St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-12

NS~ NSSSBNASSA pQLU 0LNi
ISSSWM few years ago over
<E1xSN a hundred Hunga-
INK AN rian widows were az
Mz$SSesZ58$MN rested at one SwOOp.
MgfA SMMWs The persistence of
n Ly%MWSl this particular crime
IN SVNAlW is remarkable il
KIT VNlpW luStratiOn of one
~ phase of life in
corner of Europe, half-Asiatic in race,
and more than half-medi8Val III morals.
In hearing of these cases we seem 10
be transported back to the middle ages.
to be reading of the grueSOme deeds OF
Hieronyma Spira and cOlOrleSS venom:
of Totania, with the deadly aqua"
which bears her name; or even OF the
days of FabiuS MaXimus and the con-
spiracy of Roman ladies to poison their
husbands. In each case there Is the
same widespread prevalence OF the
crime, the same cOld-blOOded premedl-
tation on the part of the women, writes
correspondent of the New York
find az ancient hag teaching the wives
the art of poisoning their -hus-
bands, and the same dreadful
secret spread over so wide a
circle that only the knowledge that they
were liable to the same punishment
could keep score or a hundred of busy
tongues from whispering the guilty tale:
In Austria, where secret poisoning, ana
especially wife poisoning, is more ire
Quent than in any other part OF Europe,
with perhaps the exception of Russia.
Gypsy woman is the usual inStigatOr of
the crime. 1t is she who prepares and
sells the drug, and as the European
nOmadS have for ages preserved the Sc
cret of extracting certain deadly aka
loidS from wild plants, it is compare
lively seldom that they are brought to
punishment. In the present Instance
in Croatia. as in Hungary few years
ago, 1t is the peasant women who
of becoming widows. However,
while the Magyar DANES poi
sOned helpmates of unequal years, their
Cr0atian sisters have rid themselves of
husbands young and reasonably agree
able. Indeed, it was the curious fact
that the widows were all young and
only recently married that first called
attention to the extraordinary mortal
ity in the district of Smyrna. Death
after death occurred from causes for
which there was no accounting until.
from information received" the pO-
lice began making numerous arrests.
Still, the roll of presumed murderesseS
as yet in custody is small compared
with the haul made at Gross BedShereh
four years ago, when over
leo OF THEKLA PoPAY's CUSTOMERS
found themselves in prison. For years
this woman had been almost openly
selling pOiSOnS to the Magyar women in
her neighborhoOd. Yet, had not the
bag quarreled with an accOmplice, who,
in revenge, Informed the authorities.
she might have died without mourning
more than the suspicion which village
gossip always attached to her and her
many visitors.
In these modern cases, as in the
ancient. concentration of the crime In
a single locality proves that one woman
corrupted another, and, as likely as not,
feeling the weight of her own grief,
endeavored to distribute it by getting
others to share in the same yillainy.
in which poison figured prominently
was discovered, through the denuncia-
ton of slave. so many matrons were
implicated that ITO of them were exc
cuted, and many more were doubtless
privy to the plot. TOfania admitted
that she had been party to poisoning
600 people with her "Manna of st.
Nicola of Bari" or her "Aqua de Peru
gia," or aqua TOfania," as history
knows it. Half of italy was thrown into
a ferment. Hundreds of hitherto unSus-
pected people fled, and the number of
widows who had made several marital
ventures, and felt it prudent to keep out
Of the way, led even the most charitable
of mankind to put the worst of con-
StructiOnS on the movements of these
much-married ladies. When Alexander
VI. began to remark on the unwonted
number of young widows in Rome the
investigations which he set Oh foot,
sional, resulted in the discovery that for
years the Roman ladies had been per-
fectly familiar with LA Spira," and
even TESTED in public over the wonder
full virtues of this death-dealing elixir.
Again, when France was Mortified by
like epidemic, the married women who
avenged their wrongs, or lOOSed their
matrimonial bonds, in this fashion
scarcely tried to keep their own counsel,
so far as their fellow culpritS were con-
cerned. Lavoison and LavigOreux pub
licly piled the trade of fortune tellers,
predicted the death of husbands, and,
in case their reputation as SeerS should
suffer, presented their clients with
'powder of succession" which effect
ually settled the question of heirs. The
"Chambre Ardente" was filed with sus-
pected criminals, and the gallOWS and
wheel were busy with their hideous
work. Yet men and women of the high
est rank practiced the mystery which
they had been taught, hoping, either
through the ignorance of the physicians
of the period, or the impunity with
which distinguished offenders could
perpetrate almost any crime, that they
would escape the well-merited fate of
the humber murdererS.
One leading characteristic of all poi
soners is the fact that they seldom end
their career of crime with single sue
cessful murder. They invariably try a
second and third-almost any number
until the pitcher goes once too often
to the fountain, with the invariable re-
suit. The ease and celebrity with which
an enemy or rival or some other in
convenient person can be removed has
a wonderful charm for certain minds.
To knock person on the head is rude
and extremely repulSive mode of assas-
sination, and if the perpetrator gets off
scot free the chances are all against
him treating his next-Or, indeed. any
victim in this vulgar fashion. Poison
ing, however, is different. Not one of
THE NOTORIOUS PRISONERS OF HISTORY
has been known to murder in any other
manner, and all of them have again and
again had recourse to the same dread
full expedient. Penautier and DeBouzy
regarded poison-as Eastern sOyereigns
and Moorish Bashaws do to this dav-
almost as an instrument of diplomacy:
and in modern times Palmer, Wilson.
Pritchard, Weitmann, Edmunds. Cotton,
Flanagan and Higgins all committed
more than one crime of the same char
acter as that for which they were exc
cuted. Indeed, it almost seems that
after time hardened poisoner will
poison persons out of mere wantonness.
BrinvillerS did her victims to death
often for no ostensible reason, and the
BOrgias administered deadly drugs to
people evidently for no other pur-