Crítica
- THE POLICE HAVE A LEAD
- The criminals flee
- CYANIDE IS THE OBSESSION OF THE MOMENT
This page of Crítica for 5 October 1926 carried two stories. In the killing of a man named Polack, Commissioner De la Cuesta and a Crítica police reporter were at the spot where the body was found when Inspector Miguel Chiappare of the Bella Vista sub-precinct arrived with what the paper called a crucial tip; a doctor's account, relayed by a first-person narrator, described an unlit, mysterious car left standing on a bridge, with a Matanzas hire-car detail noted. A separate bulletin reported that Horacio Varela, a former minister of Governor José Camilo Crotto, had killed himself with potassium cyanide on a bench in Plaza Intendente Alvear, leaving letters for a judge and a police commissioner, and the paper proclaimed 1926 'the year of cyanide'. This reading does not include the full Polack report on page 3.
This edition is a partial reading of three excerpts from badly garbled OCR that mixes columns. The italic introduction, the cut-off left column and the section 'Los asesinos desaparecen' are not used, and the full Polack report on page 3 was not supplied. The two Polack excerpts break off mid-sentence, the 'Matanzas 30 alquiler' fragment is reproduced as printed, and the inspector's name appears as both Chiappare and Chiappore. The last digit of the printed year is partly covered by a mark. The sources consulted do not establish the outcome of the Polack investigation, Varela's biography or ministry, the Ray and Avenida Centenario cases, or who Dr. Pando was.
Translation
THE POLICE HAVE A LEAD
Today, shortly after noon, while Commissioner De la Cuesta, accompanied by other police officials and one of our police reporters, was at the place where Polack's body was found, carrying out inquiries, Inspector Miguel Chiappare of the Bella Vista sub-precinct arrived and supplied a piece of information of transcendental importance, which perhaps Officer Miguel
The criminals flee
The doctor then told me that, after noting the particulars of the car, he got into his automobile and set off toward Bella Vista. A little before the 100 metres, he slowed the vehicle somewhat and, in an almost instinctive fit of curiosity, turned round to see whether anyone appeared in the glare of the bridge lamp. He saw no one. On the bridge the mysterious automobile remained, without lights, wrapped in shadow. Matanzas 30 hire - - "On learning the news, the first thing I thought," adds Officer Chiappore, "was that, far from being a car left without a driver for some unimportant reason, it was a case of
CYANIDE IS THE OBSESSION OF THE MOMENT
A former minister in the government of Dr. José Camilo Crotto took his own life this afternoon by swallowing a solution of potassium cyanide. Undoubtedly, cyanide is in fashion. It is owed to Dr. Pando, its discoverer. Yesterday it was the Ray case. Then that of the tragic couple of Avenida Centenario. And now a real personage, a former minister, who in a public square calmly drinks the fatal solution!... We shall have to call 1926, in history, the year of cyanide. On page 8 we deal at length with this grave event. The suicide is Mr. Horacio Varela. He sought death on a bench in Plaza Intendente Alvear at 1:20 p.m., leaving two letters: one for a judge and another for the precinct commissioner.
Context
Crotto's provincial government and the former minister Horacio Varela
The bulletin identifies Horacio Varela only as a former minister of Dr. José Camilo Crotto's government, so Crotto's own record sets the frame. Crotto was a founding figure of the Radical Civic Union and presided over the party from 1909 to 1918; on 1 May 1918 he took over the government of Buenos Aires Province, and he resigned in 1921 after disagreements with President Hipólito Yrigoyen. If the paper's description is right, Varela's time in the cabinet fell within those three years, in a Radical administration that ended when the governor broke with Yrigoyen, and by October 1926 he had been out of office for at least five years. The Crotto record consulted does not list his ministers, so the only evidence for Varela's service is the newspaper's statement, which names neither his portfolio nor his dates.
How Crítica's style shaped 'the year of cyanide'
Crítica, Natalio Botana's mass-circulation paper, is described by the City of Buenos Aires heritage programme as sensationalist in tone and among the country's best sellers, printing as many as 300,000 copies a day, with an unprecedented front-page style of large headlines and abundant illustrations. The Varela bulletin shows that manner at work: it strings together the Ray case, the Avenida Centenario couple and a former minister's death into a single trend, adds an exclamation, and coins 'the year of cyanide' for 1926. The Polack pages show the other side of the formula, with a Crítica police reporter standing beside the commissioner at the crime scene and witnesses' accounts relayed through first-person narration. The label 'year of cyanide' and the description of a Dr. Pando as cyanide's 'discoverer' are the paper's own rhetoric; the sources consulted do not establish whether cyanide cases actually rose in 1926.
Where Bella Vista lay in the Polack case
The Polack report turns on Bella Vista: the decisive tip came from the Bella Vista sub-precinct, and the doctor whose account the paper quotes was driving toward Bella Vista when he looked back at the unlit car on the bridge. Bella Vista is a locality in the northern part of Greater Buenos Aires, today belonging to the partido of San Miguel; it sits on the north bank of the Reconquista River, also known as Las Conchas, and borders the Campo de Mayo military base. Its nineteenth-century planner, the French surveyor Adolfo Sourdeaux, conceived it as a summer town made up entirely of large country retreats. That origin as a town of country retreats is consistent with the scene the paper describes, a dark stretch of road where only a bridge lamp gave light. The excerpts do not name the bridge, and the full report on page 3 was not available.
Original
LA POLICIA TIENE UNA PISTA
Hoy poco después de mediodía, en circunstancias que el comisario De la Cuesta, acompañado por otros funcionarios policiales y uno de nuestros cronistas de policía se hallaba en el lugar donde fué encontrado el cadáver de Polack efectuando averiguaciones, llegó el oficial inspector Miguel Chiappare, de la subcomisaría de Bella Vista, quien proporcionó un dato de trascendental importancia, que quizás El oficial Miguel
Los criminales huyen
Refirióme, luego, el médico, que después de tomar las características del coche, subió a su automóvil emprendiendo la marcha hacia Bella Vista. Poco antes de los 100 metros, detuvo un poco el vehículo y en un arranque de curiosidad, casi instintivo, se dió vuelta pra ver si alguien asomaba al claro del foco del puente. No vió a nadie. En el puente quedaba el automóvil misterioso, sin luces, envuelto en sombras. Matanzas 30 alquiler - - Al enterarme de la novedad, lo primero que pensé - agrega el oficial Chiappore - era que lejos de tratarse de un coche sin gobierno, por cualquier motivo sin importancia, tratábase de
EL CIANURO ES LA OBSESION DEL MOMENTO
Un ex ministro del Gobierno del Dr. José Camilo Crotto se quitó esta tarde la vida, ingiriendo una solución de cianuro de potasio Indudablemente, el cianuro está de moda. Se debe al Dr. Pando, su descubridor. Ayer, fué el caso de Ray. Luego, el de la trágica pareja de la Avenida Centenario. Y, ahora, todo un personaje, un ex ministro, que en una plaza, bebe tranquilamente la solución fatal!... A 1926 tendremos que denominarlo, en la historia, el año del cianuro. En la página 8 nos ocupamos extensamente de este grave suceso. El suicida es el señor Horacio Varela. Buscó la muerte en un banco de la plaza Intendente Alvear, a las 13. 20, dejando dos cartas: una para un juez y otra para el comisario seccional.
Source: Source: Internet Archive / Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina