Joseph Fritzl says "I was Born to Rape"

Joseph Fritzl, 73, is truly a living monster: After incarcerating his own daughter and brutally raping her for 24 years - fathering 7 children in the process - he now claims in interviews with a psychiatrist that he was born to rape. He is also under the delusion that what he did was not so bad and he should be commended for his restraint:

"Bearing that in mind I controlled myself for quite a long time." He added: "I could have behaved a lot worse than locking up my daughter."

Learn how this monster was finally caught and his daughter freed from captivity in a series of videotapes entitled: The Joseph Fritzl Story.

A court in St Poelten, Austria, which will be handling his eventual trial, commissioned Dr Adelheid Kastner, 46, of the Wagner-Jauregg psychiatric clinic in Linz to provide a psychiatric examination of Josef Fritzl, 73. Her report, conducted over six interviews, was compiled in a 130-page document. She concluded that although he was fit to stand trial, he would be "highly" likely to re-offend if he had the opportunity. 

“He was not only incredibly able to lead a double life but also managed to maintain a triple life without any problems,” Dr Kastner wrote, indicating that Fritzl played down the gravity of his crimes in his mind.

“Mr Fritzl resembles a volcano; under the surface that appears almost banal there is an evil streak. He is torn apart by his desires that he cannot master,” Dr Kastner wrote.

The report declared Fritzl clinically sane and fit for trial, but also diagnosed a “severe combined personality disorder and a sexual disorder”.

“It is to be expected that Mr Fritzl would perpetrate deeds with severe consequences also in the future,” Dr Kastner concluded.

On the basis of her report the prosecution has demanded from the court that Fritzl be tried and sentenced, then committed to an institution for the criminally insane, where he would receive psychiatric care and therapy including, if deemed necessary, medication.

The psychiatric report also shed some light on the life of Fritzl and some of the factors that may have influenced him from childhood. His mother, who was strict, neglectful and abusive, beat him and isolated him from other children until he started school. He said he was an “alibi child,” and his mother only had him to prove to her partner, who was apparently cheating on her, that she was not sterile. He explains:

“I grew up in a poor family. My father was a no-good scoundrel who always cheated on her and my mother threw him out of the house when I was four – and she was quite right to do so. After that, it was only the two of us."

However, according to the report, he was ignored by his mother, sadistically mistreated and constantly left neglected. Dr Adelheid Kastner said:

"As a child he suffered from a condition that sometimes affects boys and left him in incredible pain every time he urinated. His mother only bothered to take him to a doctor when a neighbour discovered how much the child was suffering and forced her to take him for treatment."

It also seems as if he had an Oedipus Complex with regards to his mother. In a previous interview he said:

“My mama was a strong woman. She taught me discipline, order and diligence. She enabled me good education and job training and she constantly worked hard and would take difficult jobs only to support the both of us. She was as strict as it was necessary. She was the best woman in the world. And I was her husband, in some way. She was the boss at home, but I was the only man in the house."

When asked whether he was sexually abused by his mother, he said: “No, never. My mother was decent, most decent. I loved her over everything. I have admired her. I admired her very much. But I have naturally not done anything. There was nothing there."

When asked whether there were any fantasies about her mother, he said: “Yes, probably, but I was strong, almost as strong as my mother, and I have therefore managed to suppress my urges."

Dr Kastner says Fritzl spoke of humiliating and unprovoked attacks by his mother in childhood.

"His childhood made him susceptible to an emotional handicap," she writes, creating the need for him "to possess an entire human being".

Fritzl said that he had tried to escape from the horror of his childhood by burying himself in books. As an adult he said he had thrown himself into his work as a way of suppressing his sexual desires. He described himself as a "volcano" who felt "torn" and had come to the conclusion that he possessed a "mean streak", and a "flood of destructive lava that was barely controllable".

Shortly after puberty Fritzl began sexually attacking girls and at the age of 32 in 1967 he broke into the flat of a 24-year-old nurse and brutally raped her at knifepoint. He spent 18 months in prison for that crime.

