Experiences Of Mr. Breitenfeld, the Austrian
Detective

A Nice Young Man—A Letter-Carrier Missing—Horrible Scene In The Apartments Of Mr. Alfonso Mendoza—A Handkerchief And A Hat—Different Flaws In An Otherwise Well-Planned And Executed Crime—How The Austrian Detective Makes Use Of The Telegraph—Twice Misled—A Very Social Dinner Party—A Smoke After Dinner—Mr. Francesconi Under Arrest—His Repentance And Judgment

by George McWatters

The “Aziendahof,” one of those enormous buildings of Vienna, Austria, one side of which fronts towards the “Graben,” the other to the “Goldschmiedstrasse,” was, on the 18th of October, 1874, the spectacle of a bloody crime.

This crime is so premeditated in its plan, so horribly exact in its execution, that we, while reading an account of it, imagine ourselves running over those exciting chapters of the “Mysteries of Paris,” or the startling accounts of crimes of other great cities. And indeed, a romantic veil was, for a long time, spread over a crime which alarmed the public of the Austrian capital.

A young man arrives in the city, takes elegant quarters in the most fashionable part of the city, gives himself a foreign name, and soon contrives to gain the confidence of all who know him, by his easy way of spending money, without overdoing it, and his amiability.

At once, he has disappeared, and with him a letter-carrier, who, when looked for, is found lying murdered in the room of the young man.

We will give a minute account of the affair, as found in the Vienna newspapers, and afterwards relate the experiences in this case of the detective of the Vienna police, Mr. Breitenfeld.

Johann Guga, a letter-carrier in Vienna, who had been in office for more than twenty years, was known as a strictly honest man, who did his duty in the most conscientious way, and therefore was entrusted with carrying the… Read More