Doctors have already provided an initial assessment of Fritzl’s personality. Austria’s top criminal psychiatrist, Reinhard Haller, whose analysis of defendants is used by the courts, said, ‘Fritzl appears to have been driven by pronounced narcissism and a need to exercise power over others – and that may help explain how he got away with the abuse for so long. This man must have been insane and must have felt he was far superior to others.’
Haller also suggests that, although Fritzl sexually abused Elisabeth as a child and repeatedly raped her in the cellar, he was not motivated by sex. ‘It was a drive for power. He’s probably a person with one very weak spot which he compensates for through sadism. He wants to have 100 per cent control over his victims. That is his kick – the absolute power of the patriarch. He probably would have carried on doing this until he no longer had the power to control his hostages if nothing had gone wrong.’ He contends that Fritzl’s power complex may have resulted from his being abused by his mother.
Kidnapping victim Natascha Kampusch was not slow to speak out on the subject and lend her insights into the mind of the abductor. She admitted to feeling ‘relieved’ when the story broke. There were parallels, she thought, between her case and that of Elisabeth. ‘Priklopil’s mother,’ she said, ‘was blind with mother-love. It was the same with Josef Fritzl. He idolised his mother to an abnormal degree and that’s what my abductor was like. He was very attached to his mother. Before she came over to tidy up, I’d have to clean the whole house so that she thought he was this proper, upstanding person. Regardless of what I did, he would always say, “My mother does it better.”’
After Kampusch escaped and Priklopil committed suicide, his mother told a journalist that she hoped that Kampusch had, in some way, loved her son. His mother said that subtle changes in his home led her to believe that her son had a girlfriend. She noticed there were two pillows on his bed, tiny cactus plants in the living room and the smell of cooking in the kitchen – when she knew her son never cooked.
‘I have no contact with her,’ said Kampusch. ‘At first, I thought that it would be a good idea to meet her to help her to deal with her bad conscience, because she hadn’t noticed anything, and to help her come to terms with her situation, because she’d not only lost her son but she’d lost the son whom she thought was a well-behaved, well-adjusted, nice man. But I don’t see it the same way. I don’t really want to meet her.’
Kampusch’s insights may well be used in court in the Fritzl case.
While Haller believes that Fritzl was driven by a high degree of narcissism arising from his omnipotence over the situation, other psychologists have identified another form of narcissism that could have been relevant in this case. It is the narcissism of the art collector who buys stolen paintings so that he can have them for only himself. Fritzl kept Elisabeth and his three children in his vault as such trophies. Each time he went to see them, to spend an hour or two with them, or to bring them food and medication at night, he was able to reassure himself that the uniqueness of his property made him all the more unique.
‘There are no comparable cases worldwide,’ said Haller – not even that of Natascha Kampusch. She was kidnapped by a stranger, as was Colleen Stan. In the other Austrian cases where family members were imprisoned, there was no hint of sexual abuse. Abductors who have kept sex slaves rarely want to have children with them.
However, in 1988, Gary Heidnik was convicted of kidnapping six African-American prostitutes to set up a ‘baby farm’ in the basement of his Philadelphia home. Two of his captives died and he was executed for murder in 1999. But, again, his sex slaves were not relatives.
Sigrun Rossmanith, another Austrian court psychiatrist, concluded that Fritzl developed two personalities, one of which was dominated by the need to exert total control over others. Elisabeth was a victim of his power complex. ‘She was a slave that he could use at any moment of his choosing,’ she said. ‘He made her submissive and used her according to his needs. He exercised absolute control over her.’
Fritzl’s double personality was even reflected in the design of his – at first sight – ordinary-looking, three-storey house on Amstetten’s Ybbsstrasse. The light-grey façade of the building which looked out on to the main street is a normal, turn-of-the-century provincial townhouse with net curtains hanging in the front windows, but the back of the house, which was extended out over Fritzl’s notorious cellar, looked not unlike the kind of massive Second World War bunkers that were built by the Nazis to withstand air-raids. Passers-by were confronted with solid, windowless concrete walls at ground level. The only windows at the back of the building were on the top floors, and the garden was hidden behind a row of evergreen trees and a hedge.
