Los Angeles herald., 1905-05-22
CHILDREN SLAIN
FOR LIFE ELIXIR
TERRIBLE CRIMES COMMITTED
IN RUSSIAN VILLAGE
ACT OF MYSTERIOUS WOMEN
Perpetrators Sentenced to Be Lynched
Kill Two Powerful Jail
ers and Make Their
Escape

Special Gable to The Herald.
MOSCOW, May 21.-A dreadful story
of crime that eclipses the iniquities of
the notorious Mrs. Dyer-horrors the
imagination of an Allan Poe or De
SADIE never surpassed-comes from the
village of Dubovo, on the Don.
Six months ago two women of gigan-
tic stature took a furnished house on
the main street, and ever since their
movements have ben exceedingly mys-
terious They were seldom seen in the
daytime, but occasionally a belated
wayfarer met them striding along the
country roads at night.
On Christmas day the little 4-year-
old daughter of the village blacksmith,
a man named Petrokoff, disappeared
while carrying her fathers midday
meal to the forge The child was a
general favorite, and the whole village
turned out and secured the country,
but in vain.
Five days later the baby daughter of
the starosta, or innkeeper, vanished
from her home during the momentary
absence of her mother. Nothing more
was heard of the infant, and again
there was no clew to the mystery
"Dubovo Damned"
During the month of March five more
children vanished unaccountably. The
terrifying news spread, and the village
was Stunned by the peasants of the
surrounding country, and called "Du-
bovo the Damned"
Recently the horrible mystery was
explained. Screams were heard to is
sue from the home of the two women.
Suddenly the door flew open and the
vi lagos, locked in each others arms,
bleeding and disheveled, struggled out
into the road. They fought desperately,
and both appeared to be the worse for
vodka. Eight strong laborers carried
them, clawing and screaming like
furie to the village police station.
A caretaker was thereupon sent to
their house in the main street. A few
minutes later she was seen running
down the road, glbbering in paroxysm
of fear.
crowd of villagers thronged into
the mysterious house. In the cellar
they discovered a long table, furnished
with clamps and straps. Surgical
knives protruded from a cabinet on the
wall and rows of bottles filled the
shelves, v mich entirely covered one end
of the room. Further search revealed
the body of a baby girr who had disap-
peared eight days before
Child Life Cheap in Comparison
The two fiends in female form ad-
mitted at the police station that they
had come to the village purposely to
prosecute scientific research. They be-
longed to secret society which had
for its main object the discovery of the
elixir of life. According to their theory,
child life was cheap in comparison with
the Importance of their Investigations.
A village council was called, and Il
was decided to lynch the disciples of
human vivisection at noon today The
women were stripped and fastened by
strong chains to an iron bar In the
wall of their cell. At daybreak this
morning it was found that they escaped
In the clothes of their jailers, both Of
whom. though powerful peasants, had
had their heads battered in and their
throats cut and We're dead. The police
are searching Russia for these revolt
ing criminals.