Thursday, January 2, 2014

Sophie Safarin, Triple Black Widow and Instigator of Mass Husband-Killing – Russia 1927


German sources spell the name "Safarin," while English sources use "Safarine."

FULL TEXT (translated from German) (article 1 of 4): At Navoja Ladoga in Russia there is a village that eventually attracted the attention of the authorities because it is inhabited exclusively by widows. A government commission was sent to investigate and found the hideous fact that all the village’s married men had been murdered.

The instigator and leader of the women in these horrible crimes was laid to a farmwoman, Sophie Safarin, who is likely to be one of the most terrible women in the world. She has married three times and all three husbands perished. The commission found that two of the men, after their bodies had been exhumed, had been poisoned. Safarin’s third husband of was allegedly drowned, but here too it was revealed that he had first been drugged, whereupon he was dragged out of the house by the inhuman woman and thrown into the water. When the water brought him back to consciousness his wife struck him on the skull with a spade. 

After the murder of her last husband, Sophie Safarin instigated the women of village to murder their own husbands. Tea parties were organized and the result of these gatherings was the death of the men. Evening parties were held by the women to which the men were invited. When they were drunk, they were thrown through a trapdoor into the basement of Safarin’s house. In the basement they were murdered and robbed.

This beastly mass-murder campaign organized by village wives began just after the end of the war [World War 1]. Men who had served at the front returned to their village and now wanted to return to the rights and duties of household management which had been, during their absence, entirely in the hands of their wives. This did not suit their spouses, now accustomed to independence. 

Sophie Safarin, found guilty of multiple homicides killed herself, had stated that she had become the enemy of the male sex due to ill-treatment from her first husband. The widow Safarin did not find it difficult to persuade the other women that they too should chose to kill off their spouses. In those cases where the women gave consent, yet shied away from executing the murder themselves, it was Safarin who killed the victims. In total, 58 men were murdered. The women, nevertheless, let their sons live. Almost all the women in the village, except the war widows, were arrested and taken to criminal court.

[“A Russian Mass-murderess.” (Eine russische Massenmörderin.) Arbeiterville (Graz, Austria), 28. September 1927, p. 5] (translation revised 6/9/19)

***

Novaja Ladoga (Russian: Но́вая Ла́дога) is a town in Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located at the point where the Volkhov River flows into Lake Ladoga, 140 kilometers (87 mi) east of St. Petersburg.

***

Note: It appears that in this brief article the translator misinterpreted the German word "fest" from the source text, assuming there was a larghe festival, rather than multiple small parties over a long period of time."

FULL TEXT (Article 2 of 4): London, September. 28. – Russian authorities were surprised to discover that the village of Navoija is inhabited only by widows and children, says the Paris correspondent of "The Evening News." It was found that all the husbands to the number of 58 were murdered. The women confessed to having poisoned the men when they were intoxicated during a village festival after the war when the men had returned and disturbed the untroubled lives of the wives. Sophie Safarine, the ringleader, stated that she had committed 30 murders. She declared that she developed a hatred to men owing to the brutality of her first husband whom she killed. She dealt similarly with her second and third husbands.

[“Husbands Slain - Russian Women Confess - Fifty-eight Murders,” The News (Adelaide, Australia), Sep. 29, 1927, p. 7]

***

FULL TEXT (Article 3 of 4): Paris, September. 28. – The Russian authorities have been surprised to discover the village of Navoia is inhabited only by widows. After investigations they discovered that all the husbands in the village, numbering 58, had been murdered. The women confessed to poisoning them when they were intoxicated during a village festival, after the War, when the men returned and disturbed their wives’ untroubled lives.

The ring-leader, Sophie Safarine, stated that she committed thirty murders. She says she developed androphobia owing to the brutality of her first husband whom she killed in addition to the second and third husbands.

