Patrick O'Brien de Lacy

1 Mar 1911 - AN EXTRAORDINARY CRIME
USING MICROBES AS POISON
Trove
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10885382
National Library of Australia
newspaper › article
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A most extraordinary trial was proceeding at St. Petersburg when the last mail left London for Australia.
Patrick Casimir O'Brien de Lacy, a Russian of Irish descent, and Panchenko, a doctor, were accused of
murdering a civil servant named Buturlin, de Lacy's brother-in-law, by inoculating him with deadly microbes, which were procured and injected by the doctor. The motive was to secure for de Lacy's wife part of a fortune which was coming to Buturlin, her brother, through the death of their mother.

https://www.nytimes.com/1911/02/06/archives/hired-men-to-play-cabin...
HIRED MEN TO PLAY CABINET MINISTERS; Witnesses in Russian Poisoning Case Say O'Brien de Lacy Thus Obtained $35,000.
ST. PETERSBURG, Feb. 5. -- The trial of Dr. Pantchenko and Count Patrick O'Brien de Lacy for the murder of Count Vassili Bouturlin was continued to-day in the crowded courtroom. Dr. Pantchenko spent some time trying to explain away the meaning of a letter written in French, which he had previously confessed referred to the plot to poison Count Vassili and his father, Gen Bouturlin.

The Boston Herald - Feb 19 1911
[https://www.myheritage.com/research/record-10704-3006694/the-boston...]

For the First Time the Full Story Is Told of How the Russian Physician Panchenko Poisoned for Hire and How His Boasts of His Crimes Led to His Downfall.

By Herman Bernstein.

ON Jan. 30 one of the most sensational cases in modem times came up for trial before the Supreme Court of St. Petersburg. It ended on Thursday night in the conviction and sentence of the criminals.

Aside from its psychological Interest, this case ls rare and unusual because of the peculiar makeup of the characters who have participated in this terrible drama. It ls the case of Dr. Panchenko who poisoned hls patient, Vasily Buturlin, with diphtheritic toxin for hire to clear the way for a large legacy for de Lassy, who engaged the doctor to execute the crime.

In this case, which attracted worldwide attention, representatives of the highest society; millionaires, past and present; a specialist of all kinds, the charlatan and quack Panchenko; poor hangers-on like the star witness Petro-pavlovsky, without whose evidence the crime would have remained a secret just like Panchenko's former crimes; Mme. Muravieva who ls supposed to have exerted a hypnotic Influence over Panchenko; the widow of the murdered man, who was a music hall singer before she married hlm; all sorts of lackeys, chambermaids, butlers - all these are mixed here as in one of Dostoyevsky's great crime novels. But of all the characters, small and large, implicated ln this crime drama, the figure of the patriarchal looking
Dr. Panchenko, who poisoned his patients under the guise of relieving their suffering, who performed criminal
operations, and who helped people to commit suicide, stands out in boldest relief.

Panchenko was convicted on Thursday and sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment, which his advanced age will make a life sentence. De Lassy was sentenced for life. Mme Muravieva was acquitted...