Robbers Use Poker to Torture Victim

1920

Crime Is Hidden From Police by Frightened Laborer

ST. PAUL, Minn., Jan. 1. — Tortured with a red-hot poker until the flesh was burned from his toes, and robbed of $450 by three burglars, Lazar Jvasku, a Hungarian worker in a South St. Paul plant, asked the police to keep the crime a secret because he feared the burglars would return if they knew who had informed the authorities.

The three men entered the Jvasku home at midnight, after they aroused Jvasku, who came downstairs and opened the door. They represented themselves as Federal agents. Jvasku was ordered to throw up his hands. While one of the bandits covered him with a gun, a second bandit went upstairs and dragged Mrs. Jvasku and Joseph, her 8-year-old son, from bed and took them to the kitchen.

Jvasku and his son were then bound with a clothesline, while Mrs. Jvasku, scantily clad, shivered in a corner. Jvasku asked that she be permitted to dress. In reply one of the bandits knocked him to the floor with the butt of his revolver. The burglars then cut the telephone wires and blew out the lamps, and made a systematic search of the house with the aid of flashlights.

The savings of six months, $450, which was hidden in a drawer, and $150 belonging to a roomer, absent at the time, were taken. Believing Jvasku has more money hidden in the house, the burglars proceeded to torture him with a hot poker. The son screamed when his father was attacked and at that the burglars became frightened and hurried away.