At the judicial examination more incriminating evidence came out. Upon being closely interrogated, Madame Grosjean admitted having gone from St. Petersburg, first to Emden, then to the Hague and to Amsterdam. At the last named places, Grosjean seems to have begun his systematic business journeys in connection with the post-carts, but she denied all participation or knowledge of their aim and results. Only at Bayreuth, when he bought the costly carriage, her conscience seemed to have awakened. When she reproached him for purchasing it he replied that it was none of her business; that it was enough for her if he provided for her; and that if she were not pleased she might leave him and go where she chose. This partly pacified, partly terrified her. She forbore to ask him about the post-cart robberies, but suffered him to follow his own road, without remark or complaint. She had made a great mistake in her marriage, she admitted, yet she was undoubtedly much affected when the news of his death by suicide was communicated to her.
Meanwhile a series of laborious investigations and far-reaching correspondence had been set on foot to build up the criminal history of Grosjean. It was fully established that his evil tendencies were inborn and strongly developed; he had a passion for stealing that amounted to mania. He had acted for the most part alone and unaided, exhibiting rare skill and meeting generally with extraordinary good luck. He had carried out his robberies over a large area, in various countries and at many times, greedy to lay his hands on everything he came across. To utilise his plunder in playing the great personage with much ostentation and display, was another trait in him not uncommon with others of his class. He was ambitious also to appear a refined and well educated man in the cultured social surroundings of the university town of Heidelberg. He loved to forget that he was a common thief, and to assume the superior airs of a well-bred gentleman. It was the same in France, where he gained a reputation for good breeding and perfect manners, inspiring confidence and appreciation in all with whom he was thrown.
Little was known to a certainty of his early life. He was born at Weilburg, where his father owned a cloth factory, but the family moved subsequently to Berlin. Karl accompanied his parents and was apprenticed to the hairdresser’s craft. He soon left the capital, and rarely returned to it after he had assumed the part of a wealthy merchant. On the third visit, he was arrested and it was then shown that not only had he robbed General Dolfs, as already described, but that when only 16 years of age he had been sentenced to four years’ penal servitude for theft. While a hairdresser in Berlin, he carried out a large robbery in the house of the English envoy; and at Hamburg, where he was afterward in service, he stole three thousand marks from his master, but he was not apprehended for either offence. From that time very little information came to hand concerning his larger and more audacious undertakings, which he perpetrated chiefly in foreign countries. The chief post-office authorities at Frankfurt-on-the-Main had on their register a long list of post-cart robberies, covering the years from 1800-1811, all of which might no doubt be laid to Grosjean’s charge. It was certainly proved that a man answering to his description travelled under eight or nine different aliases at various times. One curious and unusual trait in a man accustomed to carry out thefts on a very large scale, was his stooping to steal groceries from his landlord, and also heavy goods, articles of no value, but difficult to move and likely to lead to his detection. His wife, annoyed at these useless thefts and overburdened with groceries and spices she could not use, would ask him how she should get rid of them, upon which he would tell her to sell them to the landlord. This ironical suggestion to sell stolen goods to the victim of the thefts was in its way amusing. Grosjean also purloined tobacco, and once when travelling stole his landlord’s gold repeater watch, which he wore boldly and unconcernedly until his arrest in 1814. He likewise abstracted the silver spoons at the inns where he lodged, and stole stockings for his family from shops, whether they wanted them or not. Sixty-five pairs were found when his lodging was searched, and they were claimed by a tradesman in Frankfurt who was the author of the mysterious letter signed, “Louis Fischer,” which had given the Heidelberg legal authorities the first clue for Grosjean’s prosecution. This man, after having dealings with Grosjean, who was a good customer and paid ready money, suddenly began to suspect him of pilfering in the shop and at last caught him in the act. His bump of acquisitiveness was no doubt abnormally developed.
Insecurity of life and property was universal at this time. The country was terrorised and laid waste by brigandage. Bands were organised under the most redoubtable chiefs, whose skill and boldness in the prosecution of their evil business were quite on a par with the most famous feats of great bandits in other lands. Foremost among them were such men as Pickard, who long devastated the Low Countries, and not less noted was Schinderhannes, otherwise John Buckler the younger. He had followed the craft of his father, a flayer of dead animals, and hence his sobriquet, Schinderhannes or “Hans the skinner.” His operations covered a wide area, extending from both banks of the upper Rhine to the lower Meuse; from Mayence on the one side as far as Dunkirk on the other; and again to the eastward beyond the Weser to the Elbe. He “worked” this country from 1793 to 1801, and when at last justice overtook him and he was committed to the prison of Mayence, sixty-seven associates, who had followed him with unflagging devotion, were arrested and brought to trial with him.
