Mendel Beilis -- the scene of the crime

Again, my mind works slowly or I would have posted this in 2013, when I translated the transcript, or even in 2019 when I posted about the missing dvornik. But I woke up this morning wondering why there's no report on the scene of the crime in the transcript. It turns out that the government suggested multiple scenes for the crime, but only examined the scene that they then had to cover up because it identified the one person they were trying to protect from suspicion.

Part of the problem is the Whiffle Ball Theory. It became obvious during closing arguments that the government made up its claims to suit its theory, instead of letting evidence drive the case. That's why Beilis was tried at all. 

Because the government was trying to cover up for Vera Cheberyak, they created confusion about the scene of the crime. Oh, sure, at first when the police thought that Andrey's family had killed him, they searched the room that the Prikhodkos lived in. But they identified four places on the Zaitsev factory grounds as possible scenes of the crime:

-- Beilis' home, the two rooms where he, his wife, and his four surviving children lived.

-- the "upper" kiln, the one at the highest point of the factory grounds.

-- the stables.

-- the pomeshchenie, some rooms where Beilis' wife moved in after the arrest, that is, July 1911.

The transcript has no police information about any of these locations. They had from July to October to examine the stables. In October the stables burned down and were no longer available for tours (like the one on day 6). Nobody forged a police report saying anything was found there before October. The government brought them up to confuse the case.

The upper kiln was empty from March, when the murder happened, to April 10 or so when brick making started up again. During this period the police still thought the family killed Andrey so no report was done.

Beilis' house was full of the family and nobody suggested that Beilis let his wife and kids stay in the house while Andrey was murdered.

That leaves the pomeshchenie, where there is another problem which I outline in Accounting for the Grebenki Workers. In the interests of cutting their coat to fit the cloth, the government had to assume a morning murder. If it was in the afternoon of March 11, the Grebenki brick haulers were already living in these rooms. It had to be in the morning for the pomeshchenie to qualify. At that time the rooms would have been empty. Mrs. Beilis and the children lived there -- but not until after the arrest in July. After that she got Zaitsev to white-wash the walls. Notice that the police still had from March to July to examine this place -- if the government theory fingered Beilis as the murderer before July. 

But the signs are that the "Beilis and his two sons" story was invented by the government after Beilis' July arrest, and the lack of police reports about any of the locations on the Zaitsev grounds agrees with this.

What place did the police examine in detail? Vera's apartment and its contents -- the carpet, and the walls. This produced the report of using chemical tests that found semen on the walls. 

Why make the tests? When Zinaida Malitskaya went to Fenenko in the summer, her tale was vague and Fenenko didn't believe her. Nobody took her seriously until November when her husband made her go back. The police made her report identify a morning murder, although in the summer she said the incident she reported happened at night. 

But the tests failed to turn up blood spots. Examination of Vera's carpet also failed to turn up blood spots. Examination of the shred of bloody pillowcase suggested one that belonged to Vera, but Ksenya Dyakonova, who sewed the pillowcase for Vera, never saw this shred, see Day 15, statements 2515-2520. And again, the police examined this shred, found in the pocket of Andrey's jacket, as Vera's property, not Beilis'.

Here's the scenario. Beilis is in jail. From September to October, Vygranov and Vera entertain Brazul Brushkovsky with Vera's fairy tales. Then things quiet down. At the end of November, however, Malitsky brings his wife Zinaida to Fenenko where they get information out of her that points at Vera. They convince her to agree that the incident she heard happened in the morning, although Zinaida was suspicious of nighttime goings-on. They bring Vera in and she tells them the story she told Brazul: it was the family. Brazul is the only one who believes this.

I think Vera's old apartment, still empty, was examined at this time -- just to show there was no evidence of the murder there. In November the Kozachenko letter was forged. And the "Beilis and his two sons" story was invented. The government tried to teach it to Vasily Cheberyak; they failed as his deposition shows.

The only place the government had a detailed police report on, that might be the scene of the crime, is the last place the crime could have happened, if Beilis was the murderer. The direct evidence points at Vera; the evidence against Beilis was faked. QED.