The Sun. — 1870-04-26 (London, England)

MURDER OF A. NOBLEMAN AT ST. PETERSBURGH.  A trial is now going on in St. Petersburg which is exciting great interest. It concerns the murder of a nobleman, M. de Zohn, last November. Under the new criminal code of Russia, which greatly resembles that of France, the crininals were tried by jurymen. The court was crowded in every available corner, and an immense crowd assembled outside to catch a glimpse of the prisoners, of whom there are six, the eldest being only 26, and the youngest 16. The cirsumstances of the murder were circumstantially narrated in the act of accusation. On the evening of the 19th of November, 1869, the superannuated court councilor, Nicholas de Zohn, went to the Nobility Club, which he left by ten o'clock. Since that time he was missed, in spite of the most active searches of the police. On the Ist of January of the present year an artisan of St. Petersburg, Alexander Ivanof, called at the office of the detective police, and declared that M. de Zohn had been killed in his presence during the night of the 7th or the Bth of November, in the house belonging to Tour, situated in the Sparsky Perdvulok, and in the lodgings of Maxime Ivanof, a burgess of St. Petersburg; it was Maxime Ivanof who had committed the crime, with the assistance of persons living in his lodgings. M. de Zohin's corpse had been put in a trunk, and sent to Moscow by rail on the Bth of November. A telegram from Moscow confirmed that at the station of the Nicolai Railway there was a trunk which had not been claimed by anybody, and which had arrived on the Bth of November. That trunk having been opened, the corpse of a man was found in it. During the inquiries set about upon that crime, Alexander Ivanof, an artisan of St. Petersburg, the peasants Anthony Gratchef and John Fedorof, and tho woman Alexandra Ardeief, a native of Cronstadt, acknowledged having taken part in M. de Zohn's murder, while Dania Tourbine, the daughter of a soldier, avowed having concealed that crime. They had robbed him of his money while he was drinking in Maxime Ivanof's house, a theft which he returned to charge them with threatening to go the police. There was a large disreputable party of men and women in Ivanof's house, and most of them seem to have been concerned in the murder. M. de Zohn, on protesting about the loss of his money, was assured by Ivanhof that it was only a joke, and invited to drink in token of reconciliation. M. de Zohn appears to have agreed to this, and sat down on the divan, but the drink which was given him was poisoned, He fell back on the divan, crying out that he was poisoned. when the miscreants attacked him in the most barbarous fashion, one of them forcibly pouring some more poison into his mouth, another beating him on the head with an iron ; a third pulling a leather strap round his neck, and a fourth, Alexandra ArdJief, a girl 18 years of ajge, played on the piano and sang to drown the victim's cries. Another girl is accused of concealing the crime though she took no part in it. When the assassins made sure their victim was dead they washed off the traces of blood and sold his garments, afterwards buying a large portmanteau and putting the corpse in it. The corpse was dressed in a shirt, a waistcoat, a pair of drawers, and a black neckerchief. The leather thong was still tied round the neck. The empty places in the portmanteau were filled up wite rags and hemp ; it was tied up with a rope on which they affixed many seals of red wax. The produce of the sale of M. de Zohn's effects was divided by Maxime Ivanof among the accomplices of the crime who received 10 roubles 30 copecks each; but by order of Maxime Ivanof every one gave back four roubles to John Fedorof, who was to bring the corpse to Moscow, there to get rid of it in any way. In the evening the portmanteau containing the corpse was brought in a cab to the station of the Nicholai Railway. John Federof occompanied the portmanteau, and he was followed by Maxime Ivanof and Alexander Ivanof. It was forwarded under the assumed name of Koltzof. As soon as Maxime Ivanof came back home he burnt the receipt of the railway. Maxime Ivanof is charged with voluntary homicide, and the four others with being accomplices. A sixth, as we have said, is accu.ssed of concealing the crime.