Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
On his day off, February 20, 1995, 44-year-old detective Christian Gillinger was up early to buy his 8-year-old son’s favorite doughnuts at a small pastry shop in Vienna’s Hietzing district for his birthday party. Suddenly, a young, dark-haired man entered the small café and walked purposefully toward a table where a middle-aged man and a woman were having breakfast. Completely out of the blue, he pulled out a revolver and shot the man in the arm, then turned to leave. But he changed his mind and shot the man in the leg as well. Then he fled. Christian Gillinger immediately ran after the man, who had panicked and run into a dead-end street. When he noticed his pursuer, he fired at him; Gillinger returned fire with a small-caliber revolver. Then, by chance, a truck drove by. In a flash, the young man jumped onto the truck’s rear tailgate. Gillinger then flagged down a female driver, who proceeded to chase the truck alongside the detective. Due to a red light, both vehicles had to stop near Schönbrunn Palace. The young man jumped off the truck and ran toward Gillinger. From a distance of 20 centimeters, he hit him in the thigh; then a second shot from 10 centimeters grazed Gillinger’s arm. This bullet pierced through his lung to his spine. Gillinger, who had only wanted to pick up doughnuts for his son, was dead instantly. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. His killer initially fled on foot but then returned to the female driver and took her car. A short time later, he abandoned the getaway car in Vienna’s 14th district, Penzing. The actual victim turned out to be attorney Jürgen Lahner, who was immediately treated by two nurses after the shooting—they had coincidentally also been having breakfast at the café. During the ride to the hospital, the lawyer told a police officer riding with him that he had been threatened several times recently. The investigation was in full swing. Witnesses reported seeing two young men. Before the assailant entered the café, he had been talking to another young, blond man. After the attack, both fled in different directions. Witnesses also noticed a red Alfa Romeo with Swiss license plates. As early as 9:15 a.m., a red Alfa Romeo with Swiss license plates was stopped at the Vienna city limits near Purkersdorf. Two young men were inside. The driver was a 33-year-old Italian fitness trainer named Luca Domenico. His passenger was the Swiss pilot Simon Widmer. Since the description of the perpetrator matched the driver, he was taken to the Hietzing police station. However, the lineup with the witnesses did not result in a clear identification. Domenico was allowed to leave the police station without undergoing a gunshot residue test. Meanwhile, the detectives searched Jürgen Lahner’s law office. His files revealed that in March 1994, he had been beaten up by a man outside a wine tavern in Hietzing. In April as well, Lahner had been knocked down by a man and tortured with a stun gun. In May, he had received a threatening letter from Prague. Who was threatening Jürgen Lahner, and why? When confronted with these questions, Lahner was certain that this was not a message from the underworld, but rather related to the Rampold divorce case. He was representing the 61-year-old building contractor Rudolf Rampold in his divorce from his 47-year-old wife, the lawyer Friedericke Rampold. Lahner had held his wife responsible for her husband’s tax debts amounting to 13 million euros. Lahner sued her and prevailed in two civil lawsuits. Friedericke Rampold was supposed to receive 3 million euros at the end of April 1994. But instead of the money, she faced only lawsuits. Both couples were now living abroad. Rampold had fled to Switzerland following the alleged bribery scandal, while his wife was living in the south of France with her young lover, the 34-year-old Slovenian Marjan Krajic. The couple traveled to the police station in Vienna for questioning. There, handcuffs were snapped on her lover, who had accompanied Friedericke Rampold. This was because both Luca Domenico and Simon Widmer were members of his former fitness club. The detectives were certain that Marjan Krajic had commissioned them to carry out the assassination attempt on attorney Lahner. In the meantime, two officers had flown to Zurich. They questioned both the pilot Simon Widmer and Luca Domenico. Since Swiss citizens cannot be extradited to Austria under the international agreement, Simon Widmer had to stand trial in Switzerland for aiding and abetting. Luca Domenico, on the other hand, did not avail himself of this option and traveled to Vienna without any bureaucratic hurdles, where he confessed to shooting attorney Jürgen Lahner and killing Christian Gillinger. He had discarded the murder weapon, a Smith & Wesson .38 Special, while fleeing toward Purkersdorf, not far from the train station. Indeed, the murder weapon was found there, its serial number having been filed off. Luca Domenico named pilot Simon Widmer as the person who had commissioned the crime; Widmer had procured the pistol for him and promised a large sum of money if he intimidated the lawyer by shooting him in the arm and leg. Simon Widmer had driven Luca Domenico to Vienna, where they checked into a hotel near the Auhof. The next morning, they drove to the pastry shop in Hietzing where Lahner usually had breakfast. Widmer bought something to make sure Lahner was there. Then Luca Domenico carried out the assignment. He could not have known that, of all days, Detective Gillinger was present at the shooting. Simon Widmer confirmed Domenico’s statement but named Friedericke Rampold as the instigator. Simon Widmer reported that Krajic had told him about his girlfriend’s difficulties in the divorce proceedings during a workout at the fitness center. Afterward, he spied on Lahner. Krajic wanted Widmer to teach Lahner a lesson. But Widmer refused and subsequently hired Luca Domenico, who carried out the attacks on Lahner in March and April. Friedericke Rampold denied this. However, due to the overwhelming evidence, she was arrested. The detectives were certain that Friedericke Rampold and Marjan Krajic were the masterminds behind the attack on attorney Lahner. The pilot Widmer played the role of the organizer who had hired Luca Domenico to carry out the acts. It turned out that after the attack on Lahner, an attack on Rudolf Rampold had been planned. He was to be murdered. As early as the fall of 1993, Friedericke Rampold had hired Simon Widmer and Luca Domenico to murder her husband for 7,300 euros. On April 6, 1995, the trial against Friedericke Rampold and Marjan Krajic began on charges of intentional aggravated assault and coercion. Both were found guilty by the court. Marjan Krajic was sentenced to 3 years in prison. Friedericke Rampold was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison but appealed the decision in the fall of 1995. Under the Christmas amnesty, half of her sentence was remitted. Simon Widmer was tried in Switzerland for aiding and abetting the shooting attack. Luca Domenico stood trial before the Vienna judges in October 1995 for the murder of detective Christian Gillinger. Since he convincingly assured the jury that he had merely intended to shoot the weapon out of his pursuer’s hand, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for assault resulting in death. Thus ended one of the deadliest feuds.
