Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Eronminkie. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: At six ten in the morning on January thirtieth, eighteen
Speaker 1: eighty nine, Crown Prince Rudolph of the Austro Hungarian Empire
Speaker 1: came out of his bedroom, closed the door behind him,
Speaker 1: and told his valet to prepare for the day of
Speaker 1: hunting a head. The lodge where they were staying at
Speaker 1: Marylyn in the Vienna Woods was still dark in the
Speaker 1: early morning, though Rudolph was already dressed in his hunting clothes.
Speaker 1: He said that he wanted to get a bit more sleep,
Speaker 1: have breakfast ready at eight thirty, and wake me at
Speaker 1: seven thirty, he said. The valet, named Loshek, noticed that
Speaker 1: Rudolph was whistling as he went back to his room.
Speaker 1: As Loshak was setting the table, he heard two gunshots
Speaker 1: in rapid succession, but thought nothing of it. At seven
Speaker 1: thirty he came to the Crown Prince's bed chamber to
Speaker 1: find it locked. Looshak knocked loudly and then again, strange,
Speaker 1: but not too strange. Rudolf frequently used morphine and drank
Speaker 1: enough Kognak and Champagne to pass out cold, but Looshak
Speaker 1: had just seen him an hour ago. Lushak tried running
Speaker 1: upstairs and down a back staircase to a second entrance
Speaker 1: to the Crown princess chamber, but he found that that door,
Speaker 1: too was also locked from the inside. His heart pounding
Speaker 1: in his chest, Looshek went to find Count Hoyas, Rudolf's
Speaker 1: hunting body, who was also staying at the lodge. He's
Speaker 1: probably just tired, Ayas called, let him sleep, but Looshak
Speaker 1: insisted that Hayas come to the lock door and help.
Speaker 1: The Count rattled the door knob. Is there a coal
Speaker 1: stove in there? He asked? Could the Crown Prince have
Speaker 1: passed out from the fumes? Looshak shook his head. The
Speaker 1: rooms were heated by wood. And there's one more thing
Speaker 1: I should probably tell you, the valet said, looking at
Speaker 1: the floor. Rudolf wasn't alone in his chamber. He had
Speaker 1: snuck his seventeen year old mistress Mary but Sarah to
Speaker 1: the lodge with him. Oh Countoya said, okay, well, let's
Speaker 1: think about this then. The Crown Prince's brother in law, Coburg,
Speaker 1: was set to arrive at the lodge that morning round
Speaker 1: eight thirty to join the hunting. What if they just
Speaker 1: waited for him? And so they waited. When Koburg finally arrived,
Speaker 1: the trio decided that the best course of action would
Speaker 1: be to break down the door with an axe. Looshek
Speaker 1: first tried axing the lock, but he couldn't break it,
Speaker 1: so he decided just to break through a wooden panel,
Speaker 1: which allowed him to reach a hand through the door
Speaker 1: and undo the lock from the inside. The three men
Speaker 1: stood outside the closed door. They decided that Loshek would
Speaker 1: go in alone to zam in the seat, just in
Speaker 1: case the prince and his lover were in a compromising position,
Speaker 1: while the other two men hung back the valet. Gingerly
Speaker 1: pressed the wooden door open. The bile froze in his
Speaker 1: throat and stammering, Loshek turned back to Coburg and hoyos,
Speaker 1: the Crown Prince is dead. He managed to say. The
Speaker 1: story of the Maryling instant as it's come to be
Speaker 1: known as, fascinated historians and lovers of the macabre for
Speaker 1: a century, but the event itself has become twisted to
Speaker 1: fit pat narratives of love or revenge. It wasn't a
Speaker 1: Romeo and juliet story, or at least it wasn't entirely
Speaker 1: a Romeo and Juliette's story. The Mistress Mary that Sarah
Speaker 1: was madly and wildly in love, and in her desperation,
Speaker 1: Prince Rudolph saw an opportunity. He would bring her down
Speaker 1: with him if it meant he'd didn't have to go alone.
