The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1869-03-06 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

RUSSIAN TRAGEDY.  A trial of a remarkable character has just been concluded  at St. Petersburg. In June, 1867, four persons were found assassinated in the Croussew Pereoulok, a cul-de-sac at St. Petersburg, theft being the motive for the crime. An investigation, which has lasted eighteen months, placed four accused persons at the bar of the criminal court. Three of these are acquitted, and the fourth, a woman named Darla Souolow, declared not guilty of the murder but convicted of the robbery, is condemned to twelve years of Ira sour forth—a result which has much surprised the public. About ten in the morning on the 4th of June, 1867, the district police commissioner was informed by the owner of a house in the Goussew Pereoulok that the suite of rooms inhabited by half-pay Major Aschmarenkow and Madame Gregorietf was still shut up, and that on knocking at the door and windows no answer was returned. The police, on proceeding to the house, proved that both doors of the appartement, which is on the rez-de-chaussee, were closed from within, and nothing but the barking of a dog replied to repeated ringing at the bell. Entrance was at last gained through the dining-room window, the casement of which was open; and in the first room were seen the bodies of Major Aschmarenkow and Madame Gregorieff, stretched on a bed and bathed in blood. From the next room groans proceeded, and there a student named Petrow was lying under a divan mortally wounded, though still breathing. The lifeless body of the servant-girl, Agrippine Babaieff, lay, face downwards, in the antechamber. In the kitchen were found two laundry irons and a log of v7nocl, to which human hair was still sticking, and a pair of old shoes in a corner. All these articles were stained with blond. Between the outer and inner kitcnen doors the dog was found, with bloody paws and thigh gashed open, and half-strangled by a towel tied round his throat. Further search discovered hidden in the oven a packet wrapped in calico, containing papers representing a sum of 5,100 roubles, part of a chemise, and a towel, both stained with blood. The woman Sokolow having slept in the house the night of the murder, was arrested. At first Sokolow confessed that she was guilty of the murder, but afterwards denied it, saying that during the night she spent at Madame Gregoriefls she had lmard cries of distress, and had hidden herself under the divan on which Petrow was sleeping; that she had seen the feet of two men, and recognised the voice of the yard porter of the house. She had stolen fifteen roubles and gone away. Os the journey she saw for the first time that she had taken a bag which did not belong to her. In accordance with these facts, and others brought to light by the police, the woman Sokolow, Fedorow, the porter, a laundress named Marie Karneiew, awl a widow, Anne Andreiew, were brought to trial for the murder. On the occasion of the trial Sokolow persisted that she was only present at the assassination, and attributed it to her fellow prisoners, notably to Fedorow. The crime, however, was not proved against any of them to the satisfaction of the court.