Fritzl Trial

After admitting to everything he was accused of, Josef Fritzl has been sent to life in a psychiatric institution:

Josef Fritzl, the Austrian engineer who kept his daughter as a sex slave in a secret cellar underneath the family home for 24 years, will probably die behind bars, having been found guilty of a catalogue of crimes including the negligent murder of one of the seven children he fathered with his daughter.

The jury at St Pölten court sentenced him to life after finding him guilty on all counts – of negligent murder, enslavement, incest, rape, coercion and false imprisonment. He will serve his sentence in a psychiatric institution, his lawyer said.

Court authorities said that the life sentence would entail a minimum of 15 years in prison.

Fritzl accepted the verdicts and waived his right to appeal.

The homicide count of "murder by neglect" was the most serious of the charges against him, and the jury gave him the maximum punishment allowed by law.

The BBC is a day-by-day summary of the trial.

Here is some video.


At long last it was payback for what he did to his daughter and her children.

One thing about Austria, and that is at least there are speedy trials there, not trials that take a century as in this country, e.g. the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

Fritzl Case

After viewing his daughter's harrowing account of her 24 years of being imprisoned and raped, Josef Fritzl has decided to admit guilt to the circumstances surrounding the death of one of his children, and then throwing the corpse into an incinerator, in short, murder.

Details:

“I regret it,” the retired building engineer told Judge Andrea Humer. “Only yesterday did I realise how cruel I was to Elisabeth.” His daughter, now 42, was locked up for 24 years in an improvised dungeon in the family home, where she was raped up to 3,000 times and bore seven children – one of whom died soon after birth.

Fritzl’s words yesterday were as close to remorse as he has come. Only two days ago he was choking back tears in his opening courtroom testimony – but they were tears of self-pity as he spoke of his difficult childhood and his unloving mother.

Seeing Elisabeth, he told the judge, had made him think again. After watching 11 hours of her evidence on television, he was shattered and had sought out his assigned therapist, Pattrick Frottier, for counselling. It was then, he said, that he had decided to make a clean breast of matters.

Video report:

Miscellaneous

Elisabeth Fritzl has finally been released from a mental hospital, and she and the six surviving children she had with her evil father are now at an undisclosed location.
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Just what was it that made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly?
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Fritzl.

For the first time, Elisabeth Fritzl has been interviewed, and she was interviewed at a secret location.

More is here. The children have been returning to normal life thanks to a team of doctors.

Fritzl.

The three children Fritzl brought out of the cellar to be raised by him and his wife will be returning to school in September.

Fritzl.

The Incest Monster of Amstetten cries every night in jail because he got caught abusing his daughter and her children.

The Fritzl family lawyer says there are NO plans afoot for Elisabeth to give a TV interview; after all, she hasn't even been interviewed by the police.

It certainly didn't make sense to me she would be talking to the media so soon after her release from the cellar.

More Fritzl.

Incredibly enough, Elisabeth Fritzl feels well enough to go on television and talk about her 24-year ordeal.

It is believed that if she goes public with her story, it will lessen the pressure by the media to photograph her and her family.

Media reports in Austria say that Elisabeth is now poised to do the same after marathon negotiations between the TV station and her lawyer.

Upwards of 300 TV stations globally will pay handsomely to beam it live or in repeat showings.

Media in Austria said none of the children - either the three she gave birth to who lived upstairs from her underground tomb nor the two of three healthy ones forced to endure her captivity below - will be in the studio with her.

Christoph Feurstein, the journalist who interviewed Natascha for her first - and subsequent - TV appearances, has been lined up for what promises to be a gripping television spectacle.

It is expected to be broadcast next Monday evening (May 26).

That soon.

Her youngest son Felix went out to McDonald's to have a Happy Meal.

Fritzl.

It's not very likely the boy couldn't help it when he committed his monstrous crimes:

But top psychiatrist Dr Christian Ludke rejected that claim, saying: "The criminal energy of this man is unbelievable. He is ice-cold and is still playing power games. We can only separate him from society."

Dr Ludke compared Fritzl to the fictional Dr Frankenstein, who created a monster he thought he could control.

The shrink said: "Fritzl enjoyed being master of life and death. He enjoyed his fantasy of having all the power, he was like Dr Frankenstein."

Not surprisingly, he is found to have sick fantasies, which he inflicted on his daughter.

Elisabeth Fritzl's attorneys are looking into taking legal action against the media for violating her privacy:

For the purposes of the lawsuits, Mr Herbst is to introduce Elisabeth to the details of the media coverage of her case from which she has previously been shielded.

Mr Herbst said: “We will take legal action against some media already this week, as in order to counter the perpetual sensationalist reporting. For the purpose of getting Elisabeth Fritzl’s approval for the legal measures, she will be now be updated with the current state of affairs regarding the coverage.”

Fritzl.

The monster will remain in custody. He could be detained up to two years.

