Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Vienna Strangler” Pt. 2 - Jack Unterweger

Episode Date: September 16, 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. Sponsors! Zola - Go to Zola.com/KILLERS to build your free wedding website and get $50 toward your registry! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder and that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. On the evening of June 19, 1991, 35-year-old Shannon Exley got into a yellow cab and made her way towards 7th Street in downtown Los Angeles. Shannon Exley was a sex worker and 7th Street was her spot. She had a client base full of truckers

who found her youthful look enticing. As the cab made its way closer towards, her corner. She gazed out the window and saw a number of homeless men and women setting up their tents in the now infamous Skid Row. At around midnight, a car pulled up to Shannon and the John rolled down his window. In a funny accent, he asked Shannon how much. He was around 40 years old and looked rich. Shannon hopped into his car and they drove off. But instead of pulling around the corner into a warehouse parking lot like her average customer, the man made his way to down 7th Street. He passed Alameda, drove across the L.A. River, and pulled into a vacant lot

on Seventh and Fickett in Boyle Heights. The next day, June 20th, Shannon's body was discovered by a couple of girls as they picked up trash. Shannon was almost entirely naked. Her bra wrapped tightly around her neck. Jack Unterweger, the Vienna Woods killer, had just claimed his first victim in the United States. Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is Serial Killers, a Pardcast Original. Every Monday, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. I'm here with my co-host, 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, tap browse, 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 Network. 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. Last week, we covered Jack Unterveger's mysterious childhood.

and how he went from petty criminal to murderer. After receiving a life sentence in prison, he was able to transform public perception about him through his memoir, but once he secured his release, he immediately began killing again. Today, we'll conclude our exploration into the poet of death,

Johann Jack Unterveger. While in prison for the murder of 18-year-old Margaret Schaefer, Jack Unterveger wrote and published his 1984 memoir, Fega Foya, or Purgatory. In it, he largely embellishes a horrendous childhood living with his grandfather. Due to his excessive hyperbole, the memoir helped Jack cultivate an image that garnered sympathy from Austria's literary elite and prison reform activists. He became a celebrated author, writing short stories, plays, and children's stories to go along with his best-selling autobiography.

He successfully tricked them all into thinking that prison had rehabilitated him. In 1990, Jack Unterweger was released. Upon his release, he continued his charade as a changed man. He became a celebrity giving book readings and interviews, but on September 15, 1990, just four months after he regained his freedom, Jack began a whole new murder spree. His first victim was 30-year-old Blanca Bocchkova in Prague. This week, we'll cover Jack's continuous murder spree throughout 1990 and 1991 as he moved from Austria to California.

Then we'll cover the international efforts to bring Jack to justice, thanks in large part to a retired detective, one of the only ones who saw through Jack's Reformed Literary Genius Act. After Jack murdered Blanca Bocchcova while interviewing second, workers in Prague. He returned to Vienna and began production on a play. The piece was entitled Dungeon and served as a sequel to purgatory. Instead of just staying in Vienna, Jack was taking the play on tour. He was hoping for it to become his first big literary success post-prison. Unfortunately, it was neither a critical nor financial success, and the lack of praise angered Jack. On October 26, 1990, while Jack was in Grotz, possibly with the tour,

39-year-old sex worker Brunhilde Massa disappeared. In Austria, sex work is legal and highly regulated. Women must register with the police and are not allowed to begin working until the age of 19. The authorities are constantly in the know when it comes to the women working on the streets. So when police learned of the disappearance of Brunhilda Masa, it gave them a great deal of concern. As the police scratched their heads over Brunhilda's disappearance, Jack and the tour traveled to Dornburn,

a small town 400 miles west of Vienna, near the border of Austria and Switzerland on December 5, 1990. According to biographer John Leakes, while in Dornburn, Jack called a friend of his and complained about the tepid response Dungeon was receiving throughout the tour. The friend recalled that Jack was completely irate, She tried to calm him down, but he hung up on her, still in a rage.

