The records of the times show many isolated instances of atrocious
murders perpetrated on defenceless travellers. A peculiarly horrible
case was the doing to death of the beautiful girl, Dorothea
Blankenfeld, at the post-house of Maitingen near Augsburg by her
travelling companions, who had accompanied her for many stages, ever
thirsting for her blood, but constantly foiled for want of opportunity
until the last night before arriving at their destination.
The victim was a native of Friedland, who started
from Danzig in November, 1809, on her way to Vienna, where she was
to join her intended husband, a war commissary in the French
service. She had reached Dresden, but halted there until her friends
could find a suitable escort for the rest of the journey. She was
young, barely twenty-four years old, remarkably good looking, of
gentle disposition and spotless character. The opportunity for which
she awaited presented itself when two French military postilions
arrived in Dresden and sought passports for Vienna. It was easy to
add the Fraulein Blankenfeld's name in the route paper, and she left
Dresden with her escort, who had already doomed her to destruction.
The two postilions were really man and wife, for
one was a woman in disguise. They gave their names as Antoine and
Schulz, but they were really the two Antoninis. The man was a native
of southern Italy, who as a boy had been captured by Barbary pirates
and released by a French warship. He had been a drummer in a
Corsican battalion, a laqnais de place, a sutler and lastly a French
army postilion. His criminal propensities were developed early; he
had been frequently imprisoned, twice in Berlin and once in Mayence
with his wife, — for he had married a woman named Marschall of
Berlin, — and he had been constantly denounced as a thief and
incendiary. At Erfurt he had broken prison and effected the escape
of his fellow-prisoners. Theresa Antonini had been a wild, obstinate
and vicious girl, who after marriage became a partner also in her
husband's evil deeds and shared his imprisonment. The pair were on
their way south to Antonini's native place in Messina, very short of
money, and they took with them Carl Marschall, the woman's brother,
a boy barely fifteen years of age.
Dorothea Blankenfeld was a tempting bait to their
cupidity. She was fashionably dressed, her trunk was full of linen
and fine clothes, and she really carried about two thousand thalers
sewed in her stays, a fact then unknown to her would-be murderers.
A scheme was soon broached by Antonini to his
wife to make away with the girl, and young Carl Marschall was
prevailed upon to join in the plot. They waited only for a
favourable opportunity to effect their purpose, devising many plans
to murder her and conceal their crime. The whole journey was
occupied with abortive attempts. They selected their quarters for
the night with this idea, but some accident interposed to save the
threatened victim, who was altogether unconscious of her impending
fate.
At Hof a plan was devised of stifling her with
smoke in her bed, but the results seemed uncertain, and it was not
tried. At Berneck, between Hof and Bayreuth, they lodged in a lonely
inn at the foot of a mountain covered with wood, and here the corpse
might be buried during the night. But Theresa Antonini had discarded
her postilion's disguise, and as two women had arrived, the
departure of only one the next morning must surely arouse suspicion.
The following night the notion of choking the girl with the fumes of
smoke was revived, but was dismissed for the same reason, the
doubtful result. Death must be dealt in some other way if it was to
be risked at all. So they drugged her, took her keys from under her
pillow, and opened and examined her trunks, finding more than enough
to seal her doom.
They arrived next at Niirnberg, a likely place,
where many streams of water flowing through the city might help to
get rid of the body. But a sentry happened to have his post just in
front of the inn, and this afforded protection to the threatened
girl. At this time Carl Marschall proposed to mix pounded glass in
her soup, but the scheme was rejected by Antonini, who declared that
he had often swallowed broken glass for sport without ill effects.
At Roth, a suitable weapon was found in a loft, — a mattock with
three iron prongs, — and a pool of water for the concealment of the
body was discovered in a neighbouring field, so the deed was to be
perpetrated here, after administering another sleeping draught. The
mischance that a number of carriers put up that night at the inn
again shielded the Fraulein. Insurmountable objections arose also at
Weissenberg and Donauvvorth, and as they had now reached the last
stage but one, it seemed as if the murder might never be committed.
