Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
Josef Fritzl, the Austrian who fathered seven children with his own daughter in a homemade dungeon, has divorced his wife of 55 years because she has never visited him in prison, a press report said today.
The divorce, which was legally approved a few weeks ago, means that Rosemarie Fritzl can no longer draw on her 77-year-old ex-husband’s pension, the Austrian weekly News reported.
Contacted by AFP, the divorce lawyer reportedly hired by Fritzl to file for the separation, Nikolaus Rast, declined to comment.
News also said that Rosemarie has not replied to Fritzl’s many letters to her.
Fritzl kept his and Rosemarie’s daughter Elisabeth prisoner in the basement of the family house in Amstetten, central Austria, for 24 years, raping her thousands of times and fathering seven children.
One of the children died as a baby. Three of the surviving children were brought to live with Fritzl and Rosemarie while the other three spent their entire lives in the dungeon, never seeing daylight.
The ordeal ended only in April 2008 when the eldest child (19) fell severely ill and Elisabeth begged Fritzl to bring her to hospital. Doctors became suspicious and alerted the police.
The case drew worldwide attention and Fritzl was found guilty in March 2009 of murdering the baby through negligence, as well as of rape, incest and sequestration, and sent to a secure mental institution for life.
Rosemarie was never charged with any crime.
News also reported that Fritzl is popular with fellow prisoners.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
It many be morally wrong but at times I wish Chinese justice existed elsewhere in the world for cases like him.
The Chinese courts would order that he be dragged out to a yard (soon after conviction of guilt), pulled down by a rope around his neck downwards till a soldier has the honour of putting a bullet in the back of his head!
Stuff him and stuff his pension. Every cent of it should be awarded to his kids.
A bullet in the head would be too easy and quick an escape for him. Throw him into a pit and feed him fetid water and dog food for as long as he lasts. Of course that would violate his human rights. Just like the guy in Norway who shot all those students – gets 3 cells to himself including a private gym. Justice how are ya.
They have a whole other way of dealing with unwanted daughters in china too, I don’t think china should be used as a moral compass. although I do agree with your sentiment re. his punishment.
Higgins 31. In China they actually charge the family for the bulllet . Is that fair in these circumstances?
I recently learned about an interesting law in China. They don’t arrest pensioners unless they commit a serious crime (assault etc.). Compare that to our system where a pensioner can get tossed into jail for not paying their TV license and it puts things in perspective.
I also learned about an interesting law in Austria where the victim can plead for clemency for the perpetrator. In one particular case this happened and had devastating consequences.
Why not do death by a thousand cuts? Or maybe u get off on pulling the legs off flies. There is one thing that seperates us from the eastern hoardes is that the enlightenment arrived to us 200 yrs ago. The Chinese and Arabs are that far behind us. Jail for life for murder . No state killing.
Why wasn’t she ever charged with anything!!!! She should be sent to jail for not protecting her child/grandchildren from that monster and letting it happen for 24yrs!
She didn’t know, nobody did. The dungeon was so well built that the tenants who lived directly above it never heard a single sound. Nobody could believe it when the story came out, the mother was devastated when the truth came out. She also deserves our sympathy.
It’s hard to believe she didn’t ever wonder where he went or spot when he bought items for his captives. From what I’ve heard though she was treated very badly by him also so she may have been so beaten down she wasn’t able to trust her instincts.
May he rot in Hell ( if there is that place) jail is TOO GOOD for him .
He’ll get plenty of marriage offers, wait till you see.
Now that’s sarcasm : )
i doubt its sarcasm as there are some equally crazy fu***rs out there
If I was his wife I wouldn’t want to even go near anything connected to him.
It brings dirty money to a whole new level
A whole new kind of crazy..
HHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I wonder will she lose sleep over that?!
@ Mary Lowe
“I was insane, but I’m alright now” ? I don’t think so. Too many murderers (Reilly, Lillis) in Ireland try that, sadly they’re accused of manslaughter sometimes instead of murder.
She didn’t know?! So where did she think the 3 children he brought upstairs come from then! He just came one day with them, no questions asked?
I think she was told they were her daughter’s children aka her grandchildren. The story went that the daughter had run away but kept having children and sending them home to be raised. I may well be wrong though.
The poor man obviously has a mental problem. The people on here crying out for mental health solutions in this country better not come on here giving out about him. Otherwise there may be cries of “hypocrites” heard for the first time ever on journal.ie.
Are you for real? He is not mentally ill, he is evil.
I think Mary needed a *sarcasm font* there too!
i really, really hope you’re being sarcastic!
Thats talking out of ones hole if ever i heard it.
The man obviously has mental problems and his actions as a nutcase should not stop his wife from getting the pension. It is not as though she has not suffered to date. Busy pen pusher In the “civil” service.
jeez he has his principals straight
marys right its 2012, are you people saying you still believe in evil and the devil??
That comment is stooping to a new lowe.
shar we might as well feel sorry for Ted Bundy and John Wayne gacy too
Some people are just bad to their core Matthew. You don’t have to believe in the devil to believe in evil. Psychologists might refer to these people as sociopaths or pyschopaths but I find the word evil describes them quite well.
She’s just trolling. Don’t feed.
what happened was awful, but would you call a drought or a famine evil. we as a society have to prevent these things from happening or there will be lots more people like joseph and worse as long as we dont regard mental health as serious a factor in peoples lives and continue to use medevil superstition like evil and the devil as the reason for their actions.
I would have thought she might have been the one to seek out a divorce lawyer first. Maybe she had enough on her mind coping with the mixture of horror and joy that confronted her but at the same time, one would think that a good healing mechanism would have been exiting the marriage as soon as possible. Why give him that power?
As for him being mentally unwell, I think that’s a given. I know little about mental health but he certainly has the sort of condition for which it is difficult to muster any sympathy.
I read the book and it wasn’t as simple as that.. Much more to the story..
This guy just deserves to be forgotten about. I don’t know why the media is so fixated on creating some kind of legend out of a psychotic arsehole.
He is not a psychotic.
There is nothing in the dictionary that could sum up what Fritzl is.
He should be strung up by the ‘liathroidi’
I certainly don’t believe that his Mrs as unaware.Dirty rotten lying bint !! They should have jailed her also.
First of all the wife should have recived some prison sentance if she knew it was going on. second of all that man should be isolated from other prisoners and thirdly he doesnt deserve to breath our air.
It seems beggars can be choosers after all..
He has no respect for the sacred institution of marriage
lol…. poor fella.. …. stand by your man
have your say