The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-02-09
RUSSIAN DOCTOR ADMITS SENDING 40
TO THEIR GRAVES.
USED DIPHTHERIA GERMS.
Latter Will BE Tried, as He is Ac-
cused Of Offering S25O,OOO to
the Prisoner to Get Rid of
Heir Who Stood in
Wife'S Way.

Wife's Way.
st. Petersburg, Feb. 4.-Imagine
man of seventy-tall. dignified
benevolent, practicing physician
secure in the confidence of the fash
ionable world--testifying in cold
blood that his business was and
has been murder; that he inoculat-
I'd his victims with deadly germs,
and you have faint idea of the
sensation produced by Count Ivan
Pantchenko now on trial here
Already branded AS the greatest
criminal of n century, the poison
doctor" as he is known, has con-
fessed to causing forty deaths by
means of incubation even with chol-
era bacili, and he admits taking big
fees. Every mysterious death of
recent years is laid at his door. II
IS believed that he has killed many
more persons than he has admitted,
lily.
He killed heirs who were in the
va of others, rivals in love. insis-
tent creditors and any other unde-
sirable person whose foe was will
ing to pay literally to have him or
Ter removed.
To insure his own safety it was
needful to have an intended victim
ill and to be called to attend him.
He soon administered hpodermically
the germ of the cholera, and the
disease did the rest. He explained
in court that he never sterlized his
hypodermic syringe, because in that
vase the effectiveness of the spermo
preparation would be diminished. In
brief, it might fail in it's fatal mis-
sion.
City Is Horrified.
Even this city, Injured to terrible
crimes, shrinks from the words OF
this terrible man dealing with the
fatal agents under the guise of heal
ing.
For the specific case OF killing
Count Ivan Vassilli Boutuorkin, Dr.
Pantechenko now faces the death
he dealt to others but he disclaims
the burden of his (this latest) deed.
and declares that he acted under
the hypnotic influence of Count
O'Brien de Lacey, SO that the lat
ter's wife. Boutourkin's sister.
might inherit $3.500.O0O. For his
part the doctor received fee OF
$25O.OO0.
On the stand while giving detail
by detail the story of his infamy
the Doctors kindly face never
changed. He told that Count de
Lacey mad offered him first $4,000
to poison Count Bouturlin, $4,000
TO poison General Bouturlin and
$250,O00 to poison General Boutur-
Inns second wife.
II was first his purpose to infect
Count Bouturlin with cholera, but
IN the patients physical condition he
said he preferred to use diphtheria
germs.
The widow OF the murdered
Count testified TO the circumstances
OF his death. She and her husband
Had been spending Easter at the
Generals estate in Wilno Province.
Her husband was then in perfect
health. He departed from st Pet
ersburg, and on May 22 she re-
ceived an urgent telegram calling
her to his bedside. When she ar
rived she found he had been sub
jected to spermo injections by
Pantchenko, and that it was too
late to save him. She had never
hidden her suspicion that De Lacey
and Pantchenko were responsible
for her husbands death. The wit
ness broke down and wept when
Count Bouturlin's letters were read.
The physician who had attended
Count Bouturlin after Pantchenko's
injections said that he was inform
ed of the widows suspicious. He
found evidences of blood poisoning,
but was OF the opinion that this
was due to carelessness.
Twice Pantchenko set up the de-
fense that he committed his last
crime while under the hypnotic in
fIuence of De Lacey. He wavered in
matters of detail and his lawyers
we're quick to strengthen his origin
oil defense by insisting that he was
still under the influence OF the
Count, then in court.
Fear His Hypnotism.
The public prosecutor took cog
nizance of the situation and placed