Despite Dr Rossmanith’s assertion that Fritzl had developed two personalities, Reinhard Haller concluded that he was not insane. ‘Fritzl is no way crazy or mentally ill, otherwise he would have made mistakes,’ said Haller. ‘He is a technician who very carefully carried out one step after another. He must have unbelievable self-confidence … His main motivation was the exercise of power. It is not a sign of mental illness, but rather of an extreme personality disorder.’
It is plain that the authorities plan to fight any insanity plea and will seek to prosecute Fritzl to the limit of the law. After all, the eyes of the world are on the case and Austria’s national honour is at stake.
Amstetten District Governor Hans-Heinz Lenze dismissed the idea that Fritzl was insane. He was, Lenze said, ‘intelligent, a strategist, an almost-perfect criminal of the worst kind’.
Since taking on the Fritzl case, Mayer said he had received death threats and hate emails, but he is obdurate. ‘I will not be swayed by a lynch justice mentality,’ he said. ‘Every accused person has a right to a defence and the lawyer that fails to do his best for his client is failing in his duties.’
For him, it is a matter of integrity. ‘Lawyers who refuse to defend certain acts contradict my view of professional ethics,’ he said. He sees the hate emails as an occupational hazard and was not worried about the possibility of being physically attacked. ‘I may be 60,’ he said, ‘but I am an enthusiastic member of my local boxing club and I know how to look after myself. Having any other protection such as a security guard is pointless. If people want to get you, they will manage it.’
He has no qualms about taking on the case and is sanguine about talking to the accused. ‘What impressed me was that I could not detect the sort of negative vibes I get with, say, a car thief,’ said Mayer. ‘He is in a very bad way psychologically but he does not complain. His biggest fear is how his children are faring without him.’
In prison, Fritzl was held in relatively luxurious conditions, especially when compared to those Elisabeth and the children endured in their dank cellar. His cell measured 10 feet by 12 feet and had a ceiling 10 feet high – allowing more than enough room to stand upright. It was lit by a large window. Along with a TV, he had a bedside lamp and pot plants which flourished in the natural light that streams through the glass. There was a smart, self-contained bathroom area with a hygienic toilet and hand basin. The jail bedding was bright and clean, and was worlds away from the cellar’s damp and mouldy mattresses. Magazines were provided so he had something to read; prison nutritionists made sure he got three healthy, balanced meals a day. This contrasted with the stale food served up to his dungeon family. He was allowed to eat in his cell and shower alone. As a concession, he was permitted the use of a private shower to protect him from other inmates. Even so, Fritzl complained about feeling bored and isolated in jail.
‘We have isolated the inmate Fritzl from other prisoners for his own safety,’ said Friedrich Wallner, head warder at St Pölten jail. ‘He goes to the shower on his own and goes for walks in the prison courtyard sometimes. But, most of the time, he sits in front of the TV, watching reports about the case.’
An insider said, ‘He wants to see every word written about the case and watch every TV report. It’s like a game to him
– he has become obsessed. The warders are under strict orders to maintain his safety.’
Already Fritzl has received numerous death threats. ‘The inmates are well aware of what he’s done,’ said the source. ‘There’s even a contest to be the first to attack him – and some want him dead. There are also fears Fritzl could kill himself, but no one wants him to die without explaining what he did.’
Prison staff were said to be ‘keeping a very close eye on him’. He was being especially protected for two reasons, they said – first, so he won’t ‘pass judgement on himself’ and try to commit suicide, and second because ‘he doesn’t have a particularly good position in the hierarchy of prisoners’.
‘He seems a bit afraid,’ says Günther Mörwald, the prison governor at St Pölten. Fritzl was not speaking much but, according to Mörwald, he was slowly understanding ‘what he did to his family’. The prison governor said he was seeing the ‘first signs of regret’.
