"Sensational Murder of a Beautiful Singer"

An article that The Illustrated Police News published on July 31, 1897, began with a recount of a murder case that occurred a few months prior. Three men were charged with the murder of a Hungarian singer, Anna Szimon. The men were Petroff Boitscheff, a major in the Prince’s guard and adjutant to Princess Marie Louise; Carlo Novelic, prefect of police; and Bogdan Wassilen, an armed police officer (gendarme). Nicola Boitscheff was the brother of Petroff and was being tried for assisting in the crime. It all started with Anna Szimon, a beautiful singer from Budapest, and her love for the major, Petroff Boitscheff. The major had promised to marry her and the proof was in letters that he sent both to her and her father. However, in 1895, she gave birth to his child and the major refused to take care of her or the child. He abandoned Szimon and the baby and left them both hungry, cold, and penniless. The major later came up with a plan to get rich and by doing that, he married Szimon but would ultimately have to successfully get rid of her for good. At the same time as this was happening, the major’s brother, Nicola, tried many times to court Szimon, but she refused him multiple times, even resorting to hitting him with a wooden log. She was very infatuated with the major and only loyal to him, even when he was cruel to her and have guards send her away so that she would not have the chance to see or speak to him. 

The major finally came up with a plan on April 18 to get rid of Szimon without wasting any more of his time. He enlisted the help of Novelic, and told him to “rid of the girl by fair means or foul.” The plan was to drown Szimon in the Marizza River with more aid from Wassilen. They sent a letter to her to meet the major at a bridge after 8 in the evening. Although her friends were concerned and advised her not to go to a bridge after dark, Szimon reassured them by saying that she “wasn’t afraid of [the major],” and that she desperately wanted to talk to him about the child. After being picked up by a carriage and realizing the danger that she was actually in, Szimon attempted to escape the cart. Except, she did not make it too far and was captured by the men and drugged by them. They tied her arms and legs together, strangled her, and sunk her at the bottom of the river with some large rocks. 

Szimon’s friends were suspicious and reported her disappearance and foul play to journalists, and the first reports of the story were published in a newspaper in Sofia, the capital and largest city in Bulgaria. Although the major tried to tell a false story of Szimon’s whereabouts, the police found it not to be true and that there was evidence that showed Boitsheff wrote to Novelic about his plan to get rid of Szimon. He wrote, “You must rid me of this girl somehow; she behaves in a scandalous way in the street every time I leave the palace… it is the prince’s wish that the girl shall be removed.” Not even Princess Marie Louise could help him. The article ended with them reporting that 64 people were to stand as witnesses in the trial. 

To begin, the illustration for the article has the subtitle “people of high position implicated,” therefore pointing out that the crime is even more outrageous and tragic because men from high standards and positions in society were accused of such a crime. The article’s title already degrades the singer, Anna Szimon, as not only is she a singer, but a “beautiful” one at that. It captions her as a specific type of singer and that does not include genre. The story details every step of the plan for the murder, and briefly discusses Szimon’s backstory. The publication literally states her as the victim in the illustration, as if one could not tell from the struggle in the picture. Though, the “victim” is shadowed by the men who acted out her murder. The article is interesting to read because it tells like a story about a young woman who was in a relationship that was bad for her, and even when her friends tried to tell her, she did not listen to them. This is the same case in the article, when Szimon’s friends tell her not to go to a bridge alone at night. 

Though, she feels so safe and secure in her marriage that she goes anyway. The story is a telling of a lack of knowing when people are in a good relationship or not. Szimon’s marriage was a sham, but she still tried to create something worth goodness for her child. The major grew tired and annoyed with Szimon after she had the child, as if her own innocence and sexuality was taken away after she had the child. It is something that is worth pointing out, that he tried to put the blame on the Prince and say that it was him who wanted Szimon to be gone, but it was really the major himself. This man, this criminal, enlisted the help of others to get rid of a woman that he was married to, because he was a coward. There were many obstacles that could have been avoided, but the major wanted many things to happen all at once, which was unrealistic. 

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