Count Lamsdorff reported that Szogyeny, a close friend of Rudolph, definitely refused to believe the Mayerling spiel of Love & Death being packaged for public consumption by von Slatin for the Hofburg. “He will not even admit the possibility that the cause of the tragedy might have been a love affair ….. which in his opinion presented neither danger nor difficulty … in his opinion the truth is not to be found there. …. attribute the disaster entirely to political causes ….. his relations with Wilhelm II and Germany had become so strained beyond all possibility of amelioration…..”

The journal ‘The American’ wrote that ‘The Archduke’s taste for letters early drew him into sympathy with writers and artists of the capital and while still a young man he took obvious pleasure in meeting all classes of intellectual workers. I do not believe there is a single writer or artist of note throughout the Empire whom he has not personally met and corresponded with. He could converse with them  in their own tongue. He was even learning Turkish as to speak to the Bosnians. It would be easy to make  comparisons between this amiable, popular, and cultivated Prince cut down so ruthlessly  upon the threshold of his life with another Prince (Wilhelm) who has become Kaiser and whose conduct alienated all and sundry….”

The ‘Saturday Review’ referred to the many suspicious deaths of diverse opponents of Bismarck who once boasted how lucky he was to see people who opposed him to vanish so conveniently at just the right time. The Review listed diverse suspicious deaths of opponents of Bismarck as Leon Gambetta, Skobeleff, alongside Rudolph. ‘Weakened Austria can serve Bismarck’s ends….’

The Russian paper ‘Novoje Vremja’ warned that the death of the defender of the Slavs, Crown Prince Rudolph, would endanger the Slav people of Austro Hungary because Rudolph had been such a vigorous defender of minority and ethnic rights. With the death of Rudolph the Russian paper warned the Slavs could only fear being ‘swallowed up’ by the hated Prussians (implying that only Russia could save the entire Slav population by coming to the rescue and annexing the hinterland as well as the Balkans ).  Another Russian paper the ‘Svjet’ noted that the convenient sex scandal murder suicide of Ludwig of Bavaria who had crossed Bismarck closely resembled the demise of another royal : Rudolph.

Baron von Margutti tried to help von Slatin to contain the Mayerling murders to the official spiel of love and death but blurted out that Werner the game keeper of Rudolph died violently sometime between midnight and one o’clock when stable boys says Mayerling suddenly erupted into lights and shouts and ‘popping sounds’.

The poor Baron then blundered by reminding everyone that Bratfisch entered the bedroom, the door unlocked , to ‘wake Rudolph’ and ‘check the weather’ for a predawn hunt at 6:45 (which normally should have seen Rudolph up and about by 3:00 because predawn hunts in winter start between 6:30 and 7:00). Bratfisch  then  told the hunter Wodiczka around 7:00 that there would be no hunt today because Rudolph was already dead —– while Bratifsch was most curiously seated on his carriage —– despite this still officially being just another normal hunting day —– as if anticipating that someone would suddenly need to rush to the train station 90 minutes later ……. as Bratfisch most curiously waited and waited and waited as if an actor waiting for the stage director to come and give him his lines to say  …… which contradicted Loschek’s accounts that there was nothing suspicious occurring until 7:30 when Coburg (he of the famous 24 hour missing alibi) materialized to order the door forced open.

Bratfisch’s kindred, Conrad Bratfisch who worked for Rudolph’s secretary Count Frische, arrived between sixish and sevenish while trailing four suspicious Prussians from Spandau which he found loitering before the front gates of Mayerling as if waiting for someone. He was ordered to bugger off instead of being allowed in to see his kindred. As he was leaving around sevenish he heard two shots fired —– about the time Loschek claims Rudolph shot himself —- except Conrad Bratfisch said he thought the sounds sounded outside of Mayerling — coming from the front gates and the suspicious loitering Prussians.

