Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Vienna Strangler” - Jack Unterweger

Episode Date: September 9, 2019

In the early 1970s, Jack Unterweger was sentenced to an Austrian prison for life after he murdered a young woman. While in prison, he transformed himself into a well-respected author. With Austria’s elite convinced that he was rehabilitated, he was released. But Jack wasn’t rehabilitated, he was simply buying his time to kill again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Shopify. Bonnie and Clyde, the lonely hearts killers, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. These are infamous criminal duels. But you don't need to break any laws to find your perfect business partner because you have Shopify. It's the commerce platform that can help you with literally everything, website design, marketing, shipping, and more.

So start your business today with the best partner, Shopify, and get that. Sign up for your $1.00. per month trial today at Shopify.com slash killers. That's Shopify.com slash killers. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives looked and searched to find any kind of evidence to find the person they were looking for, like Jack the Ripper, the Golden State Killer, the unit bomber, it's tedious work to find what you're looking for. So if you're hiring, I've got news for you.

You can skip the lengthy investigation and the tiresome process of sorting through hundreds of resumes. Just use ZipRecruiter. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash killers. Because not only does ZipRecruiter have the technology to match you with potential candidates quickly, it also just added a new feature

that pushes candidates who are qualified and interested in your role to the top of the list. They can even tell you why they're interested, making it easier for you to get a sense of who they are. Cut through the standard and get to the standouts with ZipRecruiter. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. And now you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash killers. That's ziprecruiter.com slash killers.

Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right. so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points. Never fly during a Scorpio full moon. Just tell the manager you'll sue. Instant room upgrade. Stop taking bad travel advice.

Start comparing hundreds of sites with kayak and get your trip right. Bad advice? You talking to me? Kayak, got that right. Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive.

We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Just outside of Prague, along the Boltava River, is a tributary known as Brezane Brook. The woods surrounding Brazane Brook provide beautiful and serene walks for any early morning hiker. But on the brisk morning of September 15, 1990, a group of hikers stumbled upon a horrific scene. Before them was the body of a naked woman, Blanca Bochkova. Blanca was on her back with her legs spread wide open, a pair of gray stockings on her legs, tree branches and grass covered parts of her naked body,

but they couldn't hide the bruises all over her corpse, nor the cuts on her buttocks. Blanca's murder would go unsolved for nearly two years, leaving Czech investigators increasingly confused. However, they and the rest of the world would soon discover that she was only one of many victims who would fall to Jack Unterveger, also known as the Vienna Woods Killer. Hi, I'm Greg Polson.

This is serial killers, a parkast original. Every Monday, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. I'm here with my co-host to Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Parcast originals for free on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. To stream serial killers for free on Spotify, just open the app and type Serial Killers in the search bar. At Parcast, we're grateful for you, our listeners. You allow us to do what we love.

Let us know how we're doing. Reach out on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast. And if you enjoy today's episode, the best way to help us is to leave a five-star review wherever you're listening. It really does help. Today, we begin our dive into the notorious Austrian serial killer, Johann Jack Unterweger, known as the Vienna Woods Killer and the Poet of Death. Jack Unterveger was always a sadistic and violent man. But for years, he was able to mask that dark side by presenting himself as a. as an author, a poet, and a journalist.

In 1976, Jack was convicted of murdering Margaret Schaefer and received a life sentence by the Austrian courts. Margaret was Jack's second victim. However, charges were never brought for his first suspected murder. But while he was in prison, Jack took the time to educate himself. He began to write short stories and poems.

It culminated in his best-selling memoir, purgatory. His memoir caught the attention of Austria's elite, and petitions soon went around begging for Jack's release. In 1990, 15 years into his sentence, Jack Unterweger was set free, and his celebrity continued to flourish. But just four months into his freedom, Jack's urge to kill sex workers revealed itself. And for the next year, Jack prowled the streets of Vienna, Prague, and Los Angeles, strangling sex workers with their own underwear and dumping the bodies in the woods. He was caught in 1992, leaving behind him a trail of 12 bodies, though there is speculation that

he killed even more women who have never been identified. Jack Unterveger's life, even at its beginning, was marred by violence. When World War II ended in 1945, Allied forces from the U.S., Britain, France, and the USSR remained in Germany and Austria. The Allies occupied the two countries as they began the long process to rebuild. The occupation lasted for 10 years, ending in 1955. During those 10 years, the German and Austrian birth rates spiked. But the procreation wasn't entirely between German and Austrian citizens.