The growth of brigandage was stimulated by the prevailing distress of the territories so constantly ravaged by war. Peaceable inhabitants were harried and harassed by the excesses of the troops. Contributions in money and in kind were repeatedly levied upon them; they lost their cattle and their crops by military requisitions, and were heavily taxed in money. Where the farmers and other employers were nearly ruined, large numbers of labourers were thrown out of work and were driven into evil practices. Many took to thieving, and stole everything they came across,—horses from their stables and cattle from the fields. They cut off and robbed stragglers from the armies on the march, and pillaged the baggage wagons that went astray. As guardians of the law became more active in pursuit, offenders were driven to combine forces and form associations for greater strength and more concerted action. Receivers of the stolen goods were established with secure hiding places and lines of safe retreat. Leaders were also appointed to direct operations, to ascertain the most likely victims and plan attacks without incurring suspicion or subsequent detection. In this way, outrages multiplied and developed on a large scale far beyond mere highway robbery.
Great prudence and circumspection were employed in the formation of a band. The members were chosen with an eye to fitness for the work; every effort was made to preserve their incognito; they were forbidden to assemble in any considerable number; not more than two or three men were suffered to live in the same village. Each man’s address or change of address was known only to the receivers of the district, through whom orders were circulated from the supreme chief of the entire association, the individual members of which lived singly, dispersed through the villages and small towns of an extensive territory. The brigands themselves were strictly enjoined not to attract attention; to keep disguises close at hand, to change their abode frequently, and to be prepared to assume quickly a different character. The aristocratic German baron or the respectable Dutch merchant drinking the waters at Aix-la-Chapelle or Spa one week was transformed the next into the leader of a band of miscreants lurking in a wood, waiting to embark upon a bloodthirsty attack and wholesale massacre.
No important movement was undertaken unless it had been recommended as feasible by one of the numerous indicators or spies spread over the country. These were mostly Jews and, strange to say, they were not members of the band. They were ever on the alert, and by insinuating themselves into people’s homes, learned who were well-off and where money and valuables were treasured. They gained all necessary information as to the possible opposition that would be offered by the residents, and when all was prepared, the informer contracted to help the brigand chief to make the coup on a promise of receiving part, and a large part, of the booty. The rôle played by these spies was the more detestable because of the certainty that the robbery would be accompanied with brutal violence and much cruelty. If the treasure was well concealed or obstinately withheld by the owners, the most barbarous tortures were inflicted on them, such as those practised by the “chauffeurs” of central France about this same time, who “warmed” or toasted the feet of their victims before a blazing fire until they confessed where their goods lay hidden. These informers were generally receivers also, ready to take over and dispose of the plunder.
As soon as a stroke had been decided upon, word was passed around to gather the band together. A letter was addressed to each member, in which he was summoned to meet the others at a particular place and discuss “a matter of business.” Sometimes the chief went in person and called upon every member. When assembled, the project was considered from every point of view; the difficulties and dangers were formally examined; and a decision was taken by vote as to whether it was practicable or unsafe. If accepted in spite of serious obstacles, several sub-chiefs were appointed to deal with the different parts of the plan, such as the line of approach, the actual execution and the means of retreat. As a rule, the spring or autumn season was preferred for an attempt, because of the long nights. Winter was tabooed on account of the bad travelling over dark and nearly impracticable roads, and the summer nights were too light. Moonlight nights were carefully avoided, and also any time when snow lay upon the ground. When the matter eventually came into court, it was found that the week-end was the time almost invariably chosen for the operations of the band.
To avoid the alarm that might be caused by the united march of thirty or forty robbers in company, they were ordered to repair to the rendezvous, only two or three travelling together. Those who could afford it rode or drove in vehicles, intended for use afterward in removing part of the stolen goods. Great pains were taken to prevent the men from going astray in the dark when passing through the dense forests. Guides went ahead and marked the path by nailing scraps of white paper on tree or post; at cross-roads the direction was shown by a chalked line, or a great branch was broken off from a tree and laid on the ground with the leafage pointing out the road. Signals were also passed on from one to another by imitating the hoot of an owl; whistling was not permitted because it was a low class practice certain to attract observation. A halt was called at the rendezvous near the point of attack, where the robbers rested; pistols were examined, a pass word was chosen and a number of candles and torches were distributed to be lighted when the march was resumed, as it was, in perfect silence; and all had their faces blackened to escape recognition. Any one whom they met was seized, tied, gagged and muzzled, and left to lie by the roadside, so that he might give no alarm.
The chief or captain now took the lead, followed by a party carrying the belier or battering ram, a solid beam ten or twelve feet long, and one foot thick, which was sometimes a signpost and sometimes a wooden cross from a churchyard. On entering a village, some one who knew the road was sent to barricade the church door and prevent access to the belfry from which the tocsin might be sounded. The night watchmen were captured and put out of the way. Next, the doomed house was surrounded and a sharp fire opened to keep every one in-doors and give the idea that the assailants were in great numbers. If the French had passed recently through the country, loud shouts and oaths were uttered in that language to convey a false impression. After this, the principal door was beaten in, and the captain entered boldly at the head of his men, reserving the right to shoot down instantly any who hesitated or hung back. The whole house was then illuminated from roof-tree to cellar, and the place was thoroughly ransacked. All the inmates were bound and gagged, and rolled up in blankets with bedding and mattresses piled on top of them, until called upon to surrender their valuables or give information as to where they were concealed. This, as has been said, was generally extorted after horrible tortures had been inflicted.