Both Conrad Bratfisch and Count Fritsche admitted to all but picking the wallets of two of these suspicious Prussians in their brand new hunting togs but no hunting dogs. They found photos  of some of  the suspicious suspects posing in front of Spandau which Rudolph and others  accused of engaging in industrial espionage to steal gunnery secrets at Enfield Armory Great Britain  (for which Spandau spies  tried to hire Count Fritsche during the Jubilee ) France (to steal the Lebel Repeater Rifle and Vielle nitro gunpowder bullet through a double agent called Schnabele for 20,000 reich marks ) and also the patents and copyrights to the Mannlicher Repeater Rifle from Steyr Manufacturing in Bohemia.

Rudolph was also backing Steyr in threatening to sue Spandau for pilfering unless Steyr got a sweetheart deal to manufacture the troubled Commission Rifle which Rudolph and others whispered was having more than ‘teething problems’ or preproduction ‘hiccups’. Translation: serious defects. Further translation: guns blowing up.  The picked wallets also contained return tickets to Berlin on the 30th (so much for hunting!) and mysterious ciphers.

Since the 88 War Games Rudolph had been warning that the rumors of a fresh German War were premature because, unlike his own highly successful roll out of ultra modern weaponry,  the Spandau roll out of ultra modern weaponry was delayed.

In fact the Spandau roll out was experiencing ‘preproduction hiccups’ and ‘teething pains’. In fact the roll out was having serious problems: guns blowing up!

Was it the ‘Frankenstein Gun’ cobbled together from incompatible patents? Was it the knock off of the Rubin patent for the full metal jacket rifle bullet? Was it the knock off of the pilfered Vielle nitro? No one knew yet. But Rudolph’s job and expertise gained after taking over General Leopold’ s job of rolling out the Steyr Mannlicher Repeater Rifle and Steyr 1610  full metal jacket bullet allowed Rudolph an insider understanding that the German roll out was floundering despite rumors of a fast approaching war.

In fact Rudolph knew that even as Wilhelm II was signing the Imperial Degree to mass produce the Spandau Commission Repeater Rifle and full metal jacket nitro bullet with much boasting and strutting and pomp and circumstances  that Bismarck knew both were seriously flawed. Not just seriously flawed. Fatally flawed. In fact Bismarck was lying through his teeth. And Rudolph knew that Bismarck was lying through his teeth. And Bismarck knew  that Rudolph knew that Bismarck  was lying through his teeth.

In fact November saw both a fanfare signing of the Imperial Degree to mass produce the Spandau weaponry and a mysterious top secret wee hours of night meeting between Bismarck and Rudolph. Bismarck, the man who even made kings and kaisers piss in their drawers, descended on Rudolph’s home drafty old Laxenburg Castle in the dead of night, taking a secret train no less, to confront Rudolph in his night dress, robe, and slippers! Mayerling romantics always remember the famous Mary Meeting in Rudolph’s garret office! All ten minutes of it! With nine of those minutes spent in a back room  with Rudolph bellowing at Countess Larisch to go pimp her ‘sweet girl’ ie amateur whore Mary Vetsera for 24,000 gulden ( half of Rudolph’s entire 45,000 Hofburg stipend for the whole year) somewhere else to someone like Archduke Otto!

Everyone should be asking themselves why Bismarck would descend on Inspector General  Rudolph in the wee hours of night for a top secret meeting neither man ever told anyone else about!

If the German roll out of ultra modern weaponry quite literally blew up in the faces of every soldier welding a Spandau Commission Repeater Rifle along the Lorraine Border in a coming war then the buck would stop at the top: Mr. Commanding Heights Bismarck the Chancellor of the Imperial Second Reich! And Kaiser Willy had a gun fetish! Willy would not enjoy remembering all of that boasting, bragging, strutting, bellowing, pomp and circumstances, fanfare signing of that imperial degree to mass produce a defective gun and bullet!

By 1891  even Pan German newspaper reporters like Herman Ahlwardt were railing about the ‘unspeakable attempt to put a rifle into the hands of German soldiers that must be almost less dangerous to the enemy than to the user….’ (howbeit he blamed International Jewry and Ludwig Loewe who manufactured for Mauser and Steyr Manufacturing  and General Rudolph first). Had the great Bismarck blundered? Heaven forbid!