That night, Jack roamed the streets of Breggins, seven miles north of Dornburn, to cool down. He needed to find a way to blow off some steam. Sadly, the victim of Jack's rage would be 31-year-old sex worker, Heidi Marie Hammerer. Heidi Marie vanished from a usual spot on the night of December 5th. On New Year's Eve, a couple of hikers making their way through the woods outside the city discovered Haida Marie's body. She was partially naked, exposed from the waist down. Wrapped around her neck was her panty hose,

which had been used to strangle her to death. A few days later, on January 5, 1991, Brunhilde Massa's partially naked body was discovered in the woods by a couple of kids playing there. There had been a year and a half gap between the murders of Maritzahorvatt and Margaret Schaefer. Now, Jack was only waiting a month, in between kills. It appeared as if Jack was evolving. 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 the show. Thanks, Greg. Last week, we discussed how Jack suffered from narcissistic personality disorder. However, since his release from prison, it is possible that Jack's NPD evolved into malignant narcissism. Malignant narcissism, is a blending of NPD with antisocial personality disorder. As Rhonda Freeman, PhD writes in her article for psychology today, people with this condition have extremely fragile egos and self-esteem. They can have occurrences of unstable, impulsive, or aggressive behavior.

It's quite possible that the poor reception of Dungeon hurt Jack's ego so much that it drove him to kill while on the road. At the start of the new year, 1991, Jack was in the process of moving on from the failures of dungeon by focusing on his next play, Scream of Fear. Scream of Fear was a short play about AIDS. Jack is said to have lost friends to the disease while in prison. Throughout the 80s, during the AIDS crisis, he became increasingly worried about the rising death toll and wanted to bring awareness to it.

Scream of Fear premiered in Vienna on February 17, 1991. It then traveled to seven other cities across Austria. While we don't have confirmed proof that Scream of Fear was met with the same response as Dungeon, it is quite possible that it did, because while the play was on tour, Jack struck again. On March 7, 1991, sex worker Elfrida Shremf disappeared from her corner in Grotz, Austria, about 120 miles south of Vienna. Elfrida's case proved slightly different from Jack's pre-February. of the previous murders.

A few days after Alfrida disappeared, Jack called Alfrida's parents and taunted them. What made the calls even more nefarious was that the family's phone number was unlisted in the phone book. It's possible that Jack forced Elfrida to give him the number just before he strangled her. And then, in the span of a single month between April and May 1991,

Jack claimed the lives of four more sex workers in Vienna, The first victim in this month-long spree was Sylvia Zogler. Sylvia was a 23-year-old sex worker who disappeared on the night of April 8th at around 10.30 p.m. Eight days later, on April 16th, 25-year-old Sabina Moitze was the next to go missing. She was last seen being dropped off at the West Train Station, her usual spot. The third victim was 33-year-old Regina Prime. On the night of April 28th, Regina was last seen around 11.30 p.m. near the Hotel Rudolph before she vanished. Her husband, Rudolph, who knew that his wife was a sex worker, then began getting

mysterious phone calls, taunting him about his wife's disappearance and her profession. Finally, 25-year-old Karina Roglu vanished on May 7, 1991, just a few blocks away from where Sabina Moitzi had last been seen. As the disappearances began to make the front pages, Jack, in an insidious move, took to the streets of Vienna's Red Light District and interviewed the scared sex workers. As a freelance reporter,

Jack wrote about the very disappearances and murders he was committing. When some of the bodies were discovered, it confirmed the fear that had taken over the whole sex work community. On May 20, 1991, Sabina Moitzi, was found by an elderly hiker in the woods. A noose made from her panty hose was still wrapped around her neck. Three days later, on May 23rd, Karina Roglu was also discovered in the woods.

Like the others, she had been strangled to death with her own underwear. However, Karin also showed signs of blunt force trauma. It appeared that she drew particular ire from Jack, or possibly struggled to stay alive, causing Jack to be. beat her. In the span of eight months, Jack Unterweger had murdered seven sex workers all over Austria. Police in Grotz, Breggens, and Vienna were at a complete loss as to who was responsible. Austria had never had a serial killer before. So the thought of one never even crossed their minds, and they certainly didn't consider the famous writer Jack Unterveger, the same man

reporting on the murders as the one responsible. However, in the city of Salzburg, a retired police investigator had a strong suspicion that Jack was, in fact, the man committing the sex worker murders. By 1991, 70-year-old inspector August Schener had been retired from the Salzburg police for some time, but he had recently become personally interested in the unsolved murders and disappearances of sex workers in and around Vienna. The press had dubbed whoever was perpetuating the heinous acts as the Vienna Woods killer. As Schenner continued to read about the bodies being found in the woods, the details reminded him of an unsolved case from 18 years earlier.

