Josef Fritzl: Monster dad who raped daughter Elisabeth for years wonders if his wife will forgive him

'One day I knew what I had to do. All that remained was to wait for the right opportunity', said Josef Fritzl

UPDATED APR 7, 2023

Josef Fritzl imprisoned his daughter, Elisabeth, after she turned 18 years old, and held her in a dungeon (Twitter)

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BERLIN, GERMANY: Josef Fritzl, an Austrian sex offender who shocked the entire world in 2008 for capturing and torturing his daughter for decades has released his memoir. The 87-year-old convict imprisoned his daughter, Elisabeth, after she turned 18 years old, and held her in a dungeon. Fritzl told his wife and police that she had run away to be part of a cult. It was after 24 years, Elisabeth's story came out when she managed to tell the police while on a trip to the hospital, in the town of Amstetten that she had been held captive by her father all these years.

She was freed by the authorities, along with the three children she had with his ‘monstrous’ father. Fritzl was given life imprisonment in 2009 for incest, rape, coercion, false imprisonment, enslavement, and for the negligent homicide of one of his infant children. Now, he had released a tell-all memoir, Die Abgründe des Josef F (The Abysses Of Josef F), published in Germany last week. "At first it was just a mind game I played. But I got used to it. The idea, which had previously seemed so absurd, so monstrous to me, took shape,” he wrote.

'On that rainy Saturday morning...'

Fritzl scribbled, "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. Those around me noticed my inner restlessness . . . I toyed with the idea of exposing everything and fleeing justice abroad. Still, it wouldn’t be easy,” as per Mirror.

'I think it’s time to talk about what happened'

At present, Elisabeth is 56 years old and she lives under a new identity with her six surviving children at an unknown location in Austria. Fritzl also wrote in his memoir, "Even though everything was so long ago, my wife is still inside me.” Talking about whether his wife ever forgave him, he said, "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."