The Austrain Incest Case

Father Confesses to Horrific Crime. He held his daughter prisoner and abused her for decades. In the most spectacular kidnapping and incest case in Austrian history, a man has confessed to having held his daughter hostage for 24 years and siring seven children with her. (Der Spiegel)

Austria Stunned by Case of Imprisoned Woman. With his Mercedes-Benz and his fine clothes, Josef Fritzl looked every inch a property owner, neighbors in this tidy Austrian town said Monday. Even when running errands, they said, he wore a natty jacket, crisp shirt and tie. (New York Times)

The Family Man of Amstetten: Double life of a pillar of Austrian society. How did the perpetrator of one of modern Europe’s most horrific crimes convince his neighbours he was a respectable man? (The Independent)

Josef Fritzl: a shrewd liar and an obsessive tyrant. Casual acquaintances knew Josef Fritzl as a jovial fellow who liked to drink beer and enjoyed a bawdy joke.

But former neighbors say the man accused of imprisoning his daughter and fathering her seven children ran his household like a dictator. Piece by piece, a picture is emerging of a shrewd liar and an obsessive tyrant. (International Herald Tribune/AP)

Josef Fritzl: Background and normal life

Sister-in-law reveals Josef Fritzl inflicted years of sadistic humiliation on wife – Josef F. was a despot in his “normal” house as well. In the article, the sister in law also reveals that Josef F. has served a prison term for rape (in the Sixties) (The Independent)

Josef Fritzl: The making of a monster. For the past week the world has been transfixed by the appalling crimes committed in Amstetten. But now it has emerged that Josef Fritzl was the victim of brutal abuse at the hands of his mother. Could this explain the man he became? (The Independent)

Elisabeth Fritzl and children

Elisabeth Fritzl ran away at 16 but father hunted her down. Tragic Elisabeth Fritzl ran away from home when she was 16 in a dramatic attempt to flee her evil father. (Sunday Mirror)

‘My father chose me for himself’ – the story of the daughter, Elisabeth Firtzl (Guardian)

Josef Fritzl raped Daughter in Front of Children. Elisabeth Fritzl’s father Josef repeatedly raped her in front of the children they had together.(Der Spiegel)

5-year-old son of Josef Fritzl: “the world is so nice”. According to Austrias biggest newspaper “Kronen Zeitung”, the 5-year-old son of Josef Fritzl Felix, was very excited about his first time in a car when he was released from his prison in the cellar, and brought to his new home with the other family members. (Austria News)

Relatives, neighbours, others

Josef Fritzl neighbour ‘knew of daughter’s abuse misery’. 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. (The Times)

Should the Austrian neighbours have interfered? How could the neighbours of Josef F not have known something fishy was going on? How could they have believed his story that his daughter had dumped her children on his doorstep? (The Times)

Friends sad, angry with news of how man among them kept daughter locked away for 24 years. Nearly a week after news of a 73-year-old Austrian’s alleged incest and rape rattled this Alpine nation, friends of the family still grapple with how Josef Fritzl’s crime could have happened in their midst — and gone unnoticed. (International Herald Tribune/AP)

Other charges – rape, murder

Josef Fritzl’s ‘rape victims’ come forward. Police files revealing that Josef Fritzl had previous convictions and charges for rape emerged today as his victims came forward to speak about their ordeals.

Rape victim tells of night she was attacked by the ‘peeping Tom’. Austrian police are investigating allegations that Josef Fritzl had a lengthy previous history of preying on women and raping them that began long before he locked his daughter in the cellar of his home and started treating her as his personal sex slave. (The Independent)

Josef Fritzl was a serial sexual offender in the 60’s. The first rumours about the sex crimes of Josef Fritzl in the 60’s are true. He has raped a nurse in 1967. He entered the apartment of the nurse through a window, and sexually abused her. Now another women claims that she was also raped by the monster of Amstetten in those years, but she was too shy to go to the police. (Austrian News)

Future of the Josef Fritzl case

Fritzls new life in prison: death threats and fear. Josef Fritzl receives many death threats from inmates. The guards have to keep him away from other prisoners. Fritzl is allowed to go to the shower alone, and he can also go his daily walks in the prison yard without any other prisoners. Most of the time Fritzl is sitting in his prison cell watching TV. He prefers to watch news and reports about himself. He may enjoy that a lot. (Austria News)

What next for the Fritzl case? What is next in the case and for the actors involved – Kerstin Fritzl, the investigation, Josef F., etc. (The Independent)