Euritsa Horvats' death had troubled Schenner since the 70s. He knew that Jack Hunter Beger had committed that murder, but never had the evidence required to charge him with it. Now, bodies of sex workers were being found all over the country, and the way of the in which they were killed and discovered struck Schenner as a little too similar to Maritsa and Margaret's murders. Jack had gotten away with killing Maritza Horvatt and skirted his life sentence for Margaret Schaefer. Schener wasn't going to let him get away with these new murders. On Friday, May 31st, 1991, a week after Karina Roglu's body was found,

August Schenner called the homicide division of the Vienna police and told them to take a look into Jack Unterveger. The police were in disbelief. No way would the famed literary genius Jack Untervaker be the Vienna Woods killer. It was completely impossible. Jack was rehabilitated. While Schener was being brushed off by the police, Jack began working on his next big piece of reporting. He had already written some articles on the Vienna Woods killings, focusing mostly on the disappearances. But after the discoveries of Sabina Moitzi and Karina Oroglu, Jack decided to write a more in-depth article on the murders. On June 3rd, Jack walked into the Vienna Police Headquarters and sat down with Chief Max

Adelbacher. Jack told Adelbacher that he was a freelance journalist working for the journal panorama on Usterajasher Runfunk, or ORF, Austria's National Broadcasting Program. He claimed he was working on a story about sex worker slings. At first, Adelbocker was apprehensive about revealing too much to a reporter. To get him to feel comfortable, Jack shared the fictional story of his aunt's death. Because she was a murdered sex worker, he had a special insight into that world. Adelbacher acquiesced. The police chief told Jack that the police have been unable to find any hard evidence at the crime scenes. The time between the murders and the discovery of the bodies had made it difficult for the investigators to find anything, concrete. Because

Because of this, they were completely puzzled as to how to proceed in the investigation. Adelbacher admitted that Austria had never seen anything quite like this before. After his meeting with Jack, Adelbacher finally heard about the tip from Schenner. He was slightly taken aback given how sincere Jack had been. The dissonance between his behavior and the accusations against him didn't make sense to Adelbocker. Two days later on June 5th, Adelbacher watched Jack's story, the Fear in the Red Light milieu on the ORF. While he watched the show, his wife told him

that she had heard of the man on TV. He was the same man who made waves in the news a year earlier for his prison release, the same Jack who killed an 18-year-old German girl in the 1970s. For some inexplicable reason, Adelbacher hadn't made the connection when he first met Jack.

As the program continued, Adelbacher studied Jack, taking special note of his mannerisms, He was still not convinced that Jack was a brutal serial killer, but Schenner's tip now seemed to have some credence to it. Jack, after all, had been convicted of murder back in the 1970s. Perhaps he could kill again. Adelbacher decided to have Jack surveilled for a few days.

Officers followed him as he drove around town, as he ate at his favorite cafes, and as he played with his German Shepherd. When they finished, the officers came back reporting that, Jack was a normal, rehabilitated citizen. Adelbacher assumed as much. But he did wonder why Schenner would accuse Jack of the Vienna Woods killings. On June 10th, Jack returned to Adelbocker to inform him that he was going to be traveling to Los Angeles.

He was going to write a story about crime in the U.S., and he wondered if Adelbocker had any contacts within the LAPD to facilitate interviews or a ride-along. Adelbacher didn't, but wished him luck and said he looked forward to hearing what Jack reported on. Adelbacher, however, kept to himself about August Schenner's phone call. And as Jack went to Los Angeles the next day, he had no idea that he was suddenly on the radar of the Austrian police. Not that it mattered to Jack. He was about to hit the sunny shores of California. And continue his murder spree. Coming up, Jack Unterveger travels to Los Angeles

and becomes the first intercontinental serial killer. You tell yourself, no one wants your college-era band teas, but on Deep Pop, 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 will be a money-making machine?

Your style can make you cash. Start selling on Deepop, where taste recognizes taste. Now back to the story. In the spring of 1991, the Vienna police were at a complete loss as to who was responsible for the disappearance and murder of six Austrian sex workers. Many of their bodies had been found in the woods surrounding the city, but a couple of missing women still had yet to be found. In Salzburg, retired police inspector Algo Schenner tipped off the Viennese police to Jack Unterveger's past of sexual assault and murder. However, the Viennese police

found the tip somewhat dubious. Jack was a celebrated author. But more importantly, he had shown the Austrian government that prison rehabilitation worked. Why would he risk going back to prison by murdering sex workers? What did he have to gain? A brief period of surveillance, affirmed the police's belief. Jack was a normal citizen. They had no reason to continue investigating him. Instead, the police allowed Jack to go on with his trip to Los Angeles without any harassment. On June 11, Jack Oontervager landed at Los Angeles International Airport,

wearing an absurd white outfit with snake-skin cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. If Jack's goal was to make an outrageous entrance, he accomplished as much. When he landed, Jack made his way to downtown L.A. He checked into the city's infamous Hotel Cecil, the one-time residence of the serial killer Richard Ramirez, a.k.a. the Nightstalker. The Hotel Cecil, known today as Stay-on-Main Hotel, is located on South Maine near the corner of 7th Street.

