The Fritzls and The Money

The trial of Josef Fritzl will begin March 16, 2009. He is charged with multiple crimes - including: abuse, incest, rape, false imprisonment, slavery and murder - in relation to his 24-year imprisonment and rape of his own daughter, Elisabeth, who bore him 7 children. Catch the story from the beginning in this 5-part video called The Josef Fritzl Story and read about developments in the case since being arrested and imprisoned on The Josef Fritzl Page.

It seems like Josef Fritzl is broke. The Österreichische Verband Creditreform, which is the Austrian agency that monitors details of people filing for bankruptcy and informs creditors so they can stake a claim, made the announcement that Fritzl was insolvent. In other words he is bankrupt.

The Österreichische Verband Creditreform, acting on behalf of creditors, filed the application to make Fritzl insolvent and made the following announcement:

Those who believe they have a claim on the Fritzl assets are invited to contact the court at Sankt Pölten by 24 March - three days after Fritzl's trial is scheduled to end.

Josef Fritzl, who once had a very prosperous property rental business, has been in jail since his arrest. During this time his businesses have collapsed and he is said to have debts of almost $6 million. It is reported that he plans to sell his house. The very house where he built a dungeon to imprison his daughter. He may be able to get as much as $2 million for it. There has been considerable speculation that the house could be turned into a museum and opened to the public. With interest in what happened at the house still very high, an investor might be able to make money by charging for tours of the place. Under Austrian law Fritzl is free to sell the home  for an inflated price. According to the mayor of Amstetten, Herbert Katzengruber, the house will be put on sale after the trial.

In the meantime, Josef Fritzl's wife Rosemarie, has successfully sued two Austrian publications over breaching her privacy. The court found that the weekly magazine News and the monthly magazine Woman, were guilty of breaching her privacy with stories "that only satisfied readers' craving for sensation."

Judge Bettina Koerber ordered the magazines' parent company, News Publishing Group, to pay Rosemarie Fritzl about $14,000 in damages over the articles, which appeared in both publications. News Publishing Group has already said it will appeal the decision. Rosemarie had originally sued the magazines for $332,000. However Rosemarie is not quite finished suing. She has filed several other lawsuits, including against German weekly Der Spiegel and Austria's biggest daily Kronen Zeitung.

Austrian and International media have tried to answer the question how the woman could not have noticed that her husband Josef had kept their daughter in a dungeon under their house in Amstetten for 24 years.

The Fritzl Drama Continues

Josef Fritzl, 74, is in jail. He belongs there. He is the monster that kidnapped his own daughter, Elisabeth, imprisoned her for 24 years and raped her continuously resulting in 7 children --- six of whom are still alive. The five part video documentary -  "The Josef Fritzl Story" - shines a light on the dark side of human nature and gives us a peek into the world of a truly evil person. For more about Josef Fritzl and family find all the posts here: The Josef Fritzl Page.


His trial date has been set for March 16, 2009 in St. Poelten, Austria where he is currently being held in jail. According to Franz Cutka, deputy head of Sankt Poelten criminal court, the initial proceedings will be open to the public and media but later access will depend on further developments in the case, he added. Fritzl has been charged with murder, rape, sequestration, incest, grievous assault and slavery. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Previous problems in getting a jury together seem to have been overcome. According to Austrian law, the jury consists of eight members, with two substitutes. Thirty police officers and prison warders will be on duty to keep order in what is regarded as the most shocking crime in modern Austrian history. Over 250 media representatives have requested permission to attend the trial.

Meanwhile, Josef Fritzl has been making some news for himself. He has announced that he has converted to Buddhism. According to reports he spends most of the 23 hours a day in his cell studying the peaceful Far Eastern philosophy.

Speaking through his lawyer Rudolf Mayer, Fritzl said that he has found a lot of comfort in reading Buddhist literature and finds the religion "fascinating". Fritzl first discovered Buddhism on a family holiday in Thailand but has only started studying the religion in depth while behind bars.

He hopes to be reincarnated as a decent person in his next life if he can help stop other weirdos copying his crimes. As if to reinforce that notion, Fritzl has invited criminal psychologists to study his warped mind. He wants experts to quiz him to work out the root of his evil. Fritzl told his lawyer: "They should look at what makes me tick and learn from it to stop anything like this happening again. "

Fritzl said: "I realize now that I am not normal, and I see that somebody who did what I did cannot be regarded as normal.  With the help of therapists I want to know what the real reasons are for why I behaved like I did and I want to get treatment, I want to be healthy again at some point."

