The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-03-20
TOWN POISONED
And Wiped Gut of Existence by
Modern Lucretia Borgla.
FAIR YOUNG FIEND

tsN WIN
Poisoned Her Rich Old Husband So
She Could Marry a Young Lawyer,
Whom She Also Poisoned. Then
With Another Woman She Went
Into the Wholesale Poisoning Bus.
ine,s.
The village of Kneez, in the county
of Temesvar, in Hungary, has been,
revealed to the world as a communi-
ty of prisoners.
Within a year, it is estimated, one
hundred persons have died of poison
in this village of 1000 inhabitants.
The imagination reels aghast at TIE
condition of things that prevailed
there, as now unveiled by officers OF
the law. Husbands poisoned their
wives, wives poisoned their husbands
parents poisoned their children, chill
dren poisoned their parents. No re-
lation, not even that of lovers, was a
bar to murderous designs.
The poisoning habit had taken q
permanent hold on these people.
Whenever n person could obtain
anything by the removal of another
poison was resorted to. 1t was a ter
ror that stalked by MONDAY and in
the night time.
The cheerful cup of coffee handed
to a husband by his smiling wife at
breakfast time might contain the ia
tai dose, or, perhaps, it was the glass
of native wine poured for him at
8 upper after his long days work in
the fields. Often the victim knew
his or her danger, but there was no
escape in a village where everybody
was related to everybody else and had
acquired the poisoning habit.
The only resource was to poison the
person you suspected Of trying to
poison you, and thus it came to pass
that Kneez was filled with persons
seeking to poison one another.
The arch poisoner was q woman
named Martha Petrubany. She is a
handsome young woman of the rich
Hungarian type of beauty, with
abundant black hair, flashing dark
eyes, clear cut features and rudy
cheeks. She married a wealthy farm
er some five years ago solely on &C.
count of his possessions. A young
man of talents and good prospects,
who was the leading local lawyer,
became her ardent admirer. Nine.
Petrubany's highest desire was to
see her old husband out of the way,
to marry the lawyer and combine his
superior social station and the olo
mans property.
Petrubany was very slow dying,
and his wife decided to hasten the
process. The old man suffered severe
lyfrom malaria, and he believed that
a certain kind of drug, made of hot
wine and other ingredients, afforded
him most relief. He used to take a
pint every evening, This complex
and highly favored beverage, with
it's mixture of spices, sugar and so
forth, afforded an admirable oppor-
Unity for introducing a certain guam
t.ty of powdered arsenic. His wife
used to prepare the poisoned drink
every evening, with seeming loving
hands, and see that the poor old man
drank it down to the last drop. In
this way she succeeded in killing him
by a process of slow poison in three
weeks. At the time he was buried
there was not the slightest suspicion
of the cause of his death.
Then q shock awaited the widow.
The lawyer, probably having an ink
ling of what had happened, did not
care to marry her.
Nine, Petrubany's love changed to
fury, according to the well-known
rule. The lawyer was removed by
arsenic, as the husband had been.
His servant, Sarah Hazok, assisted
Nine. Petrubany in carrying out this
crime.
Then these two women formed a
sort of poisoning bureau for the ben
fl. of wives who wished to get rid OF
their husbands. They obtained ar
senic in wholesale quantities to kill
tie rats in the barns on the farms.
Every wife who had been illtreated
by her husband or who wanted to
marry another man could be sure OF
obtaining assistance from Mime. Pet
rubany and her accomplice. They
never refused assistance, because
t1at would have led to complaints.
They furnished the poison and gave
crafty advice as to how it should be
q lministered.
They pointed out that the best way
was always to put it in medicine, in
case the victim happened to be i'll
and that had been ordered for him
by the doctor. They charged as much
as they could obtain from those who
needed poison, but as they never re-
fused help their price sometimes fell
as low as S. to poor women.
The husbands learned what was
going on, and some of them sought
help from Nine. Petrubany in re-
moving their wives, and obtained it.
Then the poisoner. who knew all the
family affairs of the villagers, sent
al assistant among them and offered
to remove obnoxious persons.
Kneez was rapidly becoming de-
populated by poison, and many fled
from it in terror.
At last a woman named Poskar,
r,bo bod rocolx,o1 fo bill bar h,,ebo-l