On January 21, 1893, in Moscow, in her own house, Varvara Mikhailovna Karepina was brutally murdered. The circumstances of her death almost completely coincided with the story of the murder of the famous old woman-pawnbroker from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.
The wicked irony of fate was that Varvara Karepina was the famous writer’s sister. This terrible story has become one of the most resonant criminal cases of the last decade of the 19th century.
Varvara Mikhailovna, whom his genius brother loved and respected in his youth, seemed to have stepped out of the pages of the writer's legendary novel. Widowed, she lived for many years in complete seclusion in one of her five tenement houses. The son worked in Warsaw, the daughter lived with her family separately in Presnya.
In old age, Karepina changed a lot: she was afraid of strangers and did not let them into the house, she was so stingy that she had neither a cook nor a servant. And she was very afraid that she would be robbed. But what was it to steal?
Not so much, but still: 12 thousand rubles in securities - she hid them in different corners of the apartment. There was also money for the rent collected from the tenants, and 100 rubles in cash sent by his son for the New Year 1893. But most of all, Varvara Mikhailovna was worried that the thieves would wear the gold pocket watch of her late husband and her own antique wristwatch, presented by Peter Karepin for the wedding.
Meanwhile, persistent rumors circulated around the city that the old woman, nee Dostoevskaya, was actually very rich. Allegedly, she just sold an apartment building for 30 thousand rubles. Two weeks before his death, some dashing fellow on the street snatched from Varvara Mikhailovna a reticule with money and keys to the apartment. After that, the old woman completely lost her peace and completely stopped letting anyone in.
In the early morning of January 21, 1893, the young janitor Ivan Arkhipov smelled burning and, knocking on the door of the artist who lived on the ground floor, asked him to go upstairs with him to clarify the circumstances. Smoke poured from the apartment of the mistress of the house.
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The police were immediately called and the door was kicked out, behind which the guards of the law found the half-burnt corpse of Varvara Mikhailovna. The suspicion immediately arose that the deceased had apparently knocked over the lamp when she tried to fill it with kerosene.
But examination of the body forced to abandon this version. If Karepina really tipped the lamp over herself, then her skirt would have burned first, and not the upper part of her clothes, and even more so her face. The old woman was clearly killed and robbed, since after a thorough examination it turned out that interest-bearing papers, a gold watch, and gift 100 rubles had disappeared from the apartment.
The first on the list of suspects was the same janitor Arkhipov, who discovered the dead mistress, because literally a week after Karepina's funeral, he dressed himself in new clothes and, in particular, bought beautiful leather boots instead of half-hole felt boots. In addition, he began to appear in taverns more often, but not alone, but with a new girlfriend.
And another strange type attracted the attention of the investigation - Fedor Yurgin, a regular client of brothels of Rozhdestvensky Boulevard. True, the investigators at first did not even think to bring these two characters together. However, chance helped. Yurgin did not share the girl of easy virtue Anna with a certain young man named Alexander.
For the time being, their frequent skirmishes only amused the girl: she did not give preference to any of the two boyfriends. However, everything changed when Yurgin suddenly became rich. He bought himself an expensive fox fur coat, began to scatter money and fill Anna with expensive gifts.
The jealous Sasha could only stand on the sidelines and look at Anna bursting with laughter, who now treasured and even was proud of Yurgin's attention. This is understandable: not every client has a pile of interest-bearing securities with him. This indisputable advantage of the fan was also reported to Alexander.
What was the poor young man to do? Since the action took place not in the novel, he did not go to the pond, but to his godfather, an agent of the detective police. And he reported in detail about all his suspicions. The investigative rattle creaked.
It turned out that Fyodor Yurgin comes from the peasants of the Vladimir district, works as a seasonal bricklayer and, moreover, is a distant relative of the very janitor Ivan Arkhipov who worked for Karepina. Yurgin was immediately arrested at his apartment on Semyonovskaya Street, where all the belongings of the murdered widow were found.
During interrogations, 19-year-old Ivan Arkhipov swore that he was not going to kill the mistress, allegedly Yurgin, the more experienced and older in age, persuaded him to this atrocity. Say, all his fault lies only in the fact that he accidentally shared with a relative his thoughts about Karepina's wealth.
However, the idea of killing the widow stuck firmly in the head of Fyodor Yurgin, who was practically broke at that moment: seasonal work ended, and there was not enough money even for bread. And then luck floats into your hands. On January 21, 1893, the "brothers" carried out their villainous plan.
Unfortunately for the old woman Karepina, the only person she trusted was Ivan Arkhipov. She had known his father for 20 years, and the boy literally grew up before her eyes. Therefore, she took the guy to her as a janitor. Moreover, she settled him in her kitchen.
When he went out, as usual, Varvara Mikhailovna always locked the door behind him. This played into the hands of the criminals, because Karepina would not have been able to quietly enter the apartment, since she practically did not leave the house.
Shouting that ill-fated evening from the hallway that he was leaving, Arkhipov hid behind the partition. A couple of minutes later, Karepina appeared to close the door behind Ivan. And then she was captured by Yurgin. He strangled her instantly. Then, taking the keys to the tables and cabinets from the pocket of my skirt, I scooped out all the most valuable things that were in the house.
The last act of murder was an imitation of accidental death - Yurgin poured kerosene from the lamp on the table and body of the deceased, and ordered Arkhipov at night, when the tenants fell asleep, to throw a burning match on Karepina's clothes, which he did. When the smoke poured in puffs, Arkhipov, who "woke up" in his kitchen, rushed to the neighbors, because he allegedly could not open the door locked to the hostess's chambers.
For the crime committed, Fyodor Yurgin was sentenced to indefinite hard labor. Ivan Arkhipov also went to hard labor for as many as 20 years. And the incredible coincidences of the realities of life and the literary fantasy of the genius Dostoevsky still boggle the imagination.
Irina Barsukova, magazine "Mysteries of the XX century", No. 15