Josef Fritzl: Convicted rapist who sexually abused his daughter deceived her into thinking basement door was electrified to prevent her escape
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AMSTETTEN, AUSTRIA: Austrian father Josef Fritzl has shared his thoughts on the process of devising a plan to hold his own daughter captive for 24 years and engaging in incestuous relations with her, resulting in the birth of seven children. Fritzl has described his sickening crimes in a memoir and how he managed to keep her there by installing secret codes only he knew on its 'electrified door'. Fritzl's 18-year-old daughter Elisabeth was reported missing in 1984, and she was found on April 26, 2008, in a secret bunker under her father's house in Amstetten, Austria when she reportedly informed police about her captivity during a hospital trip.
Fritzl was imprisoned for life in 2009 for crimes ranging from sexually abusing his daughter Elisabeth, to incest, rape, coercion, falsie improvement enslavement, and the negligent homicide of one of his infant sons. Die Abgrunde des Josef F (The Abysses Of Josef F), a highly unpleasant memoir published in Germany last week with the assistance of Austrian attorney Astrid Wagner, reveals the rapist's thoughts.
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'One day I knew what I had to do'
"One day I knew what I had to do. All that remained was to wait for the right opportunity. On that rainy Saturday morning, the time had come. The thought had become action," Fritzl wrote in the memoir, as reported by the Daily Mail. In his workroom, a large metal door concealed behind a shelf led to an underground prison. He installed a secret code that only he knew for keyless entry into the prison cell.
The electrified metal door with a keyless lock
In addition, Fritzl made sure Elisabeth was deceived into believing the door was electrified and that if she tried to get away from the brutality, she would die. To make his plot a success, the next morning he filed a missing person report. "The officer carefully logged everything and declared, 'She's over 18 and can do whatever she wants,''' Fritzl described in the memoir.
Fritzl forced Elisabeth to write letters to her mother explaining why she needed time away from home, and then he had those letters posted from distant towns. He went on explaining the neighbors that Elisabeth had fled to join a cult. "It wasn't easy, because the thoughts of what I had done were constantly circling within me," Fritzl described.
'I had to look ahead and continue on the path I had chosen'
"I was constantly energized. There was no one I could confide in. I had to look ahead and continue on the path I had chosen," he said. Three of the seven children Kerstin, Stefan, and Felix were aged 19, 18, and five when they were freed in April 2008. Born as a result of the abuse, the children remained in captivity with their mother which started when he used an ether-soaked towel to knock Elisabeth out. A few days after being born, one baby died at Fritzl's hands. He used an incinerator to dispose of the body.
Fritzl and his wife Rosemarie brought up the other three children. To avoid arousing suspicion from his wife, Fritzl resorted to elaborate measures by staging the discovery of the children by concealing them in bushes outside of the house or on the front porch. Each time, the infant would come with a note purportedly written by Elisabeth, explaining that she was leaving the baby with her parents for safekeeping because she couldn't take care of it.