Although Fritzl is kept away from the other prisoners, for his own safety he has been given a companion. His cellmate is a 36-year-old career criminal, accused of shooting someone. The man was hand-picked to ensure Fritzl does not commit suicide.
‘The guy is doing time for violent offences,’ said a prison source. ‘The staff picked him because he’s not the sort of man you mess with; he’s a heavy thug. He’s there to alert wardens if Fritzl looks unstable or if he’s about to kill himself. You could call it a kind of in-house suicide watch.’
When Fritzl was examined by a psychologist and a psychiatrist on 29 April 2008, both concluded there was no suicide risk. Afterwards, Governor Mörwald said he seemed ‘calm and collected’. ‘He’s in good shape physically,’ said Mörwald. ‘He will undergo a medical examination today but doesn’t appear to have any health problems.’ Nevertheless, he remained segregated from the other prisoners for his own safety.
However, concerns about his health surfaced again later. It seems the 73-year-old has a heart condition and doctors wanted to test him for an unspecified blood disease. An inmate released from St Pölten jail in early June 2008 said, ‘He really looks unwell. He’s lost a lot of weight and hasn’t left his cell for fear of being attacked. He is suffering.’
The case could take two years to come to court, and it is thought that Fritzl may not last that long. The police fear he might die in prison before he explains exactly why he imprisoned his daughter and their children.
Meanwhile, despite everything that’s happened, Fritzl is begging the prison authorities to allow his wife to visit him, although there is no indication that she would want to. He also wants to see Elisabeth. Apparently, he began to cry himself to sleep in prison, overcome with remorse. He told his legal team he was worried about how they are coping without him. A source at St Pölten prison said, ‘Fritzl’s mood has changed dramatically in the past three weeks. When he first arrived, he was arrogant and unrepentant but he’s now a broken man.’
At first, jailers were shocked by his cold, unrepentant attitude. After a few weeks’ reflection, there was an outpouring of remorse. Then all he talked about was seeing his family so he could apologise and make sure that all was well with them. Fritzl then sank into a deep depression. He refused to leave his cell for his hour a day of fresh air and exercise, afraid his fellow inmates would attack him. He would weep all through the night and lost a lot of weight. There were fears he was wasting away.
Despite everything that’s happened, Fritzl wants to see Elisabeth, the children and his wife Rosemarie. He told his legal team, ‘I want to see my family to explain things and find out how they are. I am worried about them.’
‘It’s ironic that a man who kept his family trapped in a cellar for so long is now suddenly concerned for them,’ the source continued. But Elisabeth had already said she never wanted to see her father’s face again. Fritzl had just one visitor as he awaited trial in jail, an unidentified family friend.
In his cell, he has been swamped with over 5,000 items of hate mail, but among the post he was said to have received over 200 love letters from women offering him affection and understanding. They maintain he was misunderstood and ‘good at heart’. He did, after all, only lock his daughter Elisabeth away in a cellar for 24 years to prevent her from straying and to keep her safe from drugs and booze. Some were even said to excuse the fact that he fathered seven children with his daughter by saying he only wanted to teach her about the ‘joys of motherhood’.
It was not unusual for criminals to receive letters of support, said Dr Mike Berry, a psychologist at Manchester Metropolitan University. Even sex murderers such as Peter Sutcliffe receive love letters and offers of marriage, he reveals. ‘Writers often feel they can help or change the prisoners, usually without much success,’ he said. ‘But there is a risk of the writer getting conned and emotionally hurt by the prisoner.’
As well as investigating Fritzl’s possible involvement in the murders of 17-year-old Martina Posch in 1986 and Anna Neumauer, also 17, in 1966, the police are also looking into the possibility that he was involved in the unresolved murder of a Czech prostitute. According to the German newspaper Bild, the police were trying to establish a possible connection between Fritzl and the murder of Gabriele Supekova, a 42-year-old prostitute whose body was found near the Austrian border in August 2007, where Fritzl is said to have spent time on holiday. And they have reopened the case of 16-year-old Julia Kuehrer, who disappeared from Pulkau, 60 miles from Amstetten, in June 2006.
