Brighouse & Rastrick Gazette. — 1892-04-02 (Brighouse, West Yorkshire, England)

WHOLESALE MURDER OF EMIGRANTS.  A GHASTLY STORY.  The brothers Koulikovsky, who were recently arrested near Bielostock, a Russian frontier town, and charged with the murder of Russian emigrants, appear to have carried on for a considerable time past a wholesale traffic in robbery and assassination. They lived in a village named Monki, the elder of the two being the father of a family, and the younger a time-expired soldier. The wife of the former—quite a young woman, and the mother of two children—is charged with aiding and abetting the brothers in their diabolical plots. The story of their crimes is one of cold-blooded premeditation and ruthless cruelty. Living near the frontier, and being intimately acquainted with the movements and regulations of the frontier police, the Koulikevskys developed a somewhat extensive traffic in smuggling across the boundary intending emigrants, fugitives from justice, deserters from the army, and others not furnished with the requisite passports. During the prevailing distress, however, the profits accruing from this nefarions industry, at no time particularly certain, seriously declined, and the smugglers, emboldened by the success and impunity which attended their operations, conceived the idea of killing the persons who had recourse to their services, in order to possess themselves of their money and other belongings. They selected chiefly as victims small farmers desiring to emigrate to Brazil, these being invariably provided with their passage-money, and an outfit of some kind, however slender. The system employed was to welcome the travellers with effusive hospitality, and every assurance of a safe conduct across the frontier at a point secure from observation on the part of the authorities. Under the pretext that this precaution was necessary to diminish the risk of capture, the emigrants were conducted towards the frontier one by one. The path lay through a dense forest. While one brother acted as guide, the other w?nt on in advance, and lay in wait in a secluded part of the wood. When the appointed spot was reached tie two brothers, at a pre-arranged signal, simultaneously fell upon the unhappy traveller who had entrusted himself to their guidance. To knock him on the head and strip him of all he possessed was then an easy matter. At first the assassins made a point of burying the bodies of their victims, but, their crimes remaining undetected, they grew more reckless, and contented themselves with dragging the corpses aside into the brushwood, or leaving them lying in the snow. In this manner they are believed to have made away with some 30 or 40 persons. Five naked bodies have already been found, and it is expected that when the snow melts and the woods can be thoroughly searched many more ghastly discoveries will be made. So far as the police have been able to ascertain, the last victim was a belatei peasant who sought shelter in the Koulikovskys' hut. In the middle of the night, when fast asleep, he was put to death, in the most horrible manner, for the sake of a small sum of money he had upon him. The elder brother took a large pot of boiling water and poured it over the sleeping man's face, thus depriving him of consciousness. Koulikovsky then, assisted by his wife and brother, compressed the victim's throat until life was extinct,and the body, having been stripped, was hidden among some straw in the stable. It was accidentally discovered there by a neighbour before the murderers had found a convenient opportunity to carry it into the forest. The inquiry which was immediately instituted led to the discovery of numerous other crimes of the nature above described, and these are still the subject of police investigation. The elder Koulikovsky and his wife were arrested on the spot. The younger. brother absconded, but was subsequently captured in the woods, and the three miscreants are now awaiting their trial in the prison of Bieloatock.