(Jewish Telegraphic Agency Mail Service)
The Jewish population of Kiev has been watching with keen interest the trial which has just been concluded here of the notorious bandit and pogromist, Goryatchkin, whose name recalls the most terrible days of the Denikin period. Goryatchkin, who was a carman employed by the municipality of one of the suburbs of Kiev, Podol, which has a dense Jewish population, became the aide-de-camp of the notorious pogromist leader, Colonel Struck. Knowing the suburb of Podol, Goryatchkin used to walk along the Podol streets, stop the Jews and demand money or threaten to arrest them and torture them. His name became so dreaded, that the mention of it was enough to send the whole district into hiding.
oGryatchkin was first put on trial in February of this year and a sensation was caused when the court decided to acquit him. Goryatchkin went about boasting of his acquittal and vowing that he would revenge himself on the Jews. “One day I will become a Commissar of the Ogpu,” he said, “and I shall make Jewish blood run like water in the streets.”
Intervention was made to the authorities and Goryatchkin was re-arrested by the Ogpu. The High Court, quashed the verdict of the lower court which had acquitted Goryatchkin and dismissed the President of the court, Orlovsky. A fresh investigation was ordered and after five months he was tried again and found guilty of robbery and murder and sentenced to be shot. In view, however, of the fact that five years had passed since the crimes had been committed, the death sentence has been commuted to ten years hard labor and the deprivation of all civil rights.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
