On the twenty-sixth day of November, 1809, at about four of the afternoon, a couple presented themselves at the post-house inn at Maitingen, near Augsburg. Joseph Antonini and his wife Theresa were attired in the uniform of postilions of the French army. Travelling in their company was Dorothea Blankenfeld, a young gentlewoman journeying to Vienna to be united in marriage with a French officer. A youth named Carl Marschall, Theresa’s brother, had also joined their train. The volume by Anselm von Feuerbach, formerly a Bavarian judge, recounts their apprehension, the inquest, and the conflicting testimonies rendered by the accused, resting in main upon the admissions of the lad.
The French way-bill bore three names: Antoine, Schulz, and Blankenfeld. Carl had at first assumed the surname of Schulz; along the way, these identities shifted once more, Theresa travelling in men’s apparel while Carl played the role of a domestic. She had departed Danzig furnished with letters of recommendation and a determined destination. Within the lining of her stays, according to the depositions transcribed by Feuerbach, she had sewn two thousand thalers. The couple possessed insufficient funds to reach Messina; this disparity of fortune was to govern the fate of their journey.
According to the judicial enquiry, the design of dispatching Blankenfeld was broached but a few stages past their departure from Dresden. Carl’s testimony attributed to Antonini and Theresa the resolution to possess themselves of their fellow-traveller’s worldly goods, followed by their active contrivance of the deed. They essayed diverse expedients without daring to strike. At Hof, Antonini proposed suffocating her with the fumes of an earthen stove; Theresa deemed the method uncertain. At a stage situated in all likelihood at Berneck, they meditated slaying the traveller and burying her corpse within an adjacent wood; yet the host had observed the arrival of two women, and the unexplained absence of one at departure must inevitably have aroused suspicion.
At Bayreuth, the design of the vaporous fumes returned: Antonini suggested feeding the stove with damp straw. Theresa apprehended that Blankenfeld might awake and set open the casement. They then deliberated upon delivering a blow with a bludgeon, charging Carl with securing one. In a hamlet situated between Bayreuth and Nuremberg, they mixed opium into a draught of negus and, taking advantage of Blankenfeld’s heavy slumber, ransacked her trunks. They discovered therein linen, garments, and sundry jewels, yet none of the money they so eagerly sought. The thalers quilted within her stays remained undetected.
At Nuremberg, the presence of a sentry on guard near the hostelry rendered any attempt, in their eyes, perilous beyond measure. At Roth, Theresa espied in a garret a three-pronged pickaxe, which Carl conveyed into their bedchamber. They also debated where the body might be disposed of: one contemplated a pit in a furrowed field, another a cistern. Teamsters presently arrived at the inn; here again, the multitude of witnesses compelled them to defer their intent. They subsequently passed two nights at Weissenburg and Donauwörth, failing to encounter the propitious occasion they awaited.
Prior to their arrival at Maitingen, Antonini endeavoured to ascertain whether Blankenfeld carried other treasures upon her person. He spoke to her of the Tyrolean insurgents and the atrocities they allegedly committed to possess themselves of the meanest spoil. Seized with dread, she laid her hand upon her breast, declaring that she would gladly surrender all she concealed there if they would but spare her life. This utterance, as recorded by the chronicler, betrayed to the conspirators that her fortune was borne upon her person. At the inn, they resolved to consummate the deed.
Carl procured a heavy wooden roller, weighing some four pounds, and concealed it within the Antoninis’ chamber. He was subsequently directed to hollow out a grave within the dung-heap, though he failed in the labour. Antonini purchased tallow candles and brandy. Following supper, he mingled laudanum into Blankenfeld’s drink; towards eight o’clock, overcome by giddiness, she retired to her chamber, leaving unlatched the door communicating with that of the couple. They prepared hot water under the pretext of a foot-bath, and bolted the outer door against the world.
Carl entered near midnight to observe the posture of the sleeper. Her face was turned toward the wall. The three kept vigil. They next attempted to melt a pewter spoon, that they might pour the molten metal into her ears or eyes; a drop spilled upon the sheet served merely to scorch the linen, and this design was abandoned. Towards four of the morning, Carl re-entered the chamber. Blankenfeld lay upon her back, her countenance turned toward him. Antonini whispered to him that the hour had struck.
Carl raised the roller, faltered, and drew back. According to his deposition, Antonini then seized the hand that grasped the weapon and guided the first stroke. Blankenfeld started awake, crying out of a mortal pain in her head. Antonini pinned her by the shoulders and Theresa by the feet; the wretched woman offered all her worldly goods in exchange for her life. Carl cast away the cudgel and sought to flee. Theresa dragged him back into the room and forced the roller once more into his grasp. The ensuing blow struck Antonini upon the forehead as fiercely as it did Blankenfeld; Carl again let fall the instrument. The traveller made a desperate rush toward the door, yet Antonini overtook her and beat her relentlessly until she collapsed. He then ripped away the monies sewn within her vestments. Feuerbach relates that, hearing her still gasp for breath, Antonini planted his boots upon her chest and trampled her until she drew her last.
They stuffed the corpse into a sack and enveloped it within a horse-cloth. Theresa scrubbed clean such bloodstains as she could, and cast off her postilion’s habit to attire herself in the garments of Blankenfeld. At daybreak, Carl descended, muffling his face; he related to the inn’s postilion that his brother-in-law had beaten him. Antonini then commanded a roaring fire to be kindled in the upper stove. The hostler noticed blood upon Antonini’s hand, yet supposed he had drawn blood from his young kinsman. The departure, appointed for five of the morning, was delayed until past nine. A bulky package was hoisted into the carriage.
The people of the post-house presently perceived that the young gentlewoman who had arrived in their company was not stepping into the coach. They inspected the chambers, discovering blood upon the floorboards, the wall, and the bedstead. The alarm was given; the carriage, which had barely left the yard when the stains were brought to light, was pursued and overtaken at the gates of Augsburg. The bale, now lashed to the rear of the vehicle, was opened to reveal the corpse of Blankenfeld. Carl confessed his share and accused Antonini. The couple at first entered a denial, maintaining that the lad had acted alone and that they had done no more than conceal the murder.
Their narratives altered under the rigours of repeated interrogation. Carl related the long preparations and the murderous stroke. Theresa, confronted by her brother, ended by acknowledging a portion of the facts, though persisting in the denial of certain overt acts. Antonini gave several irreconcilable accounts, then admitted having struck Blankenfeld after Carl’s initial blow. He insisted that he had harboured no murderous design, and had remained ignorant of the monies stitched into her stays. The criminal court of Nuremberg condemned Joseph Antonini and Maria Theresa to perish by the sword; Carl Franz Ludwig Marschall, being yet under the age of majority, was sentenced to ten years of penal servitude. Antonini expired in his dungeon prior to the day of execution. His wife died upon the scaffold.
Carl had not attained fifteen years at the time of the deed. His parents, examined as to his character, described him as a pliant and docile boy; Theresa, by contrast, was portrayed by them as intractable and headstrong. Their father petitioned the magistrates of Augsburg for mercy, yet his supplication pleaded for the life of his son alone.