Speaker 1: I'm Danis Schwartz, and this is noble blood. Rudolph, the
Speaker 1: crown Prince of the Austro Hungarian Empire, was born in
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty eight to a father who almost immediately despised
Speaker 1: him and a mother who had no time or energy
Speaker 1: for him. The Emperor friends Joseph was an old school
Speaker 1: Habsburg Conservative, a militaristic leader who valued discipline and formality
Speaker 1: above most other things. The Empress Elizabeth, commonly known as Cissy,
Speaker 1: was known for being beautiful, but her fixation on maintaining
Speaker 1: her youth and beauty and figure could accurately be described
Speaker 1: as obsession. Neither the Emperor nor the Empress had the
Speaker 1: time nor inclination for parenthood. Austria Hungary wasn't like England,
Speaker 1: where Queen Victoria level. Than creating a picture of warm
Speaker 1: and happy domesticity, no things were formal and rigid. Rudolph's
Speaker 1: contact with his parents was akin to a modern day
Speaker 1: relationship with a polite coworker. When Rudolph was five, he
Speaker 1: came down with a case of typhoid. His mother refused
Speaker 1: to cut short her vacation to Bavaria to return home
Speaker 1: to him. She was the type of mother who did
Speaker 1: eventually respond to his letters, but usually after waiting a
Speaker 1: few days. At age six, Rudolph's education began under a
Speaker 1: major General who was informed that his job was to
Speaker 1: toughen up the nervous young prince. To that end, the
Speaker 1: major General forced the Crown Prince to do military drills
Speaker 1: outside at six in the morning every morning, rain or snow.
Speaker 1: Sometimes in the middle of the night, the major General
Speaker 1: would creep into the little boy's bedroom and fire a
Speaker 1: gun several times, you know, to toughen him up. Once,
Speaker 1: the Crown Prince was brought to the zoo, where he
Speaker 1: was locked in a cage. While the boy screamed and
Speaker 1: cried in terror, the major General shouted at him through
Speaker 1: the bars that a wild boar was coming to eat him. Unsurprisingly,
Speaker 1: the tax did not help toughen Rudolph up. He became
Speaker 1: prone to bed wedding and night terrors that culminated in
Speaker 1: a nervous breakdown at seven years old. The official story
Speaker 1: from the palace was that Rudolph had diphtheria. As his
Speaker 1: education progressed, Rudolph was presented with a series of fifty
Speaker 1: tutors for a seemingly infinite number of subjects a dozen languages,
Speaker 1: military history, diplomacy, economics. From eight in the morning until
Speaker 1: nine at night, the crown Prince was drilled in the
Speaker 1: things that his father decided a prince should know. Emperor
Speaker 1: Franz Joseph wrote the prince quote us not become a
Speaker 1: free thinker, but he should thoroughly become acquainted with the
Speaker 1: conditions and requirements of modern times. Still, Rudolph's teenage rebellion
Speaker 1: led to private, furtive writings about atheism, and Rudolph further
Speaker 1: rebelled against his father privately by writing about his liberal
Speaker 1: ideas for the future of Europe. But his patchwork education
Speaker 1: had real consequences. Though he knew a little about a
Speaker 1: lot of subjects, Rudolph was never able to gain the
Speaker 1: critical thinking abilities to digest contradicting information. He wanted a
Speaker 1: liberal Europe, but he never for a second questioned his
Speaker 1: own divine right to be ruler. His education was shallow
Speaker 1: and wrote, with no time for Rudolph to learn how
Speaker 1: to think methodically or to tease out the contradictions in
Speaker 1: his philosophies, and so by the time his formal education
Speaker 1: ended a few a week shy of his nineteenth birthday,
Speaker 1: Rudolph was a deeply unpleasant man, moody and prideful, prone
Speaker 1: to making rash judgments and dramatic proclamations, but without the
Speaker 1: patients or humility to try to understand things deeply. Rudolph's
Speaker 1: father made him a colonel, but Rudolph approached his military
Speaker 1: duties with a complete lack of interest. His fellow officers
Speaker 1: would see him staring out into the distance, either looking
Speaker 1: bored or tired, or both. One afternoon, during a regiment report,
Speaker 1: Rudolph stared at the ground for ten minutes straight while
Speaker 1: another officer was discussing important logistical matters. Finally, at one
Speaker 1: point Rudolph interrupted him. Every other officer stared at the
Speaker 1: Crown Prince, eager with anticipation. He almost never spoken meetings
Speaker 1: there's dirt on my shoe, he said. Finally, you there, groom,
Speaker 1: come wipe it off. The nearby servant quickly came over
Speaker 1: and knelt with a rag. When Rudolph's shoe was clean,
Speaker 1: the meeting continued, and Rudolph returned to staring blankly into space.
