Austria

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Elisabeth Fritzl Describes Life Under Josef

Father would threaten to hurt kids if daughter resisted rape

(Newser) - Elisabeth Fritzl describes as horrific life under the control of father Josef in the Austrian cellar where she and her children lived, the Telegraph reports. "He was very brutal against me," the 42-year-old said of the man who fathered seven children with her. Elisabeth, discovered in April, detailed...

Incest Father Fritzl May Face Slavery Charges

Trial for Austrian who locked up daughter planned for December

(Newser) - Josef Fritzl, the Austrian who imprisoned daughter Elisabeth in a cellar for 24 years and fathered seven children with her, may be charged with slavery, among other crimes, the Guardian reports. Officials plan to ready the case against him by September for a December trial, said a prosecutor. Fritzl has...

Euro Cup Arena Covers Vienna's Dark Past

More than 1,000 Jewish prisoners died after being held there

(Newser) - The Vienna stadium that will host tomorrow's Euro Cup final hides a brutal past beneath the stands, where more than the 1,000 Jewish prisoners were held in 1939. Nazis took medical samples and made plaster casts of the prisoners, who were allowed outside daily but could not step on...

Dungeon Girl Will Make Full Recovery: Docs

Kerstin Fritzl will develop normally, 'happy' to be with family

(Newser) - A teenager who spent her life imprisoned in an Austrian cellar will recover fully and “develop normally” after major organ failure, said doctors at the hospital where she was treated. Kerstin Fritzl was recently awoken from an induced coma and reunited with her mother and siblings, who now live...

First Austrian Cellar Girl Becomes Talk Show Host

Natascha Kampusch gets gig two years after escaping

(Newser) - An Austrian woman who was held captive for more than 8 years has achieved her dream of hosting a talk show, the Guardian reports. TV had been Natascha Kampusch's main source of entertainment during her years trapped in a cellar before her escape; now she’s seeing “the other...

Fritzl Family Will Get New Identities

Hounding reporters 'make them feel imprisoned again,' says attorney

(Newser) - Austrian authorities are preparing new identities for dungeon dad Josef Fritzl’s entire family, including the daughter he imprisoned in a celler, the six children Fritzl fathered with her, her six adult siblings and her mother. The family members have been hounded by lucrative offers for media interviews, the Times ...

Fritzl Daughter to Give Interview

Elisabeth, 42, said to choose Austrian TV for sitdown next Monday

(Newser) - Elisabeth Fritzl, imprisoned by her father for 24 years, will discuss life in the Austrian dungeon in a televised interview, the Daily Mail reports; the appearance on Austria's ORF TV will be broadcast next Monday. It was unclear what, if any, payment was agreed upon for the interview; paparazzi have...

Austrian Man Murders Family With Ax
Austrian Man Murders
Family With Ax
May 15, 2008 5:43 AM CDT

Austrian Man Murders Family With Ax

Kills five relatives in several locations

(Newser) - Austria made crime headlines again yesterday when a man walked into a Vienna police station and confessed to killing five family members with an ax, CNN reports. He killed his wife and 7-year-old daughter, as well as his parents and father-in-law in other cities, a police spokesman said. Police found...

Fritzl Family Paints Plea for Normalcy

'I am happy about my freedom and about my family,' writes 18-year-old Stefan

(Newser) - Josef Fritzl’s family has broken its silence, the Daily Telegraph reports, with a hand-painted sign hung in a window of their Austrian home. The family thanks the public for its support: “We hope that there will be a time when we can return to normal life,” it...

Dungeon Daughter: 'I Never Want to See My Father Again'

Elisabeth Fritzl spends first Mother's Day with 'above ground' kids

(Newser) - The Austrian woman who spent 24 years in a cellar as the sex slave of her sadistic father has said she never wants to see him again, reports the Daily Telegraph. The information was revealed as Elisabeth Fritzl, 42, spent her first Mother's Day with five of her six surviving...

