Criminals and detectives

[morozow]

And let's talk about bandits and thieves, terrible crimes, sushi and the police. Well, probably a little bit about the literature on this topic.

I'll start.

Forty years among robbers and murderers

"Forty Years among Robbers and Murderers" is an autobiographical book by I. D. Putilin, co—authored with Mikhail Shevlyakov. (in reality, the authorship of the book is a confusing question)

The book is a memoir of the first chief of the St. Petersburg Detective Police Ivan Dmitrievich Putilin (1830-1893), who at one time was a man of legend. The book consists of twenty short stories.

Putilin became famous in 1867 after the high-profile case of the "Pugovkin Brothers Counterfeiters", who sold about half a million fakes in a year. In order to get on the trail of the criminals, Putilin had to change his image and change clothes five times. After the capture, the accused hired the best lawyers, but still lost the case and were sent to hard labor.

Putilin's favorite image for reincarnation was a laborer. It was he who used it in order to study the mores of the criminal world[1]. However, in his arsenal there were also such images as a tramp, a priest and a merchant. Putilin had hundreds of solved cases on his account. I have never used physical violence against suspects.

In total, over the years of service, he was awarded eleven orders.

One of the memories of contemporary Putilin:

The head of the St. Petersburg detective police, Ivan Dmitrievich Putilin, was one of those gifted personalities whom the old St. Petersburg mayor, F. F. Trepov, was able to skillfully choose and, nevertheless, skillfully hold in his hands. By nature, Putilin was extremely gifted and, as it were, created for his position. Unusually subtle attention and extreme observation, in which there was some special flair that forced him to peer into what everyone was passing by indifferently, were combined in him with calm restraint, great humor and a kind of sly good-nature. In St. Petersburg in the first half of the 70s, there was not a single large and complex criminal case in which Putilin would not have invested his labor. I clearly had to familiarize myself with his amazing abilities to investigate crimes in January 1873, when the murder of Hieromonk Hilarion was discovered in the Alexander Nevsky Lavra... Late in the evening, on the same day, I was informed that the murderer had been arrested

In the stories of Putilin, the spirit of the era is felt, those little things that are lost are washed away by time. Dark doorways, dirty inns, janitors and coachmen...

Putilin simply describes individual cases from practice, without bringing any theory under them. But the hair begins to move quietly from the content of small stories. Because there are many details of a criminal nature, various kinds of injuries that led to death. And the price of human life is 3 rubles 15 kopecks.

a very colorful portrait of the era of the second half of the 19th century in St. Petersburg. And, what is valuable, the wrong side of life is described, and not the ceremonial face of the brilliant capital of the empire.

Unfortunately, I do not know if there is a translation of this book into other languages

[morozow]

In 1913, in the mountain resort of Pyatigorsk, a capsule with radium was stolen from a German professor R., who came to Pyatigorsk to be treated with sulfur baths.

The police had a suspect, but there was no evidence.

The stolen radium was offered to buy Kharkiv University for 80,000 rubles. That's a lot of money. A suspect was identified in the ring.

But the case did not go to court.

After the abduction, the thief carried radium in his vest pocket all the time. And he got a tumor. He underwent three operations. But two weeks after the police visit, he died.

The case is described in the memoirs of Arkady Koshko, head of the Moscow Detective Police,

[mizzarrogh]

Thank You for the tip!
That's definitely on my list for the winter nights reading!

I guess Radium was really expensive in 1913 especially seen to how labor intense it was to extract just one single gram of purified Radium with the methods available at the time.

[morozow]

And another detective story from the time of the Russian Empire

On the night of September 16-17, 1899, in the city of Kharkov, Russian Empire, at the Institute of Noble Maidens, several pupils fell ill at once. They suffered from acute pain in the upper abdomen in the center, excruciating vomiting and diarrhea, and a terrible fear of death.

Spoiler: ShowHide

Poisoning with stale food was a common occurrence in those days, so the doctor who was called to the patients, having organized gastric lavage, tried to establish what the young ladies had eaten. An inspection of the remains of the dinner yielded nothing – everything was fresh.

The number of patients grew, and by the middle of the night there were 28 of them – almost all the students!

By this time, the doctor had determined that all the young ladies–the sick and the few girls who were not sick–had eaten the same dinner.

It turned out it wasn't about the food.

Moreover, the symptoms differed from the banal poisoning of stale food in extreme severity. In addition, against the background of severe pain and exhausting vomiting, the young ladies could not really tell how they felt. Maybe there is a metallic taste in the mouth, or maybe not. Maybe the high-pitched screams reflect the degree of pain, or maybe they are a manifestation of the developed inadequacy of behavior. Maybe they can't swallow because of severe nausea and incessant vomiting, or maybe it's a neurological swallowing disorder. And also this fear of death...

