Lorenz Schlittenbauer's destiny
Saturday, 1st of April 1922...
...around noon, one day after the 5-fold murder, two coffee traders told the local voluntary town spokesman Lorenz Schlittenbauer that they had not encountered anyone in Hinterkaifeck. The two also mentioned that the dog in the stable had been howling loudly. When Schlittenbauer's son came home from school, he reported that Cilli from the farm in question had not appeared at school. Lorenz Schlittenbauer's ears perked up, because only one day earlier Andreas Gruber had complained about an obviously unsuccessful burglary. Schlittenbauer offered his unpopular neighbour his help, but he refused. For these reasons, and because his son was living on the farm, the local leader decided to check on Hinterkaifeck on the evening of April 1st, 1922.
When the local guide arrived at the farm, he actually found it deserted. Only the pitiful howling of the watchdog inside the barn could be heard. The guide suspected that something might have happened to the inhabitants and thus also to "his" son. He pulled open the double-winged gate in order to provide help if necessary. When the local leader entered the barn, he was attacked without warning....
What happened on the night of April 1, 1922, that changed Lorenz Schlittenbauer's life forever?
Exonerating facts for Lorenz Schlittenbauer
If Lorenz Schlittenbauer had been the murderer, he would not have hidden his mattock in the murder house and waited until it was found by the men demolishing it and handed over to the police.
If Lorenz Schlittenbauer had been the murderer, he would have had enough time after abandoning the Hinterkaifecker farm to retrieve the mattock, the pocket knife and the bloody iron band from their safe hiding place in order to destroy them. But since only the murderer, who died shortly after the crime, could know where the mattock, the pocket knife, and the iron band were hidden, they remained in hiding until the farm was demolished (one year later).
The farm had been cleared for demolition and stood empty for some time. Lorenz Schlittenbauer did not even help to demolish the farm. This means that if he had been the murderer, he had to 100% expect that the neighbours would find his bloodstained, fingerprinted murder weapon(s) used to kill people.
The mattock originally belonged to Lorenz Schlittenbauer. He always left it covered in the field to continue working with it the next day. He did not want to carry it home with him every time. Andreas Gruber discovered the mattock and stole it.
When the bloody mattock was found during the demolition of the Hinterkaifecker farm, Lorenz Schlittenbauer immediately admitted in the presence of his neighbours that the tool they had found belonged to him.
Lorenz Schlittenbauer's original statement: "This is my mattock. I recognise it. So it was there in the yard all the time". By this he meant that his neighbours should finally realise that he could not have been the murderer, because at no time did he know where the murder weapon was hidden. If he had been the murderer, he would certainly not have hidden his mattock in the house where everyone was slain.
Lorenz Schlittenbauer's suspicion that Andreas Gruber had slain his family was confirmed when the main murder weapon was found in the ingenious hiding place.
The eyewitness Michael Plöckl testified that he had seen Lorenz Schlittenbauer with a battery-powered torch on the evening of 1st April 1922 at the bakehouse in Hinterkaifeck.
Schlittenbauer could therefore not have murdered the people, because they were demonstrably beaten to death on the evening of 31st of March 1922, i.e. one day earlier. No one returns one day later to the place where they had killed six people the day before.
In addition, Lorenz Schlittenbauer was unable to kill six people in a row because of his asthma. This was the conclusion reached by the authorities at the time.
The facts and evidence presented here show only part of the bigger picture. Only the historical crime novel "The Lark's Call" brings all the pieces together to form a complete picture and brings the events to life in all their significance.