The herald., 1896-02-22
FOR killing The NEBERS
Ivan KOvaIev Meets Death on
the GaIIOws
ALMOST DIES FROM FEAR
But Refuses the Consolation That
Religion Offers
An Examination Of the Murderer's Brain
Pals to Reveal Any Traces Of
Mental Alteration
Associated Press Special Wire.

Associated Press Special Wire.
FOLSOM, CAL, Feb. 21.-Ivan Kovalev,
the Russian ex-convict who escaped from
the island of Saghalein, three years ago,
today paid the penalty for his participa-
ton in one of the most atrocious crimes in
the criminal annals of California.
little over one year ago in Sacr amento
Kovalev and another escaped convict
named Mathien Stcherbakov murdered F.
I'll. L. Weber, an aged merchant, and his
wife. The murderers broke into the resi-
dence of the old couple over their grocery
and literally hacked them to pieces with
hatchet. The assassins we're barefooteu,
and after wading in the gore of their VIC
Tins they ransacked the house, their
movements being traced by bl oody foot
prints.
Kovalev was finally arrested in San
Francisco, and when he was taken into
custody he had on q suit of clothes belong
ing to the murdered merchant. Stcher-
badov was stabbed todeath while at
tempting to rob man in San Jose. Ko-
valev, during his trial, made partial con.
fession, in which he said he saw the
Webers killed, but he would not admit he
had hand in it. He laid it all upon his
partner.
Kovalev has maintained ever since his
escape from Russian penal colony that he
had been sent there for political offense.
Russians who have conversed with him,
however, said he was not man Of sufiic-
lent intelligence to be mixed up in an affair
of state He was shoemaker by trade
and a man Of very ordinary intelligence.
he did not possess q college education,
which had been attributed to him. The
other day he admitted to one of the prison
officers that he had been sent to Saghaiien
island for life for poisoning man in Rus
sia. A Russian interpreter, sent to the PEN
itentiary by tho Sacramento Bee for the
purpose of spending the night with the
condemned man, endoavored to get
him to tell something more about
lev positively refused to do SO. He
was urged TO give the address of his
mother in Russia so that she might learn
of his fate and pray for him, but he abso-
lutely refused to talk. Another attempt
was made to interview him this morning,
but all he would say was that he wanted to
be left alone. He refused to eat a Tempt
ing breakfast, which was set before him.
He declined a glass of whisky and would
take nothing but a cup of milk. 1t was the
general opinion that kovalev had an idea
lie would not hang. He would not permit
consolation.
He had some doubts about the existence
of God, and expressed the opinion that
when man died that would be the last of
him. kovalev was practically dead man
when he stepped upon the gallows. Life
had been almost frightened out of hiE1. He
was so weak and trembling that he could
scarcely walk upon the gallows. But there
was no painful wait. He was launched
into eternity in less than minute after he
came from his cell.
He did not utter word and kept his eyes
cast down constantly. Among those who
witnessed the execution were Luther Web
er, son of the murdered people; Judge d.
T. Lucken. father of the murdered woman:
c. H. Beesley. son-in-law of Weber, and A.
A. Jost, business partner of old man
Weber.
After the execution Drs. G. L. Browning
and #. D. Tyrrell held an autopsy upon the
remains and found that Kovalev's brain
was in normal condition, weighing slight
ly more than the average.