Astrid Wagner: Lawyer who helped Josef Fritzl publish memoir refutes claims of dementia, says she 'felt energy'
If you or anyone you know suspects child abuse, you are urged to immediately call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
AMSTETTEN, AUSTRIA: Josef Fritzl, the monster father and a former electrical engineer who kept her then 18-year-old daughter Elisabeth in captivity for 24 years in a cellar he constructed in his basement and fathered seven incestuous children with her, is trying to gain sympathy in a memoir published in Germany last week. The lawyer Astrid Wagner is behind helping Fritzl write a disturbing memoir called Die Abgrunde des Josef F (The Abysses Of Josef F).
Through this memoir, Fritzl is reportedly looking for what he feels has been denied from him: sympathy, empathy, and possibly - though he doesn't say it explicitly - forgiveness. Wagner has also declined the reports which suggested Fritzl suffering from dementia by saying, "No trace of dementia."
READ MORE
'No, this old man here is far from being a helpless old man'
According to reports, Fritzl, who changed his name to Mayrhoff six years ago, is now suffering from dementia. Wagner has busted the claims that he has any illnesses and possible loss of memory, "No, this old man here is far from being a helpless old man. I felt energy. Willpower. Determination," the lawyer claimed as per the Daily Mail. The 59-year-old started going to see Fritzl at Stein, and she ended up producing a book on her experiences, which is mixed with Fritzl's own writings.
Wagner says she is attracted to wicked men like him because she "has always been fascinated by what motivates such criminals". Wagner also acknowledges that Fritzl's victims would be appalled, but she felt compelled to speak what she believed to be the truth about the man and his atrocities regardless of Elisabeth, her children, and Fritzl's wife's feelings.
'Anyone who is offended by this [story] should not even read this book'
"I did not consider the perspective of others — the victims and the relatives — of Fritzl," said Wagner before adding, "Anyone who is offended by this [story] should not even read this book." In any case, she believes that what interests her more than Fritzl's atrocities is understanding what makes him tick.
Fritzl's future plans
It follows the recent application he made to be moved to a regular prison. His previous attempts to be transferred to a prison with reduced security have been rejected by Austrian courts, the media outlet mentioned. He outlines potential plans to move back to Amstetten and "perhaps set up a small business there".
Fritzl was primarily raised by his mother after being born in Amstetten in 1935. When Fritzl was four years old, his alcoholic father left the household. His mother was a strict woman who often beat him. "As a child, I always thought that I was unwanted," he writes in the memoir. "I never got a kiss from her, and never a hug — although I tried so hard. I was afraid of her, terribly afraid, of her unpredictability, of her beatings, of her kneeling on me. And she constantly insulted me as Satan, as a criminal, as a useless thing. She forbade me to have friends", said Fritzl. He later alleged that she was imprisoned in an attic with barred windows for the final few years of her life, from 1980 to 1981, as a punishment.
'In reality, I'm a good person'
Another passage from the book quotes Fritzl as saying, "In reality, I'm a good person," and is still wondering why his wife Rosemarie got separated from him. Fritzl writes, "Even though everything was so long ago, my wife is still inside me." He also wonders if she could ever forgive him, "More than before. You probably become more sensitive with age. I’m worried about how she thinks about everything now. It would be nice if she would come and visit me. I think it’s time to talk about what happened. To make a clean slate, so to speak."
Elisabeth, now 56, goes by a new name, as do the six children she delivered while living alone in the dungeon for 24 years. She and her children were relocated to a tiny Austrian hamlet. For a home protected by a high fence and CCTV cameras, the state paid £700,000. Meanwhile, Fritzl is usually alone, watching TV and using his computer. Inside the prison's garden, he raises veggies.