Semi-weekly herald., 1913-10-09
MAN PLACED ON TRIAL
FOR NUMBERING BOY

| k1EFF, Oct. S.-After lying in Jail
| for two years and half, Mendel
Bells was placed on trial today in
the criminal section of the Kieff dis
trict court for ritual murder" On
account of the extraordinary inter-
est the case has attracted throughout
Europe, the courtroom was packed by
a cosmopolitan throng when Judge
Boldyreff and his associates mounted
the bench and began the impanelling
of a jury. The regular venire for the
court term from which the jury was
chosen consisted of four men with a
university education, fourteen with
an intermediate or elementary edu-
| cation, and three who are quite illit-
crate. More than 200 newspaper men
from various countries, and previous
| ly applied for seats, but so great was
the demand made by the friends of
both local and st. Petersburg officials
to stand in the back of the room, and
| some, although holding tickets, failed
altogether of admission. Conspicu-
Gus among the reports was per-
sonal representative of NJ. Stcheglo-
citoff, minister of justice, who had
been instructed to wire running de
tail account of the proceedings to his
chief in st. Petersburg. From the
inception of the case the ministry of
justice had carefully directed the ac-
tivities of the local prosecutors,
Brandorf and Chaplinsky, and it was
with the full approval of the central
government that the charge of ritual
murder" was made In the original in
dictment.
Ever since the morning of April /,
1911, when the mutilated body of An
drei Muschinsky, l2-year-old
Christian boy, was found in an
abandoned brick yard just outside
Kieff the prosecution has been en-
deavoring to establish the theory
that he was slain in accordance with
an alleged Jewish rite prescribed by
the Talmud, so that his blood might
be used in making passover bread.
For centuries the ignorant and sup
erstitious Jew-baiters of Russia have
clung to the belief that this rite" is
regularly practiced by the Jewish
race and the government has appar-
emily done all it could to foster this
idea. M. Krassovsky, chief of the
Kieff detective department, was act
ually instructed TO proceed on the
theory that the crime was the work
of Jews, although the only possible
pretext for the ritual charge was
that the boys body bore AZ stab
wounds. According to current sup
erstition the ritual murder" is ac-
complished by 45 wounds. He could
obtain absolutely no evidence along
the required lines, but on the con-
trary believed he had traced the muir
der to a gang of thieves to which
neighbors of the boys family be-
longed and who were known to be
fearful that Yuschinsky would betray
them to the authorities. He secured
evidence that one of the thieves was
seen with a chisel shortly before the
murder and that this same implement
covered with blood, was found by two
boys near the brick kiln afterwards
The boys, upon orders of the thief
: threw it into sewer.
When Krassovsky made his first
!. report to his superiors he was stern.
J, ly reprimanded. Later he was prac'
tically forced by them to arrest Men
del Bells, a Jew, 40 years of age
foreman of the brick yard, in whose
room one Of the thieves gang said hi
had found some of the boys cloth
, ing. On producing further evidence
J indicating the guilt Of the thieves
and the innocence of Bells, Krass
| ovsky was dismissed from office
' When a fresh investigation was mad'
under the direction Of his successor
4 NJ. Mistchouk, he and his assistant
Cdi1c W thc SoHSibSAOh
( the ritual murder theory was fan
: tastically untrue and so reported t.
. the authorities. The result was no
4 only the dismissal of Mistchouk ant
: two of his men but their arrest OIL
. charges of "fabricating document
: favorable to the Jews" They wer
e acquitted, but the crown appealed
e with the result that the verdict wa
: reversed and they were convicted AM
:. sentenced to years hard labor each
= In order to strengthen its case
t the government caused widespread
e publication of statement made 7
: the examining magistrate by tn
: Archmandrite Ambrosius, vicar of tn
s Orthodox monastery at kieff, to tn
effect that two monks, proselyte