Between the end of the 88 War Games and 91Bismarck knew he would finally and at last be  fired after the rumors of war ebbed away as the full horrors of the Spandau Debacle became painfully manifested even to Kaiser Willy.  The reality was not just that Bismarck blundered the roll out of ultra modern weaponry for the Reich. The really painful reality was that Bismarck frantically tried to cover  up the extend of the debacle of the rollout of ultra modern weaponry which he was responsible for. That was the really unforgiveable part!

Bismarck’s ‘Veil of Secrecy’ between the 88 War Games and 91 tattered slowly as Bismarck tried to stonewall the truth about the defective gun and bullet which Gun Expert Paul S. Scarlata documents in detail on his books .

Like Francis Joseph and Supreme Commander Archduke Albrecht and Kaiser Wilhelm, Bismarck did not understand gunnery technology or the complex Gun Crisis as three revolutionary gun technologies converged at the same time as revolutionary machine gun technology and breech loading heavy artillery technology. These were men of an older time of smooth bore muskets and Baker Rifles and Pin  Rifles and muzzle loading artillery and soldiers in fancy dress marching across the battlefield in perfect lines of men as if on parade. Willy wanted Rudolph fired for refusing to order his infantry to goosestep!

Rudolph understood that once Browning broke the copyright monopoly of the Maxim Machine gun and the repeater rifle was launched by every nation’s military then war would be industrialized carnage.

Rudolph understood that the guns being created between 1888 and 1895 would be guns of modern world war.

Rudolph and other ‘Blues’ ie reformers and modernizers of the Austro Hungarian Military understood that warfare must change drastically or else millions of soldiers would die. That is why Rudolph boasted a good friend in General Longstreet. That Civil War General understood modern warfare the way Lee and Jackson never did. Both men saw the terrifying future of war.

And Willy had the attention span of an adolescent and the grasp of details of a nine year old. A gun to Willy was a fetish to compensate for a withered arm and small penis.

A gun to Rudolph was an obsessive compulsive excuse to clean for two hours while admiring the painstaking precision of perfect engineering while understanding the genius of how revolutionary gunnery technology worked.  Rudolph was jeered for his obsession for OCD details and ridiculed for holding up military meetings with his OCD anal obsession with details and daffy ideas like a bike corps  and introducing modern technology like electricity and telegraphic and wireless communications and realizing that cavalry charges were obsolete. But that made him the perfect man to roll out ultra modern weaponry.

The Austro Hungarian Army in 1888  actually had the best repeater rifle and all-but-the-best-bullet in the world.  In fact they were all but tied in first place with France!

In fact during the 88 War Games the toady aide de camps and Bismarck Junior blanched because they realized that fuddy duddy old Austro Hungary was ahead of them!

The carelessness of old men and their obsolete understanding of antiquated warfare resulted in the 11 mm Debacle (Albrecht aided and abetted by the penny pinching miser Francis Joseph) and the Spandau Debacle (Bismarck).

Meanwhile, during the 88 War Games Kaiser Willy made a fool of himself in front of gun experts while his toady aides de camp and Bismarck Junior blanched how good the Mannlicher Repeater Rifle and Steyr 1610 bullet was in comparison to preliminary tests back at Spandau —- of guns and bullets blowing up.

To the end Bismarck kept trying to shove defective weaponry into the shaking hands of terrified soldiers who knew the ‘Jew’s Musket’ could maim them, blow off hands, blow out eyes, even kill them. Bismarck was covering up  his blunder to the point where he actually thought he really could  wage a war with defective guns which the Reich would surely, disastrously, lose. The cover up lasted from the end of the 88 War games through 91. And one of the first people who knew about this shocking cover up was Inspector General along with Steyr Manufacturing and gun designer Mannlicher.

So Rudolph’s job allowed Rudolph access to Bismarck’s deepest and most terrifying secret. Who was pissing in his drawers during that wee hours of night meeting between Bismarck and Inspector General Rudolph?

