The very well-preserved skeleton of the famous Munich historic character Joseph Huber, vulgo “Finessen-Sepperl”, is a rich source for a historic, but also medical (re-)examination of this early 19th century individual. Despite his widespread perception in public life of 19th century Munich, there exist only very few official records on his life, such as the official registry entry and the death certificate – and a few contemporaneous notes in several daily newspapers. Almost all other reports dealing with him are comments and stories with limited value for historical research, most of which have been written years or even decades after his death.

Valuable information is obtained from stable isotope analyses in various tissues (dentin, bones, joint capsule) that may provide an over-all information on the quality of his diet and, indirectly, his social status and personal resources during various periods of life [12]. From traditional written sources we know that Joseph mostly lived from daily donations from numerous middle-class and aristocratic households plus a little income as a postilion d´amour [2]. Since the relative values for the stable isotopes analysed, especially that for nitrogen isotope, did not differ significantly between dentin (youth), skull bone, femur and rib bone collagen (adulthood until the last years of life) there is no evidence for major changes in the composition (and thereby the “quality”) of his food during his lifetime. When compared to other individuals/ social groups, the composition of his diet with respect to the amount of animal protein in his diet, was lower than for contemporary aristocrats or clergymen (friars) (see Fig. 8). In this respect, it is noteworthy that Joseph had lost almost all his teeth a long time before death. The reason therefore remains unclear. A posttraumatic loss is possible but not proven. X-rays and CT-scans do not show trauma residues so that extensive tooth loss following periodontitis is possible. However, the only remaining tooth does not show any evidence therefore. In general, however, there is no evidence for severe disease impact or starvation periods; accordingly, long-term vitamin deficiencies (scurvy, osteomalacia) as well as chronic anaemia can be ruled out. This is confirmed by the histopathological analysis of bone samples. Finally, the somewhat increased nitrogen isotope value of the joint capsule may be associated with a change in Sepperl´s food composition, but does not necessarily indicate an emaciation of Sepperl´s body during the last stages of his life [13], since some differences in the collagen amino acid compositions from tooth/bone and the joint capsule have to be taken into account.

Carbon and nitrogen isotope values of the Finessen-Sepperl compared to clerics (Stift Waldhausen, Upper Austria, AD 1640–1690 n = 4) and aristocrats from the 19/20th century (“Sachsen”: family of baronets von Könneritz, Erdmannsdorf, AD 1820–1930, n = 5; “Dötting”: family of baronets von Jordan, Dötting/Bavaria, AD 1815–1859, n = 4) indicate his relatively low nutritional status

Beyond this information the skeleton shows several trauma sequelae that seem to have been relevant to Joseph´s life. Their morphologies suggest three time periods of genesis [14]: the presumed left side femoral neck fracture occurred long time before death, since the resulting coxa vara deformation developed into severe hip joint arthrosis. Accordingly, the underlying trauma must have happened at least several years before Joseph´s death and may correlate with a reduction in his daily prolonged walking through Munich´s streets and also, possibly, with a slightly poorer nutritional supply as evidenced by the stable isotope analysis. The second episode of trauma must have occurred a few weeks before Joseph´s death since the clavicular fracture shows major remodelling including bony callus formation. This trauma would perfectly match with the reported first hospitalization event about 4 weeks before his death when newspaper reports describe a “fall to the right shoulder”. The third event covers the two fracture regions without any bony reaction which obviously occurred around the time of Joseph´s death. Both the multiple fractures of the upper dorsal ribs and the skull fracture affect the right side. There were no other “fresh” trauma sequelae at the skeleton.

To this regard, it is important to discuss whether those breaks happened in the perimortem period (i.e. in a “wet bone status”) or if they were the result of much later post-mortem damage (i.e. “dry bone breaks”). This problem has been widely discussed in both the forensic and bioarchaeological context [18]. A discrimination between those two statuses may indeed be very difficult. Helping criteria may include different staining of fracture ends, desiccation of the bone fragments, loss of bone flexibility and elasticity and finally the type of fracture [15, 16]. In the present setting, the preservation situation in the anatomo-pathological collection clearly rule out frequent problems with many later post-mortem modifications, such as by weathering, geological forces, scavenger modification etc. The fracture zone of all four ribs does not show neither dislocation nor discoloration. The preservation of the fracture zones in their regular anatomical axis suggest bone flexibility and elasticity during the process of fracturing. However, one fracture must have been fixed by a small metal wire which is identical to other metal fixations applied during the process of the skeleton´s preparation. This further supports the presence of those fractures already during the preparation of the skeleton for the collection and thereby a perimortem, but no postmortem damage. Furthermore, with respect to the rib fractures, we can rule out a longer post-mortem break by a fall of the skeleton onto its back which should have also affected the more prominent vertebral processes which remain intact. Finally, only four ribs are affected, but neither the more cranial nor caudal ones so that only a very localized impact can be expected. Taking all these observations together, the rib serial fractures are much more likely perimortem (“wet bone status”) fractures, but not later post-mortem breaks (“dry bone breaks”) [15,16,17,18].

There is a different situation with the adjacent scapula which also shows some breaks at its medial margin which, however, show focal whitish discoloration. These latter changes strongly suggest that the scapular defect occurred – at least in some major part – at a much later time, i.e. that there may have been post-mortem breaks which, however, remain unreported in all later descriptions of the skeleton.

The trauma to the right skull came from the side. The square-shaped infraction of the parietal/temporal bone suggest a similarly formed object that may have struck the head. The CT scans further indicate an extension of the fracture to the right petrous bone and the adjacent skull base. Since there is no evidence for a direct disruption of the carotid canal, death from an acute bleed can be ruled out. However, the type and extent of the skull base fracture may have caused intracranial epi- or subdural bleeding with delayed death. This scenario also fits quite well with the clinical course –indicated by newspaper records that Joseph had “an accident” (which was not further described or commented in those records) which led to his hospitalization and ultimately his death within a short period of time (likely several hours).

Assuming the aforementioned scenarios, Joseph was subjected to several trauma events over a long period of time, however, with a final trauma to the right body side. Although we cannot fully exclude a fall to the right side with double impact by accident, the pattern of a trauma from two directions is also well in agreements with a double hit by an attacker. Alternatively, Joseph may have suffered from a blow to the skull and then falling on a shaped object with his thoracic back. Anyway, this would well agree with a later report of a direct attack. Accordingly, it is most likely that the “Finessen-Sepperl” was attacked, possibly during an attempted robbery of the Joseph´s small fortune that he had collected during life time as the postilion d´amour of Munich in the early 19th century, and thereby killed within several hours by a severe intracranial bleeding. The excellent preservation of this skeleton, from about 200 years ago, enables us to reconstruct this historical cold case.