Anyway, the doctor suspected arsenic poisoning and called the police.

After a few hours, it was finally established what exactly the sick had eaten and what the non-sick had not eaten. It turned out that after dinner, a small celebration was organized for the upcoming day of Faith, Hope and Love, the then equivalent of March eighth. A walnut cake was served at the celebration. Everyone who got sick ate it. Those who didn't get sick didn't eat it.

The cake was fresh, today's. It was made in a very expensive French pastry shop, which enjoyed the highest reputation.

Was the poison added to the cake?

The doctor's confidence in the arsenic theory, however, wavered. One of the mysteries of the food of that time was that it was often possible to eat meat "with a whiff", bread with mold, stale cheese, rotten fruits or slightly stale fish without any harm to oneself, but the freshest cakes and pies, beautiful in appearance, taste and smell, could cause completely inexplicable poisoning. And it was, as a rule, exactly the way it is now – very pronounced, severe.

By morning, it turned out that, in addition to the Institute of Noble Maidens, the same disease had affected about 200 more people in the city. And they were all eating a walnut cake from a pastry shop for now. And they were all very prominent people in Kharkov – not everyone could afford a cake from Yet.

Everyone with a medical degree was brought to their feet, everyone who could be found in Kharkov and the surrounding area.

The version of the criminal sprinkling arsenic on food was bursting at the seams. It was also possible to imagine that the killer had targeted a particular young lady, poisoned a cake at the Institute, and 27 of the 28 girls had suffered "for nothing", just "at the same time". However, it was difficult to imagine that a criminal had broken into a pastry shop and sprinkled arsenic on all the cakes made that day in the hope that at least one of them would be eaten by his intended victim.

The remains of cakes from all over the city were taken to the chemical laboratory of Kharkiv University.

The analysis took three days. No traces of arsenic were found. No trace of any other mineral poison was found.

This was not the crime of a mysterious mass murderer.

Moreover, the efforts of all the doctors present in the city were not in vain – in three days all the patients recovered. Someone else was still weak, someone else felt unwell, but the main symptoms had gone away.

It was obvious that a "banal" poisoning with cakes had happened, and it would have been possible to "close the case", calm down and continue living, but the Institute of Noble Maidens was obliged to keep the brand! No reputable educational institution will tolerate negligence from food suppliers! Moreover, the Institute of Noble Maidens! The Institute's office harassed everyone it could harass.

On September 20th, a box with a piece of stale cake ended up on the table of the head of the Kharkov Sanitary Laboratory, Lashchenkov. Lashchenkov had already made one epochal discovery – another time, he still had to make another significant discovery – and another time, but now he was not thinking about any discoveries.

Apart from the stale cake, Lashchenkov had nothing else. No one had thought to take samples of vomiting and diarrhea from the sick, and now it was too late – everyone had recovered.

In general, based on the triviality of the case and the lack of material, it would be possible to close the case. But that's not why Lashchenkov became a doctor. He was motivated by curiosity. And he knew how to ask questions, first of all, to himself.

The ingredients of the cake were kept strictly secret. Lashchenkov attacked for Now and managed to get the recipe for the famous walnut cake - provided that Lashchenkov would not tell anyone (and he did not). There was a lot in the recipe, but nothing unusual – the whole secret lay only in the ratios of the components. The composition of the cakes did not bother Lashchenkov – the cakes were baked, all the bacteria had to die. The cream was cooked on fire, but it was not brought to a boil. That was already suspicious. But the main thing is that after the cream has cooled, finely chopped walnuts were added to it. But that was very suspicious.

But there was one "but". The purchased nuts used in the preparation of the ill-fated cakes have been used so far. The batch of purchased nuts is not over yet! And the cakes didn't cause any more poisoning!

Most doctors would have stopped there. It's obvious that it's not about the ingredients of the cakes!

But Lashchenkov was "on fire" with similar medical problems. He found "drive" in them! So I wasn't going to stop.

Further questioning has so far shown that on the day when the ill-fated cakes were being prepared, the kitchen was unbearably hot. The weather was generally warm in Kharkov, and the temperature in the room where the cakes were being prepared was well over 30 degrees. Maybe even closer to 40. The workers were "steaming" when they went outside.

Lashchenkov sowed the remains of the cream on the nutrient medium, especially those in which there were crumbs of crushed nuts. He could have done it "as always," but damn, curiosity! He decided to completely imitate the conditions of that day and began to maintain a temperature of 37 degrees in the culture.