[“Women With A Grievance. - 58 Husbands Killed.” The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, Oct. 15, 1927, p. 6]

***

EXCERPT (Article 4 of 4): Sophie Safarine – She was a killer with good knowledge of the poison who, in the first half of the twentieth century, killed her three husbands; then moved to the village of Novay Laloga, where she began to incite the local women to poison their husbands while they were drunk. After her arrest she confessed to having killed the men because of her hatred of men, having developed that hatred after because one of her three husbands, a violent man, had regularly beaten her. [translated from Italian Wikipedia, listing as its source: Vincenzo Maria Mastronardi, Ruben De Luca, I Serial killer, 2011, Newton Compton editori s.r.l., Roma, unpaginated]

***

***

***

***

FULL TEXT: Bei Navoja Ladoga in Russland liegt ein Dorf, das schliesslich die Ausmehrksamkeit der Behörden erregen musste, weil es nur von Witwen bewohnt wird. Es wurde eine Regierungskommission zur Untersuchung hingefandt und diese stellte dieschauerliche Tatsache fest, dass sämtliche Männer des Dorfes ermordet wurden. Die Anstisterin und Leiterin der Frauen bei diesen grauenvollen Verbrechen vor die Bäuerin Sophie Safarin, die eine der schrecklichsten Frauen der Welt sein dürfte. Sie war dreimal verheiratet und alle drei Männer sind gestorben. Die Kommission stellte fest, dass zwei der Männer, deren Leichen man ausgegraben hatte, vergiftet worden sind. Der letzte Gatte der Safarin follte angeblich ertrunken sein, aber auch hier ergab sich, dass ihm zuerst ein Betäubungsmittel beigebracht worden war, worauf er von dem entmenschten Weibe aus dem Hause geschleppt und ins Wasser geworfen wurde. Als ihm im Wasser das Bewusstsein zurückhehrte schlug ihm seine Frau mit dem Spaten den Schädel ein. Nach der Ermordung ihres letzten Mannes stiftete die Sophie Safarin alle anderen Frauen zur Tötung ihrer Männer an. Es wurden Teevisiten veranstaltet und die jedesmalige Folge dieser Visiten war der Tod einiger Männer. Auch Nachtfeste wurden von den Frauen abgehalten und die Männer dazu eingeladen. Wenn diesedann betrunken waren, wurden sie durch eine Falltür in den Keller des der Safarin gehörigen Hauses gestürst. Im Keller wurden sie darun ermordet und beraubt. Dieses bestialische Massenmorderen der Frauen hat nach dem Kriege begonnen. Die Männer, die an der Front gestanden, kehrten in ihr Dorf zurück  und wollten nun wieder die Leitung des Haushaltes, ihre Rechte und Pflichten übernehmen, die während ihrer Abwesenheit ganz in den Händen der Frauen gelegen. Das passte aber den nun an Selbständigheit gewöhnten Frauen nicht. Sophie Safarin, die gegen dreiszig Menschenleben auf dem Gewissen hat, die sie selbständig ermordete, erklärte, sie sei durch Misshandlungen von seiten ihres ersten Mannes zur Männerseindin geworden. Es sei ihr aber nicht schwer geworden, die anderen Frauen dahin zu überreden, dass sie ebenfalls den Tod ihrer Ehegatten beschlossen. Wo die Frauen zwar ihre Zustimmung gegeben, aber vor der Ausführung des Mordes zurückschreckten, vollzog die Safarin die Tötung der Opfer. Im ganzen wurden 58 Männer ermordet. Dagegen liessen die Frauen ihre Söhneam Leben. Fast alle Frauen des Dorfes, ausser den Kriegswitwen, wurden verhaftet und dem Strafgericht zugeführt.

[Eine russische Massenmörderin. Arbeiterville (Graz, Austria), 28. September 1927, p. 5]

***

La Nouvelle revue française, Volume 30, 1928, p. 280
Vincenzo Maria Mastronardi, ‎Ruben De Luca. I serial killer, Newton Compton, Rome, 2011
André Gide, Ne jugez pas , Gallimard, 1930, p. 162

***
http://unknownmisandry.blogspot.com/2017/04/husband-killing-syndicates.html

For more than two dozen similar cases, dating from 1658 to 2011, see the summary list with links see: The Husband-Killing Syndicates

***
 

For links to other cases of woman who murdered 2 or more husbands (or paramours), see Black Widow Serial Killers.

***
[877-1/9/21]
***

No comments:

Post a Comment