Speaker 1: His political career as a young man was marred with
Speaker 1: frequent social faux pa and a sarcastic attitude that bordered
Speaker 1: on cruel, especially with his mother and younger sister. Here
Speaker 1: he was the only son and crown prince of the
Speaker 1: most powerful royal family in the world, but until his
Speaker 1: father died, he had no purpose in life. His only
Speaker 1: sense of purpose or meaning came from his position as
Speaker 1: a crown prince, and so Rudolph enforced rigid protocol around
Speaker 1: his position, which only served to isolate him from his
Speaker 1: family Further, Rudolph began spending his time getting drunk at
Speaker 1: seedy taverns, having affairs with women, and becoming a regular
Speaker 1: customer at Vienna's best brothels. He kept a book of
Speaker 1: his conquests, color coded by whether or not they had
Speaker 1: been virgins. When Rudolph's reputation became something murmured and politely
Speaker 1: coughed about. In the emperor's presence. Friends, Joseph insisted that
Speaker 1: his son get married. Reluctantly, Rudolph agreed. He rejected two
Speaker 1: women right away for not being attractive enough, but finally
Speaker 1: he agreed on marrying Princess Stephanie of Belgium. He went
Speaker 1: on a trip to Brussels to dutifully propose to his
Speaker 1: bride to be, but the entire arrangement was almost torn
Speaker 1: up when his future mother in law walked in to
Speaker 1: see Rudolph infal Grante with an actress in his bedroom.
Speaker 1: He had brought a girlfriend along to Brussels to keep
Speaker 1: him company for the trip where he was supposed to propose,
Speaker 1: but these diplomatic matches were more important than fidela, at
Speaker 1: least on the part of the groom. Twenty three year
Speaker 1: old Rudolph became engaged to fifteen year old Princess Stephanie,
Speaker 1: although the wedding had to be postponed for a year
Speaker 1: when it was discovered that Stephanie hadn't yet begun to menstright.
Speaker 1: The optimistic young princess learned very quickly that her relationship
Speaker 1: with her new husband would be cordial at best. They
Speaker 1: managed to produce a daughter, but Rudolph spent most of
Speaker 1: his time out at those ced taverns, you know, the
Speaker 1: type of place where men played cards and women danced
Speaker 1: on tables. He didn't even bother trying to keep his
Speaker 1: affairs a secret. Everyone knew he was out at brothels
Speaker 1: that he spent most of his time with his favorite prostitute,
Speaker 1: a young woman named Mitzi Casper. Even so, the marriage
Speaker 1: didn't entirely collapse until Crown Prince Rudolph infected both himself
Speaker 1: and his wife with gonorrhea. The disease ease was incredibly
Speaker 1: painful and would flare up at random intervals, but it
Speaker 1: was even worse for Princess Stephanie. It had shriveled her
Speaker 1: fallopian tubes. Her husband had made her infertile, and rendered
Speaker 1: her incapable of doing the single task required of her
Speaker 1: to make a male heir. From that point on, the
Speaker 1: relationship between husband and wife was formal and distant, a
Speaker 1: contract between countries. Rudolph was less a husband to her
Speaker 1: and more of a jailer, someone who kept her in
Speaker 1: a cruel and distant country and constantly humiliated her again
Speaker 1: and again with his infidelity. As for Rudolph, the gonorrhea
Speaker 1: led to prescriptions of morphine and opium and cocaine, which
Speaker 1: he added to his regular habits of kogniac and Champagne.
Speaker 1: The depressive crown Prince, now all but ignored for political tasks,
Speaker 1: entirely retreated into a world of instant gratification and pleasure.
Speaker 1: He surrounded himself with people who flattered him and made
Speaker 1: him feel important. After all, he was the crown Prince
Speaker 1: of the Austro Hungarian Empire. He was supposed to always
Speaker 1: feel important. Mary vet Sarah had very little in the
Speaker 1: way of formal education. Her mother, Helene, sent her to
Speaker 1: an institute for daughters of the nobility, where Mary would
Speaker 1: learn the skills to become a good society wife one day,
Speaker 1: the dancing and the table manners and the like. In truth,
Speaker 1: Mary was just the daughter of a minor baron, and
Speaker 1: her upward mobility in terms of social hierarchy was already
Speaker 1: limited by the less than spotless reputation of her mother.
Speaker 1: Helene had been the type of woman that established matriarchs
Speaker 1: of Viennese society refused to make eye contact with. Back
Speaker 1: when Helene was thirty two, she seduced the twenty year
Speaker 1: old Crown Prince Rudolph himself, and since Mary had begun
Speaker 1: appearing in the society scene at age fifteen, she had
Speaker 1: started building a similar reputation for herself. There was no
Speaker 1: denying that she was pretty, with dark hair and dark
Speaker 1: flashing eyes. Women muttered that her large bosom made her
Speaker 1: figure unbalanced, but men tended to stare at it. People
Speaker 1: rarely described Mary that Sarah as an intellectual. There are
Speaker 1: other adjectives that crop up, vivacious, attention loving, captivating a flirt.
Speaker 1: She seemed to have very little interest in art or music.
Speaker 1: Her primary loves were gossiping about her exploits in a
Speaker 1: way that even her friends found indecorous, and second the
Speaker 1: scandalous French romance novels that she had her maid sneaked to.