Instead, many young women found themselves pregnant with the children of Allied soldiers. Many children born during this time period had no idea who their fathers were. In Germany, roughly 400,000 babies had allied fathers. And in Austria, that number is around 30,000. Jack Unterweger would be counted among those 30,000. In 1950, Teresa Unterweger, a young, beautiful country girl, took a trip to Trieste, Italy.

While on this trip, she met an American soldier named, Jack Becker. Unfortunately, we know very little about their relationship, but we can make some guesses based on the time period. The aftermath of the war forced many women to engage in survival sex work in order to make ends meet. Even worse, many of these women were sexually assaulted by Allied soldiers. Either of these could have happened to Teresa. It's possible that Teresa was forced to engage in sex work to survive. But it is also possible that her time with Jack was simply a passionate fling, one that resulted in pregnancy. While pregnant, Terracia returned to Austria and struggled to find work. She turned to petty crime,

like fraud and theft, as a way to provide for herself. In the weeks before giving birth to Jack, Terracia was arrested for fraud. However, for some unexplained reason, Terracia was released. She then traveled to Udenberg, Austria, and on August 16, 1950, gave birth to Johann Jack Uterfaker, named after his American father. Please note that much of what is known about Jack's life comes from his memoir, Purgatory, or the Trip to Jail, report of a guilty man, and it must be taken with a grain of salt. Written while he was imprisoned during the 1980s, Jack's writing was solely intended to garner sympathy from those who read it. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist,

but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. As an adult, Jack Unterweger was diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder. A couple of aspects of narcissistic personality disorder are exaggerating achievements and talents, as well as having an exaggerated sense of self-importance. Much of this comes through in the way, Jack describes the harsh upbringing he faced as a child. Jack claims that his mother was a sex worker, but nothing has ever been found to confirm she made her living as one. The general consensus is that

she worked as a barmaid and waitress. It is possible that while she worked as a barmaid, she engaged in sex work from time to time, or that she told Jack that's how he, like so many others at that time, was conceived. Or it could be pure fabrication. It could. When Jack was two years old, Tracy was arrested once again for theft and sent to jail. Jack was then sent to live with his grandfather, Ferdinand Weiser, in Corinthia, South Austria. And from this point on, Jack claims to have had a terrible childhood. According to Jack, Ferdinand Weiser was an abusive drunk, who forced him to act like a, quote,

court fool, a slave educated by grandfather to be a fraud's accomplice. In Jack's version of events, he was barely given enough food to eat or enough clothes to keep warm. And according to Jack, he had no mother figure around. Instead, a rotation of sex workers and lovers frequented the tiny hut. Decades later, Charlotta Hour, Ferdinand's stepdaughter, would protest that all of Jack's claims about his grandfather were a pack of lies. Charlotte had lived with Ferdinand in the same house a decade and a half earlier, in the late 30s.

Charlotta never disputed that Ferdinand had a rough exterior, a product of his country upbringing, but she believed the rest of Jack's descriptions were fabrications. According to Charlotta, her own mother, Maria Springer, lived with Jack and Ferdinand for about six years, beginning in 1952. Maria helped raise the boy, disputing the claim that only sex workers and Ferdinand's random lovers were around.

As Jack got older, he became something of a burden. He was very stubborn and manipulative. Charlotta claims that he would come up with clever schemes to get whatever he wanted. Jack's attitude soon proved too much for Maria Springer, and she left in 1958 when Jack was about eight. Two months later, Austrian child services took Jack away from Ferdinand and placed him with Ferdinand's sister. The exact reasons why Jack was taken

away from Ferdinand are unclear. It's possible that Jack's delinquency and Ferdinand's inability to control it were responsible. Or it's possible that Ferdinand was a little too rough with Jack, now that Maria wasn't around to contain him. Charlotta Auer does believe that it was during those two months alone with Ferdinand that the myth of the overly abusive grandfather began. In addition to genetics, a child's environment can play a key role in a person for NARCestic Personality Disorder, or NPD, according to the Mayo Clinic.

In most cases, a child who was pampered or received excessive praise could develop the disorder. However, a consistently negative environment can also lead to NPD. If Jack really did face the emotional and physical abuse from his grandfather as he professed, it's possible that the groundwork for his MPD was laid when he was a young child. Jack claims in his memoir that he ran away at some point in his early childhood and searched for his mother in Salzburg, but was unable to find her. Instead, he found his aunt Anna. Aunt Anna, according to Jack, was the only kind person in his life as a child. She was a sex worker, and sometime later, she was murdered by a customer.

