The Terrible Case of the Bloody Beauty

The short Gusev Lane, connecting Ligovka with Znamenskaya Street, at that time was not yet built up with five-story buildings and seemed fenced on both sides. Behind the fences stretched wide courtyards with gardens; in the middle of these courtyards there were usually one-story wooden houses, and nearby were the stables, sheds, an icehouse, a laundry, and a small yard-keeper’s hut.

The house where this strange murder took place was two-story. On the lower floor lived Major Ashmorenkov with his wife, his cadet-son, and the servants. On the second floor, in the mezzanine, lived the landlord, the collegiate adviser Stepanov.

In June 1867, early one morning on the Day of the Holy Spirit, the major, his wife, their son, and the maid were found murdered.