Speaker 1: Her tragedy had come to the vet Sera family early.
Speaker 1: When Mary was ten years old, her brother Ladislav died
Speaker 1: in an explosion at the Viennese Ring Theater. Ladislav was sixteen,
Speaker 1: and he was one of five cadets at the military
Speaker 1: academy who were given complimentary tickets to an opera for
Speaker 1: outstanding performance that night. A malfunction with the stage lights
Speaker 1: caused a gas explosion that engulfed the entire theater in flames.
Speaker 1: Crowds trampled each other trying to reach the emergency exit doors,
Speaker 1: which only swung in, trapping the occupants inside. Ladislav's body
Speaker 1: was only identified because his mother Helene, recognized the cuff
Speaker 1: links that he had been wearing. But the event didn't
Speaker 1: seem to affect young Mary too deeply, far from becoming morbid.
Speaker 1: If anything, as she grew into a young woman, she
Speaker 1: became impatient for I am er for excitement, for scandal,
Speaker 1: for love. If life was fleeting, why waste it waiting
Speaker 1: through the insufferably restrictive formalities of Austrian high society when
Speaker 1: it was so much more fun to make interesting things happen.
Speaker 1: Preserving her virtue had very little appeal for Mary. When
Speaker 1: there were so many men that she saw staring at her,
Speaker 1: Mary didn't concern herself with their age or whether or
Speaker 1: not they were married. Her flirtations became games of conquest,
Speaker 1: and Mary, intellectual or not, was very good at games.
Speaker 1: But fate came for Mary vet Serah when she saw
Speaker 1: the Crown Prince Rudolph in the royal box at a
Speaker 1: horse race. He was so close that she could watch him,
Speaker 1: studying him in profile as the sun led him from behind.
Speaker 1: His light mustache the curl, and his brown hair. The
Speaker 1: black cape he wore embroidered with golden squares. He was magnificent,
Speaker 1: like the hero of one of her French romance novels.
Speaker 1: When the two were introduced at a ball, she practically
Speaker 1: spun home informing her maid that she had finally seen
Speaker 1: the Crown Prince and that he was beautiful. The teenage
Speaker 1: infatuation came easily for Mary. Like almost every girl her age,
Speaker 1: she had souvenir post cards that featured the young Crown Prince,
Speaker 1: much in the same way a young Cape Middleton had
Speaker 1: a poster of Prince William. For Mary's mother, Helene, she
Speaker 1: was content to indulge in the infatuation, After all, she
Speaker 1: had had her own brief affair with the Prince. Helene
Speaker 1: was perfectly happy to wink and close the door on
Speaker 1: Mary in one of her many suitors, and so she
Speaker 1: found very little to condemn when Mary began taking her
Speaker 1: carriage out to the prater every day, hoping to accidentally
Speaker 1: see Rudolph. But those meetings soon became less accidental. Rudolph
Speaker 1: had a cousin named Countess Marie Larrish, the type of
Speaker 1: woman who delighted to indulge in any shred of gossip
Speaker 1: if it made things more entertaining for her. She was
Speaker 1: also the type of woman who knew exactly how to
Speaker 1: exploit an opportunity for profit. Rudolph had been seeing women
Speaker 1: mistress's prostitutes prostitute who became mistresses since the beginning of
Speaker 1: his unhappy marriage to Princess Stephanie, and his cousin, the
Speaker 1: Countess was usually good at procuring those women for him
Speaker 1: for a price. As the affair between the very married
Speaker 1: thirty year old Rudolph and the sixteen year old Mary
Speaker 1: that Sarah began, Countess Larish began taking little fees both
Speaker 1: from Mary and Rudolph to act as a go between
Speaker 1: for their meetings, and by little fees the equivalent today
Speaker 1: of a few hundred thousand dollars, the Countess would tell
Speaker 1: Mary that she needed to pay up if she ever
Speaker 1: wanted to see the Crown Prince again. To Rudolph, the
Speaker 1: Countess would not so indiscreetly let him know that he
Speaker 1: would pay if he wanted certain matters to remain private,
Speaker 1: and so for a good part of the year, young
Speaker 1: Mary would be swept away from her home by the Countess,
Speaker 1: who delivered her to Rudolph whenever he requested, before she
Speaker 1: was spent safely deposited back to her mother. Helene and
Speaker 1: the Countess were close. The married countess herself had had
Speaker 1: two illegitimate children by one of Helene's brothers. But what
Speaker 1: was just meant to be a trifling little fling soon
Speaker 1: became so much more for young Mary. One afternoon, as
Speaker 1: the Countess escorted Mary up the back stairs and through
Speaker 1: the kitchens to Rudolph's chambers at Hofburg Palace, Mary gingerly
Speaker 1: stepped ahead. Oh don't worry, I know the way, she smiled.