The report says Mr Fritzl believed incarcerating his daughter, Elisabeth, meant he would have someone "just for me". He said he had deliberately never looked his daughter in the face while he was raping her. Kastner said it had been his way of distancing himself from the situation. He said he stopped having sex with his wife, Rosemarie, on the day he allegedly sedated his daughter and took her into the cellar. "Finally I had someone who was just for me," he said. He also believed having children with her would mean she would have to stay with him as she would "no longer hold any attraction for other men".

"I only had so many children with her so that she would always stay with me, because as a mother of six she would no longer hold any attraction for other men."

He was said to have a thin grasp of the gravity of his crime, after expressing a belief that he would spend his final days with his wife and pleading for a short prison sentence so that he could continue running his property business to enable him to provide for his family.

In the report, Dr Adelheid Kastner writes: "Mr Fritzl was born as a disadvantaged child, which will have consequences for his entire life. His domestic situation was uncertain and he had to suffer a mother who demotivated him, denigrated him and was prone to violence – a home situation which was absolutely devoid of security and lacking in understanding of the basic needs of a child. It was a childhood that left him emotionally crippled. The degradation left his personality "severely deformed" and he has almost no ability to empathise with others.

Because of his anger at his mother, he developed a permanent need to dominate women. Because of this loneliness that he felt, he developed a need to "own a person" and to "have that person totally for myself" and create a "totally inseparable and irremovable connection".

His daughter Elisabeth was the terrible victim of the crippled person that he grew up to be.

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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.

Kerstin Fritzl Reunited with her Family

Kirsten Fritzl, 19, of Amstetten, Austria who had been in a medically-induced coma for several weeks, has finally been reunited with her mother and siblings. Her father, Josef Fritzl, remains in jail having being accused of repeatedly raping his own daughter, who bore him 7 children (including Kristen) and holding them captive for 24 years in a cellar. See the Fritzl story here.

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Kerstin's doctor, Dr Albert Reiter said: “It was an extraordinary moment when Kerstin, holding my arm, and I were able to walk through the door into a new home, crossing the threshold into a new life.The entire family is very happy that they are all together for the first time.“ See the press conference here. The Fritzl family now lives in an apartment on the grounds of the clinic where they are being taken care of.

Kerstin's recovery has truly been remarkable. She was rushed to hospital in April after she fell desperately ill and was placed on life support systems including a respirator and dialysis machine. Her condition became worse and she was eventually put into a medically-induced coma to help her organs recover. In May her doctors began reducing her medication and she was brought out of the coma in June. Elisabeth, her mother, was at her bedside regularly encouraging her to fully come back into the world.

As she lay in bed, medics gradually started to help her to use her muscles again – including teaching her how to eat and speak again because of problems caused by the length of time she was connected to the respirator. Finally she was allowed out of intensive care and was taken by ambulance to start a new life with the rest of her freed family.

She is still suffering from symptoms associated with prolonged bedrest, including muscle waste and deterioration of her bones. But she has already managed to walk and received vaccinations to prepare her body for the outside world.

The Fritzl family is now all together: Kerstin; Elisabeth, her mother; Rosemarie, her grandmother; her brothers (Felix, 6, Alexander, 12 and Stefan, 18); and her sisters (Monika, 14 and Lisa, 16);

Family lawyer Christoph Herbst said Elisabeth, 42, is now determined to keep the family together.

“The family all want to live together. There is a real desire to be with one another. To be together is something very precious indeed. Everyone involved couldn't anticipate that this could happen so quickly and so positively."

But he said their freedom of movement was severely restricted by media besieging the clinic and appealed to journalists to respect family members' privacy.

The Wounds of Elisabeth Fritzl and Family

Elisabeth Fritzl's mental, physical and emotional wounds will require a network of case managers. So says Jeff Dolgan, senior psychologist at Denver Children's Hospital, adding that he had never heard of a case this horrific.

