Introduction

On the morning of January 30, 1889 Crown Prince Rudolf, the 30-year-old heir-apparent of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was found dead in his bedroom at Mayerling, a royal hunting lodge located a few miles south of Vienna.

With him was the body of Baroness Mary Vetsera who was not yet 18 years old. Both died of gunshot wounds to the head in an apparent suicide pact.

What came to be known as "the catastrophe" rocked the empire and became a world-wide sensation. The potent mix of royalty, scandal, sex and suicide gave the deaths an instant fascination that has not waned in more than a century.

Mayerling was a national disaster as well as a personal disaster for the people closest to the tragedy. These included several individuals who found to their dismay that they had played unwitting roles in an elaborate drama stage-managed by Rudolf and Mary.

One of these involuntary participants was a Viennese cab driver named Josef Bratfisch.