Speaker 1: Mary had been sidestepping her escort and had already visited
Speaker 1: the palace without the Countess realizing Mary's affair had taken
Speaker 1: on a life of its own. Once, without telling anyone
Speaker 1: except her maid, Mary snuck to the Hofburg Palace in
Speaker 1: the middle of the night wearing only a lingerie nightgown
Speaker 1: and a fur coat. He's going to annul his marriage
Speaker 1: to that awful princess Stephanie, and Mary me Mary would
Speaker 1: tell her sister, Hannah. Hanna just rolled her eyes and
Speaker 1: called her sister a stupid child. I can't believe she's
Speaker 1: so in love with the Crown Prince. You can't imagine
Speaker 1: anything so silly, and she has no idea how ridiculous
Speaker 1: it is, Hannah said. Their mother, Helene found it better
Speaker 1: just to dismiss it altogether. Your sister isn't very well,
Speaker 1: she said simply. Mary didn't look well. Her eyes had
Speaker 1: begun to take on an evil glint, especially when she
Speaker 1: spoke of Princess Stephanie, and she began to revel in
Speaker 1: her new found power to torment Princess Stephanie and to
Speaker 1: captivate the scornful attention of society. One afternoon, when Rudolph
Speaker 1: and the Princess were at the theater to see a
Speaker 1: Sarah Bernhardt performance, Mary caused a scandal when she arrived
Speaker 1: wearing an extremely low cut dress and then spent the
Speaker 1: entire performance openly staring at the Royal Box instead of
Speaker 1: the stage. Her visits to Rudolph were always on his terms,
Speaker 1: but that just made them so much more electric charged
Speaker 1: in their urgency. I cannot live without having seen or
Speaker 1: spoken to him, Mary, said once to her piano tutor,
Speaker 1: I know this love is a happy dream from which
Speaker 1: I shall have to wake. But Mary didn't want to wake.
Speaker 1: She had caught the object of her affection, the ultimate prize,
Speaker 1: and she refused to let him go, or rather to
Speaker 1: let go of her fantasies of how they might be.
Speaker 1: He seemed to really like her when they were together,
Speaker 1: and from that she was able to convince herself that
Speaker 1: he loved her too. He even gave her a ring,
Speaker 1: what she secretly called her wedding ring. It was a
Speaker 1: silly thing, made of cheap iron, but it was engraved.
Speaker 1: The Crown Prince had engraved it with the letters I
Speaker 1: lv B I DT. They stood for a German phrase,
Speaker 1: please pardon my pronunciation in liebe verand been indistant, we
Speaker 1: are united by love until death. The year Crown Prince
Speaker 1: Rudolph turned thirty, his inner circle began to notice a
Speaker 1: change in him. Though he had always been moody, his
Speaker 1: moods began to get violent. On a hunt with his father,
Speaker 1: Rudolf fired his weapon so off kilter that he almost
Speaker 1: killed the Emperor. Franz Joseph and the rest of the
Speaker 1: family privately believed that maybe Rudolph had been trying to
Speaker 1: kill him on purpose, so that he could be the
Speaker 1: emperor himself. From that point on, Franz Joseph avoided being
Speaker 1: alone with his son. The same was true for his wife,
Speaker 1: Princess Stephanie. She noticed her husband's strange moods, the dark
Speaker 1: circles beneath his eyes, the way he would casually toy
Speaker 1: with a trigger of a pistol as he spoke to her.
Speaker 1: She was afraid of him. Princess Stephanie went to her
Speaker 1: father in law and begged Emperor Franz Joseph to send
Speaker 1: Rudolf on a trip to do something, anything to pull
Speaker 1: him out of his strange malaise. Can't you please do something,
Speaker 1: she said, your son isn't well. She was surprised by
Speaker 1: the emotion in her voice. She so rarely ever spoke
Speaker 1: with her husband's family. Franz Joseph told her that she
Speaker 1: was overreacting. You're giving way to fancies, my dear, he said,
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong with Rudolph. After Stephanie left the Emperor's chamber,
Speaker 1: a page caught up to her to inform her that
Speaker 1: from now on she should follow protocol and only speak
Speaker 1: to the Emperor after requesting a formal audience through his secretaries. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Rudolph had become fascinated with stories about death and suicide. Suicide,
Speaker 1: especially theatrical suicides, were practically entertainment in Vienna at the
Speaker 1: turn of the nineteenth century. Newspaper readers delighted themselves with
Speaker 1: stories of chilling and romantic deaths. There was the young
Speaker 1: couple who ate a formal lunch of chicken and champagne
Speaker 1: and then went into a cemetery hand in hand to
Speaker 1: shoot themselves. The woman who put on a wedding dress
Speaker 1: and jumped off a train. The woman who was singing
Speaker 1: in the national anthem as she leapt from her apartment window.