"It's beyond creepy," he said. "This takes the cake. Trauma is like throwing a big rock into a pond. The waves go out and we are all sadly traumatized. She will need a system of care, not just one person but an adult psychiatrist who will coordinate the rehabilitation. Her world has been this basement. It's like our waking up 500 years from now. This is all she's known."

Elisabeth Fritzl was incarcerated in a basement cellar for 24 years by her own father. She was repeatedly raped by him and bore him 7 children, one of which died shortly after birth and was incinerated in a furnace to get rid of the body. Elisabeth and her children were freed from their prison after a police investigation, prompted by the hospitalization of her eldest daughter Kirsten, 19, discovered their dungeon. Read the entire story here.

Physical Exam

After living for so long in the cramped, low-ceiling dungeon, called home for 24 years, Elisabeth and her kids have developed some serious physical problems. In her first medical exam after she was found, Austrian doctors said Elisabeth's teeth were horrifically decayed. She and her three children have a myriad of medical problems, including vitamin D deficiency, anemia and bad posture.

Vitamin D deficiency can cause rickets, a disease of malnutrition caused by lack of sun exposure that is rarely seen today. Her bones are weakened and deformed. Because of the cramped space, low ceilings and little opportunity to exercise, Elisabeth may also have problems with movement. She looks haggard, hunched over, lined and gray. The 42 year-old looks more like the sister of her 67-year-old mother than her daughter. Because of the scarce oxygen supply in the cramped quarters, Elisabeth and her kids had to spend long spells sitting or lying down. Kerstin, her 19-year-old daughter, is in an induced coma after collapsing. She is still in a critical condition and fighting for her life.

According to Dr. Stuart Goldman, a psychiatrist at Harvard University's Children's Hospital in Boston, "This case is so unique, we can only look for approximations."

"If you don't use muscles and stretch them out, your motion is limited," said Goldman. Muscles can be retrained, but senses like vision and hearing could be permanently impaired. He continued "All our senses are trophic. You have to use nerves for nerves to develop. If you patch an eye, you eventually go blind, even if the eye is mechanically normal."

Mental and Emotional Problems

Aside from the physical challenges facing the family, also of concern is the mental and emotional damage their incarceration may have caused. Although the Austrian doctors are worried about the three children, Elisabeth may have suffered the worst.

"She was older when it started happening, but at the same time, she had years and years of deprivation and limited stimulus," said Jay Reeve, associate professor of psychology at Florida State University and executive vice president of the Apalache Center for Mental Health. "It's exactly as if she was held in captivity in jail......She had some period of her life when, presumably, she was able to interact with others and be in school and have some social interchange," said Reeve. "But the rape and sexual abuse that she experienced was a pretty stark betrayal of trust."

Initially, her father Josef Fritzl, reportedly handcuffed Elisabeth to a metal pole and kept her in total darkness, returning only to bring her food or to rape her. She told police she was kept in a single room for the first nine years of her captivity where their children had to watch as her father repeatedly raped her. Often she had to decide whether to have sex or starve. She told officers how she quaked with fear every time she heard the door click as her dad came down for his vile sex sessions. He beat her if she struggled, so she soon stopped putting up a fight.

Police chief Franz Polzer said: "The man is evil beyond words. The misery he has inflicted on his family is unimaginable. It will take (Elisabeth and) the children years to recover."

With the complexity of her trauma, Elisabeth most likely has shut down emotionally as a way to cope with the pain and may need myriad therapies and time "to handle her memories and make sense of how why this happened," said Reeve.

Since being rescued, the family has been living in an isolated room in a psychiatric unit near their home. Doctors have placed a cargo container outside so that Josef Fritzl's captives can retreat there if they feel too traumatized by the daylight and the open space.

"She needs reassurance that she has not lost everything," said psychologist Dolgan.

On the video-sharing website Youtube there is a 5 part documentary on the discovery of the "House of Horrors" that Elisabeth and her children lived in. It is full of details about the experiences that she endured. Below is the first part of this documentary entitled The Josef Fritzl Story. Click here to see the entire series.