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FULL TEXT (Article 1 of
3): A horrible series of crimes has been discovered at Warsaw. A fire at an old
house in Sienna-street had been extinguished by the brigade, when some firemen
who had been left to prevent any mischief from stray sparks discovered a
child’s corpse beneath the floor; two other similar discoveries were made soon
after, and finally eight bodies were found beneath the floor of one room. The Chronicle correspondent at Vienna says that on
some partitions and a cupboard being pulled down, six more bodies of children
were brought to light [1+2+8+6=17]. An inmate of the house, a midwife named Skoblinska, has
been arrested on suspicion of having killed and buried the infants. As she had
been living in the house only four months the police are engaged in making
investigations into her antecedents. Skoblinska shared her apartment with her
sister. Each of the women had a grown-up daughter. The other three women were
also arrested on suspicion of being implicated with Skoblinska. It is stated
that in all fifty bodies have been found.
[“Horrible
Crimes At Warsaw – Fifty Murdered Babies Found.” The Echo (London, England),
Feb. 24, 1890, p. 3]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 3): According to advices from Warsaw
some details have now come to light about the dreadful child murders committed
there by the midwife Skublinski and some other women who have already been
arrested. Skublinski resided in an attic, that she secretly received young
illegitimate children “to nurse,” as she said. In reality, she, with several
other women, carried on a regular trade in murdering infants. The attention of
the police had already been drawn to this woman, and an unexpected examination
of the house revealed several cradles with two and three babies in each.
Now,
as Skublinski had no right to receive mothers and
new-born children, she had to promise that from thenceforth she would
take no
more young infants into her house. Notwithstanding this, the police on a
subsequent occasion found three little babies, and she was, in
consequence,
summoned, and the hearing was fixed for the 19th inst. [in February,
apparently, rather than May as stated here] before the justice of
the peace. During the night of the 17th she set fire to her lodging,
after
having first murdered the children committed to her charge.
Then this inhuman woman went and stood in the yard of the
house among the excited crowd and quietly waited to see what would happen. As
the house was only built of wood, she evidently hoped it would be completely
destroyed. But one of the inmates of the house suddenly remembered the woman in
the garret and her charges, and called out to the firemen to save the children.
Then Skubliuski was for the first time soon standing in the
yard, and when she was asked if the children were already saved, she answered
that they were no longer with her. In the meanwhile, the firemen had so far
succeeded in subduing the fire that one of them penetrated into Skublinski’s
lodging, and, not knowing what she had said, immediately began to search for
the children. He soon found one little corpse, and then two more.
They wore taken down to the yard, and a doctor who happened
to be present declared that the children were not choked by smoke, but a crime
had been perpetrated. Then the police came forward and four more corpses were
discovered, on one of which were distinct traces of the skull having been
battered in. Consequently Skublinski and the other women were arrested.
[“A Diabolical Crime.” Supplement to Evening Post (Wellington,
New Zealand), May 17, 1890, p. 1]
***
FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 3): The woman baby-farmer,
Stysinski, who is believed to have disposed of seventy-five babies daring the
last few years, has just been sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. Her baby
farm, or rather graveyard, became known to the police a month ago through her
setting fire to her cottage, containing five little children, in order to
obtain the amount of the insurance on her property. At the trial it was proved
that not a single child which was entrusted to her care and entered her den
ever left her house alive. It was also shown that she made two charges for
taking care of children, fifteen roubles for allowing the baby to die in a few
weeks, and twenty for procuring its death within a day or two. She frequently
threw the bodies of the children to her pigs, and boasted of the fattest pigs
in the district on account of the exceptionally good feed she provided for
them, in spite of all the evidence, she could not be convicted of murder.
[“The Polish Baby Murderer Sentenced,” The Nelson Evening
Mail (New Zealand), May 27, 1890, p. 4]
***
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