Jack claims to never have been able to get over his aunt's death, and that his grief stuck with him for years after. However, decades later, Terracia herself claimed she never had a sister. Jack's stories about Aunt Anna were entirely made up. Generally speaking, once Jack was taken away from Ferdinand Viser in 1958, the specifics of his whereabouts become entirely unknown. From then until his mid-20s, we only know that for at least one year he was living at a juvenile delinquent facility and wandered around, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland as a petty criminal.

Jack started his criminal career with small minor offenses. Like his mother, he committed acts of robbery and fraud. His crimes escalated sometime in his late teens when he began to assault sex workers on the streets of Vienna, Salzburg, and Grotz. The exact details of these assaults are unavailable to the public. However, Jack had become known to the police. Many of the women he assaulted began making

complaints against him. His behavior got worse in 1970. When Jack was 20, he kidnapped a 16-year-old girl and tried to force her into sex work. Luckily, he was stopped, arrested, and jailed. But when he was released shortly after, it was clear that Jack had learned nothing from his imprisonment. Once released, he continued to harass and assault women. It's clear that as he was getting older, his dark sexual fantasies only intensified with each passing day. One day, not long after, Jack picked up an unknown young woman and offered her a ride to her home. She accepted. But instead of taking her home, he drove her to a meadow outside of the city. While at the meadow, he sexually assaulted her with a steel rod. As he was doing this, he masturbated.

While Jack was eventually diagnosed with NPD, he also showed signs that of sexual sadism disorder. According to Dr. George R. Brown of East Tennessee University, most sexual sadists have persistent fantasies in which sexual excitement results from suffering inflicted on the partner, consenting or not. When practiced with non-consenting partners, sexual sadism constitutes criminal activity

and is likely to continue until the sadist is apprehended. During many of the assaults that Jack inflicted in his youth, he would pleasure himself while harming his victim. For him, the power he held over these women was what he found both gratifying and arousing. After he assaulted the woman in Salzburg, she reported Jack to the police. Once again, Jack was arrested and then sent to prison.

While incarcerated, Jack smuggled prescription drugs into his cell and attempted to take his own life. This landed him in a psychiatric facility in Salzburg. However, the pattern of him being released shortly after his imprisonment continued, and he was eventually released back onto the Austrian streets. It's hard to understand or fathom why Jack was repeatedly released after his assaults on women, and it's made more mysterious by the fact that records and reports of Jack's early criminal record are difficult to find and corroborate.

Like almost everything in Jack's early life, the specific details of his release are unknown. However, at the beginning of the 1970s, Jack was a free man. Now in his early 20s, Jack had become a radio DJ and moonlighted as a pimp. In the meantime, he continued to harass and assault women, constantly in and out of jail. But as Jack continued to sexually assault women, a more sinister darkness was brewing inside of him, a darkness that was ready to burst. Coming up, Jack Unterweger's increasingly violent behavior crosses over from assault to murder. Now back to the story.

In the early 1970s, Jack Unterveger started to assault women. Throughout the towns of Vienna, Grotz, and Salzburg, criminal charges were brought against him. But the increasingly Sly Jack never stayed in prison for law. At the beginning of 1973, Jack was released from prison in Vell's, Austria. for an unspecified offense. Records show that at the end of January 1973, he began renting an apartment in the border town of Basel, Switzerland. It's widely believed that around this time,

he made his way up to Salzburg, and, on the night of March 31, 1973, murdered Maritzza Horvatt. Marisa is widely believed to be Jack's first victim. Maritza Horvatt was a 25-year-old, Croatian woman, who with her Yugoslavian husband, Mato, moved to Salzburg Austria in the hopes of finding a better life. Mato became a truck driver and Maritzha, a maid. On March 31st, Marisa went into the city to spend the night with some friends. When Mato came home from work, he was

surprised that Marisa hadn't returned. He contacted the neighbors, but no one seemed to know where she had gone. The next day, Sunday, April 1st, Maritz's body was found in the shallow waters of Zaltzak Lake, just outside of Salzburg. A group of young boys discovered her floating motionlessly, and a nearby father and son, who were fishing, heard their screams. Marissa was naked from the waist down. When the police arrived, they noticed that her wrists had been bound with a red, black, and silver-striped necktie. Her ankles were tied together, using her own pantyhose. Her mouth had been gagged with what appeared to be material used from a first aid kit.