‘I am aware I will spend a very long time in prison. I would like to be examined by as many profilers, psychologists and psychiatrists as possible, preferably the most renowned in the world. They should look into the deepest depths of my soul and learn from it for future cases.’

Professor Reinhardt Haller, an Austrian forensic psychiatrist mentioned by Fritzl, said:

‘It would be in the service of science to examine this unique case as thoroughly as possible. From the point of view of both medicine and criminology his personality is most certainly worth examining.’

Elisabeth Fritzl Talks About Her Dad

Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, imprisoned and repeatedly raped for 24 years has begun to describe her life as a sex slave, kept alive only to serve the depraved sexual desires of her own father, Josef Fritzl. She bore him 7 children (6 of whom survived) while she was his captive in a dungeon built under his house. She and 4 of her 7 children had no contact with the outside world; they had no friends; they never once were allowed outside; they never even saw the sun; in fact nobody but Josef Fritzl even knew that they were alive.

On the 28 August, 1984, Josef Fritzl locked his daughter Elisabeth in the cellar of the family home in Amstetten, Austria. Her indescribable pain, suffering, humiliation and degradation would last 8,516 days until her release on the 26th April, 2008. See the complete story of their captivity and rescue in a 5 part video documentary entitled The Josef Fritzl Story.

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As prosecutors prepare the case against Josef Fritzl, which will hopefully go to trial before the end of the year, his enslaved daughter, Elisabeth Fritzl, has given her testimony to Austria's top female judge, Andrea Humer, excerpts of which were published in the Sun. In her interview with Ms Humer, Elisabeth said that her father threatened to leave them to rot in the cellar, which had no windows and was sealed by an electronically-locked door.

"He said he could close the door whenever he wanted and then we would soon see how we survived," she said.

The judge asked: "Did you take these threats as real?" Elisabeth replied: "Yes."

Elisabeth told the judge that she was raped up to three times a week by her father. She said that it was useless to resist because if she refused him, he would take it out on herself and the kids. He also threatened to leave her and the children to die in the cellar if they did not follow his commands.

"He was very brutal against me, and when I did not agree to have sex, then the kids would suffer. We knew he would kick us or be bad to us."

Elisabeth said she tried to give her children as normal a life as possible in their captivity, locked away in the dungeon. Whenever her father was not around, she would entertain them by singing to them and telling them stories. But when her father came to visit, the entire atmosphere dramatically changed.

"When he went away we led our own lives. When he was down here it was all silence. When he came down to the cellar we just tried to survive. He was just all-powerful."

She said her father regularly bullied them into subdued silence, punishing them if they dared to answer back.

"He wouldn't let the kids develop their own personalities. He didn't like them to talk back. At the beginning, when they were small, it wasn't such a problem. But as they got bigger and started developing a personality it was more of a problem. He did not like it and he tried to stop it. He would not allow the kids to have their own will."

It has been reported that the children are unwilling to testify against their father, but with the detailed description provided by Elisabeth of her experiences, their testimony may not add anything of value to the prosecutor's case.

Josef Fritzl himself gave an interview earlier to try and defend his actions. Fritzl maintains he acted out of love in imprisoning Elisabeth when she was 18 and keeping her in his cellar dungeon, where she was tortured and raped, giving birth to seven children.

"I grew up in the Nazi times, and that meant the need to be controlled and respect authority. Yet, despite that, I am not the monster that I am portrayed as in the media."

Josef Fritzl would be hard pressed to find anyone who agrees with him. Along with his own admission of having sex with his daughter and her testimony to judge Andrea Humer, prosecutors are hoping to bring as many as 3,000 counts of rape against the 73-year-old Josef Fritzl. In fact they are also looking into adding manslaughter charges for Fritzl's role in the death of one of his children, Michael, who died shortly after birth in 1997 and whose body Fritzl burned in an incinerator.

Elisabeth Fritzl Kicks Mom Out

Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, has had a terrible life. Raped by her father, Josef Fritzl, 73, since age 11 and incarcerated by him for 24 years. She bore her father 7 children, six of whom are still alive, while being held captive in a dungeon cellar. For a detailed look at the abuse Elisabeth suffered at the hands of her father click here for The Josef Fritzl story.

It now appears that a rift has opened up between her mother, Rosemarie Fritzl, 69, and herself. According to reports, Elisabeth has asked her mother to leave their home. She, Elisabeth, appears to have mixed feelings about her mother:

She is said to find it hard to understand why her mother stayed with her father even though he was a convicted rapist who spent time in jail in the 1960’s.

She also has a hard time understanding why her mother did not stand up to her father, who began raping her when she was only 11 years old. She finds it hard to believe that her mother knew nothing at all about the abuse. Also, when Josef told his wife that Elisabeth had run away from home, she wonders why her mother did not do more to try and find her, especially when Josef produced three of her children who were supposedly left on her doorstep.

Elisabeth is also upset that the three children who grew up with her mother are still calling Rosemarie "Mom" and not "Grandmother". The children: Lisa, 16, Monika, 14, and Alexander, 12, were all raised by Josef and Rosemarie in their home, while the other children: Kerstin, 19, Stefan, 18, and Felix, 5, were forced to live in the cellar with Elisabeth.

In the meantime, Rosemarie Fritzl was seen collecting some personal items from her old house. Christoph Herbst, the lawyer for the Fritzl family, said: "No-one from that family will ever want to live in that house again." It is believed that she has moved in with one of her relatives, possibly one of her own sons. Rosemarie is said to be "shattered" that she had to leave her family. Doctors fear she could be the most severely disturbed member of the family. Christoph Herbst, the family's lawyer, said after Elisabeth was freed in April:

"Rosemarie has lost the centre of her world. Her life was never that good but she always had the children and she had to be strong and be there for them no matter how bad things were at home.

"Now she is no longer the key figure in the children's lives because their mother has returned and she also has to deal with the awful revelations of what had happened to her daughter Elisabeth over all these years."

After being asked to leave her family, Rosemarie announced that she would be divorcing her husband Josef. She had married him at age 17 and had spent the next 52 years of her life as his wife. She is reportedly doing all she can to distance herself from her husband. She will take back her maiden name after the divorce. Not having worked since her early youth, Mrs Fritzl is only entitled to meager benefits payments.

In other developments Elisabeth Fritzl has finished giving testimony against her father. She spent 4 days talking to prosecutors. While details of her testimony have not been made public, it is believed that she accused her father of rape and psychological torment, as well as for the death of her child, who is thought to have died three days after birth because of conditions in the cellar.

However there seems to be some reluctance on the part of the adult children to give testimony against their father. Prosecutors want to use the testimonies of Kerstin,19, and Stefan,18, to reinforce the charges against their father.The prosecution spokesman, Gerhard Sedlacek, said:

“We still have not fixed a date for the questioning of the two adult children but it has now emerged that they could make use of their right not to speak to the authorities and refuse to give evidence against their father.

“The matter will be discussed between their lawyer and the judge in charge, but it has been suggested that they decline to give any statement.”

Josef Fritzl, a retired engineer, has made a partial confession and is facing charges of manslaughter for the death in 1996 of Michael, who was the twin brother of 12-year-old Alexander, as well as rape, coercion, deprivation of freedom and incest. However, prosecutors said that the first two charges would be very difficult to prove because of the lack of scientific evidence and because they were relying to a large extent on the testimonies of the children to strengthen their case.

“There is no direct forensic evidence due to the time elapsed and there is no body, since he allegedly burnt the baby in an oven. The charges could therefore only be based on the testimony of his daughter. In addition, in order to stand up the charges of manslaughter, one would need to attain evidence that there was premeditation, as well as evidence that the child would have survived had it received medical attention.”

The allegations of rape, which carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, would also be difficult to prove because of lack of corroborating evidence, and the charges would only be based on the testimony of Elisabeth.

If his adult children refuse to give evidence, Mr Fritzl could be facing a ten-year prison term as Austrian law does not allow for multiple convictions. This means that even if he is found guilty of several crimes, he will only serve one punishment, for the offense that carries the longest prison sentence, which in this case is likely to be deprivation of freedom.

A jury of eight will decide whether Mr Fritzl is guilty. If he is convicted they will confer with a panel of three judges to determine his sentence. The trial is set to start sometime in the fall.

