She charged a small fee for administering poison to undesirable Russian husbands – And justifies her killings as a necessary evil– She further declared that she never killed a woman.
St. Petersburg, Russia. – Arrested after a full confession has been made by one of her conscience stricken employers, a woman who is believed to have killed more than three hundred men within the last thirty years is in prison at Samara. The only name given by the police of the wholesale murderess is Popova.
All the murdered men were husbands who wanted to get rid of them. The woman charged a nominal sum [usually 100 Rubles] prior to the murder and the remainder after the victim was killed. She would make the acquaintance of the man she was to kill and then manage to put poison in his food or drink.
After one woman whose husband had been murdered became stricken by her guilty conscience she sent for the police, made a full confession, and a squad of policemen were at once sent to the home of the Popova woman. In some way the charge against the prisoner became known, and before the police started from her home for the prison they were surrounded by a mob of several hundred persons.
Infuriated at the atrociousness of the woman’s deeds, the mob demanded that the prisoner be turned over to them and that they might burn her at the stake.
With drawn revolvers the police held the mob at bay until soldiers, who had been sent for, arrived and drove the mob back. Then the woman was taken to the jail.
After she had been taken to the prison the woman made no effort to conceal the fact that she had been a wholesale murderess. She declared that she was justified in her work, for the only persons she killed were men who had abused their wives and that her murdering them had saved the women further misery.
In her own defense, Madame Popova told her captors she had never killed a woman. Czarist soldiers saved her from a mob that sought to burn her at the stake, and she was unrepentant as she stood before the firing squad. After a medical examination that was sought to somehow prove insanity, her body was later cremated. - Bird
St. Petersburg, Russia. – Arrested after a full confession has been made by one of her conscience stricken employers, a woman who is believed to have killed more than three hundred men within the last thirty years is in prison at Samara. The only name given by the police of the wholesale murderess is Popova.
All the murdered men were husbands who wanted to get rid of them. The woman charged a nominal sum [usually 100 Rubles] prior to the murder and the remainder after the victim was killed. She would make the acquaintance of the man she was to kill and then manage to put poison in his food or drink.
After one woman whose husband had been murdered became stricken by her guilty conscience she sent for the police, made a full confession, and a squad of policemen were at once sent to the home of the Popova woman. In some way the charge against the prisoner became known, and before the police started from her home for the prison they were surrounded by a mob of several hundred persons.
Infuriated at the atrociousness of the woman’s deeds, the mob demanded that the prisoner be turned over to them and that they might burn her at the stake.
With drawn revolvers the police held the mob at bay until soldiers, who had been sent for, arrived and drove the mob back. Then the woman was taken to the jail.
After she had been taken to the prison the woman made no effort to conceal the fact that she had been a wholesale murderess. She declared that she was justified in her work, for the only persons she killed were men who had abused their wives and that her murdering them had saved the women further misery.
In her own defense, Madame Popova told her captors she had never killed a woman. Czarist soldiers saved her from a mob that sought to burn her at the stake, and she was unrepentant as she stood before the firing squad. After a medical examination that was sought to somehow prove insanity, her body was later cremated. - Bird