Bandages and tape were wrapped around her head. The police carefully removed the tape and revealed Maritz's swollen and bloated face. She had clearly been beaten. On April 2nd, Maritz's husband, Mato, went to the police to file a missing persons report. When he described her appearance and produced her passport photo, the police took motto to the Institute of Forensic Medicine. There, he was forced to identify the corpse of a woman that had been discovered the day before. Through watery eyes, he confirmed that it was his missing wife, Maritzha.

53-year-old inspector, August Schenner, spent months meticulously searching for Maritzers' killer. Their only promising lead was the red necktie that had been used to bind Maritz's wrists. Schenner discovered that the tie was uniquely designed, made in Vienna, and sent to the Austrian town of Vels. The shop's records showed that the tie was purchased on either March 10th, 16th, or 17th. However, no one could remember who actually bought the tie. As the days and weeks passed, the case seemed to get colder and colder. All Schenner had was a tie, but nothing else. He never lost hope that he would one day find.

Maritz's killer. On April 4, 1973, Jack was arrested for trying to illegally cross into Germany from Switzerland. He remained in custody until the end of August, 1973. From there, he continued to go from town to town, working odd jobs as a waiter or gas station attendant. Finally, in January, 1974, he got a job as a disc jockey. Throughout 1973 and 1974, women continue to file assault complaints against Jack across Austria.

Based on our research, it's quite possible that some of these complaints occurred in Germany as well, given that Jack wandered in and out of Austria surrounding German-speaking countries. What we do know is that in the middle of December 1974, Jack was in Frankfurt, dating a young German girl named Barbara Schultz. On December 11, 1974, Jack and Barbara drove Jack's Mercedes an hour and a half north from Frankfurt to Aversbach. Once in the small German town, the two planned on robbing Barbara's parents' house. When they arrived at the house, they quickly discovered that it was locked. Peering through the window, they spotted Barbara's parents asleep in their bed.

Realizing their plan would fail with her parents' home, they'd try to. tried to think of a secondary method of making money. They refused to have driven 90 minutes for nothing. As they were deciding what they should do next, Barbara noticed her old friend from school, Margaret Schaefer, walking up the street. Jack immediately began to scheme. Why not see if they could scam some money out of this young woman? Jack told Barbara that they were going to rob Margaret.

Barbara seemed perfectly fine with that. It had been years since the two saw each other. It wasn't as if she and Margaret were close. Barbara asked Jack what he needed her to do. He ordered Barbara to lure her into the car. Then they would drive around for a bit to disorient her before striking. Without hesitation, Barbara did as commanded. She got out of the car and approached the unsuspecting Margaret.

Jack watched as Barbara smooth-talked Margaret into entering Jack's Mercedes. Once the girls were in the car, Barbara introduced. Jack to Margaret. He smiled, shook her hand, and then drove off down the street. Barbara asked Margaret about her night, and if she had done anything exciting, Margaret replied that she had just finished seeing some friends at the bowling alley. Jack listened with anticipation. He knew she had failed to realize that she was about to be robbed. He asked if they wanted to stop off to have a drink. Margaret said yes, and they found a bar. But before getting out of the car, Jack turned back and asked Barbara if she had anything else she should tell her friend.

Barbara said no, and Jack struck. Jack grabbed Margaret by the shirt and pulled her to the front seat. She protested, demanding to know what was happening. Jack told her to keep quiet and comply. He then took the belt from Barbara's coat and tied Margaret's hands behind her back. Then he shoved her onto the car floor between. the seats. Margaret continued to struggle. She was completely confused as to what was happening or why her old friend was letting it occur. Jack demanded money. Margaret complied but only had 30 marks,

about $17 in modern U.S. currency. When Jack yelled at her, upset about the small amount, Margaret told them she had more money at her parents' house and gave them the key. They drove to Margaret's parents' house. Barbara broke in, grabbed a stash of clothing, and 100 marks, or 57 modern dollars, and returned to the car. As Jack began to drive out of town, he told Barbara that they were going to need to make Margaret disappear. Barbara seemed to be perfectly okay with what Jack was implying and nodded in agreement. Margaret was sobbing, confused and scared. Jack and Barbara ignored her pleas for help.