And at the same time between the end of the 88 War Games and Mayerling Berlin pressed Francis Joseph to fire Rudolph as Inspector General. Both the Prince of Wales and Count Lamsdorff said that the ultimatums of Berlin to Francis Joseph to fire Rudolph as  Inspector General overseeing, among other things, ultra modern gunnery, led directing to events at Mayerling. Lamsdorff reported that the ultimatums, including ultimatums by Supreme Commander Archduke Albrecht who was going senile and therefore paranoid, led to a ‘violent confrontation’ between Francis Joseph and Rudolph.

The trouble was Francis Joseph could fire Crown Prince Rudolph but he could not fire Inspector General Rudolph.

The only way to remove Inspector General Rudolph was by court martial. And Inspector General Rudolph absolutely refused to quit his job. He refused to resign in disgrace like General Archduke Leopold (taking the fall for royal incompetence).

Inspector General Rudolph double dared Francis Joseph and Albrecht to court martial him. And he said that unlike Benedek, he would not stand mute. He would defend himself and his honor and reputation Please read the ‘Mexican Standoff’ for more details. This is why so many insiders said the Mayerling spiel of Love & Death was a lie. Mayerling was not about Love & Death.

Mayerling was about Rudolph’s job as Inspector General of Infantry which included the roll out of ultra modern weaponry.

Baron von Margutti’s gibbering about Bratfisch telling the lead hunter that Rudolph was already dead by 7:00 ( after entering the bedroom to ‘wake’ Rudolph at 6:45) reminded people that Loschek turned the Wolfe Brothers away from Mayerling at 4:00 A.M. They were arriving in anticipation of Rudolph being out and about so they could come in and clean out the ashy fireplaces and polish them and haul out the slops and dirty shaving water in the water basins and clean and polish. Such chores are messy and require the inhabitants to be out and about. And Rudolph was suppose to be out and about. Therefore up  at 3:00 if the Wolfe Brothers were coming at 4:00.

The normal time  for a predawn hunt which started in winter at predawn: 6:30 to 7:00. Hence the name : predawn hunt. Rudolph normally rose at 4:00 being a son of Francis Joseph. Both father and son were notorious early raisers. But he liked to raise at 3:00 for predawn hunts. Hence the Wolfes told to arrive at 4:00.

So why were the Wolfe Brothers turned away at 4:00? Why was the famously early raising Rudolph not early raising? Why didn’t Loschek enter that bedroom at 2:00 to light the fire to warm the stone bedroom for a hour so his master could raise for his scheduled predawn hunt? Or to confirm if Rudolph still wanted to hunt? Or to raise up at his normal time of 4:00? All which required Loschek to be busy building fires and lighting oil lamps and laying out hunting gear and helping his master dress and shave and enjoy his hot coffee while preparing the guns? A servant’s day started early —- especially in a less than luxurious  informal hunting lodge which was staffed by Max and Otto who were country boys and valets and the visiting Wolfe Brothers?  Or if Rudolph was too sick to hunt to still warm the ‘dark’ and therefore freezing room (this was winter pre-central heating) and fill the water bottles with hot water to warm the freezing bed in order to nurse a sick man? Thus, one way or the other noticing a very dead nude Mary Vetsera? Instead Loschek refused to enter that room at all to serve his master.

Or to put it another way, Loschek decided to sleep in and let his royal master either freeze in a ‘dark’ and therefore freezing room without a fire or lamps or else let his royal master get up and light his own fire and light his own lamps and dress himself (Rudolph was found fully dressed in the clothes and dressing robe or else smoking jacket apparently from the previous day) hours after he should have been woken, all but too late for a scheduled predawn hunt.

Then Loschek claimed  Rudolph jovially came out and casually forgave his valet for choosing to sleep in and not do his job despite the fact Rudolph was famous for having a fiery temper. Imagine a valet for Francis Joseph or Queen Victoria or even Prince Charles today finding their servants casually, spontaneously taking the day off and then  casually and jovially laughing off such unprofessional behavior!

