Josef Fritzl, remember? The Austrian criminal, who for 24 years imprisoned his daughter Elisabeth in a basement, raped her and conceived seven children with her, could be released from prison as early as this year. The reason: A psychiatric opinion determined that Fritzl, 88, no longer posed a danger to the public.
A photojournalist near the Fritzl family home in Amstetten. The atrocity took place in the basement, Photo: AFP
Heidi Kastner, one of Austria's leading experts in forensic psychiatry, followed Fritzl for a year and wrote a detailed report on his condition. According to Dr. Kastner, Fritzl suffers from dementia and needs a walker, and is incapable of criminal acts. Fritzl's lawyer, Astrid Wagner, told Kronen Zeitung: "I have already submitted documents for his conditional release. If the application, as I believe, is approved, we will try to find him a place in a nursing home."
One of the corners of the hiding apartment Fritzl built for his daughter's imprisonment, photo: AFP
The shocking affair was exposed in April 2008. It turned out that since she turned 18, Elizabeth had been raped by her father at least 3,000 times and had become pregnant seven times. One of the children died shortly after birth. Elisabeth went through all the births in the small apartment that her monster father built in the basement of their home in the town of Amstetten in central Austria. Three children grew up with Elizabeth in the basement, the other three were "adopted" by their paternal grandparents, Rosemary, Joseph's wife. To neighbors who raised questions, Fritzl said Elizabeth ran away from home and joined a cult, while she placed the babies on their doorstep and asked to care for them.
Passing through the hiding place. Three children grew up there, three others were brought up to their grandparents, Photo: AFP
In 2008, that cover story cracked. Elizabeth begged her oppressive father to take their 19-year-old daughter to hospital due to a life-threatening condition. Fritzl acceded to her request, and again he said that this was a girl that his daughter Elizabeth had left him and Rosemary to care for. The police reduced the investigation on suspicion of neglect and asked the young mother to contact the authorities. Elizabeth persuaded her father to let her and their two grandchildren, who remained with her in the basement, go to the police. At the station, after being promised that she would not confront her father, she revealed everything – how she was drugged at the age of 18 by her father and put in a hiding room from which she was not allowed to leave, to the moment she was given a chance to survive.
One of the corners in the basement. Elizabeth was only saved 24 years later, Photo: AFP
After the affair was exposed, Fritzl was arrested, charged and convicted of negligent homicide (of the child who died), enslavement, incest, rape, coercion and imprisonment, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Life did not light up for him in prison: other prisoners in Gersten prison for criminals with psychiatric backgrounds broke his teeth, forcing him to change his name to Mayerhof.
"He shuts himself up in his only cell, watches TV, grows tomatoes and writes about his life as an electrician," Wagner told Bild. "He's sunbathing through bars, taking care of his fitness and wanting to live to 100." She said his neighbor in the next cell is a cannibal, "who makes him Viennese schnitzel and blintzes." "Fritzl lives in a world of hallucinations and dreams that his daughter will soon marry (former tennis player) Boris Becker."
Elizabeth Fritzl before the terrible torture of her life began, photo: archive
Fritzl had already tried to be released two and a half years ago, but in June 2022, Austrian Supreme Court justices rejected his petition to be transferred to a regular prison.
What about Elizabeth? The victim of the horrific rape case managed to survive and even develop a certain family life. The three children who grew up with her knew their three siblings who were raised by a grandmother and a grandfather-father. To protect her privacy, her name was changed and she lived with them in a house in the village. The children – now aged 17 to 31 – sleep in rooms with their doors always open – part of their therapy. Shortly after her release from prison, she fell in love with Thomas Wagner, who served as her security guard. He is 23 years her junior and lives with Elizabeth and the children.
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