They pulled to a secluded, wooded area outside of Hareborn, about 16 miles south of Aberspock near Lawn River. Jack demanded that Margaret undress, but Margaret refused. In a fit of anger, Jack punched Margaret in the face. Then he and Barbara stripped Margaret naked. Jack got out of the car and dragged the scared and shivering Margaret with him. Before disappearing into the woods, He asked Barbara if she wanted to come with him.

Barbara said no. Jack once again tied Margaret's wrist together, grabbed a steel rod and Margaret's bra from the car, and dragged her into the woods. Jack Unterweger proceeded to beat Margaret Schaefer repeatedly with the steel rod, striking her in the head and upper body. He then took Margaret's bra, wrapped it around her neck, and strangled her. Jack returned to the car where Bar,

Barbara was waiting and drove back to Frankfurt. While on the road, he told Barbara that they needed to get rid of the now bloody steel rod and his boots. They pulled over just before Frankfurt and threw the items away. Three weeks later, at the end of December, 1974, Margaret Schaefer's body was discovered by some hunters in the area. Her naked corpse still had the bra wrapped around her neck. Jack's rampage continued unabated.

In January, 1975, Jack and Barbara met up with a 16-year-old named Maria and robbed a jewelry store. The trio then fled to Basel, Switzerland. There Jack decided to increase his earnings by scamming Maria's parents with a ransom note. The parents agreed to pay the ransom, but as Jack and Barbara approached the ransom point, they were intercepted. by the police. With Jack and Barbara under arrest, the police quickly found a connection between Barbara and the unsolved murder of Margaret Schaefer. When asked about Margaret, Barbara quickly turned on Jack and gave a full confession about

the night of December 11, 1974. Jack was immediately charged with Margaret's murder. According to Article 8 of the 1957 European Convention on Extradition, Austria assumed responsibility for bringing Margaret's murder to justice, despite the fact that she was a German citizen. Because he was an Austrian citizen, Jack was sent back to Salzburg and awaited trial. Meanwhile, in Prague, Inspector Agu Schenner,

the man who investigated Maritz de Horvats' death two years earlier, began reading the papers about an Austrian man killing a German girl. As the details were released, Schenner noticed a connection between Margaret Schaefer's murder and Maritz de Horvats. On June 11, 1975, Schenner met Jack Unterweger for the very first time in Jack's holding cell. Schenner began asking Jack questions about his whereabouts at the end of March and beginning of April, 1973. Jack denied having any knowledge of Maritzot's death. He told Schenner that after being released from the Vell's prison at the beginning of 1973,

he vagabonded around Italy until finally making his... away to Basel, Switzerland. He claimed that he had been arrested during March of 1973, while trying to illegally cross into Germany. Schener, however, knew the immigration arrest occurred on April 4th, just days after Maritz's death, and not in March, like Jack was claiming. When Schenner presented this fact to him, Jack quickly responded that he must have still been in Switzerland at the time of Maritz's murder, 300 miles from Salzburg. Schenner was unimpressed with Jack's smooth demeanor, his quick response to every question Schenner had. Jack wasn't telling the whole truth, and Schenner knew it, but he also needed

to check Jack's so-called alibis. The Swiss records confirmed Jack started renting an apartment in Basel, but that, in and of itself, didn't prove that he wasn't in Salzburg, murdering Maritz a Horvatt on March 31st. And even though Jack was released from prison in Vels, there was no proof that he was the one who purchased the red tie from Vels. Schenner had no hard evidence against Jack, but he knew, deep down, that Jack was responsible for Maritz's murder. The method was too similar to Margaret Schaefer's death. Unfortunately, Schenner's hands were tied and no charges were ever brought for Maritz's death. In 1976, Jack was finally put on trial for Margaret Schaefer's murder in Salzburg.

During the trial, Jack broke down and confessed to the murder. He claimed that as he dragged Margaret's naked body into the woods, he suddenly saw his mother's face. Rage swelled in him as he saw the face of the woman who had abandoned him when he was only two years old. He didn't know what he was doing when he began striking Margaret, acting almost as if he couldn't control himself. Jack had hoped the courts would be lenient on him as he tried to milk his troubled childhood

as a sympathy defense. However, the court saw through his ruse and he was quickly sentenced to life in prison. Jack was transferred to Stein Prison in Crems-Andardonau, less than 50 miles to the west of Vienna. He should have spent the rest of his days behind Barnes. serving his punishment for the brutal murder of Margaret Schaefer. But he wasn't going to let that happen. Somehow, some way, he was going to get his freedom back. Coming up, we'll explore how Jack was able to manipulate the public into sympathizing with him, securing his release from prison,

and how in a matter of months his murderous rage burst forth in the woods outside of Prague. You tell yourself, no one wants your college-era band teas, but on Deepop, people are searching for exactly what you've got. You once paid a small fortune for them at merch stands. Now, a teenager who calls them vintage will offer that same small fortune back. Sell them easily on Deepop. Just snap a few photos and we'll take care of the rest. Who knew your questionable music taste would be a money-making machine?