The last station was Maitingen near Augsburg,
where the girl was to leave the party, and here fresh incitement was
given to guilty greed by her incautious admission that she carried a
quantity of valuables on her person. Somehow she must be disposed of
that night. The boy Carl was to be the principal agent in the crime;
it was thought that his youth would save him from capital
punishment, an inevitable sentence for the others if convicted. The
lad showed no reluctance to the act, and only hesitated lest he
should not be strong enough to complete it, but his sister said that
Antonini would help as soon as the first blow was struck, and she
further tempted him with the promise of a substantial gift.
Carl had discovered in the post-house a heavy
roller which he hid in Antonini's bed-room. Then he dug a hole in
the yard, intended for the disposal of the body. Antonini bought
some candles, and on the pretence of using a foot bath, much warm
water was prepared to cleanse the blood stains. At supper Dorothea
drank some brandy and water mixed with laudanum, and was taken off
to bed half stupefied. About midnight the murderers viewed their
intended victim and found her asleep, but in a position unfavourable
for attack, as her face was turned to the wall. Now a change of plan
was proposed, — to pour molten lead into her ears and eyes, — but on
heating the fragments of a spoon over the candle, it was seen that a
drop which fell on the sheet merely scorched it, which indicated
that the metal cooled too quickly to destroy life.
Another visit was paid to the victim at four
o'clock, and now Carl was ordered to strike the first blow, which
fell with murderous effect; but the poor girl was able to raise
herself in bed and to plead piteously for her life. A fierce
struggle ensued; repeated blows were rained upon her and she sank
upon the floor in the agony of death, while Antonini tore at the
money she still carried on her person. As the wretched woman still
breathed and groaned audibly, Antonini savagely trampled and jumped
on her body until life was quite extinct. When afterward examined,
the body was found to be grievously bruised and swollen, the collar
bone was broken, and there were nine wounds made by a blunt
instrument on the brow and other parts of the head.
The house was disturbed at first by the piercing
shrieks of the victim, and the postmaster listened at her door but
heard nothing more. It was noticed the following morning that
although the party was to have started at five o'clock, they were
not ready to leave until nine. The attention of the postmaster, who
was looking out of the window, was attracted by a curiously shaped
bundle which the men dragged out of the house and flung into the
carriage, something hke the carcass of a dog, or it might be of a
human being. Then the party entered the carriage and drove away, but
it was observed that there was only one woman in the carriage
instead of the two who had arrived on the previous evening. The
rooms upstairs were now visited and the terrible catastrophe was
forthwith discovered. Walls, floor and bed were drenched with blood
and it was plain that an atrocious murder had been committed.
Information was at once given to the authorities, and the carriage
was promptly pursued. It was overtaken at the gates of Augsburg, and
the culprits were seized and lodged in gaol. The suspicious looking
bundle, wrapped up in a long blue cloak, had been tied up behind the
carriage, and when examined it was found to contain the wounded and
much battered corpse of a young woman.
In the course of the protracted criminal
proceedings which followed, the boy Carl Marschall was the first to
confess his guilt. The Antoninis were obstinately reticent, but at
last, after nineteen long examinations, Theresa, when confronted
with her brother, also acknowledged her share in the deed. Antonini
was persistent in his denial and sought continually to deceive the
judge by a variety of lying statements, but even he yielded at last
and made a disjointed but still self-incriminating confession.
Husband and wife were both convicted and sentenced by the court at
Nurnberg to death by the sword. Their boy accomplice, Carl Marschall,
in consideration of his youth, was condemned to ten years'
imprisonment at hard labour. Antonini escaped the punishment he so
well deserved by dying in prison; but his wife was not so fortunate
and suffered the penalty of death upon the scaffold, hardened and
unrepentant to the last. •
Perhaps no more brutal murder than this committed
by the Antoninis has ever been recorded, though at that time, when
the activities of the brigand and highway robber were not entirely
suppressed, doubtless many atrocities were perpetrated, the true
stories of which have remained forever in obscurity.