If he hadn't done this, the sowing would have yielded nothing, and the case would have been closed – with zero result. But he did it.

Within a day, the colonies had grown. And it was clearly a mistake. The colonies were round, convex (rising above the surface), with smooth edges, and bright orange in color. Under the microscope, they consisted of bunched balls. In general, it was a grozdecoccus. Nowadays, we use the full Greek translation of the name of this microbe – Staphylococcus. In this case, Lashchenkov has grown a variety of it – Staphylococcus aureus (hence the color of the colonies).

Staphylococcus was discovered only 19 years ago, in 1880. It quickly became clear that it is widespread everywhere. Scientists did not particularly suspect the new microorganism. And then suddenly it turned out that confectionery poisoning is caused by them?!

Lashchenkov tried to find at least one culture of another microorganism, but there were none. Only Staphylococcus aureus has grown.

It was possible to stop there. The experiment failed. Within a few days, the causative agent that caused the poisoning died, replaced by common staphylococci. In general, the case is really closed.

But Lashchenkov couldn't stop. He injected a tiny dose of culture (0.2 ml) into a guinea pig. And she, having demonstrated all the symptoms, died 10 hours later.

Is it really Staphylococcus?

It was necessary to put an experiment on a person, and in such cases, the only person on whom conscience will allow you to put an experiment is yourself. Lashchenkov went incognito to a pastry shop for now and bought two walnut cakes. He ate a piece of one right away. Nothing happened.

What happens if the cake stands for a while? Three days later, the second cake was completely dry, but Lashchenkov ate a piece of this cake. And again, nothing happened.

What's that supposed to mean? So, in laboratory conditions, staphylococcus is not against killing guinea pigs, but in real conditions it refuses to act on humans?

On the same day, Lashchenkov spoke with the Poltava sanitary doctor Bogopolsky. As it usually happens, you tell your interlocutor your story, and he says, "We had worse!" It turned out that 46 people were poisoned with potato cakes on Easter in Poltava. And also from the best, most expensive pastry shop in the city.

What happens? Does Staphylococcus poison only the products of the highest quality manufacturers? Those who carefully monitor the freshness of products and the correctness of the production process? Nonsense!

I had to ask Bogopolsky for details. It turned out that it was unbearably hot in Poltava at Easter....

Lashchenkov rushed back to the laboratory. Now he not only sowed the remains of the institute's cake on a nutrient medium, but began to grow the microorganism at different temperatures.

At 37 degrees, Staphylococcus "killed" all competitors and bloomed with the familiar bright orange colonies. And the extract from these colonies was deadly for laboratory animals.

At room temperature, the opposite happened – Staphylococcus aureus did not want to grow, and colonies of other staphylococci appeared that were not suppressed in this case. They couldn't poison even the smallest laboratory animal.

We took a batch of nuts, which were used to make cakes for now. The same thing happened – at 37 degrees, Staphylococcus aureus flourished violently, deadly to laboratory animals, but at 20 degrees, it was as if it had never existed!

Means... The conclusion did not fit in my head. This means that Staphylococcus aureus, which is so common around, is harmless under normal conditions, but if you give it good nutrition (sweet pastry cream) and the right temperature (human body temperature, 37 degrees), it will multiply very quickly on an incredible scale. Each of the resulting staphylococcus will release its waste products into the cream, due to the amount of these staphylococcus products, a lot will accumulate, and they will reach the amount and concentration when they begin to act on the human body as a poison (well, or a fashionable word – toxin). Harmless microscopic balls will turn into killers...

No matter how improbable the conclusion, all the evidence pointed to exactly this. And Lashchenkov finally decided to publish the article.

Since then, "Staphylococcus aureus" no longer seems harmless to us. Since then, confectioners do not allow high temperatures in the workshops and store their products in the cold, even if they only need to be stored for a few tens of minutes.

Our current perception of Pavel Nikolaevich Lashchenkov is interesting. The vast majority of us have never heard of him. Lashchenkov discovered a lot of things, but even this story with Kharkov cakes was supposed to make his name immortal. But she didn't. Many individuals have not made any contribution to world science, but they are well known to us, and here it is quite a tangible contribution! They may remember something about Lashchenkov in Tomsk, where he was invited to head the department 5 years later, but they don't know about him in Kharkov, there is no article about him on the Ukrainian wikipedia, not a single street, not a single institution in Kharkov or Tomsk bears his name.

[von Corax]

Nothing in the English Wikipedia either. Most unjust.

[Cora Courcelle]

Fascinating story