Swiss Face French-Fry Shortage
 Swiss Face French-Fry Shortage 
May 9, 2008 3:07 AM CDT

Swiss Face French-Fry Shortage

Snack crisis threatened soccer tourney

(Newser) - Switzerland faces a potato shortage just weeks before hundreds of thousands of famished European soccer fans descend on the country expecting to snack on French fries. The nation, which is co-hosting the upcoming international soccer tournament Euro 2008, is mashing the pending crisis by lifting trade barriers to import 5,...

Fritzl Blames Nazis, Says He Was Trying to Save Daughter

Didn't plan incest; gave in to taste for 'forbidden'

(Newser) - In jail-cell notes released by his lawyer, Josef Fritzl goes to bizarre lengths to defend the rape and imprisonment of his daughter, citing his Nazi upbringing for instilling “a high regard for decency and uprightness,” and a need to save the 18-year-old Elisabeth from drinking and dissipation. “...

Letters Show Fritzl Daughter Meant to Leave Home

Elisabeth wrote to friend just before her imprisonment

(Newser) - Elisabeth Fritzl intended to leave home just before her father imprisoned her, letters published in the Oesterreich newspaper show. “After the exams … I'm moving in with my sister and her boyfriend,” the 18-year-old wrote to a friend in 1984. “Cross your fingers for me. When you...

Fritzl Triggers Change in Austria Sex Law

His rape conviction was wiped off books as he adopted grandkids

(Newser) - The Josef Fritzl case has spurred Austrian legislators to initiate changes in sex crime laws to prevent child abuse, the BBC reports. As Fritzl kept his daughter imprisoned as a sex slave, he was granted custody for three of the children he fathered with her— despite a rape conviction. His...

'I Am No Monster': Fritzl
 'I Am No Monster': Fritzl 
May 7, 2008 11:37 AM CDT

'I Am No Monster': Fritzl

'I could have killed all of them, and no one would have known,' incest dungeon-master says

(Newser) - Josef Fritzl complained today about receiving bad press since admitting to keeping an incestuous second family locked in his Austrian cellar, the Telegraph reports. "I am no monster," Fritzl said through his lawyer, calling his treatment “unfair” and calling the media's narrative “entirely one-dimensional” because it...

Domineering, 'Perverse' Fritzl Feared at Local Brothel

'Mentally ill' dungeon dad terrified prostitutes

(Newser) - Josef Fritzl was a regular at a brothel near his Austrian town and the prostitutes there feared him and shunned him whenever they could, the Scotsman reports. His domineering, "perverse" demands terrified the women, said a bartender. Among customers "95% are normal and 3% are a bit weird....

Police Think Dungeon Dad Raped Granddaughter

Incest daughter Kerstin, 19, still in coma, but likely to live

(Newser) - Josef Fritzl might not have stopped at raping his daughter, Austrian police now say, fearing now that Fritzl raped granddaughter Kerstin, the oldest incest child born in his cellar dungeon, the Daily Mail reports. But police aren't able to question the 19-year-old because she is still in an induced coma,...

Fritzl's Lawyer Sees 'Good But Also Bad' in His Eyes

'My job is to show him as a human being,' attorney says

(Newser) - Josef Fritzl's attorney is bonding with his client and painting a new picture of him for the press, Der Spiegel reports. “Josef Fritzl is being portrayed as a horrific monster and sexual tyrant," said Rudolf Mayer, a renowned Viennese lawyer. "My job is to show him as...

Fritzl Neighbors Knew He Was Raping Daughter

Ex-tenant, others didn't report abuse before she was imprisoned

(Newser) - A tenant who lived in Josef Fritzl's house for 4 years in the early '80s knew the Austrian father was abusing his daughter Elisabeth, the Times of London reports. The lodger said he was told of the abuse by a neighbor, who had helped the teenage Elisabeth escape to Vienna—...

Fritzl Served Time for Rape in 1960s

Victim recalls attack; he has 2 other arrests for sex offenses

(Newser) - It seems Josef Fritzl’s daughter wasn’t the only woman he abused. Fritzl was a known sex offender even before his basement of horrors came to light, with prior convictions for a rape, an attempted rape, and public exposure, the Times of London reports. It’s a major embarrassment...

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