Another intriguing thing to the mysterious predawn hunt is why Rudolph , a supposed suicide,  scheduled it,  and then did not cancel it. Telling Wodiczka and the Wolfe Brothers would have been so simple. Rudolph (despite his temper)was so thoughtful one of the last acts  he did in Vienna was  stop his carriage and ask his aging servant Puchel , who was upset,  ‘Did  I hear you say something Puchel? Can I do something for you?’. So why did Rudolph schedule and not cancel a predawn hunt if he was planning to kill himself? And why didn’t Loschek  do his job and  prepare his master for a predawn hunt? Or ask if the predawn hunt was off? Yet turn the Wolfes away at 4:00? Why wasn’t Loschek in that room at 3:00? Or 2:00? Even Bratfisch was pretending the predawn hunt was still on to ‘wake’ Rudolph at 6:45 and ‘check the weather’  — hours too late.

The answer: Loschek should have been in that room doing his job at 3:00 precisely  when Rudolph was suppose to be preparing or else killing Mary —- just as the Wolfes were coming —-Werner up and busy instead of dead, Wodiczka coming and nosy, Max and  Otto,  servants ,up and busy instead of dead and fleeing, Rudolph’s dog barking  instead of dead, Hoyos struggling to be waken by his valet, the cook preparing hot coffee for a sleepy Rudolph, everyone converging exactly when Loschek should have commenced screaming hysterically because  his master was murdering  Mary Vetsera! So why wasn’t Loschek screaming hysterically? So why  wasn’t Loschek even entering that ‘dark’ room? Because he knew two corpses were inside. That is why.

Why did Loschek only start screaming and  panicking at 7:30 as Bratfisch sat slumped over in his expensive carriage mute and  waiting passively? Despite dead Werner and Max and Otto missing and Rudolph’s dog strangely quiet? Despite Rudolph being abnormally quiet for a predawn hunt? A famous early raiser not early raising? Everyone was waiting for Coburg to start screaming on cue.

 

Predawn hunts and military firing squads occur at the same time. Predawn. Predawn   in winter occur around sevenish. And the wee hours are when both suicides occur and hunters get up for predawn hunts. And a predawn hunt is also when a murderer manufacturing a  murder suicide would arrange his crime because it starts  in the wee hours when it is dark and people are just getting up. Therefore confused. Sleepy. But leaving  the murderer or murderers the wee wee hours of night to prepare. Therefore I offer the following Agatha Christie plot:

It is dark night. Everyone is asleep. Our murderer(s)  help Mary who is suicidal and locked away to fulfill her wish for Love & Death.

She is now  dead  upstairs nude, poisoned by the self appointed  baby sitter who has been tending her so sympathetically and who also helped her to undress from her cumbersome Victorian couture.

This mysterious murderer is also  by chance  the only female at Mayerling,who could also  unlock the backstairs connecting the upper bedroom where Mary was secured  to the lower bedroom  of Rudolph , being staff and therefore having  below stairs staff keys.  She is perfectly placed to manipulate an unstable girl, listen to her delusions,  manipulate her emotional unstability, help her write suicide letters, and encourage her to poison herself . And at the same time she is also perfectly placed to tell her boss she is sedating Mary pending  a relative coming to take her to a nutter nunnery forever. Her boss  fears  a  scandal.

Now this murderer poisons the coffee of her  boss, a man sleepy from raising early for a predawn hunt,  thus artfully arranging for two corpses apparently dying for love  just in time  for everyone to find them around 4:00 as the Wolfes come  and everyone is getting up for a predawn hunt, sleepy, groggy , confused, converging  together —- just in time to scream hysterically! Wee hours predawn hunt getting up  = wee hours of suicide! Everyone screaming hysterically   ——  as our murderer whisks away the poisoned coffee  cup and leaves a poisoned brandy glass!  Voila! Murder suicide! Who is our murderer?Who else? The cook !

NO!NO!You are exposed! You fiend! The Cook did it! So how did our murderer(s) do it?

That evil look says I can’t prove my accusations! Hah! I can!

