Above:Josef Bratfisch about 1889 (detail).

Source: Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library).

17. Interrogation (continued)

That Josef was in touch with Helene is indirectly supported by details about Mary's journey to Mayerling that Helene included in the memorandum she wrote to refute allegations that Mary murdered Rudolf and that Helene connived in Mary's affair with him. "We may safely assume that the information came from Bratfisch himself..." (Judtmann 66).

Josef turned out to be the only witness to the Mayerling tragedy that Krauss got an opportunity to question. He had intended to interview several witnesses but instead, on orders from the Hofburg, his investigation came to a screeching halt.

Krauss's summation of the Mayerling case, with which he closed his secret file, ends with this comment: "The enclosed documents and newspapers show what rumours are being circulated and how nevertheless the truth is beginning to emerge more and more in the foreign journals. Stockau and Baltazzi, and later [Helene] Vetsera, will have a lot to tell" (Judtmann 75).

Krauss's investigation was deliberately closed before it could reveal solid evidence of what happened at Mayerling. It was preferable to have a smokescreen of rumours obscuring the facts so that Mary's murder became just one more unfounded piece of gossip among all the others.

But as Krauss predicted, "the truth is beginning to emerge."