Execution of Three Murderers in Meran for Contract Murder

Daily news.

Innsbruck, 15 Oct. Today in Meran, the execution by hanging of three individuals sentenced to death for the crime of accomplished contract murder will take place. — These are J. Neuhauser, owner of the Gruberhof in Völlan, his farmhand Mathias Weger, and a certain Jakob Frey, farmhand at the Obermayer in Narraun.

The murdered woman was Neuhauser's wife, Maria Malayer, an upright woman and mother of 7 children, the oldest of whom is 12 and the youngest 1 year old. — Her husband Johann Neuhauser had always led a dissolute life and was also involved in an illicit relationship with an unmarried peasant girl from St. Walburg in Ulten, named Anna Holzner. The desire to marry her awakened in him the thought of murdering his wife, a plan he arranged with his farmhand Math. Weger, who had long harbored a deep hatred for the farmer's wife. Three attempts to poison the poor woman failed. Finally, the farmhand, in agreement with his master, resolved that since poisoning was ineffective, he would outright “strike down” the woman. To this end, he indeed attacked her like a wild beast during the summer of last year in the vaulted cellar of the house, maltreated her, struck her on the head with a heavy axe, and threw her headlong into the cellar hole, where he left her, believing her to be dead. However, after lying there unconscious for a considerable time, the woman regained her senses and immediately fled to her mother, where she remained for 4 weeks; yet, gentle and good-natured as she was, she returned to her husband. — Meanwhile, the obstinate peasant and his farmhand did not abandon their murderous intentions; but because their hatred for the woman was well known throughout the area and they feared public opinion, they thought it best to hire a third party to carry out the murder. — They found this person in the aforementioned Frey, promising him approximately 6 fl. RW., a new pair of shoes, and a few other trifles as blood money.

He was supposed to carry out the evil deed as early as the parish fair Sunday of last year, while the farmer and his farmhand had gone to the market in Naturns to divert all suspicion. On that occasion, however, a feeling of humanity still prevailed in the hired assassin, and having arrived near the house, he turned back, unable to accomplish the terrible act. Reproached for this by the returned farmer and his farmhand, he finally agreed to execute the atrocity on the night between 30 and 31 October of last year. The farmer and his farmhand set out for Botzen ostensibly on business as early as the morning of the 30th, where they stopped and spent the night at a well-known inn. Meanwhile, at 10 o'clock at night, during a violent storm and downpour, Frey hurried to the Gruber farmer's dwelling, three-quarters of an hour away from his lodging; there he found the keys deposited by the farmer in an agreed place, and having gained entry to the house with them, stepped before the bed of the farmer's wife. Woken by this and believing in the dark of night that it was her husband returning from Botzen, she unsuspectingly followed him into the hallway when he left the room. Here the brute seized the victim, threw her headfirst onto the sharp stone pavement, knelt on her chest, and strangled her until she was dead. He then left her lying there and placed a sack of chestnuts beside her, which the farmer had prepared for this purpose, to create the appearance that the woman had fallen while descending the stairs with the heavy sack and perished as a result of the fall onto the stone paving.

As soon as the deed became known the following morning, the voice of the people, which here was truly the voice of God, unanimously identified the farmer and his farmhand as the murderers of the poor woman. However, the fact that they were able to verify precisely their stay in Botzen while the deed was committed impeded the progress of the investigation for a long time. In the end, the voice of conscience nonetheless prevailed with Neuhauser, and he confessed to the crime along with all attendant circumstances, whereupon his two accomplices, Frey and Weger, admitted everything as well. Neuhauser's lover also had knowledge of the crime, albeit distant, and was consequently sentenced to ten years of aggravated imprisonment.