12
MOTHER’S DAY
Mother’s Day in Austria is celebrated on the second Sunday in May, as it is in the USA and Canada. In 2008, it fell on 11 May, just three weeks after Elisabeth Fritzl and her two boys were freed from the dungeon. For the first time, Elisabeth could celebrate Mother’s Day with the three children who had been taken from her at birth. A source at the clinic said, ‘If ever a mum deserved a Mother’s Day hug, Elisabeth does. But as they’re all still getting used to the simple things in life, it wasn’t a huge party.’
Nevertheless, Elisabeth’s children gave her flowers and they all sat down for lunch together as a family at a flower-strewn table.
‘It was a touching scene,’ said an insider, and hospital staff were optimistic about the future. ‘There are signs of a happy unit beginning to form,’ the clinic source said.
For the first time in 24 years, Elisabeth herself was able to spend Mother’s Day with her own mother. However, there were still concerns about her health. At that time, she was still not well enough to talk to the police, who were eager to firm up murder charges against Fritzl. Officers believe there is sufficient evidence to hold him responsible for the death of Alexander’s twin brother Michael.
In her initial eight-page statement, given when she first emerged from the dungeon, Elisabeth said she had given birth to twins Michael and Alexander alone. But by the time Fritzl visited three days later, Michael was dead. Fritzl then burned the child’s corpse in the household incinerator and Alexander was taken to be raised upstairs. The police said they were still keeping an open mind as to whether there was enough information to decide if his neglect of Elisabeth and her baby constituted murder. To bring a murder charge, they would have to prove that Michael would have survived had Fritzl not denied the child appropriate and timely medical attention.
Meanwhile, Stefan, Felix and Kerstin were issued with birth certificates and proof of Austrian citizenship, which means that, at last, they officially exist. Until then Kerstin, Stefan and five-year-old Felix were not registered because their father had kept their births a secret, but Elisabeth managed to record the dates of their births, which she provided to the authorities.
Given her condition, it is thought that Elisabeth will remain in the clinic for months and she will need treatment for many years to come. However, their solicitor Christoph Herbst, a regular visitor, said that the family live a ‘more or less regular life’ in the Mauer clinic. ‘They rise at about six or seven in the morning,’ he said, ‘then they have
breakfast together. They get the breakfast from the hospital. Then they sit together at a large table and talk, discuss and make jokes.’
Afterwards, the cellar-children enjoyed activities denied them in the cellar, aided by their above-ground siblings. ‘Then everybody does their own thing,’ said Herbst. ‘They play on the computer, they read books, do some drawings, whatever they want. It’s very amazing to watch the family because they behave like a normal family.’
He was also full of praise for Elisabeth. ‘Elisabeth is a tower of strength. She’s happy now for the first time,’ he said. ‘Her biggest wish now is to have the family together. They need time to heal and to grow together. Everything else is secondary for her.’
Herbst also praised her efforts to bring some semblance of normality to her children’s lives in the cellar. ‘Elisabeth tried to educate the children in the dungeon,’ he said. ‘They had lessons, they learned grammar, they learned the language, mathematics. So they have been raised very well, they are very well behaved; it is really astounding. If you meet Stefan, he is a very polite and educated person. I think Elisabeth tried to give them a structure and a good life under the circumstances in the dungeon.’
He said that Elisabeth was reacting well to her belated return to life outside the cellar. ‘Elisabeth is very happy to be rediscovering the world,’ he said. ‘She is very keen to go outside and feel the rain on her skin. But it is important for them to adjust slowly. For now they just talk to each other.’
Elisabeth and the children who lived in the cellar have no concept of time or of the future, he said. ‘Some people who hear the story think Elisabeth is like something from a horror film but rumours that she has no teeth and cannot talk are not true. If you met her, you would not realise what she has been through, as she seems just like every normal person. She tells her family that all she longs for is a normal life – or as normal a life as they can get. That’s her only wish.’
House of Horrors Page 19