One would hope so. The pervert claimed he wanted to have sex with his mother. Whether that is true or whether that is an excuse by the pervert to try to get a lighter sentence or be put in a nuthouse instead of prison remains to be seen.
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He will face a murder charge over the death of the twin baby who died and who Fritzl tossed into the incinerator.
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He denies, in this sickening account, rigging up gas to use against the captives if they tried to break free. He also makes the claim he planned to release them eventually.
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The Times has Josef Fritzl's statement with some context included, provided one can stand to read it. When Elisabeth became pregnant, he found her some medical books to read, as if that would do her a bit of good. She remained terrified of giving birth. Well, no wonder. No pain medication, no medical attention. It's a miracle she didn't die.
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Fritz III.

The monster claimed he had a timer that would have opened the cellar door in case anything happened to him.

In 1992 Lisa was born, and screamed so much and was ill so often that Fritzl had decided he needed to bring matters in hand with the cellar family, and arranged for her to be released into the outside world.

He told his wife Elisabeth had dumped her on their doorstep and did not want her.

It was the same for Monica born in 1994 and Alexander born in 1996.

In 1993 Fritzl extended the 20 square metre bunker into another two rooms.

He said he wanted to extend his kingdom. He bought a television and radio into the cellar, as well as a video recorder, table, chairs, carpets, cupboards, plates, tables and pots.

He also bought more kitchen utensils and coloured pictures to put on the wall.

He added: "After the birth of Felix at the end of 2002 I even gave Elisabeth a washing machine as a present so that she did not have to wash her own clothes and that of the children by hand.

He made her a prisoner because he really cared for her. Honest.

Supposedly she never fought him. Supposedly he didn't rape her until after she hit puberty. Jesus, what a psychopathic piece of work.

Fritzl II.

Letters from Elisabeth Fritzl were made public and published:

"After the exams... I'm moving in with my sister and her boyfriend," 18-year-old Elisabeth Fritzl wrote to her friend, named only as E, on 9 May, 1984.

In another letter dated 29 May, 1984, she writes about her hobbies - swimming, tennis and football - and how much she enjoyed going out with friends.

"I like to listen to music and day-dream. But if life is only made of dreams, well, I don't know," she wrote.

In a third and last letter from 3 August, 1984, just a few weeks before she vanished, she wrote: "Cross your fingers for me. When you get this letter, it will all be over. I'll give you my new address as soon as I've moved."

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Fritzl.

Although World War II has been over with for 63 years, the Incest Monster from Amstetten is trying to blame his behavior on the Nazis.

Although he started raping his daughter when she was eleven, Fritzl said he had to keep her prisoner in the dungeon and rape and torture her to keep her from running around with bad characters and to stop her from smoking and booze.

He claims he started raping Elisabeth in 1985, some eight years later than Elisabeth's claim.

He was a totally upright dad, even in the dungeon with low ceilings.

Read the whole article, if you can stand it without throwing up.
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Fritzl II.

In order to get through the dungeon where Elisabeth Fritzl and three of her children were imprisoned, one had to go through EIGHT LOCKED DOORS to get there, including three metal and electronically locked doors. The main door weighed half a ton.

It is doubtful there were any accomplices in the building of the cellar. It would seem Elisabeth and the older children were forced to help build the prison.

You can watch yet another video press conference, this one about the cellar, here.
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Fritzl.

The children abused by Fritzl may end up suing him, though considering this monster is in huge debt, they may not get anything out of it.

His daughter Elisabeth and the six surviving children she bore him - one died in infancy and was incinerated underground - have been assigned state lawyers to help them handle media interest and their financial affairs.

The cost of their therapy is expected to exceed £750,000 and Fritzl's financial affairs are in such poor shape - he has mortgaged his property for more than £1.5 million - that they might be left penniless.

"The damage claims against Josef Fritzl could amount to millions," said Andreas Öhler, a Vienna lawyer.

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Let's hope Kerstin Fritzl, 19, makes it. Her condition is now reportedly improving.
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It is believed Fritzl hatched his evil scheme 30 years ago, when his daughter was 12.
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Fritzl III.

In yet another horrifying development, Josef Fritzl kept daughter Elisabeth on a dog lead chained to a wall during the first nine months of her captivity:

Depraved Josef Fritzl kept his beautiful daughter on a dog-lead chained to a wall for the first nine months of her captivity.

The warped fiend only set Elisabeth free from the chain around her neck when she needed to go to the toilet.

Holy goddamned shit. This son of a bitch repeatedly raped her in front of her kids, and they couldn't do anything about it.

And this is new:

Rosemarie Fritzl walked out on sadistic husband Josef after years of beatings and abuse.

She told friends she also suffered at the hands of the monster who imprisoned their daughter Elisabeth in the cellar below their home.

Rosemarie, who married Fritzl when she was 17, escaped in 1973 to live in a guesthouse the couple owned. It was two hours from the family home and Fritzl insisted their seven children stay with him.

