RUSSIAN MURDER TRIAL.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3148, 18 February 1911, Page 7

RUSSIAN MURDER TRIAL.

THE ACCUSED CONVICTED. [UNITSD PRESS A SSOCIATION-r COPYRIGHT. J (Received Feb. 17. 10.40 n.m.) ' ST. PETERSBURG. Feb. 17. Count de Lossy and Dr. Pantchenko wore- convicted of poisoning Count Boutnurlin. Do Lassy was sentenced to penal servitude for life, and Pantchenko to fifteen years. PAMTCHENKO'S SHADY PAST. IMPECUNIOUS AND UNSCRUPULOUS. Some more startling evidence has been given at St. Petersburg at the trial of Count de Lassy and Dr. Pantchenko for the murder of the former’s brother-in-law, Count Boutourlin. Medical experts testified that Count Boutcurlin’s "death was due to poison, 1 which might have been,,.diphtherial tox:ne. Dr. Pantchenko denied that he had injected toxine- into the dead count. Several servants; of Bourtourlin’s household swore that before their master died it was backstairs gossip that the count was being poisoned. Other evidence went to prove that Pantchenko was always in need of money.

THE DOCTOR'S DEVIOUS WAYS. Interesting revelations have been •made at St. Petersburg concerning the past life of Dr. Pantchenko, who, with liis mistress and assistant, Madam© Muravieff and Count de Lassy, is being tried lor the murder of Captain Bouturlin, a wealthy officer of tlie Russian Guard. The prosecution showed that Pantchenko -was formerly a'railway employee, and that lie was appointed to a position by the patronage of Count V itte, the famous Russian statesman. Several men who had worked with

Pantchenko on tlie railways gave evidence that the latter neglected his duties, arid was once reprimanded for certain irregularities. Tbev further stated that -Pantchenko peddled nostrums, and that he was a man -of corrunt morals. He pleaded that he was a- sufferer from kidney- disease, and was frequently away from work on the pretext that he was incapacitated by illness. He had, the witnesses declared, imposed even upon the physician, in the railway service. • . ■ , Lt was shown that once when he was advised bv . the doctor to enter the hospital the malingerer suggested that it would be more convenient if someone else were sent in under his name. Other witnesses testified to meetings between Pantchenko and de Lassy at hotels and coffee houses, this evidence, of course, tending' to prove the collusion that existed between the two men.