Speaker 1: Tightrope walker who hanged himself out of his own window,
Speaker 1: visible to the street below, and left a note that said,
Speaker 1: the rope was my life and the rope is my death.
Speaker 1: Ridolf was particularly fascinated by the story of the famous
Speaker 1: Hungarian sportsman Is van Kigel, who shot himself and used
Speaker 1: a small hand held mirror to aim correctly. When Rudolf
Speaker 1: read that he couldn't talk about anything else for weeks,
Speaker 1: would you kill yourself with me? If I asked Rudolph
Speaker 1: asked his private secretary. The secretary responded that although he
Speaker 1: would consider it a great honor, no, he wasn't willing
Speaker 1: to kill himself. Rudolph asked another officer on his staff,
Speaker 1: who also politely declined. Both men quietly asked for reassignments.
Speaker 1: Mitzi Caspar, the long time lover of the Crown Prince,
Speaker 1: is used to his waxing poetical about suicide. He would
Speaker 1: often show up, drink a bottle of champagne and talk
Speaker 1: about killing himself. At this point, she was used to it,
Speaker 1: but one evening he showed up talking about suicide with
Speaker 1: such a grim and haunted look in his eyes that
Speaker 1: Mitzy couldn't get it out of her head. The next afternoon,
Speaker 1: she went to the police station to report the conversation
Speaker 1: to the Chief of Police. If you repeat anything that
Speaker 1: the Crown Prince said to you to anyone else, the
Speaker 1: police chief threatened, you will be prosecuted. Chastised, Mitsy returned
Speaker 1: to her apartments, waiting for the next time Rudolph would come.
Speaker 1: His final interaction with Mitsy would happen a few weeks later.
Speaker 1: Rudolph showed up drunk and spent two hours drinking more
Speaker 1: and telling Mitsy that suicide was the only heroic answer,
Speaker 1: the only way to make the vague statement that he
Speaker 1: needed to make. He was rambling, verging on scary, but
Speaker 1: after the police chief's threats, Mitzy didn't tell anyone. Before
Speaker 1: Rudolph left that night, he did something he had never
Speaker 1: done before. Rudolph, a devout atheist, made the sign of
Speaker 1: the Cross on Mitzy's forehead. Rudolph spent Christmas with his family,
Speaker 1: where his mother pulled him aside to beg him to
Speaker 1: be a little kinder to his younger sister, who had
Speaker 1: been the object of so much of his sarcasm and cruelty.
Speaker 1: I do love you, you know, Rudolph said, the cold
Speaker 1: and beautiful in brist Elizabeth. To her surprise, Rudolph began
Speaker 1: to sob, though he was a man of thirty. He
Speaker 1: fell to his knees and hugged his mother's skirts, crying
Speaker 1: like a child. You haven't said those words to me
Speaker 1: in a long time, he gasped. The Emperor Empress just
Speaker 1: stood there, motionless and embarrassed by their son's humiliating display.
Speaker 1: Maybe they didn't realize, or maybe they weren't capable of
Speaker 1: realizing that he was begging for help one final time.
Speaker 1: A few weeks later, Rudolph told the Countess Marie to
Speaker 1: pick up Mary that Sarah and bring her to the
Speaker 1: palace immediately. She obliged. The Countess told Mary's mother that
Speaker 1: they were going to go shopping, but instead they went
Speaker 1: directly to the Hofburg Palace. Here Rudolf said, take this
Speaker 1: money and bribe your driver to say that you've lost
Speaker 1: Mary while you were out shopping. The Countess obliged, and
Speaker 1: when hours later she returned to Mary's house without Mary,
Speaker 1: that was the story she told Helene in a dramatic
Speaker 1: performance worthy of being on the stage. At that very moment,
Speaker 1: Mary and the Crown Prince were riding to Maryland Hunting
Speaker 1: Lodge in the Woods, a few hours carriage ride outside
Speaker 1: of the city, where Rudolph had quickly arranged a hunting
Speaker 1: trip with a few of his friends. As soon as
Speaker 1: the two arrived, they were treated to the Crown Prince's room,
Speaker 1: where Mary remained hidden, taking her meals there even as
Speaker 1: Rudolph left to eat dinner with his guests. The lovers
Speaker 1: were embarking on what Mary believed to be her romantic
Speaker 1: destiny side by side, they wrote letters together, letters to
Speaker 1: their friends and families to be read after their deaths.
