The deadly liver sausage

The year is 1819. On February 8, retired schoolmaster Carl Ludwig Sartori sat at the dining room table with his wife Elisabetha Magdalena. The fire in the fireplace warmed the room and Elisabetha spread liver sausage on bread. This was a delicacy at the time, one that was not served very often. They enjoyed their sandwiches, and even the cat got a piece. But shortly afterwards, all three were plagued by terrible stomach cramps, diarrhea, and vomiting. As Carl Ludwig Sartori grew weaker and weaker, his wife Elisabetha called the Aalen district medical officer, Dr. Brotbeek. However, he was confined to bed himself, so he sent the city doctor, Dr. Bösbier, to the couple’s home in Fachsenfeld. When he arrived, Carl Ludwig had already died. Based on his wife’s description, whom he immediately treated, he suspected poisoning. He performed an autopsy on the body on site and found 168 grams of arsenic in the body. Just 8 grams of this substance is enough to kill a person. He alerted the police, who then questioned the deceased’s wife. Had she poisoned her husband? However, during the interrogation, it emerged that she had received a package from a little girl the evening before. It contained liver sausage, and because the girl looked so innocent, Mrs. Sartori didn’t think anything of it. After all, her husband had been a popular schoolteacher. That’s why the gift didn’t seem suspicious to her. The police were now searching for the girl. Did she really exist, or had Mrs. Sartori just made up a story to divert attention from herself? But the girl was found. She was little Barbara Hägler from Treppach, whom a strange man had asked to deliver the package to the Sartoris in exchange for an apple. She could not describe the man, but was sure that she would recognize him if she saw him again. The police began investigating the couple’s circle of acquaintances. Which man had an interest in murdering the respected couple? During the investigation, the district administrator of Aalen came across the new school principal, Johann Jacob Riesenmann. It turned out that when he took office, he had to commit to paying his predecessor, headmaster Carl Ludwig Sartori, a pension for the rest of his life. This provided a motive. However, there was no clear evidence, and Riesenmann vehemently denied having anything to do with the poisoning. The poison registers of pharmacies in the surrounding area, in which the sale of arsenic was recorded, were examined, but the name Riesenmann did not appear anywhere. By questioning the neighbors again, the police came across a hot lead. Johann Jacob Sartori had visited his brother-in-law in Heidenheim, and he was also said to have stopped by in Hemmingen. When they looked at the poison registers of the pharmacies there, the name Johann Jacob Riesenmann did indeed appear as having purchased arsenic. Johann Jacob Riesenmann was arrested together with his wife, who, as the daughter of a master butcher, had helped him make the liver sausage. Both were sentenced to death by the sword and executed.