Your style can make you cash. Start selling on Deepop, where taste, Recognize his taste. Now, back to the story. In 1976, Jack Unterweiger entered Stein Prison to serve his life sentence for the murder of 18-year-old Margaret Schaefer. Jack had brutally beaten and strangled the young girl and confessed after his arrest. By all rights, that should have been the end of Jack's story, but it wasn't. It was only the beginning.

Upon entering Stein Prison, Jack Unterweger was a fairly uneducated and barely literate person. With nothing but time on his hands, he began taking classes. Jack was smarter than he realized, and he quickly learned how to read and write. After learning the basics, he followed up with actual writing classes. He eventually became the editor of the prison's magazine, as well as the literary review. As he continued honing his writing skills, he had an epiphysical. During his trial, the court had perceived Jack as a ruthless murderer and nothing else. He had been unable to convince them to sympathize with him.

But now, locked away with a newly discovered gift for words, Jack realized that he had the power to change the way people saw him. As a child, he was able to manipulate others into getting what he wanted. Now, with the pen, he could manipulate an entire nation. Three years after his conviction in 1979, he discovered a passion and a talent for writing poems, short stories, plays, and even children's stories. His children's stories were soon passed along to the Usta Reheiser-Runfunk, or ORF, Austria's National Public Broadcasting Company. Soon, mothers and children all over Austria fell in love with Jack Unterfager, the author. But they weren't the only ones.

Jack's writing began to win fans all over Austria's intelligentsia. In a matter of years, they all seemed to have entirely forgotten that the man they were beginning to adore and praise for his writing was the same one who beat and strangled a young German woman. Or rather, as Jack's writing increasingly improved and more of his story was told, they had someone they could use as the perfect example of prison reform. Six years after entering prison, Jack published his memoir, Fagafoya, known in English as purgatory or the trip to prison report of a guilty man.

Pergatory began as a serial, published in 1982 by Manuscripta, a highly regarded literary magazine that still operates today. In 1983, it was published as a book and became an obvious. Austrian bestseller. With each passing day, people stopped seeing Jack as an evil monster. No, he was the true victim, and his revisionist history began in the opening lines of his book. Quote, my hands sweaty with fear were twisted behind my back, and the steel chain snapped around my wrists. The hard pressure on my legs and back makes me realize that my only escape is to end it. A new package of razor blades lies ready, also a long leather strap.

I have prepared for the minute of the last decision. I see my body go to sleep with a final convulsion fleeing from this lonely vegetative life. Is that the answer? The version of Jack that people are first introduced to is in existential despair. He considers suicide. The thought of having to spend the rest of his life in prison seeming worse to him than taking a razor blade and opening a vein. But then Jack decides that there is still hope. He isn't lost. His psychological dynamic fits perfectly into the title of the memoir, Purgatory. Pergatory in Catholicism is the place between heaven and hell. Unlike hell, where punishment and suffering are eternal, in purgatory,

a person's sins are temporary. The offender can be rehabilitated. Jack knew that he could manipulate his readers into thinking that his crime only deserved a temporary punishment and that he could be rehabilitated into society, that his time at Stein Prison was only his purgatory.

Despite it being a bestseller, the vast majority of Austrians didn't read Jack's book. Instead, his main audience was his burgeoning fan base, the Austrian elite. They ate up Jack's tale of surviving the brutality of his alcoholic grandfather, the abandonment of his sex worker

mother, and the grief felt over the death of his sex worker aunt. What made the elite love Jack was that he wasn't some brandy swilling, cafe-dwelling member of the bourgeoisie. He was a murderer, a man who

clearly recognized the error of his ways. He was a He was raw and real, to them at least. Soon, Jack was holding readings of his work at Stein Prison. Many of them were televised across Austria. His fans were shocked to discover that Jack was a thin, boyish-looking man, barely five-foot-six. He looked nothing like a savage murderer. It wasn't long before Jack caught the eye of members of Austria's government, a government

that had recently been taken over by the Progressive Social Democratic Party of Austria. And with progressives in power came innovative policies, like prison reform. A key reform they put into practice was re-socialization. The idea was to focus less on prison as a punishment and more as a place to reform, to treat offenders, and give them the help they needed to re-enter society. Jack's literary following soon included some of the very people who either oversaw these reforms or were in charge of implementing them. One of them was the former director of the Justice Ministry section for penal executions, Dr. Wolfgang Dolajic.