The hotel was just on the border of the area known as Skid Row, a place known for its high homeless population. And to the 80s, a high population. of sex work. Jack met several German and Austrian workers within the film industry, including Francis Schoenberger, the Hollywood correspondent for the German magazine Stern. It was during his lunch with Schoenberger that he elaborated more on his ideas for the articles he intended to write about Los Angeles. Jack told Schoenberger he wanted to search for his American father, Jack Becker, the man he never knew. He had no clue where to begin his search,

but he figured that he should at least try. Schoenberger promised to help with his search using Stern magazine's contacts. For the next few days, Jack toured Los Angeles, keeping himself busy by sightseeing and researching for his article. On June 17th, Francis Schoenberger came to Jack with bad news. She was unable to find Jack's father. She had reached out to her contacts in Washington, D.C.,

but ultimately came up short. Jack apparently took this very very very important. hard. It's possible that the disappointing news is what pushed him to finally kill again. Two nights later, on June 19th, Jack picked up 35-year-old sex worker Shannon Exile from the corner of 7th Street in town, not far from the Hotel Cecil. He drove two and a half miles across the Los Angeles River and into Boyle Heights, pulled into a vacant street behind a small hill, and strangled Shannon with her own bra. Jack had now killed a total of 11 women in four different countries.

Over the next few days, Jack cavorted around Los Angeles, soaking in the nightlife and culture. He even participated in the gay and lesbian parade in West Hollywood. Despite having fun, he knew it was time to focus on his crime article. On Tuesday, June 25th, Jack got the chance to participate in a a ride-along with the LAPD. For four hours, Jack wrote around with Sergeant Steve Staples throughout the Central Division, mainly in the downtown area. He took pictures, jotted down notes, and soaked in the underbelly of Los Angeles during the day. Following his ride-along, Jack walked up and down 7th Street and interviewed various pimps and sex workers for his article.

On June 28th, just a few days after spending the morning with the LAPD, Jack picked up 33-year-old Irene Rodriguez near the Hotel Cecil. Irene had only been in Los Angeles for two months after arriving on a Greyhound bus from El Paso. She had developed a heroin addiction, and in order to feed her habit, she turned to sex work on 7th Street. According to her roommate, Irene left the apartment around 8 p.m. to go to work. At some point into the evening, she ran into Jack Unterveger, assuming he was just another John. Jack drove her to the outskirts of downtown to Boyle Heights, just as he did with Shannon Exley.

He parked in a secluded area and strangled Irene with her own bra. Her body was found naked and sprawled out in a parking lot the next day. A t-shirt, a sock, and a syringe were next to the body. A few days later, on July 3rd, Jack went driving through the hills of Malibu, in search of an Austrian filmmaker living in the U.S. Robert Dornhelm. Dornhelm's career was more or less in its beginning stages. He had made only a handful of movies before 1991, but Jack wanted Dornhelm to make an English adaptation of his memoir, Purgatory. Dornhelm was annoyed that Jack had discovered his Malibu home, which was said to be

across the street from then-married couple Madonna and Sean Penn. Dornhelm, who had been living in the U.S. for several years, had no idea who Jack Unterveger even was. However, he agreed to listen to Jack tell his story. By the time the sun set, Dornhelm had promised that he would look into Jack's history and read his books. But Jack could sense that Dornhelm's promise was meant to humor him and to get him to leave. Dornhelm wasn't interested in adapting purgatory. As Jack drove back from Malibu to Los Angeles along the Pacific Coast Highway, his defeated attitude turned into a red-hot rage, and he needed to do.

do something to help himself calm down. He found his relief in the form of 26-year-old Sherry Long, who also went by the name Peggy Booth. She'd come to Los Angeles with an eye towards becoming famous, but the harsh realities of Hollywood rejection had unfortunate consequences. She became friends with a sordid crowd. Soon she became addicted to drugs and eventually turned to sex work to fulfill her addiction. work downtown like Shannon Exley or Irene Rodriguez. Rather, she worked about 10 miles away on Sunset Boulevard in between La Brea Avenue and Fairfax. At some point during the evening of July 3rd,

