Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
A Czech Robin Hood, revered in many popular Czech songs and novels of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a protector of the poor against the authorities, was the bandit chief Wenzel Babinsky. He was the son of a day labourer who had joined the military in 1816. As Babinsky disliked military drill, he not only feigned mental illness but also threatened other soldiers. This led to him being admitted to a military psychiatric hospital in the Czech capital, Prague, from which he was discharged in 1824. From then on, he roamed the countryside as a vagrant, eking out a living through theft. As a result, he ended up in prison in 1825 and 1829. However, Babinsky was lucky, as the charges of theft against him were dropped. From then on, he organised a small gang of highwaymen, which included his lover Apolena Hoffmann. From that point onwards, the gang roamed the country, robbing and murdering. On 24 March 1830, the gang raided the house of the miller Anton Heine, tying up him and his housekeeper and stealing 500 Prussian talers. Unfortunately, Heine suffered a heart attack during the incident, from which he died. On the night of 1 May 1830, the gang broke into the house of Jan Paul in Lysá nad Labem, where they beat his wife and attempted to tie Paul to his bed. But he managed to escape. He fled to the village and sought help there. When he returned to his house, the only things missing were items of clothing worth 15 gold pieces. On the night of 15 January 1831, the gang broke into the house of the ferryman Jan Krejza in Brozany to steal his savings, which he had set aside to buy an inn. In total, they made off with 2,500 gold pieces and lottery tickets worth 380 gold pieces. Babinsky became one of the most wanted robbers; he was arrested on 19 January 1832 by the village reeve during a routine check in the village of Hühnerwasser. Not only did the village reeve notice Babinsky’s forged passport in the name of Josef Schmid – which had been issued to him by a corrupt clerk at the town hall in Vrchnov – but, to make matters worse, Apolena’s two loaded pistols had fallen out of her coat. Although Apolena managed to escape, Babinsky ended up in prison in Prague despite putting up fierce resistance – during which he bit the village mayor’s thumb and injured two of his assistants. He managed to break out of prison after four months. Once free, he settled in the Oberkamnitz area, where he committed his most serious crime. On 4 July 1833, in the woods near Hasel, he attacked the weaving agent Johann Gottfried Blumberg from Hirschfelde, whom he killed with eight knife wounds. He managed to steal 200 talers, several ells of fabric and some coffee. The manhunt for Babinsky was in full swing; he was hiding in Łódź until, in 1835, he came up with the mad idea of returning to his hometown of Leitmeritz under the name Anton Müller. There, he was arrested along with his lover Apolena and four gang members. They were charged with 12 offences at the Criminal Court in Prague. As Babinsky had often operated behind the scenes as the mastermind of the crimes, he could not be identified by the witnesses. Furthermore, Babinsky vehemently denied the crimes he was accused of, which is why only six offences could be conclusively proven against him. On 1 December 1840, Babinsky was sentenced to 20 years’ hard labour. His mistress, Apolena Hoffmann, was sentenced to 12 years’ hard labour. However, just 15 days after the verdict was handed down, Apolena died of a haemorrhage. On 10 June 1841, Babinsky was admitted as prisoner number 1042 to Spielberg Fortress near Brno, whose casemates were reserved for the most dangerous criminals in the Habsburg Monarchy. Babinsky was a model prisoner who always carried a rosary with him and prayed, which is why he won the trust of the chaplain and the prison authorities. As a result, he was allowed to care for the sick, which earned him certain privileges. When the prison in Spielberg was closed in 1855, Babinsky was transferred to the prison in Kartouze near Jilín, from where he was released in 1861. Babinsky, who was 65 years old, found employment as a gardener at the women’s prison in Řepy, a position he held until his death on 1 August 1879.
