Semi-weekly herald., 1913-10-06
ON TRIAL FOR NUMBERING BOY


KIEFF, Oct 3.-The chief counsel
for Mendel Bells, whose trial is to
open in the criminal section Of the
Kieff district court on October 8, to-
day received from London certified
copy OF the full report of the British
experts who after an exhaustive ana
lysis of the records of the two post
mortem examinations of the boy An
drei YuschinslSy, completely demol-
ished the "ritual murder" theory.
Determined efforts will be made
by NJ. Karavchevsky and Grusen-
berg, leading members of the st.
Petersburg bar, who were retained
on behalf of Bells by number of
wealthy Russian Jews, to introduce
this report as evidence. If they are
unable to do so directly, they will in
corporate its substance in the form of
hypothetical questions to be submit
ted to the experts who have been sub
poenaed by the crown. In like man
ner they will offer the reports of the
German, Austrian and French medico-
legal authorities who reached a SIM
liar verdict.
At the head of the London commit
tee was DIR. w. II. Wilcox, senior ex-
pert of the British home office, whose
remarkable analysis conclusively
proved that DR.. Crippen murdered
Belle Gilmore. His associates were
A. j. Pepper, senior expert in the
public prosecutions department, and
DR.. Charles A. Mercier, consulting
physician for mental diseases at
Charing Cross hospital. The main
contention of the crown in endeav-
oring to establish the ritual murder
theory was that the AZ stab wounds
were inflicted by the murderer for
the purpose of draining the boys
body of blood, while he was still alive
to be used in the making of passover
bread. On this point the British ex-
perts assert:
1T appears to us quite impossible
to suppose that the boy was killed
Tor the purpose of collecting his
blood. If the murderer had wanted
the boys blood, he would have used
a Knife or cutting instrument, and
probably would have cut the throat
or arm of his victim. He would not
have inflicted punctured wounds with
an awl or chisel-like instrument, for
these wounds cause internal bleed
ing and not such copious external
bleeding as a cutting instrument.
I'm our opinion this case was one
OF murder, prompted neither by
greed, lust, nor revenge, but commit
ted with excessive unnatural, and
frantic violence. 1t was coarse,
brutal murder committed by a per-
son OF unsound mind and by means of
such an instrument as happened to
be at his service. We find no evil
dence whatever to suggest the ma
tlonality or occupation of the murd-
erer Such murders as this are fire.
quently enough and are characters
TIC They indicate, from the lack of
motive and from excessive violence
that the murderer is insane. 1t is
well known to every alienist and med
ical Jurist of experience that murd-
ers of this kind are quite common in
the case of lunatics affected by cpl
lepsie larvee, and that they also oc-
cur not infrequently in other forms
of mental disease"
Dealing specifically with the evi.
dence of Professor Sikorskq, of st.
Vladimir university at Kieff, whose
declarations were made the basis of
the ritual murder" Indictment, the
English experts cmphatically dis
agree with his conclusions. 1t is well
known that the Jews slaughter ami
mails by cutting their throats right
across with special knife with
long, broad, sharp blade. This is of
Importance. They point out, for Id
clearly demonstrates that the murder
was not committed by Jew who was
accustomed to the slaughtering of
beasts, as Sikorsky concluded.
ut is Clear observes the report,
that the wounds in the head and
neck inflicted first, and those in the