Jack Unterveger found Sherry working on sunset and picked her up. However, instead of driving to Boyle Heights where he had killed his previous victims, Jack drove 30 miles back to Malibu, making his way through the winding roads into the Santa Monica Mountains, Jack soon found a spot to park where no one would be able to hear Sherry's screams. Sherry's body was found eight days later on July 11, 1991, off of Coral Canyon Road in Malibu. She was partially naked, her bra still wrapped around her neck. The LAPD was completely stumped as to who could be responsible for these killings, though they were convinced that it was the work of one person. They were only left wondering, when would this killer strike again? Jack left Los Angeles

just before July 20, 1991. He returned to Vienna without finding anyone interested in making purgatory into a major Hollywood picture. In some respects, it was a disappointing trip for Jack. On July 22nd, Jack was featured on the Austrian radio program Zixack. Once again, he told Austria the story he had written in purgatory. No new information was given. The broadcast wasn't as well received as he expected, because at this point, Jack's story was old news. Many Austrians began to wonder why they continued to focus on his early life. This question lingered in the mind of Charlotta Hour, the stepdaughter of Jack's grandfather. Charlotta had read Jack's book and was enraged at the libelous lies Jack had written in order to garner sympathy. On at least two occasions

while Jack was still in prison, Charlotta spoke out against Jack's claims. Though, who was going to believe a commoner over Austria's celebrated author? Charlotte discovered that Jack was going to the Vemitz Valley on August 16th to celebrate his birthday. As part of the festivities, he was going to be performing a reading of purgatory.

She had tried to ignore the zig-zac broadcast a few weeks earlier. But after years and years of anger brewing inside, she decided that now was the perfect time to confront Jack. On August 16th, Charlotta found Jack sitting at a cafe in Vemitz Valley with a group of women. When she began to confront Jack, he denied knowing who she was, but Charlotte wasn't going to be dismissed so easily. In her hand was an envelope filled with pictures of Jack and his grandfather when Jack was between two and eight years of age.

Jack Rose leaned in and forcefully told Charlotta, Be quiet or something may happen to you. Charlotte could see the hatred in Jack's eyes, the anger. She knew then that at any moment, the man who killed Margaret Schaefer all those years ago could suddenly reemerge. For her safety, she knew it would be better if she followed his order and kept quiet.

Charlotte Our Hour wasn't the only one interested in forcing the truth out of Jack Unterwe. Peter Grohlig, an Austrian reporter working for the courier, had heard about August Schenner's tip to the police at the beginning of the summer. While Jack was in Los Angeles, Grolig began to investigate him, and he too found the parallels between the murder of Margaret Schaefer and the bodies being discovered in the woods around Vienna. On August 4, 1991, the body of Sylvia Zogler, the sex worker who had been missing since the beginning of April, was discovered near the village of Wolfsgrabbin, five miles from Vienna. She was naked and her body was badly

decomposed. During the course of the investigation, the police practically threw up their hands and surrender due to the lack of hard evidence at the crime scenes. This caused Peter Groleg to become frustrated with the police. He decided to take matters into his own hands. On September 1st, 1991, Currier published an article entitled, Hot Tip in the Search for the Prostitute Murderer. The article all but named Jack outright as the Vienna Woods killer. The article made Jack very nervous. Four days after the article was published,

he visited Chief Adelbacher at the Viennese police headquarters and fished for hints as to whether he was under investigation. Adelbacher was coy with Jack and didn't reveal that he had decided to put him under surveillance again. In Jack's eyes, everything was business as usual. However, he made sure to be a little bit more careful now that Groleg had suddenly cast public suspicion onto him. But the damage was already done. Adelbacher and the Viennese police, though not entirely convinced that Jack was the Vienna Woods killer, had at least finally taken August Schenner's advice and made Jack a suspect. Soon, he would be able to.

become their only suspect and a wanted fugitive. Coming up, Jack Unterweger discovers a warrant for his arrest has been issued. Predator Badlands, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. Here, you're not the predator. You're the prey, prey, prey. Critics are saying it's epic, stunning, and breathtaking. Many have come here. None have survived.

Predator Badlands, now streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus, rated PG-13. Now back to the story. On September 1st, 1991, 40-year-old Jack Unterweger read an article in a popular Viennese newspaper that practically outed him the Vienna Woods killer. At the time, the Viennese police were investigating four of the murder cases. Sylvia Zogler, Sabina Moitzi, Karine Irruglu and Regina Prim, who was still missing. A few weeks later, on September 16th, Jack returned to Viennese police chief Adelbacher's office for the second time to fish for information.

