Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
Jealousy can lead to danger and ultimately to murder. This was the fate of 46-year-old Juliane Karner, who was murdered by her own husband, 43-year-old Anton Karner, out of blind jealousy. But how did it come to this, that Anton Karner became a murderer? To answer these questions, let’s take a look at his life. Anton Karner was born on August 16, 1870, in Kirchberg an der Pielach. He fell into alcoholism at an early age. He was notorious for his outbursts of rage, which is why he repeatedly lost his job and eked out a living as a laborer. Then, in 1893, he met Juliane, a laborer, whom he married four years later. They had two daughters. The couple lived with them in a ground floor apartment at Schanzstraße 27 in Vienna’s 15th district, Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus. Juliane had to provide for the family on her own. She not only ran the household, but also earned a living, as her useless husband was incapable of doing so. In order to have more income, she let the painter’s assistant Alois Schuster live with her as a lodger. Bedfellows could not afford the main rent, which is why they only rented the right to sleep in a bed. Juliane got along very well with Alois, who, unlike her husband, offered her a strong shoulder to lean on. This did not suit Anton at all, which is why there were more and more arguments until Alois finally had to move out. Anton triumphed, but did not change his behavior. He drank incessantly and abused not only his wife but also his two daughters, until Juliane had had enough and threw him out of the apartment. She filed for divorce. Anton refused to accept this, and when he heard that Alois had moved back in with his still-wife, he completely lost his temper. On August 17, 1913, he sneaked into the apartment at around 2 p.m. He wanted to change Juliane’s mind. When he saw her chatting in the hallway with her neighbor Katharina Schwaher and Alois, he ran straight at her and stabbed her twice in the abdomen with a knife. Juliane collapsed unconscious. She was immediately taken to the Empress Elisabeth Hospital, where she died without regaining consciousness. Anton Karner was arrested and, instead of the death penalty, received a surprisingly lenient sentence of five years in a harsh prison, exacerbated by solitary confinement in a dark cell on each anniversary of the bloody deed, which he began immediately. The judges had shown mercy because Anton Karner, at the moment he saw Juliane with his hated rival Alois, had experienced such a violent emotional outburst that he simply saw red and stabbed her. Anton’s blind jealousy had cost Juliane her life.