‘My Job Is to Show Josef Fritzl as a Human Being’ His client is the most famous prisoner in the world: Josef Fritzl, who is accused of keeping his daughter prisoner in a cellar for 24 years. But Fritzl’s lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, one of the best known defenders in Austria, sees the good in his client and wants to understand him. (Der Spiegel)

Josef Fritzl ‘will plead insanity’ to dodge prison. Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who fathered seven children with his daughter while keeping her locked up in a subterranean dungeon as a sex slave for 24 years, will plead insanity to avoid a prison sentence. (The Times)

The Fritzl-case in perspective

Former kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch says Austria’s Nazi past has contributed to abuse cases. Former kidnap victim Natascha Kampusch has appealed for long-term support for the 42-year-old Austrian woman allegedly imprisoned and sexually abused in a windowless cellar by her father, Josef Fritzl. (International Herald Tribune/AP)

A darkness where only the human spirit can survive. Austria’s psyche has been scrutinised as Europe comes to terms with the awful power of life and death that Josef Fritzl wielded over his family. But while privacy laws may have helped a rapist to offend repeatedly, overall the crime rate is low. (The Independent – commentary by Melanie McDonagh)

Bruised Austria determined to shake off horrific image. Bruised by the negative publicity it has suffered over one of the world’s most shocking incest cases, Austria announced plans yesterday for a global public relations campaign, aimed at revamping the country’s tarnished image.

©2010 from the hip. All Rights Reserved.

As the full extent of his actions has been revealed – the torment to which he exposed his daughter for almost a quarter of a century, raping her and fathering her seven children in that little cave – I have become more and more perplexed. How can this be? How is such behavior possible in our time and age? How can a man become such a monster? And at a more practical level – how could a thing like this go on in a civilized, well-regulated society for 24 years?

A man claiming to be protecting his family, but obviously also a man who knew this his style of protection was more than a little at odds with socially accepted forms of protection. While his lawyer may be able to see good things in Fitzl, I really do not.

We are starting to learn a little bit about his past. It sheds considerable light on the question of how he became the monster. It offers, possibly, at least the beginnings of a seemingly plausible psychological explanation for his monstrous crimes. The Independent writes:

In an interview, the sister of Fritzl’s wife, Rosemarie, a woman identified as 56-year-old Christine R said that Fritzl had been brought up by a single mother with an explosive temper who resorted to violence to control her child.

“Josef grew up without a father. His mother raised him with her fists,” Mrs R said. “She used to beat him black and blue almost every day. Something must have been broken in him because of that. He was unable to feel any kind of sympathy for other people. He humiliated my sister for most of her life.”

He grew up being systematically subjected to and controlled by violence. But even so, the case still makes me perplex. The reason is that Josef F. at the same time was so much more than a monster, in other settings, with other people. He was evil incarnate, but also a smiling, respected, and somewhat successful businessman who amassed a fortune of 4 million dollars or so.

Over the years, more than 100 people have rented rooms and apartments from him. Seemingly without having much of a clue as to what went on. Apart from one person, that is, who has admitted to knowing about sexual abuse. But he was scared of Josef F. and did not dare to report it to anyone. Also, it has become known that Josef’s brother had a key to the basement.

Lately, after the case has become public, we have also seen a number of old, unsolved crimes resurfacing. An unsolved murder, several unsolved rapes. So far, the ties to Josef F. are speculative. But it would not, I guess, be very surprising if they turned out to be real. According to Der Spiegel, he raped his own daughter in front of her his and her children. So why should anything be a surprise?

So there was Josef F. the beast, and there was Josef F. the family man, and Josef F. the businessman. Possibly Josef F. the murderer and rapist. The multiple faces of Josef F. And the smiling face with the evil behind.

The little we know about his background, so far, may perhaps begin to explain, partly at least, the monster. However, explaining how the monster could coexist, seemingly with easy, with the other faces of Josef Fritzl, is a bigger challenge.

More about this case:

The Independent: The Making of a Monster

No need to be surprised when a house of horrors turns up on a quiet provincial street

Josef Fritz in the news

New York Times: Austria Stunned by Case of Imprisoned Woman

Painting a portait of Austrian incest suspect Josef Fritzl

Guardian (UK): How many more of our missing are stuck in some underground prison? (Expert view)

‘Every little thing she did, her father would hit her’

©2010 from the hip. All Rights Reserved.