Think about it! Our evil cook  was asked to come to cook especially for fussy Coburg.  He of the famously missing alibi! Why else was the cook, the only female there, to so conveniently offer to baby sit a hysterical girl who came uninvited without luggage or lady’s maid who needed help to get scandalously  nude? A mentally unstable girl who Hoyos gibbered threatened to or else   did take poison upstairs in the upper bedroom which connected to Rudolph’s bedroom by a  normally locked backstairs case! Our murderer was the  perfectly placed person at the scene to arrange everything ! The cook! You foul murderess you!

Prove it you say! Hah! I can! I will!

Rudolph normally enjoyed helping Bratfisch to cook the fruits of the hunt for his two or three male chums and pals. Mayerling  being famously casual and informal as well as understaffed. The cook only came occasionally if a fussy guest came. So our cook knew the layout! And Coburg made sure she was asked to come!

No! Don’t deny it! Poirot knows  all!

The cook timely vanished without being questioned by the man unveiling the crime who was her co-conspirator: Coburg. He was also perfectly placed to  manipulate the unveiling a la ‘Mousetrap’! No one questions  the man in charge of the crime scene! Even as Coburg literally ordered the crime scene cleaned up and covered up while destroying all of the forensic evidence entirely!

Meanwhile our murderess vanished  with the household money  and wallets of  Hoyos  and Rudolph left  in the gaming room! Greedy  fiend! Probably plus a big payola!But your co-conspirator betrayed you! The cook  was later found dead in  a very expensive hotel room! Hah!

No wonder Koinoff that seedy double agent told Fritsche to ‘Keep your closest attention on the Archduke’s lower household. Any harm that comes to  His  Highness will be the work of persons near to him who are in close collusion  with Berlin!’

And Koinoff also warned of another woman close to Rudolph  working for Berlin! How did that cook know Mary would come uninvited? Waving a forged invitation? No suitcase? No  lady’s maid who might have protected Mary from our evil  cook’s manipulations ? Giving  our evil cook hours to baby sit and manipulate poor Mary into writing suicide letters and then killing herself a la natural?

Perhaps both  killers hauling poor Mary down those unused backstairs  to arrange her on Rudolph’s bed as Rudolph died of strychnine? Before the Cook helped Coburg slip away unseen before locking the kitchen back door?

The cook knew Mary would come exactly the way she did come and then she would be perfectly placed to ‘volunteer’ to baby sit the mentally unstable girl!

So who were the other conspirators aiding and abetting our evil cook and Coburg to plot to pull off the perfect plan?

Countess Larisch was desperate for money (even trying to pimp Mary to Rudolph for 24,000). She knew Crown Princess Stephanie wanted Rudolph dead to marry her lover Lonyay  now that it was becoming obvious she would never become Empress. And Stephanie often doctored the court pharmacy ledgers to hide things . Stephanie  signed out the poison (and  told her lover who blabbed and read about The Paramatta Mystery to discover more !).  Voila! Untraceable poison!

Larisch could get a  civilian gun easy being a minor Hasburg. She uncaged Mary  on the 29th and paraded her in cabs to advertise gossip and scandal to the secret police for some hours.   Then she handed Mary over to Countess Wimpffen a creature of von Holstein.  Wimpffen gave Mary the forged invitation and delivered Mary to Vienna Train Station for Mary to take a  train to Baden to hire  a private hack to Mayerling.

Unbeknownst to the conspirators Count Fritsche was tailing them and watched the whole chicanery. Likewise Bratfisch later testified Mary arrived uninvited to Mayerling sans luggage or lady’s maid but waving a forged invitation. Bratfisch said his master Inspector General Rudolph did not expect her at all.

The General came with so many briefcases of military work he even needed Bratfisch to help him carry the briefcases inside. Mayerling was clearly a working retreat.

Rudolph also was working on an article on Godollo. So Rudolph asked Fritsche to deliver research books to Mayerling to help him finish it.

Alas, Inspector General Rudolph ended up spending the last two days of his life trying to salvage a military defense bill which was bungled in Budapest. Rudolph bellowed telegraphically at the poor Magyar and ordered the poor politician to take the train to Vienna so Rudolph could bellow to his face how he could so badly f#%@ up a crucial military bill on the use of German as the Command Language of the Imperial Armies of the Austro Hungarian Empire. Rudolph even calendared a new appointment in his military calendar to confront the poor man.