Were the police seriously considering him a suspect? There was an uneasiness during the conversation. After a long pause, Adelbacher confessed that Jack was indeed a suspect. However, he assured Jack that he was one of over a hundred. Jack had nothing to worry about. They just needed to follow every lead. Adelbacher assured Jack that his name would soon be crossed off the list. He just needed Jack to provide written alibis for April 8th, 16th, and 28th, and for May 7th,

the days the four women had gone missing. Upon hearing this, Jack broke down and cried. He agreed to give Adelbacher a written account of his wearer. back in the spring. He claimed he could not have committed the murders as he would never risk being sent back to prison. Adelbacher assured Jack that he understood but still insisted on the alibis to clear his name. On October 5th, 1991, as Jack was working on his alibis, the skeleton of Elfrida Shremf, Jack's third victim post-prison, was discovered outside of Grotz. The Grots Police now had two dead sex workers on their hands and knew that the

that Vienna was having a similar problem. The Grotz police heard about the Schenner tip and asked Vienna for help. Vienna still didn't think Jack was responsible. The Grots police thought otherwise and vowed to continue searching for a connection. Two days later, on October 7th, Jack returned with his alibis.

As Adel-Pocker read over them, his suspicions grew. Jack wasn't able to say specifically where he was on the dates in question, just that he was working in Vienna. But what troubled Adelbacher was that Jack claimed he didn't drive because he didn't have a license. Adelbocker knew that was a bald-based lie because his surveillance teams had reports of Jack driving around the city. It was a small detail, but to Adelbocker, it meant that Jack was

more than willing to lie to the chief of police. Jack, however, continued to work on his investigative stories and enjoy his freedom. On November 16, 1991, Jack, Jack, Jack met 18-year-old Bianca Marac. Bianca was a beautiful local girl still living with her controlling mother and yearning to be on her own. Jack used that to his advantage. After a few weeks of casually seeing each other, Jack mentioned that he was thinking about renting the spare room in his apartment and asked if she was interested. She said yes. Less than three weeks after meeting him, Bianca moved in with Jack.

Jack was controlling. He never took Bianca out on the town or to dine with his intellectual friends. Instead, he forced her to stay in the apartment and adhere to a strict daily schedule. Yet because Bianca had so desperately wanted to be free of her controlling mother, she gladly accepted Jack's dominance in exchange. She also enjoyed the sexual intimacy they shared. At some point in the month of December, Jack informed Bianca, that money was a little tight, and he needed her help.

The head over heels Bianca told Jack that she would do anything. He knew of an upscale escort company that she would be perfect for as a hostess. Bianca, nervous at first, agreed to at least meet with the manager. During the meeting, she discovered that escort was a glorified name for sex worker. Bianca was enraged. She confronted Jack, who was at the bar with two other women, and accused him of trying to pimp her. As she fled, Jack chased after her and apologized,

promising to never do such a thing again. Not wanting to have to return to her mother, Bianca stayed with Jack. A few days later, he got her a job as a barmaid. And just before Christmas, after knowing each other for just over a month, Jack proposed. The naive 18-year-old said yes. It's unclear why exactly Jack chose Bianca. It's possible that, given her youth and beauty, he saw her merely as a way to make money.

Jack never made his true feelings about her known. But going into 1992, the two appeared to be happily engaged. In January, the Grotz police ramped up their investigation, believing Jack was a prime suspect. On January 11, 1992, investigators went around Grotz's red light district and showed several of the sex workers, Jack's, photograph. One sex worker identified Jack as the man who attempted to kidnap her after she propositioned him. When the police asked when the event occurred, she told them October 1990, over a week before Brunhilda Massa went missing. The Gratz Press got a hold of the story and began hounding Jack for interviews. Jack could

feel the noose tightening around his neck. Then, through his journalist contacts, he learned that the Grotz police had begun talking about him to the Vienna police. It was becoming too much. He needed to get away. On February 2nd, Jack and Bianca made their way to St. Gallen, Switzerland. As Jack and Bianca fled Austria, Dr. Ernst Geiger of the Austrian federal police came to believe that Jack was their man. He had listened to Schenner's tip, listened to the stories told by the Grots police,

and he was convinced. On February 10th, Geiger sent the Vienna DA a report of all the evidence they had found implicating Jack Unterweger in the murders of seven women in Vienna, Grotz, and Breggens. Unfortunately, the DA didn't think the evidence was enough to prosecute. Luckily for Geiger, the Interior Ministry disagreed. They created a special commission to further investigate Jack. A team of investigators was assembled from Vienna, Gratz, Lowerington, Austria and Vorarlberg. Ernst Geiger was appointed the head of the Commission. A few days later, Jack called his probation officer, who had several friends in the Viennese police.