She moved back in with him nine years later after the guesthouse burned down - a suspected arson attack blamed on him.

Friends say she knew nothing of his plan to build a dungeon. He converted the cellar while she was away, installing lights and plumbing.

Elisabeth tried to run away, but her father tracked her down.

Fritzl II.

The Incest Monster of Amstetten created a culture of fear in the household, according to his sister-in-law.

His tyrannical attitude made people wary of challenging anything, and certainly wife Rosemarie would have been intimidated by him.

Besides intimidation, what other things did the Incest Monster do to con people he was a pillar of the community?

The years in the dungeon – so easily summarised in a paragraph, so dreadful endured in dank reality – went on in their seasonless way. In 1999, Kerstin was 10; three years later she was a teenager with a new baby brother, and the following year Stefan reached 13. Did he, one wonders, even know how old he was? For this was a life measured not by days and nights, routines and holidays, but only by the rotting of another tooth, the greying of their mother. Upstairs, time was measured. In 2006, Amstetten honoured the Fritzls for reaching their golden wedding. Such a good family man, Josef.

But his secret family was beginning to hang heavy on Josef Fritzl. Around Christmas 2007, he got his daughter to write another letter. It seems that Fritzl, bored by the daily chores – the shopping, the rubbish burning – and no longer beguiled by a daughter who now resembled a woman of his wife's age, was preparing the endgame. At some point, he would stage-manage the release of Elisabeth from the cult that had held her this past quarter of a century, and she would return to the house that she had, in reality, never left.

This is a well-written piece.

Fritzl V.

It was an open secret among many friends and acquaintances of the family that Elisabeth was being abused by her father, but nobody did a damned thing.
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Here is yet another overview of the warped life of the Incest Monster of Amstetten.

Fritzl II.

A French woman who suffered from abuse from her adoptive father and bore six children from him wants to meet Elisabeth Fritzl.

In her case, it went on for 28 years before this creep died in 1999. Her stepmother knew the abuse happened and she was convicted in connection with the case for her inaction.

I doubt any meeting between the two women is going to happen anytime in the near future.

Fritzl.

Thanks to being held captive for 24 years by her tormentor/father, Elisabeth Fritzl looks like the "walking dead." She is described as looking more like her mother, 67, than like her daughter.

She is stooped over, pale, and her hair is gray. Her teeth are horribly decayed from lack of care. Because of vitamin D deficiency, her bones are a mess. She may even be in worse condition than her children because she had "freedom" for 18 years prior to her imprisonment.

Face it: Her captivity was quite similar to that endured by those in concentration camps during World War II.
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Elisabeth also has a host of emotions to deal with. There have been other cases of women held in captivity for a long time, though not as extreme as hers, and have been sexually assaulted. Two Russian women, Lena Simakhina and Katya Martynova, were trapped for years by a predator, but they somehow recovered from their ordeal.

But both are now happily married and sent out a message of hope to Elisabeth, insisting she will recover from her ordeal and regain her trust in people.

Lena, 25, said: "We want to tell Elisabeth, It can be all right. Not all men are monsters.

"You can find true love, as we have. We know something of what you went through and will go through in the future as you try to recover."

Katya, 22, added: "Elisabeth, please know you will recover and you will learn to trust again. Love can conquer anything, however horrific.

"Our lesson is that you can put all this ordeal somewhere at the back of your mind and get on and live a completely new life. Some people told me I would never be able to forget it but I am so happy now I can. I wish the same for you."

Of course there are critical differences between the two cases. The two women did have the opportunity to read, write poetry, and exercise. They didn't suffer the sensory depravation Elisabeth and her children in the cellar did. They were NOT violated by a relative who they should have trusted. Not that their case should in any way be discounted, for it was horrific, but their case really isn't the same. Elisabeth will have a far harder time adjusting.

Sepp Leitner

has even more to say about Elisabeth Fritzl and her pervert father, which I will note here:

A lodger who once lived in Josef Fritzl’s House of Horrors claimed yesterday that he had known that the Austrian electrician was sexually abusing his daughter Elisabeth.

Sepp Leitner, who lived in Mr Fritzl’s house for four years in the early 1980s, said in a television interview that a female neighbour had told him that her friend Elisabeth had been raped by her father.

According to Mr Leitner, the neighbour even helped Elisabeth to run away to Vienna but the teenager was tracked down by police and brought back to Amstetten at her father’s behest. “Elisabeth was repeatedly raped by her father. She could not take it to live at home anymore and tried to escape,” Mr Leitner told the Austrian private television channel ATV.

“She had taken sleeping pills and went to Vienna. But the police found her and they, or her father, brought her back home.” Mr Leitner did not explain why he and the unnamed neighbour failed to alert the police about Elisabeth’s plight, though he hinted darkly at their fear of the landlord’s “revenge”. Mr Leitner said that he was still tormented by nightmares.

If he really knew about this, he should have immediately reported it.