"Verzeichnis all derjenigen mittel und unmittelbaren Theilnehmer an den Verbrechen des Raubmörders Georg Grasel". Drosendorf, Criminal Court, 24 Oct. 1815.
Folio. German manuscript on paper. Title and 10 pp. on 6 ff. Sewn. A table naming and describing all the 61 accomplices of the legendary bandit Johann Georg Grasl who terrorized Lower Austria's Waldviertel region in the early 19th century, prepared by the criminal court official Schopf shortly before the fugitive's arrest on 19 November 1815. The list notes the real names (if known) and nicknames, along with brief but often colourful signalment. Accomplices thus described include not only a significant portion of Grasel's own family, but also Theresia "Resel" Hamberger, "the mistress of the robber chief Grassl, a very brazen person", and her uncle Johann: "23 years old, of short stature, short brown hair, like eyebrows, no beard, small face, pointy chin, longish nose, pockmarked face, speaks German, a very rakish fellow who has taken part in many of Grassl's crimes". A girl known as "Dog's Soup" (real name unknown) is described as a "young hussy with a scarred face who supports herself by begging"; a similarly nameless carriage driver from Weitersfeld is indicted for having given Grassl lodging; Isaac Stern, a "Jew from Bernschlag", is accused of having "knowingly bought stolen goods", while a tailor from Stalleck "is accused of fraud". - Grasel, who began his career with petty thieveries and ended with robbery and murder, increasingly took to drink and was finally captured through a plot in which he was drugged with opium at an inn. He was publicly hanged in Vienna on 31 January 1818, his last words supposedly being, "Jesus, what a crowd!". - A fascinating police signalment of Lower Austria's poverty-ridden criminal underworld in the early 19th century.
Inlibris · Wien, AT1 500,00 €
