Man admits 24-year abuse of daughter in cellar

[KimmyAnn_678]

The monster in the basement | The Australian

This is the best article I've read so far... it explains that he had permits ti construct a bomb shelter which is where he kept his daughter and then he later constructed additional rooms (he was an engineer and designer). He was very controlling of his wife and family and the basement was where he did his design work as well, so his family wasn't allowed down there.

Elisabeth had previously ran away in her teen years, but was always brought back by the police and she never told them of the abuse, so when she was kidnapped by her father and a coerced note explaining her disappearance showed up, police had no reason to look into it any further.

It's just very sad and disgusting

 

[Beauty Mark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by redambition i'm guessing that his controlling nature extended to his wife as well. it wouldn't be too hard if he controlled the finances, the shopping, the bills and everything else. i know it seems crazy, but someone who is being controlled like that (or is putting up with the controlling behaviour of someone else) really doesn't question these things. it becomes the way things are, because the person doing the controlling basically steamrolls over anyone who opposes them.

That makes sense. I just found it very odd that none of the initial stories indicated anything about her state, beyond her ignorance.

I guess part of me thinks there was some major things going wrong in this situation that could've been prevented. If the mother were no help, I just don't understand how a teacher or family member couldn't have suspected something was up with the daughter. I thought pretty much all abused children show some sign of greater problems, even though the ways of showing it vary

 

[blindpassion]

More info everyone


Source: Secrets of horror cellar revealed - CNN.com
Quote:

(CNN) -- Austrian investigators Monday released more details about the elaborate underground cellar where Josef Fritzl kept his daughter imprisoned for 24 years, along with three of their children. Josef Fritzl admitted to authorities he raped his daughter and fathered her children. more photos » Investigators believe Fritzl planned to build the cellar as early as 1978, shortly after, according to his daughter, he began raping her at age 11 or 12, said police spokesman Franz Polzer. The 73-year-old Austrian began building the dungeon as part of an addition to his home that year, and simply added the hidden space -- which was not recorded in any building plans -- Polzer said. It took Fritzl until 1983 to finish the addition, Polzer said. Investigators recently discovered another door to the dungeon prison, which was blocked by a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) steel and concrete door that Fritzl probably stopped using when he later constructed an electronic door for a second entrance, Polzer said. Fritzl, who police believe was the only one with access to the cellar, had to travel through an elaborate maze to get to the prison. "You would have to open up a total of eight doors, and ... (for the) last door which would go into this space (where the family was imprisoned), you would also have to use electronic opening apparatus," Polzer said. "We will have to find out perhaps later from now if perhaps there are other spaces we haven't discovered yet, and perhaps maybe there is something else interesting." Fritzl was recently arrested and confessed to holding his daughter, Elisabeth, captive in the dungeon under the Fritzl home for decades, repeatedly raping her and fathering seven children -- six of whom survived. Three of the children were adopted by Josef Fritzl and his wife after he concocted the ruse that Elisabeth had left the babies on their doorstep. Don't Miss <LI _extended="true">Incest father was 'tyrant,' police say <LI _extended="true">Incest dad 'threatened to gas secret family' Incest family 'faces years in therapy' The story of the family's imprisonment began to unravel more than two weeks ago, when one of the children still in the dungeon, 19-year-old Kerstin Fritzl, fell seriously ill with convulsions. The father agreed to take her to a hospital, the first time she was allowed out of the prison where she had spent her entire life with her mother and two brothers. Dr. Albert Reiter, who is treating Kerstin, said Monday that while her condition is still "grave," it "has improved somewhat." "She has become more stable, but despite that we have to continue to keep her under sedation and give her respiratory help," Reiter said, noting it is not clear how long she will be kept under sedation. Elisabeth and her two sons were reunited with her mother, Rosemarie, who police say knew nothing about the basement prison. They were also reunited with the three children that Josef had taken from Elisabeth. The reunited family is living in secluded quarters at a psychiatric clinic, where they are finding a daily routine and adjusting to sunlight -- something the two boys had never seen -- according to the clinic's chief doctor. "The mother and the smallest child have, in just the last couple of days, increased their sensitivity to light," Dr. Berthold Kepplinger said. "So we have been able to equip them with protective sunglasses." Five-year-old Felix is "getting more and more lively," Kepplinger said. "He's fascinated by everything that he sees around him -- the fresh air, the light, and the food -- all of these things are helping them," he said. "Slowly the color of their skin is changing back to a more normal (shade)." He also said the family members are still getting to know each other and live together as a family. Kepplinger praised Elisabeth for having provided a daily living routine for her children during their captivity. He said the family is getting into a new routine in which the mother and the grandmother make breakfast for the family, and the children make their beds. However, he said there is a noticeable difference between the pace of life of the children held in captivity and that of those who grew up in Fritzl's home. He said the mother, Elisabeth, takes breaks and naps several times a day. The health of the family members is satisfactory and hospital staff have been able to let more and more light into the rooms where the family is staying, Kepplinger said. Kepplinger said the children, after being confined to a small space their entire lives, are finding it increasingly easy to be in larger spaces. Initially the dungeon where Fritzl held his daughter was only 35 square meters. In 1993, around the time Elisabeth was pregnant with her fourth child, Fritzl decided to add to the dungeon, building another room that increased the entire living space of the family to about 55 square meters. On Wednesday or Thursday, prosecution authorities will attempt to question Fritzl -- who is no longer talking to police following his initial confession, state prosecutor Gerhard Sedlacek said. A warden at the St. Poelten jail, where Fritzl is being held, told CNN that Fritzl appears to be doing well, but he is refusing to go on walks outside the building where he is detained.

