“We shall never again be friends! And do not reproach me by begging!”

About a murder, an awkward relationship by marriage and a criminal investigation at the chapel above Železniki in 1910

Abstract

The narrative is of two friends from the vicinity of Železniki, who later became relatives by marriage. They helped one another with work around the farm and often fought; however, they were also quickly reconciled (at least on the outside). They were well known with the locals but in different ways. Each was politically active in his own way, and they provided the legally agreed right to subsistence to their parents--one of them more readily than the other. They lived in a small town with a politically-ardent clergyman in whose courtyard members of the liberal gymnastic society Sokol often exercised. One of them was sarcastic, the other sensitive, in particular after a glass or two. They had common friends, who helped and occasionally reproached each other if anyone mentioned the old debts. Nothing out of the ordinary; however, one summer Sunday, all that went to hell. The friendship of the two faded over time and burst into open aggression occasionally; one Sunday it so escalated that a criminal investigation was launched against one of the two, resulting in a court sentence. Criminology and forensic science were young and interdisciplinary practices; the latter established itself at the turn of the century. The emerging practice of criminology needed a methodological apparatus, which, however, was mostly uncritically based on the natural sciences. The investigating judge called on the help of court experts, whom he directed in an effort to explain the cases in an objective manner and prove the criminal act. Forensic photography became the ideal of objectivity. “Decontaminated” of additional interpretation, it represented a useful means of inquiry and announced the arrival of the modern investigating judge--Including our case.