Josef Fritzl’s barbaric abuse of his own flesh and blood means he will forever be known as one of the most depraved pedophiles of the 20th century.
But now, 15 years after he was jailed for the evil committed daily in his filthy basement, the 88-year-old is ravaged by dementia and begs for mercy.
The rapist’s crimes, such as incest, murder and enslaving his daughter, were so barbaric that his surname has become a synonym for evil.
Reports of his possible transfer to a care home from the infamous Krems-Stein prison – Austria’s safest psychiatric prison – have sparked public outrage rather than sympathy, something Fritzl, out of self-pity, has repeatedly claimed he should be granted.
Now, weak and demented, one of the world’s most depraved pedophiles will spend his final days enjoying the kind of mercy he failed to show Elisabeth, the daughter he raped more than 3,000 times in the 24 years he spent with her. as a sex slave. the secret cellar of their parental home.
Fritzl has been locked up in Krems-Stein since he was convicted in 2009, in a case that sent shockwaves around the world.
Frizl during his trial in 2009. He has been locked up since he was convicted, in a case that sent shockwaves around the world
The cellar where Fritzl kept his victims captive. His heinous crimes were only discovered when Kerstin, one of the seven children he fathered with Elisabeth, fell into a coma.
He was prone to grandstanding in court, with his lawyer imploring jurors to consider that no one should be treated like a “monster” if they can “take care of two families,” a nod to the fact that his wife Rosemarie had told the lies of Fritzl believed. Elisabeth had run away to join a cult and therefore had no idea what was happening under her roof.
His ‘memoirs’, written from behind bars, also showed a recalcitrant disregard for the truth.
However, the chance to get his ‘story’ out has probably been a welcome distraction from the grim reality of life as one of Austria’s most hated criminals.
Accounts from officials and former prisoners tell the story of a deeply unpopular prisoner who ended up behind bars with a target on his back.
His supplies inside were so low that Fritzl would have spent much of his time in solitary confinement.
Yet that has not made him immune to violence from fellow prisoners.
In one exchange, in 2016, Fritzl was said to have lost several teeth after getting into a fight with a man – also sent to the solitary wing – who had allegedly been involved in setting up a fake dating profile in Fritzl’s name. The eighty-year-old came off worse.
The hostility towards Fritzl was so great that he was often watched by four guards, although they were reportedly distracted at the time of the blow in 2016.
A fellow inmate told local media: ‘Just hearing his name makes me feel sick.
‘Fritzl was and still is separated from everyone else.
‘He has completely withdrawn and barely leaves his cell. He does not want contact with others, and all in all it seems that he has resigned himself to death.’
That date with fate seems to be getting closer.
Local reports claim that Fritzl, who now suffers from dementia, appears confused, regularly talks to the TV, thinks he is a pop star and discusses visits from relatives that never happened.
Daughter Elisabeth has had no contact with her father since he was imprisoned and lives under a new name in an unknown part of Austria with the children fathered during the decades her own father brutally raped her.
Fritzl is said to have started his life behind bars as a prison librarian, but later was given menial, ‘dirty jobs’.
More recently, he has reportedly experienced several falls and requires a walker to get around.
Signs of the state of his mental health were demonstrably present during his quarter century of offending.
But new insight into Fritzl’s twisted mind came when, with the help of lawyer Astrid Wagner, he released his life story from prison last year.
In it he sought sympathy for the abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of his mother, and, more recently, because ‘there are prisoners waiting to beat me up’.
In a disturbingly matter-of-fact description of Elisabeth’s ordeal, he wrote: ‘At first it was just a mind game I was playing.
‘But I got used to it. The idea, which previously seemed so absurd and monstrous to me, took shape.’
In 2016, Fritzl is said to have lost several teeth after he got into a fight with a man – also sent to the solitary wing – who was allegedly involved in setting up a fake dating profile in Fritzl’s name.
Elisabeth Fritzl imagined the ordeal at the hands of her monstrous father
He also suggested that he considered himself a higher rank than other prisoners, and described seducing women with extramarital affairs around the world before ending up in prison.
And in a further sign of his self-aggrandizement, he said he longed for reconciliation with Rosemarie, whom he considered his “soulmate” despite not speaking to her during his entire time in prison.
Wagner, co-author of the grim tome, said Fritzl wanted it to be “a bit of a warning, or rather a way to show people how far you can go if you look away, so to speak, or if you ignores evil. because he suppressed everything within himself.’
A court is now expected to decide whether to agree with a new psychiatric report on Fritzl – who changed his name in 2017 – saying he no longer poses a danger to the public.
Fritzl’s horrific crimes were only discovered when Kerstin, one of the seven children he fathered with Elisabeth, fell into a coma.
He took her to the hospital, where alarmed doctors noticed her malnourished condition and rotting teeth.
Another child died at the hands of Fritzl, a few days after birth. He threw the body into an incinerator.
Three others were raised by Fritzl and his wife, presenting them as ‘foundlings’.
When Elisabeth was allowed to finally leave the dungeon to visit Kerstin in the hospital, she was arrested and subsequently told the police about the heinous crimes her father had committed.
She and her children now live in obscurity, in a state-funded house guarded by a high fence and CCTV.
Even if a court subsequently shows weak sympathy for Fritzl, he will likely spend his life in far less grand surroundings – and a change of surname will never give him the anonymity he supposedly strives for.