 

[mizuki~]

Oh my goodness. This is sick. The poor kids never seen daylight or had contact with anyone other than each other...
The poor daughter too. Ugh that stupid Grinch looking a-hole. Disgusting...

 

[wolfsong]

frocher: Very well put!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beauty Mark I still don't get how his wife didn't know for all that time or wasn't at least suspicious. Even if she couldn't hear anything or ponder why he was spending time in the basement so much, didn't she ever wonder why they spent all that extra money on food? Or utilities? Or extra garbage? It really does blow my mind that she could be that clueless. Her husband must be a genius or she must be dumb or in denial or abused as well

The wife may have been 'brainwashed' into a zombie/submissive state, but what about the lodgers? Surely during the 24 years someone would have noticed him take freaking wheelbarrows of food and supplies to his 'working area'. Also why did they not notice the instalment of metal doors? You cant exactly hide those things under your coat can you?
And the thing that ive pondered most about this 'closed eyes see nothing' approach, is:
He extended his daughters (and childrens/grandchildrens) cell at least once - adding on a handful of rooms. How the hell did this much soil/dirt/rocks from the creation of these underground rooms go un-noticed by both faithfully-afraid wifey and lodgers (it would have needed to be dug out and removed somehow - hardly a quick process)? Why did no one ask what he was doing?

It sickens me that he is even attempting to play the 'insanity' card. This man (and that word should be used lightly) is obviously in control of his mental health. The problem with this monster is not that he cant help these disgusting acts, its that he lets himself do them. Not crazy, but evil.


The wife is apparently being questioned again, but the sole reason for her not being a suspect is this:
"Frank Polzer, the chief investigator, a dapper figure in a blue blazer and striped tie, does not regard Rosemarie, described by one neighbour as a “perfect grandmother”, as a suspect: “What woman,” he said, “would stay silent if she knew that her husband had seven children with his daughter and was holding her prisoner in the cellar?”"

So women cant be daughter-abusing monsters then? Tell that to Rose West...


Forgot to add: He doesnt consider himself a monster because he could have killed them all or left the daughter/grand daughter to die... Yes the victims have to live with what you have done for the rest of their lives, you have truly blessed them with that conscience of yours...

