Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
A heinous murder took place on 12 June 1920 in the ground-floor flat at 21 Preysinggasse in Vienna’s 15th district, Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus. The victim was 30-year-old confectioner Franz Wittmann, who had been found by innkeeper Alois Schremler. Schremler ran a pub in the same building and was about to go to bed at around 12.30 am. When he heard a noise, he went out into the corridor, where he heard loud moaning. The sound was coming from the confectioner’s flat, so Alois Schremler ran to the door to ring the bell. But just at that moment, a blood-soaked Franz Wittmann opened the door. Alois Schremler alerted the other residents, who attended to the seriously injured man and called an ambulance. The ambulance took the seriously injured man to the Kaiserin-Elisabeth Hospital. However, Franz Wittmann succumbed to his serious injuries before they arrived. Meanwhile, Alois Schremler had gone back to his pub. As he glanced out onto the street from there, he saw a young man climbing out of the window of Wittmann’s ground-floor flat. Alois Schremler immediately ran towards him, and the man immediately fled in the direction of Goldschlagerstraße. Alois gave chase, joined by two passers-by and a municipal policeman. They actually managed to corner and arrest the man. The young man turned out to be the 19-year-old carpenter’s assistant Leopold Bartl. In the course of the investigation, it emerged that Franz Wittmann, who had been born on 18 August 1889 in Orth an der Donau, was homosexual. Wittmann had, admittedly, once married a woman named Anna. However, they lived together for only eight months, as Wittmann had indecently approached her four boys from Anna’s first marriage. Franz Wittmann, who ran a bakery from his home, thereafter entertained himself with male prostitutes, among whom he was extremely popular. He paid well and gave the boys goods from his bakery in return for their services. Wittmann was regarded as a rich man in the male prostitution scene. The unemployed Leopold Bartl, who became Wittmann’s favourite boy, had also realised this. He had met Wittmann at the Wimberger wine bar at Christmas. One day, Wittmann had told Bartl that he had saved a lot of money, with which he intended to retire. This was his death sentence, for Bartl now wanted to get his hands on the money. On 12 June 1920, Wittmann was once again spending time with Bartl. After having sex, they went to sleep. Two hours later, Bartl got up and fetched a wood-chopping axe from the kitchen. With this, he struck the sleeping Wittmann in the throat. Wittmann jolted awake and ran to the door. As he opened it, he fell into the arms of Alois Schremler. The blow from Bartl had caused Wittmann to suffer a fracture of the larynx, which led to suffocation. Leopold Bartl was charged with murder with intent to rob and was unanimously found guilty by the jury. He was sentenced to 15 years’ hard labour, with the sentence aggravated by harsh conditions and solitary confinement in a dark cell on every anniversary of the murder.