Dolajh visited Jack in prison a few times beginning in 1977. He clearly believed Jack was in the process of reforming, following his retirement from the Justice Ministry, sometime in the 1980s. Dolajche made Jack's release his personal cause. Alongside Dolish were Arno Pilgram, University Lecturer of Criminal Sociology, Ernest Bonamon, Austria's well-regarded sexologist,

and Elfrida Yelie Neck, future Nobel Prize winner of literature. All three of these people, and more, began petitioning for Jack's release in 1985, in their eyes, and in the eyes of many prison reform activists, Jack was the perfect example for the shift in focus on prison as rehabilitation as opposed to punishment.

But according to Austria's laws, because Jack had been sentenced to life in prison, the president of Austria was unable to pardon Jack. The minimum time served for a life sentence must be 15 years from the date of arrest, and at the peak of the outcry for his release, Jack had only served 10. So, Jack was forced to stay in prison.

However, now that he was a highly regarded author and a cause-selebre, Jack's time behind bars wasn't like the average inmates. He continued to give televised readings of his stories, and when purgatory was made into a film in 1988, Jack was allowed to attend the premiere at the Vell's Film Festival. Jack had successfully cultivated an image of a victim, a child abandoned by a sex-working mother to live with his abusive grandfather and turned his victimhood into celebrity.

Among the literary and liberal elites, he was a darling. For the leftist government, he was the poster child of criminal reform. Jack knew it was only a matter of time before he would finally have his freedom. And it would come sooner rather than later. After serving the mandatory 15 years, Jack was up. for parole. In order for a convicted murderer to be granted parole, they must first go under psychiatric evaluation. On April 27, 1990, Dr. Gerhard Keiza delivered his opinion on Jack to the parole board. He told them that Jack not only was perfectly rehabilitated, but that writing had

been the avenue he needed to express himself. The courts agreed. On May 23, 1990, Jack Unterweiguer, the man who savagely murdered Margaret Schaefer and Maritzah Horvatt was granted his freedom. He had gone to prison at the age of 24. He was released just shy of his 40th birthday. Without the confines of prison walls, Jack was finally able to fully live and embrace the celebrity lifestyle he had only gotten a small taste of. He immediately began seducing women, putting his cultivated, charming personality into practice. He was also finally able to take advantage of his interest in fashion.

Thanks to the government subsidy to help him transition into civilian life and the money he brought in from book sales, Jack was the richest he had ever been in his life. He purchased lavish clothes and exotic cars. Within weeks of his release, he was profiled in magazines and asked to be on television shows to discuss prison. He gave readings of his stories and of purgatory all over Austria. He was also asked to be photographed by famous photographers. There are two pictures that perfectly exemplify the image of Jack Unterweger post-prison sentence.

One encapsulates the myth he had created. The other shows the darkness waiting to come out. The first image is him in a white suit sitting in a Viennese cafe. The sleeves are slightly rolled up in a Don Johnson Miami Vice kind of way. His Rolex is perfectly centered as he points to the camera, a smile on his face. Sunglasses hide his eyes and a German shepherd sits next to him. This was the image of a middle-aged man who you would have never known spent a decade and a half in prison for murder. This was the image he wanted the world to see.

The second photograph is drastically different. This one was taken in an attic. Professionally done in stark black and white, this portrait has Jack leaning against a wall, eyes staring into the camera. He's shirtless, revealing a prison tattoo that covers the bulk of his stomach, with tattoos on both of his arms.