Elisabeth Fritzl Begins Testimony

Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, who was imprisoned for 24 years by her father, Josef Fritzl, and bore him 7 children; has been given medical clearance to begin testifying about her ordeal. She has already begun to answer questions and will continue to do so in the coming week. Elisabeth has said that she never wants to see her father ever again.....not even at trial. So in order to accommodate her wishes, all of her testimony is being videotaped so that she will not be forced to confront him in court.

The trial of Josef Fritzl is scheduled to begin later this year in front of one of Austria's most senior female judges, Andrea Humer, 48, who is considered to be an expert in sex crimes. However, under Austrian law, Elisabeth is being questioned by the investigative judge Christoph Bauer, and not the trial judge Andrea Humer. Neither the contents of the questioning nor the upcoming trial will be open to the public.

The actual questioning of Elisabeth is taking place in two separate rooms of the same building via a video link up. In one room will be Elisabeth and her lawyer Eva Plaz, along with judge Christoph Bauer. In the other room will be state prosecutor Christiane Burkheiser and Josef Fritzl's lawyer Rudolf Mayer. Defense lawyer Rudolf Mayer is allowed to ask questions, but his client, Josef Fritzl, who is also entitled to attend, has waived his right to be there. Rudolf Mayer, said: “My client will definitely not attend the questioning.” Elisabeth's two oldest children, who spent their entire lives in the cellar, Kerstin, 19, and Stefan,18, will also be questioned by the court as soon as doctors give their approval. Josef Fritzl's wife Rosemarie, 68, is also expected to be questioned.

In what may be a surprising development, it turns out that Austrian law, does not allow for cumulative convictions. This means that even if Josef Fritzl is convicted of multiple crimes he will only effectively serve one punishment, for the offense that carries the longest prison sentence.

Fritzl is facing potential charges of manslaughter for the newborn that died, as well as rape, coercion, deprivation of freedom and incest. But prosecutors told The Times that since the baby died in 1997, the manslaughter charges would be “extremely difficult” to prove. Even the rape charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, could be impossible to probe because of a lack of forensic evidence.

What this means is that the only charge that is certain to be proved in court is deprivation of freedom, a crime that can only be punished with ten years in prison under Austrian law. Josef Fritzl could be a free man after only 10 years in prison.

However, here's the irony in the situation..... Josef Fritzl, who incarcerated his own daughter in a windowless dungeon for 24 years, has admitted that he can't stand being locked up after only two months in prison. In spite of his fear of being beaten up or killed by other inmates, who routinely target child sex offenders, Josef has demanded his right to 30 minutes exercise outside every day. At night fellow inmates bang on the walls and shout: "Come on out Satan, we want to play."

Fritzl, who remains held in pretrial detention in St. Poelten, about 50 miles west of Vienna, now has half-hour walks, protected from other inmates by a close guard of prison officers. Fritzl even told prison guards he enjoyed having the sun on his face during his walks.

"Mr Fritzl is accommodated in a cell for two and recently he has made use of his right to go outside for half an hour per day,” the Telegraph quoted prison spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Erich Huber-Guensthofer, as saying.

A source is quoted as saying: "He usually sits there watching television all day, especially news programs about him. He's terrified that someone will attack him or try to kill him."

In encouraging news about the Fritzl family; Lisa, 15, one of Elisabeth's daughters, was sneaked out of the compound where the family has been staying to attend a summer camp. It is reported that the girl enjoyed four carefree days of outdoor fun under an assumed name with 4,000 other young campers. Armin Blutsch, who commands Amstetten's fire brigade, and Hans-Heinz Lenze, a local official, said camp organizers took it upon themselves to include her after she said it was her "ardent desire."

Other family members also have ventured, always in disguise, from the Amstetten-Mauer psychiatric clinic where they have been recovering to make day trips, including swimming outings. The clinic however remains under police guard to shut out the paparazzi who have laid siege to the building in an effort to photograph Elisabeth and her children.

"Fortunately, everything is going very well," said Christoph Herbst, a lawyer representing the victims. He said they were spending some time each day trying to answer the hundreds of letters sent by well-wishers from around the world.

For the complete story of Elisabeth Fritzl and her ordeal at the hands of her father click the following link for a 5-part video presentation of The Josef Fritzl Story.