Rudolph’s conduct on the last two days of his life proved he did not expect Mary and did not see Mayerling as a rendezvous with Love & Death with Mary —- much as Mary might have been led to think otherwise. Hoyos said Rudolph cold bloodedly pretended she did not exist. Instead Rudolph railed on and on about the  military botch up while suffering from a bad cold , mild hypothermia, and coughing with asthmatic lungs strained from too much smoking.

Clearly both female co-conspirators  manipulated the unstable girl while making sure she reached Mayerling sans luggage or lady’s maid but armed to kill and/or take poison while needing the sympathy of the  only female there after  an angry Rudolph told her what she could do with her forged invitation before ducking six bullets before Coburg warned Rudolph that Mary meant scandal   and  needed to be locked upstairs and  sedated and then someone discreet sent for  to come and take Mary away: the kindly cook!

Volia!The perfect murder crafted as sordid sex gone wrong! Then murder suicide! Classic von Holstein.  Even to suicide letters found  in the Out Box AFTER Coburg arrived at 7:30 when  Bratfisch ONLY SAW ONE LETTER IN THE OUT BOX before Coburg arrived.

Perfect assassination!

So what went so terribly wrong? How did Coburg,the stage manager and co-murderer along with his accomplice the evil cook so botch it? The perfect murder to assassinate the man who knew too much about Bismarck’s terrible secret while destroying Rudolph’s honor and reputation forever! A murder so perfect no one would ask if Rudolph’s job as Inspector General might have anything to do with Mayerling! With Mary’s al natural corpse as the ultimate red herring! What went wrong?

Come on Fran Cook you evil Bx#%*@ you! Confess! What really happened when Coburg took that one half hour commuter train back from that famously early Hofburg dinner to slither into the back kitchen door of Mayerling? Coburg of the famous 24 hour missing alibi? How did von Hostein’s perfect murder turn into a brutal blood bath at midnight? Everything a horrible botch? Rudolph brutally murdered? Mary bludgeoned? Werner killed? Max killed? Otto fleeing? Rudolph’s dog shot? So much blood and gore the Wolfe Brothers who were ordered to clean up the crime scene later described it as a battle field? Did Coburg’s three other accomplices , two Roll Commandos and Lieutenant Vetsera lose control of their urge to murder Inspector General Rudolph? Enraged that Francis Joseph might allow his son to escape the snares which Albrecht  no less than Bismarck wanted in order to destroy their mutual enemy forever? Did those sinister loitering Prussians invite themselves to the murder? Did Rudolph suspect a trap and fight back? What the heck happened to the perfect murder? At least tell Agatha Christie so she can write a murder mystery about it?

Not confessing eh?

And why did Hoyos, Bratfisch,and Loschek  so mutely follow the revised script to move the plot unveiling from 4:00 to 7:30? A revision that made absurd Loschek’s refusal to just go outside and look through the large ground level windows to see inside! At 4:00 it is too dark. At 7:30 it is the logical thing to do!

And what was Bratfisch’s role in this pantomime which required him to enter that ‘dark’ and therefore freezing room at 6:45 after Loschek absolutely refused to enter that ‘dark’ and therefore freezing room in order  to ‘wake’ Rudolph for a predawn hunt  (but not see Mary’s nude corpse) hours after Rudolph should have been waken by Loschek? Before  going  to one of the large ground level  windows and check ‘for  the weather ‘ for a predawn hunt which should have already started? Before suddenly materializing in the stable (not seeing Werner dead or at least missing and stable boys terrified) to prepare his carriage despite  the fact this was suppose to be just another hunting day? After Loschek turned away the Wolfe brothers at 4:00? And then just sit there and mutely and ashen face wait and wait and wait and wait as if an actor waiting for the stage manager to give him his cue? Hint: Bratfisch entered an unlocked room. Loschek later  said  the door was  locked.