A YOUNG NIHILIST WOMAN.
She Kills a Government Officer and Then Commits Suicide.
New York, February 3d.— A letter to the Tribune from St. Petersburg gives the following details of the recent murder of Colonel Solotouchine, Chief of the Secret Police Department of Moscow:
Having received notification that a number of Nihilists were in the habit of holding meetings at the house of M. Audrieff, the Colonel determined to ascertain whether the information was correct. Accordingly, toward 8 o’clock in the evening, he concealed himself in the neighborhood and carefully scanned the faces of all who either entered or left M. Andrieff’s residence.
Several of them he recognized as individuals already under surveillance as dissatisfied characters, and at length he determined to arrest the next person who rang the door-bell. This proved to be a young woman.
He touched her on the arm and she instantly recognized him. Quick as lightning she drew from her pocket a small revolver and fired. The bullet entered his right eye, and, penetrating the brain, killed him on the spot. Then the murderess shot herself through the head. Her dead body was found lying across that of Colonel Solotouchine.
An examination of the papers found on the young girl proved that she was Olga Gontcharenko, 19 years of age, and the only daughter of the Director of the Government telegraphs at Moscow.
Within a couple of hours afterward M. Andrieff’s house was raided by the authorities, but no one was found there.
“A Young Nihilist Woman,” Sacramento Daily Union 62 no. 142 (February 4, 1890): 5.