Speaker 1: That night, before they went to bed, Rudolph went to
Speaker 1: his valet Lashek, and made a simple and clear declaration.
Speaker 1: You are not to let anyone into these rooms, not
Speaker 1: even the Emperor. Loschek said he understood. Mary, seventeen years old,
Speaker 1: was wearing the olive green ice skating outfit that she
Speaker 1: had traveled in that she had been wearing when she
Speaker 1: told her mother that two is going out shopping. She
Speaker 1: smiled and gave Loshek a gold watch encrusted with diamonds.
Speaker 1: The valet watched as they closed the door behind them.
Speaker 1: The next morning, Mary and Rudolph were found both covered
Speaker 1: in blood. Mary was on the right side of the bed,
Speaker 1: closer to the door, her body in full rigor mortis,
Speaker 1: her eyes still open, her hair down, a handkerchief still
Speaker 1: clutched in her hand. The bullet had entered her left
Speaker 1: temple and blew off the right of her skull. In
Speaker 1: official reports, Count Hoyas and Loschek both scrambled when we
Speaker 1: described what she was wearing. She was fully dressed, Loshek said,
Speaker 1: in a black dress. Pas wrote, but Mary hadn't brought
Speaker 1: a black dress. She had only brought the olive green
Speaker 1: clothes that were found folded neatly on a nearby chair.
Speaker 1: The men, awkward and formal, were trying to cover up
Speaker 1: the fact that she was found naked. Rudolph was seated
Speaker 1: on the other side of the bed, his head hanging
Speaker 1: low and blood congealing at his nose and mouth. His
Speaker 1: body was only in the beginning stages of rigor mortis.
Speaker 1: Doctors estimated that Rudolph had shot Mary six hours before
Speaker 1: he finally decided to shoot himself. After the shock of
Speaker 1: the gore, of the sight of blood splatter on the headboard,
Speaker 1: and the visible brain, the details of the room began
Speaker 1: to come into focus one by one. The crystal tumbler
Speaker 1: on the bedside table still filled with brandy, two shattered
Speaker 1: champagne glasses on the floor, a broken coffee cup, and
Speaker 1: next to Rudolph a small handheld mirror like e Doan
Speaker 1: Kigel had used to perfect his deadly aim. The three
Speaker 1: men who found the bodies, the Valet Looshak, Count Hoyas,
Speaker 1: and Coburg, sent a telegraph immediately to the court physician.
Speaker 1: Coburg was too distraught to move, so Hoyas was sent
Speaker 1: to rush back to Vienna to tell the Emperor that
Speaker 1: his son was dead. Remember, Coburg said, not a word
Speaker 1: of this can get out until the Emperor knows, so
Speaker 1: tell no one. Of course, Hoyas responded, not a soul.
Speaker 1: He rushed to the train station and demanded to board
Speaker 1: the next train bound for Vienna that passed through the station.
Speaker 1: The station master said that the next train was an
Speaker 1: express and it wasn't stopping there. For God's sake, Man
Speaker 1: Hoya shouted, the Crown Princess shot himself. The train stopped,
Speaker 1: and Hoyas made it to Vienna. Meanwhile, the station master
Speaker 1: had telephoned his brother in law, who telephoned the German embassy,
Speaker 1: who informed the British embassy. The only government that didn't
Speaker 1: seem to know that Prince Rudolph was lying in a
Speaker 1: pile of his own blood was his own. Hayas was
Speaker 1: so unnerved by the scene, so embarrassed by the Prince's actions,
Speaker 1: by the violence, the blood, the nudity the mistress, that
Speaker 1: he tried to soften the story. When he got to
Speaker 1: the palace, I didn't even see the bodies, he lied
Speaker 1: the Valet told me they poisoned themselves. None of the
Speaker 1: officers wanted to be the one to tell the Emperor.
Speaker 1: It was decided that the only person who could tell
Speaker 1: Franz Joseph was his wife, the Empress. A minister interrupted
Speaker 1: her Greek lesson, hat in hand. He informed the Empress
Speaker 1: that Mary that Sarah had poisoned Prince Rudolph, and then,
Speaker 1: in her guilt, she had taken her own life. Rudolph's
Speaker 1: younger sister came in to see their mother weeping. He's
Speaker 1: killed himself, hasn't he, Valerie said. Elizabeth gasped and physically
Speaker 1: stepped away from her daughter. Why would you think that,
Speaker 1: she said, No, it's probably no certain that the girl
Speaker 1: poisoned him. By the time they got around to telling
Speaker 1: Rudolph's wife, Stephanie, the official story was determined. There would
Speaker 1: be no sordid details of murder or suicide or an affair.
