The whipping boy

As in almost all companies, there is often a whipping boy among the employees who is punished for the mistakes of others and is ridiculed. One such whipping boy was 22-year-old locksmith’s apprentice Johann Karl Hack, who worked with 24-year-old Karl Jenker and Anton Kebert, who was the same age, in a locksmith’s workshop in Gumpendorf and lived with them in a room there. Karl Hack, who was not particularly popular with his colleagues due to his vanity and clumsiness at work, was deeply in love with the locksmith’s daughter, Kathi. However, she had her eye on Anton Kebert. Shortly before Christmas, the three locksmith apprentices sat together with their locksmith master, his wife and daughter, and their friend Kathi. Karl Jenker entertained the illustrious group with his anecdotes about narcotics. He praised the Egyptian narcotic in the highest terms. Curious, Kathi wanted to know from Karl Hack, of all people, whether he would dare to try the miracle herb. He did not want to embarrass himself and said yes, knowing that this remedy from the Orient was difficult to obtain. But Karl Jenker said that a friend of his, a sailor who had traveled to the Orient, had given him a small amount of it as a gift. He then asked Karl Hack if he would keep his word and try it. Not wanting to back down in front of Kathi, he agreed to try the miracle drug. Jenker quickly fetched a glass containing a brown liquid that smelled like rum. Of course, he had played a joke on Kerber and, instead of adding 40 drops of the anesthetic as they had said, he had poured 80% straw rum into the glass. They wanted to have some fun at the expense of the vain Karl Hack. He emptied the glass in one gulp and immediately sank to the floor. The next morning, he woke up with a terrible hangover on a bench in a tavern. The innkeeper had found him at his gate and didn’t want him to freeze to death in the icy temperatures, so he had put him on the bench in the tavern to sleep. Completely exhausted, Karl Hack returned to the locksmith’s workshop and vowed to take revenge on his two colleagues. This time, the two journeymen had gone too far. He had long been seething with hatred for the two journeymen, who earned more wages than him and made fun of him at his expense. They made fun of him especially when Kathi was visiting the locksmith’s daughter. So, on the night of December 12-13, 1830, he hid a blacksmith’s hammer under his pillow. At around 7 a.m., he struck Jenker twice on the head and Kebert three times. He then took 1 guilder, 10 convention thalers, and Kebert’s silver pocket watch from Kebert’s chest. When Kebert raised his head, he fetched the bench hammer from the workshop and struck Kebert’s head again. Karl Jenker died of his head injuries on the morning of December 25 without regaining consciousness. Miraculously, Anton Kebert survived the severe head injuries. When the police arrived, Karl Hack immediately confessed to the crime. He was sentenced to death by hanging for murder, attempted murder, and aggravated theft. Karl Hack was executed on May 19, 1931. Thus ended the story of Karl Hack, the whipping boy.