THE TRIAL--THE INDICTMENT.
The indictment ran as follows: On the 17th of January, 18--, in the
lodging-house Mauritania, occurred the sudden death of the Second Guild
merchant, Therapont Emilianovich Smelkoff, of Kourgan.
The local police doctor of the fourth district certified that death was
due to rupture of the heart, owing to the excessive use of alcoholic
liquids. The body of the said Smelkoff was interred. After several days
had elapsed, the merchant Timokhin, a fellow-townsman and companion
of the said Smelkoff, returned from St. Petersburg, and hearing the
circumstances that accompanied the death of the latter, notified his
suspicions that the death was caused by poison, given with intent to
rob the said Smelkoff of his money. This suspicion was corroborated on
inquiry, which proved:
1. That shortly before his death the said Smelkoff had received the sum
of 3,800 roubles from the bank. When an inventory of the property of the
deceased was made, only 312 roubles and 16 copecks were found.
2. The whole day and night preceding his death the said Smelkoff spent
with Lubka (alias Katerina Maslova) at her home and in the lodging-house
Mauritania, which she also visited at the said Smelkoff’s request during
his absence, to get some money, which she took out of his portmanteau in
the presence of the servants of the lodging-house Mauritania, Euphemia
Botchkova and Simeon Kartinkin, with a key given her by the said
Smelkoff. In the portmanteau opened by the said Maslova, the said
Botchkova and Kartinkin saw packets of 100-rouble bank-notes.
3. On the said Smelkoff’s return to the lodging-house Mauritania,
together with Lubka, the latter, in accordance with the attendant
Kartinkin’s advice, gave the said Smelkoff some white powder given to
her by the said Kartinkin, dissolved in brandy.
4. The next morning the said Lubka (alias Katerina Maslova) sold to her
mistress, the witness Kitaeva, a brothel-keeper, a diamond ring given to
her, as she alleged, by the said Smelkoff.
5. The housemaid of the lodging-house Mauritania, Euphemia Botchkova,
placed to her account in the local Commercial Bank 1,800 roubles. The
postmortem examination of the body of the said Smelkoff and the chemical
analysis of his intestines proved beyond doubt the presence of poison
in the organism, so that there is reason to believe that the said
Smelkoff’s death was caused by poisoning.
When cross-examined, the accused, Maslova, Botchkova, and Kartinkin,
pleaded not guilty, deposing--Maslova, that she had really been sent by
Smelkoff from the brothel, where she “works,” as she expresses it, to
the lodging-house Mauritania to get the merchant some money, and that,
having unlocked the portmanteau with a key given her by the merchant,
she took out 40 roubles, as she was told to do, and that she had taken
nothing more; that Botchkova and Kartinkin, in whose presence she
unlocked and locked the portmanteau, could testify to the truth of the
statement.
She gave this further evidence--that when she came to the lodging-house
for the second time she did, at the instigation of Simeon Kartinkin,
give Smelkoff some kind of powder, which she thought was a narcotic,
in a glass of brandy, hoping he would fall asleep and that she would be
able to get away from him; and that Smelkoff, having beaten her, himself
gave her the ring when she cried and threatened to go away.
The accused, Euphemia Botchkova, stated that she knew nothing about the
missing money, that she had not even gone into Smelkoff’s room, but
that Lubka had been busy there all by herself; that if anything had
been stolen, it must have been done by Lubka when she came with the
merchant’s key to get his money.
At this point Maslova gave a start, opened her mouth, and looked at
Botchkova. “When,” continued the secretary, “the receipt for 1,800
roubles from the bank was shown to Botchkova, and she was asked where
she had obtained the money, she said that it was her own earnings for
12 years, and those of Simeon, whom she was going to marry. The accused
Simeon Kartinkin, when first examined, confessed that he and Botchkova,
at the instigation of Maslova, who had come with the key from the
brothel, had stolen the money and divided it equally among themselves
and Maslova.” Here Maslova again started, half-rose from her seat, and,
blushing scarlet, began to say something, but was stopped by the usher.
“At last,” the secretary continued, reading, “Kartinkin confessed also
that he had supplied the powders in order to get Smelkoff to sleep. When
examined the second time he denied having had anything to do with the
stealing of the money or giving Maslova the powders, accusing her of
having done it alone.”
Concerning the money placed in the bank by Botchkova, he said the same
as she, that is, that the money was given to them both by the lodgers in
tips during 12 years’ service.
The indictment concluded as follows:
In consequence of the foregoing, the peasant of the village Borki,
Simeon Kartinkin, 33 years of age, the meschanka Euphemia Botchkova, 43
years of age, and the meschanka Katerina Maslova, 27 years of age, are
accused of having on the 17th day of January, 188--, jointly stolen from
the said merchant, Smelkoff, a ring and money, to the value of 2,500
roubles, and of having given the said merchant, Smelkoff, poison to
drink, with intent of depriving him of life, and thereby causing his
death. This crime is provided for in clause 1,455 of the Penal Code,
paragraphs 4 and 5.