The probation officer gave Jack updates on Geiger's investigation. Jack began to think that it might be a good idea to leave Europe altogether. On February 13th, the Grotz's criminal court issued an arrest warrant for Jack in Vienna without the Viennese deed. permission. Grotz police planned on arriving the following day to arrest Jack. The press got wind of the warrant, but promised to not report on it until February 15th. However, on the evening of February 14th, just as the Special Commission was gathering for the first time, the Friday evening distribution of the Saturday morning paper arrived on the newsstands. The headline read Murder Series, an arrest warrant for Jack Unterweger.

Jack saw the headline and knew he had no time to waste leaving Europe. His timing was perfect because the next day, February 15th, Geiger and his unit broke into Jack's apartment, warrant in hand. Jack, of course, was long gone. But police scoured the apartment and discovered a shotgun, a switchblade, and a cat of mace. Items a man on parole was not allowed to have. They also discovered a case that contained three pairs of handcuffs. Still searching, the police also found receipts from restaurants from his time in Los Angeles,

pictures of him with the LAPD, a brown leather jacket, and a red scarf. While the jacket and scarf were taken to the labs for analysis, Geiger contacted the LAPD. He asked them if they had any unsolved murders similar to the Vienna Woods killings. LAPD couldn't believe it. They'd been stuck trying to solve the murders of Shannon Exley, Irene Rodriguez, and Shepard. very long for the last eight months. With the help of the LAPD, Geiger was able to connect the receipts he found in Jack's apartment

to locations near where the L.A. sex workers were last seen. But the most damning evidence the police had obtained against Jack was the leather jacket and red scarf. When the lab came back with their results, they discovered that fibers on the clothing matched fibers found on Heidi Marie Hammerer. For the first time, the authorities had more than Jack. circumstantial evidence against Jack.

Meanwhile, in Switzerland, Jack went to the bar Bianca worked at in hysterics. He told her the police in Vienna were after him because an old cop named August Schenner was dead set on sending him back to prison. Jack claimed that Schenner was framing him for the murders of the sex workers. He needed to either take his own life or flee.

Bianca promised to flee with him as long as he didn't kill himself. She asked for her last paycheck, and they got it to Jack's car and headed towards France. While driving through France, Jack tried to figure out where they could dodge the authorities for good. At first, he thought Spain was a good idea, but as he continued driving through the Alps, he thought the last place they would look for him would be the U.S. He ultimately decided to fly to Miami, thinking that it would be easy for him to blend in with his outrageous flare. Just outside of Paris, Jack and Bianca hopped on a plane to New York and from there flew to Miami.

They landed on February 16th. Upon arriving in Miami, Jack arranged for Bianca to get a job as a go-go dancer at a nearby club. While she worked, Jack kept his ear to the ground on information back in Austria, following the daily news reports on the police's hunt for him. He grew annoyed that the police were able to paint the narrative, as they had in 1976 with Margaret Schaefer, and he wasn't able to tell his side of the story. To bolster his defense, he began writing letters and called into Austria's public radio to proclaim his innocence. Meanwhile, Jack got in communication with an ex-girlfriend

who worked for an Austrian magazine called Success. She told him they wanted to do an exclusive story on Jack while he was on the run and even offered to pay him $10,000 for the interview. Jack couldn't believe it. He said yes immediately and told them where to wire the money. USA Money Exchange, Miami Beach. Little did Jack know that Gert Schmidt, the editor of Success Magazine, had taken the wire transfer information to the police.

With Jack's location, Geiger called the Miami Police Department. They informed Geiger that they didn't have the authority to make the arrest, but the U.S. Marshals could help them out. The next day, February 21st, 27, 1992, Jack and Bianca made their way to the Miami Beach branch of the USA Money Exchange. Bianca went inside to collect the money while Jack stayed on the street. As Jack waited, he looked around and noticed something strange. Many of the pedestrians nearby were acting suspicious, frequently glancing over at him.