This was the real Jack Unterveiger, the Jack waiting, biting his time to kill again. Prison hadn't reformed him. It had only delayed him. As Jack soaked in his life as a celebrated author and model example of Austria's prison reform, he knew that he needed a steady income. He was offered a job as a reporter at ORF,

the Austrian public broadcast company that televised Jack's children's stories years earlier. He accepted. It was perfect for Unterweger, because it allowed him to make money while keeping up with his playboy lifestyle. He was still going on television shows, speaking on prison rehabilitation,

and soaking up Austria's nightlife. As a reporter, a topic that he found particularly interesting was Europe's sex workers. And so, on Friday, September 14, 1990, Jack drove 200 miles from Vienna to Prague to research the city's Red Light District for a story. But for Jack, his trip wasn't purely professional. It was more about picking the right targets.

Although Jack had traveled to Prague, he didn't know how to speak Czech. So he asked the landlady he was boarding with to help interpret. From dusk to 11.30 p.m., Jack and the landlady roamed around the streets of Prague, interviewing sex workers and pimps about Prague's red light district. Around the same time, 30-year-old Blanca Bochkova, when he was a woman, out with friends to have some drinks. It was a Friday night, and it had been a long week working in the butcher's shop. Blanca was happily married with two children, but in the evenings, she would go out and meet with other men. Because of this behavior, it was unclear if she was a sex worker,

or if she was in an open relationship. When her friends all went home, Blanca stayed out after midnight. Eventually, she made her way to Wenceslaw Square, one of the city's famous landmarks named after St. Wenceslaw. And it was here that she made the unfortunate acquaintance of Jack Untervecker. Blanca's body was found the next day, September 15th, by some hikers at Brezane, Brook. Along the Vultava River, she was naked except for her wedding ring and a pair of gray knee-high stockings. Her legs were spread apart. She had been strangled to death, but the object used to strangle her was missing. Police scoured the area, eventually finding some of Blanca's clothes and her ID.

Unfortunately, there were no real leads to finding the killer. Witnesses recalled seeing her talk with a man in his 40s in Wenceslaas Square around midnight, but their description of the man was too vague. So for months, the murder went unsolved. After killing Blanca Bochkova, Jack Unterweger returned to Vienna and continued the persona he had created for himself. Jack had fulfilled a need that he'd been craving while locked away in prison, and now that he had another taste of killing, he knew he wanted more. On October 26, 1990, over a month after strangling Blanca Bochkova,

Jack prowled the streets of Grotz, Austria, searching for his next victim. He found her in 39-year-old sex worker Brunhilda Massa. Brunhilde was a 10-year veteran of Gratz's Red Light District and knew many of the typical Johns. A little after midnight, Brunhilda was seen talking with a local taxi driver. The two had been acquaintances as both worked in the same general area. The conversation didn't last too long and he soon drove off. Shortly after the taxi driver left, Brunhilda vanished. Her body was discovered two months later on January 5, 1990.

when some children playing in the woods happened upon it. Like Blanca's corpse, Brunhilda was stripped naked, and she showed signs of strangulation. Her clothing and purse were missing, but police could identify her by her jewelry. The murders of Blanca Bochkova and Brunhilda Massa were only the beginning for Jack Unterveger. In the months that followed,

more bodies would be discovered in the woods around Vienna, stumping the police. However, 200 miles away in Salzburg, one person knew exactly who was behind the string of mysterious murders. It was Inspector August Schener, the detective who investigated the murder of Maritz a Horvatt back in 1973. Schenner knew that the man the papers called the Vienna Woods Killer could only be Jack Unterveger. Next week, we'll follow Schenner's quest for justice, while Jack Unterveger's reign of terror, makes its way to the sunny beaches of Los Angeles. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers.

We'll be back Monday with a new episode. You can find more episodes of serial killers and all other parcast originals for free on Spotify. Not only does Spotify already have all your favorite music, but now Spotify is making it easy for you to enjoy all your favorite podcast originals, like serial killers for free, from your phone, desktop, or smart speaker.

To stream serial killers on Spotify, just open the app and type Serial Killers in the search bar. Several of you have asked how to help the show. The best way to help is to leave a five-star review. And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and Twitter at Parcast Network. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler. It is a production of Cutler Media and is part of the Parcast Network.

It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Anthony Valsick, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro and Paul Liebeskind. Additional production assistance by Freddie Beckley and Maggie Ed Meyer. This episode of serial killers was written by Joe Guerra and stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today's superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th.

The powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamava Theater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. When I hear something, spooky. Some monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal. One of the boys started to exhibit demonic possession. Stories straight from the witnesses' mouths themselves.

Something very snake-like lifted its head out of the water. Hosted by me, your guide, Derek Hayes. Somehow I lost eight whole hours. Listen now on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.