The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-08-05
RUSSIAN MINISTER.
VICTIM OF ASSASSIN
Won PIehwe, Head OF Russia S
interior Bureau, Killed
With Bomb.
WAS A MUCH-HATED MAN
Regarded as the Most Determined
Enemy of the Common People,
and at the Same Time as the
Power Behind Throne.

Enemy of the Common People,
and at the Same Time as the
Power Behind Throne.
st. Petersburg. July 3O.-Minister
OF the Interior Won Plehwe was
| assassnated at 10 o'clock Thurs
day morning while driving to
the Baltic station to visit the
emperor at the Peterhof palace. A
bomb was thrown under the minister's
carriage, completely shatterlng 1t, ter
ribly mangling M. Won Plehwe, and
killing the coachman, the horses run
ming away. 1t is said the assassin was
a Jew. He was arrested, but declines
to give his name.
Immediately there ensued a scene of
the widest confusion. Police and gen
darmcs hurried up from every direc-
ton and vast crowds gathered about
the spot where the mangled body of
the minister lay welterng in blood.
The Associated Press correspond
ent was at the scene of the
tragedy within five minutes after
the tragedy occurred. Won Plehwe's
shockingly mangled body was lying in
the middle of the road. partially COW
cred with poiceman's overcoat, with
the left arm the bone of which was
broken off. projecting.
Remains AwfuIly MutIated.
The minister's head was battered al
most beyond recognition. and the road
way WAS strewn for 100 yards with the
wreckage of the carriage, A few yards
from PlehWe's body, in a shapeless
heap. lay the coachman's remains
The tragedy occurred on ZalalkOnski
Prospect q broad thoroughfare leading
up to the Warsaw depot. The bomb
thrower must have known perfectly
well that Won Plehwe would pass the
spot in the morning, for the minister
makes his report to the emperor every
Thursday.
The Internal machine was thrown
with deadly accuracy. The explosion
was terrific, practically annihilating the
woodwork of the carriage. The min
listers servant. who was also on the
carriage box, was badly wounded, and
two officers who We're driving by in a
cab were injured by flying splinters
The assassin himself was wounded in
one eye. He took to flight but was soon
overtaken and arrested.
News of the tragedy spread like wild
fire throughout the city, causing con-
sternation everywhere. The emperor
was greatly affected by the news, COM
ing as 1t did on top of bad tidings from
the seat of war and fears of interna-
tional complications, and the strain in
cident upon the hourly expectation of
an event so close to a fathers heart
The emperor almost broke down when
he was Informed OF his minister's muir
der. Whatever may have been the mo-
tive for the crime, nothing but the ut
most Indignation and condemnation of
the assassin's act is voiced every
where.
After the body had been viewed by
the official correspondents to the Amer
lean coroner it was taken by gendarmes
10 the residence of the deceased, adj
Joining the ministry Of the Interior The
first hurried investigation by the po-
lice seemed to connect crime with the
plot which was frustrated by the ex-
plosion at the Hotel De Nord on April
10. in which Kazanotf one of the con
spirators, WAS killed by the accidental
explosion of an Internal machine which,
1t was said was intended for Won
Plehwe. 1t is reported that six men
were implicated and that five of them
| fled into q little hotel adjoining the
secene of the assassination. The hote,
surrounded by the police and all the in
mates arrested.
The wounded man, who is said to be
Jew, was taken to the Alexander hos.
pital, SO dazed he was unable to speak
Ills condition Is accounted for by the
fact that he took poison immediately
after throwing the bomb. According t.
a later account The bomb was thrown
from window of the Warsaw and Vor
Plehwe's head was torn off. There were
only two conspirators. according to thi.
version. one of whom threw the bomt
from the window and then bolted
When captured another bomb is sale
to have been found in his pocket.
Won Plehwe was appointed minister
of the interior OH April is, 1902, sue
ceeding M. Sipiaguine. who was as
sassinated April 16.
In May. 1908, Plehwe was appointed
president of the imperial commission
appointed to carry out the emperor's
reform decree.
Plehwe was scholar, but from
youth he had been brought up in off
cial circles and had slowly but surel,
pushed himself ahead. He was aget
about &C.
! He is said to have regarded the com.
mon people as either dangerous Grim.
inals, to be repressed, or as innocents
to be ignored. Plehwe was largely O.
Polish blood, vet it is alleged. that M
man in Russia has so signalized him.
self for severity against the Firms a.
Plehwe, He was regarded as beins
in many ways the power behind Thu
| throne. and was dreaded on accoun
of his control of the secret section O
| the police and the press Of Russia
through the censors. who 1t has beer
understood did Plehwe's bidding with.
oul QteStlSl1.
An Anarchists Crime.
The assassin was dressed in the uni
! form of n Warsaw railway guard. HI
was a comparatively young man. HI
was wounded in. the abdomen by {
splinter and underwent a successful op
| GRAFTON. When throwing the bomb h,
| shouted:
Long live freedom with little Rus
sian accent. His name has not beer
ascertained and the prisoner told tn,
police he had no accomplices.
1t was established, however. that tn,
assassin is not q Jew. us at first re
i ported.
Altogether fourteen outsiders wer
injured by the explosion. The boml
was filled with nails. The crime is be
lieved to be the outcome Of the interna
tional anarchist movement, with whfcl
Gerschunin, the Russian revolutionar,
agitator, who, it is asserted, was TIL
organizer of the murder Of NJ Bogo
liepoff, formerly Russian minister O
public instruction. and of NJ Sipia
i guine, minister Of the interior befor
I'lehWe, was connected.
49,
AN EXTREME REAcTioNIsT.
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