Rick Raw: Josef Fritzl Case–The Personification of Evil

By Rick Grant rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

I rarely comment on crime stories, however the horrifying case of Josef Fritzl has outraged me to the point that I feel compelled to write about it. Just when I think I’ve heard the worst case of sexual abuse, the Austrian degenerate Fritzl, 73, takes this crime to a new level. This guy makes Hitler seem like a monk.

This sensational international media story broke when the police arrested Josef Fritzl on a long list of serious charges. Soon the shocked Austrian police heard Fritzl confess that his kept his daughter, Elisabeth, now 42, prisoner in his basement dungeon for 24 years. He began raping her at age 11. By the time she was 18, he had fathered 7 children with her, three of whom (now 19,18, and 5) spent their entire life locked in his underground prison with their mother, never seeing the light of day.

For reasons that authorities do not understand, Fritzl allowed three other children (now 15, 18, and 12) to live upstairs with his wife. Right, one big twisted family. Fritzl and Elisabeth had an infant who died shortly after birth. Fritzl threw the body into the furnace. The demon Feritzl was exposed when his eldest daughter (of his daughter) became seriously ill and he allowed Elisabeth to accompany her to the hospital. There she told the doctors the incredible story. The cops were called and Fritz was arrested.

How did this unprecedented incest case go on for so many years without someone calling for help? There are very few answers. Fritzl was a tyrant and dominated his household with an iron will. He even rented rooms in his house, but always told tenants that they were forbidden from going into the basement. His wife was scared to death of him. He worked as an electrrician and was respected by his colleagues and boss, who said he as a hard worker and a jovial man.

Unbelievably, Social Services visited Fritzl often because he and his wife were foster parents for two more kids. To explain why Elisabeth was missing, Fritzl told the authorities and his wife that she had run off and joined a cult. Meanwhile, Fritzl was down in his hell hole abusing his daughter and children, locked away from the world with no education or amenities.

On a broader sociological scale, this is the same country that, just two years ago, was reeling from another girl-in-a-basement horror. Natasha Kampusch was kidnaped by a stranger at age 10 and was held captive in a basement for eight years. In that case, no one suspected that this girl had been held hostage. When she finally broke away from her captor, he walked in front of a train and killed himself. It turned out that the government "covered up evidence" that the kidnapper had been identified as a top suspect in Kampusch’s disappearance early in the case, but he was never questioned.

What can the Austrian authorities do with Fritzl that will bring peace and justice to the victims of this heinous crime, so disgusting, I can hardly believe it’s not fiction? In fact, no fiction writer could possibly conjure up something this degrading and horrific. More seriously, Fritzl flaunted his lust for young girls by frequently traveling to Thailand to participate in sex acts with underage girls, some as young as 10. To further exacerbate public outrage, there are photos of Fritzl in a Speedo getting a massage on the beach in Thailand.

Indeed, Fritzl has done unspeakable damage to the entire family, who will never be able to have a normal life. Elisabeth is so disturbed, she is being treated in an undisclosed mental hospital. The Austrian government has agreed to help the family financially and psychologically.
Fundamentally, there is something wrong in Austrian society. The entire country is taught to bury its Nazi past and see no evil–yesterday or today. To be fair, though, the Austrian people can not be held accountable for Fritzl’s actions. Perhaps the culture’s laissez-faire attitude factored into Fritzl’s long evil career of rape and incest. Fritzl’s mug shot is dark and foreboding. It’s a seething portrait of a man possessed by demons and a selfish disregard for anyone but himself. If evil has a face, it’s Josef Fritzl!