion, because
the drugs she administered acted slowly,
though surely, and in their effects simulated
symptoms of disease. Even now that the
bodies of some OF her victims have been ex-
humed they show no signs 0f poisoning,
though the stOmachs are eaten away.
The first case that set people on the alert wis
that of one JOcza Kukin, d rich peasant, who
died at Melencze two months ago. Ugly ru-
gOssips whispered mysterious hints of foul
play. There was in consequence an inquest;
Hsrf4
failed to reveal any traces of poisoning in his
case. The whole story was slipping out of
suddenly dreadful revelation was
made. A gypsy girl, the daughter of old
Thekla POpOv, came before the court at
Gross Bedskerek, and Mortified 1t by the tale
she had to tell She confessed that she gave
the wife of Jocza Kukin bottle OF some red
liquid poison prepared by her mother. She
did this by her mothers instructions. Having
had quarrel with her respected parent over
some property, she determined 70 betray her;
that she actually saw Kufin's wife pour this
poison into his coffee, and that she told her
mother what she knew and had seen. The
Ripsy replied: "0ne day will poison you Tin
less you hold your tongue"
OF course this statement caused Ihekla
Popov and the widow of Kuiin 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
affair over in jail. Among other things he
overheard was Kukins widow saying 70 her
accOmplice: We'll, am young and pretty.
He was old and ugly. Why should he not
der The Judge after that had little doubt
that the prisoners were guilty. They were
therefore put on their trial, and the ciew thus
unexpectedly placed in the hands of the au-
th0rities was actively followed up.
Strange discoveries were soon made, show
ing that, from the woman Thekla Popov ms a
center, a vast and complex ramihcatou or
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 and examiDed.-VtennG
CA1tQtLst 2) Cor. London Standard.