Penny Dreadful

There are a plethora of conspiracy theories about what happened at Mayerling on 29/30th January 1889, including some really daft ones. The inevitable cover-up surrounding the aftermath of this scandalous murder/suicide incident just fanned the flames. Initially, it was the idea of the Empress Elizabeth to announce Rudolf's death as the result of a sudden heart attack. Rather prescient of her, in some respects, as one of the stages of advanced gonorrhea (which Rudolf was suffering from at this point) affects the valves of the heart.
Of course, Mary Vetsera was not mentioned at all and they tried to make out that Rudolf had died alone at Mayerling. That in a sense, is of course true, ironically enough. Rudolf had wanted a suicide pact with Mary, but Mary had ruled out the use of poison and went for the revolver option instead, which meant that Rudolf had to shoot her before killing himself. 
After shooting Mary in the head (probably the right temple) he sat with her body until daybreak,pondering no doubt. He even left the room at one point, instructing the valet, Loschek, about early morning arrangements and requests not to be disturbed. Perhaps there was one more letter he had to write before he did the deed.
Anyway, the dead Rudolf is eventually seen in that famous photograph with a bandage on his head, lying in state on a catafalque, looking very like a waxwork and covered in floral tributes-- all the hothouses in Vienna having been emptied for this purpose. 
Poor Mary, in the meantime, had undergone a hasty autopsy at Mayerling. Her naked body was left in an outhouse for a few days before she was 'collected' by two male relatives (the uncles?) Here it starts to get rather 'grand guignol', as Mary's body is then dressed (by the uncles?!) and she is taken away in a carriage, propped up by a broomstick tied to her back with her hat perched on her head (hiding the gunshot wound.) Just as if she'd been on a country excursion and was now returning home. A hasty burial at Heiligenkreuz cemetery then ensued. A few years later the Vetsera family erected a proper sepulchre/monument for her.
There is supposed to be a box of items collected from the 'death room' at Mayerling which has never seen the light of day and is still kept by current members of the Hapsburg family. It was last reported (c1990's) to be in the possession of Otto, the son of Kaiser Karl, the last Emperor. It (allegedly) contains the actual revolver and some 'last letters' that Rudolf wrote to close friends including one, to his old flame, Mitzi Caspar.
The only 'last letter' to have come into the public domain is the one Rudolf wrote to his wife, Stephanie. There was no letter for his father-- and the Emperor Franz Joseph, was devastated by this deliberate and cruel omission by his only son and heir. 
The long-lived Empress Zita, the widow of Kaiser Karl, always claimed that Rudolf had been the victim of an assassination plot by foreign agents disguised as Austrian officials and/or certain 'insiders' who thought that Rudolf was getting too pally with Hungarian nationalists. Of course, some people even believed that Rudolf and Mary had in fact faked their deaths and escaped to some obscure outpost of the Austro-Hungarian empire to lead a simple bucolic life together. Not many 'fake' Marys and Rudolfs have turned up in the intervening years though. They haven't proved to be as enduringly 'fakeable' as the two youngest Romanovs, Tsarevitch Alexei and his sister, Anastasia, who were murdered with their family and retainers at Ekaterinburg, Russia, in 1918.

The assassination attempt by champagne bottle with music by Strauss

My favourite conspiracy theory is the 'assassination by champagne bottle' as seen above, in which Rudolf is bashed over the head with a bottle of bubbly by persons unknown. Ahem, more likely to produce a very sore head than actually kill, one would assume. Then one begins to wonder about the vintage etc. It's all a bit like a plot twist from a blackly comic Strauss operetta. 
My riff on it is deliberately ambiguous. We are not quite sure who has done the deed and whether Mary, in a fit of pique, has been responsible. Another theory that circulated at the time, was that Mary had deliberately poisoned Rudolf, possibly using rat poison, which can result in haemorrhage and might also explain the blood everywhere. However, I think this attempt by the Hapsburg set to point the finger of blame at Mary (clearly in denial of the murder/suicide verdict) was pretty feeble and even diehard conspiracy theorists fail to pedal that one. 
I must admit I'm a fan of those completely over the top 19thc 'Penny Dreadful' scene of crime illustrations and this sketch is very much in that genre and should not be taken at all seriously! Note the over-turned chair in the background-- I have also put Bratfisch, Rudolf's personal coachman, bursting in through the door. Of course very unlikely, but I like the jolly Bratfisch a lot and in my version of the Vetsera Fantasia (where Mary is a survivor) he plays a key role. To be continued...