Speaker 1: They would say that Rudolph had a heart attack. It
Speaker 1: was just like when he was seven years old having
Speaker 1: a nervous breakdown when they said it was diphtheria. Better
Speaker 1: to cover up to obstocate. The most important thing is
Speaker 1: preserving royal decorum. Meanwhile, Mary's mother, Helene, had spent the
Speaker 1: past two days desperately trying to get the Chief of
Speaker 1: Police to take her missing daughter seriously. The moment he
Speaker 1: found out that Mary had been having an affair with
Speaker 1: the prince, the chief of police refused to get involved.
Speaker 1: The royal family's personal life is none of our business,
Speaker 1: he said. When finally Helene made it to the palace
Speaker 1: to ask if anyone knew the whereabouts of Rudolph or Mary,
Speaker 1: the servants tried to usher her away. Elizabeth heard Helene
Speaker 1: at the door. You're telling me the poor woman knows nothing,
Speaker 1: the Empress muttered to her lady in waiting. Let her
Speaker 1: in without so much as a moment's introduction. The Empress
Speaker 1: gathered her height and told Helene to collect her courage.
Speaker 1: Your daughter is dead, she said, simply, so is my son.
Speaker 1: Helene wept and was escorted out, while Elizabeth called after her.
Speaker 1: Remember the Crown Prince died of heart failure. Back at Marylyn.
Speaker 1: The Crown Prince's head was bandaged and his body was
Speaker 1: covered with a white sheet. When word finally reached the
Speaker 1: palace that it had actually been a suicide, the Emperor
Speaker 1: requested special dispensation from the Vatican to permit a royal
Speaker 1: burial anyway, which he was granted because, as the Emperor said,
Speaker 1: the prince didn't know what he was doing. He hadn't
Speaker 1: been in his right mind. Mary's body was brought to
Speaker 1: a store room and covered haphazardly with her clothes. She
Speaker 1: was given a quiet, secret burial near by. Her family
Speaker 1: wasn't permitted to attend. The only connection they had left
Speaker 1: to their daughter were the letters that she had written
Speaker 1: to them on Marling stationary. Dear mother, Mary wrote, forgive
Speaker 1: me for what I have done. I could not resist love.
Speaker 1: I am happier in death than in life. To her
Speaker 1: sister Hannah, Mary wrote, think of me now and again,
Speaker 1: and Mary, only for love. I could not do so.
Speaker 1: And as I could not resist love, I am going
Speaker 1: with him. Do not cry for me. I am going
Speaker 1: to the other side in peace. It is beautiful here.
Speaker 1: Rudolph was tortured and lost. He felt useless, and he
Speaker 1: was going mad from disease and the drugs and the alcohol,
Speaker 1: and the emptiness of a life in which he had
Speaker 1: been given everything. But for Mary, her death was merely
Speaker 1: a gift for her lover, a way to immortalize that
Speaker 1: larger than life, obsessive love that can only happen when
Speaker 1: you're seventeen years old. She would be forever part of
Speaker 1: his story after all. Maybe in the back of her
Speaker 1: mind she knew that he would never leave his wife
Speaker 1: for her, that he would never marry her. This was
Speaker 1: the only version of their story where they would end
Speaker 1: up together. Rudolph had wanted someone devoted enough that he
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to die alone. He saw the love in
Speaker 1: Mary that Sarah's eyes, and he knew what to do
Speaker 1: with it. That's the tragic story of the Maryland incident.
Speaker 1: But stick around after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: about how Rudolph's death reshaped europe. Crown Prince Rudolph's death
Speaker 1: meant that his father, Franz Joseph no longer had an heir.
Speaker 1: The next male Habsburg in line was Franz Joseph's brother,
Speaker 1: who died, which meant that the next in line was
Speaker 1: his son, Rudolph's cousin, an archduke named Franz Ferdinand. Archduke
Speaker 1: Franz Ferdinand didn't live long enough to take the throne
Speaker 1: as Emperor of the Austro Hungarian Empire either, he and
Speaker 1: his wife were assassinated and Sarah Gavo by a Bosnian Serb,
Speaker 1: which ignited all of Europe to fall into the First
Speaker 1: World War. One last final and very important note, if
Speaker 1: you were a loved one is having suicidal thoughts, please
Speaker 1: know that help is available. Call the suicide hot line
Speaker 1: now at one eight hundred two seven three eight two five.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Grimm and Mild from Aaron Mankey. The show is written
Speaker 1: and hosted by Dana Schwartz and produced by Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: on social media at Noble Blood Tales and you can
Speaker 1: learn more about the show over at Noble blood Tales
Speaker 1: dot com. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.