He assumed, correctly, that they were law enforcement. The hair in the back of his neck began to stand, but he stayed pale. He needed the money if he was going to make a clean getaway. After several tense minutes, Bianca finally exited the building with the cash. As soon as she stepped out the door, Jack shouted at her, telling her to run. But before she could process what he had said, Jack took off running down the street. He didn't get very far. Squad cars appeared out of nowhere and blocked his exit.

soon he was in cuffs, Bianca as well. The Vienna Woods killer was finally in custody. Jack now waited in a Miami jail to be extradited back to Austria. Meanwhile, out in California, the LAPD and Austrian authorities began working together, pooling their evidence to build a case. And as law enforcement units collected said evidence, a lingering thought passed through everyone's minds. was it possible that Jack murdered elsewhere besides Austria and L.A.?

They soon got their answer as they searched Jack's Miami apartment. They had found a collection of diaries, many of which had missing pages pertaining to the dates Jack's victims had gone missing. The police speculated that Jack had gotten rid of incriminating evidence. However, one diary entry caught their attention for the dates of September 14th, Through September 16, 1990, it simply read Vienna to Prague to Vienna. Geiger found this intriguing and decided to contact Intrapol to see if Prague had any unsolved sex worker murders. Sure enough, the Prague police did. For a year and a half, they had no leads to the murder of Blanca Bocchkova.

When Geiger heard the details, they matched the murders in Austria and in Los Angeles. And based on the timeline, were able to establish that Blanca was Jack's first kill. Four months after being released from prison, it became clear to them now that he had never been rehabilitated. While Geiger was in Prague, confirming the murder of Blanca Bocchkova, Jack returned to Vienna in handcuffs. It was May 28, 1992. He had only been away from Austria for three months. That night, Jack devised a plan to get himself out of jail and into a hospital. He somehow managed to sneak in a razor,

and when no one was looking, cut open a vein along his arm. Jack purposely cut the vein in a way that, while making a bloody mess, would not have actually ended his life. He knew that if he appeared suicidal, that he would be transferred out of a prison cell and into the comforts of a hospital bed. But the ruse didn't work.

He was quickly bandaged and remained. in his cell to await his trial. Jack's trial began nearly two years later on April 20th, 1994. The Austrian press dubbed it the Crime of the Century. In Austria, a criminal can be tried for crimes that they committed in other countries within the Austrian courts. Austria took on the responsibility of trying Jack for the murders in Prague and in Los Angeles. And as the prosecution made their case, they called on the efforts

They called on the FBI and LAPD to testify against Jack with the evidence they had found in Los Angeles. Jack's defense was simple. He leaned into his celebrity. He claimed that he didn't need to spend his money on sex workers because since he was rich and famous, sex came to him naturally. The last thing he needed to do was pay for it. According to psychiatrist Reinhard Haller,

Jack even bragged during one of their sessions that he had slept with over 150 women between May 1990 and February 1992. Even when facing a life sentence, Jack's malignant narcissism shined through. Despite being charming and witty, he was fragile and hypersensitive about the reputation he had created for himself. And as the two-month trial came to an end, the jury had decided that his charm wasn't going to save him this time. On June 28, Jack Ointervigur was convicted of nine out of 11 murders.

Due to the decomposition of Alfrida Shremf and Regina Primm's bodies, there was not enough evidence to convict Jack. But even though justice had not been found in their cases, the overwhelming evidence in the other murders earned Jack a conviction of several life sentences. He was set to spend the rest of his life behind bars. But Jack had sworn to himself that he would not love live the rest of his days rotting in a prison cell. The next morning, June 29th, 1994, Jack's body was found hanging in his cell at the Gratz Courthouse. He had taken the drawstring

from his pants, fashioned a knot similar to the one he used on the sex workers he had murdered, and hung himself from a coat hook. One Austrian public official would call it his best murder. Jack Unterveger was able to do the unthinkable. With the power of his pen, he changed the public narrative about his life. He manipulated the world into thinking he was a victim of childhood abuse and that the abuse was what led him to kill when he was young. Those in power bought his lies, hook, line, and sinker. Jack was never reformed or rehabilitated.

He was a caged animal, waiting for his chance to kill again. And when he was finally released, he didn't wait long to satisfy his dark urges. Ultimately, he was dark and awful proof that even your favorite author can be a poet of death. 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 podcast 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 Parcast rituals,

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. And if you enjoy 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's a production of Cutler media and is part of the podcast network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound

designed by Anthony Valsick, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Maggie Edmire, and Travis Clark. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Joe Gera and stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up, getting ready for bed, is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts. Do you want to 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.