More about his character profile from these links (namely his 'sex play' with hookers):
Josef Fritzl: 'I want to hear you gasp for breath' | News | News of the World

Daily Star: Simply The Best 7 Days A Week :: News :: Cellar dad made hookers play dead

People.co.uk - MY WIFE'S JUST NOT MY TYPE..

Dungeon dad even terrorised hookers during sex in brothels-Europe-World-The Times of India

News search engine:
josef fritzl - Google News

 

[Beauty Mark]

Frankly, I'd be surprised if he didn't play the insanity card. He's a weak, cowardly person IMO.

 

[frocher]

.....

 

[wolfsong]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frocher This sicko also claims he was trying to save his daughter. His strict Nazi upbringing instilled a "high regard for decency and uprightness." “She was going out to seedy bars and would spend whole nights there drinking and smoking," and "I only tried to rescue her from that life." He also stated he didn't initially intend to rape her, although it has been uncovered that he has been molesting her since the age of eleven, he wanted "a taste of the forbidden." Once she had a baby he thought he should continue to rape her so the child would always have someone to play with.

He just keeps on with the BS to try to gain the publics sympathy... He's contradicting himself too much to be taken seriously with his "i didnt mean it", "i cared for them" stories.

I read today a new confession from him today (though from 09-05's newspaper - i was a bit slow reading it...) that quotes him saying he planned for 6 years (from the time the daughter was 12) to lock her up so that she can give him a second family - that he had fantasised about that for a long time. He tells of his 'joy and delight' with having this plan be put into action. This is not the work of someone getting caught in the moment, he did this all in cold blood.

Quotes:

"Fritzl spent six years planning and constructing his hellish lair below his house".

"My desire to have sex with Elisabeth also got much stronger as time went by. We first had sex in spring 1985. I could not control myself any more. I wanted to have children with her. It was my dream to have another normal family, in the cellar, with her as a good wife and several children...."

"I knew that Elisabeth did not want it, what i did with her. The pressure to do the forbidden thing was just too big to withstand."


Josef gave Elisabeth and the children only aspirin and occasionally other over the counter lotions/potions to cure all of their many illnesses, even though they had all inherited an allergy to aspirin.
The children fell ill with a number of complaints such as the flu, coughing fits, epilepsy and heart and circulatory problems.
He described how the youngest child would shake for hours from his allergy to aspirin, and how the eldest (Kerstin who if now in a coma) was left screaming.

There is also most of a double page dedicated to Josef's confession that he wanted to have a sexual relationship with his own mother (who was a single parent from when Josef was a young boy, and that he was her only child - "I suppose you could describe me as her man....I was the only man in the house"). However he claims that he controlled himself, and that he was not sexually abused by her.
He says he was very influenced by hitler ("the need to be controlled", "strict discipline"), and that he now sees he may be a monster. His jail mates call him satan and tell him that they are going to kill him. I hope they dont though, i hope he's tormented for as long as he lives - and it would only be fitting if his last years alive were stuck in a small dark place being routinely raped by other monsters.

 

[sadecki]

Absolutely horrifying.

 

[GreekChick]

He received around 200 love letters from women around the world telling him what he did was the right thing to do.

Josef Fritzl deluged with 'love letters' from lonely women - Sify.com

Quote:

The warped women also believe that Fritzl fathered children through Elisabeth because he wanted to teach her about the “joys of motherhood”.

I can't wrap my thoughts around that.
Women declaring that women should be locked up in order to experience motherhood is just...Gah I can't find the words.

 

[SingFrAbsoltion]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GreekChick He received around 200 love letters from women around the world telling him what he did was the right thing to do. Josef Fritzl deluged with 'love letters' from lonely women - Sify.com I can't wrap my thoughts around that. Women declaring that women should be locked up in order to experience motherhood is just...Gah I can't find the words.

Is that real? I've never heard of the website before so I don't know what to think. But I just googled it and some other ones came up that say the same. I mean I've heard of women who love to write to convicts and even marry them but wow I can't believe this.