December 23, 2022 • 63 mins
Happy holidays and welcome back to part 2 of The Vienna Strangler,
Today we continue the twisted case of, Johann "Jack" Unterweger. An Austrian serial killer that had written memoirs, poems, plays and even children's books, some loosely based on his early life. The crazy part, he was convicted of murder, spent time in prison and then something truly unbelievable happens. What happened then after? You will have to find out!
Don't forget to leave any positive feedback and reviews! You can also add us on the following social media platforms listed below! Thank you again for listening and we will see you when the light, goes out!
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Sources:
"The Vienna Strangler" - Jack Unterweger , Parcast Network , Sept. 2019
Jack Unterweger - Biography https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/jack-unterweger
"The Twisted Story Of Austrian Serial Killer Jack Unterweger" . Oliver , Mark Jan. 3, 2022 https://allthatsinteresting.com/jack-unterweger
"Case File: The Austrian Ripper" July 19 , 2022 McGeary . Lily
https://forensicsciencesociety.com/thedrip/case-file-the-austrian-ripper
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Before you start this episode, a quick warning, today's episode does cover sexual assault
(00:05):
that some may find offensive.
We do understand if this may be a lot and we will see you on the next episode.
Listener discretion is advised.
Happy Holidays!
I'm Ken Kringle.
And I'm Brianna Bells.
And this is When the Lights Goes Out.
(00:40):
No we need like Christmas music.
No I hate Christmas music.
Fuck that damn right.
Oh yeah I'm put Christmas music.
I hate Christmas music.
I can't stand the Christmas.
The only Christmas song I can actually somewhat stand is...
Actually is there a Christmas song I can stand?
I don't think there is.
Literally no.
(01:00):
I really really really want to say that I can stand the All I Want For Christmas is
You but it's been played so many fucking times.
I can't stand it.
It's been played so many times.
I used to love it as a kid and then yeah it became a trend and sorry Mariah.
I'm just a Grinch.
I don't like Christmas for any reasons.
I don't blame you on some aspects.
(01:22):
It's not what it used to be to me.
Well I like like giving gifts and like obviously like getting gifts but I like giving them
more but I just don't like Christmas in general.
Like I don't like the holidays.
I don't like how people are during the holidays.
I feel like.
I don't like holidays.
I get that.
Yeah.
(01:43):
No I'm very kind of ick these days.
I think again when I get older and I start to look around I'm like this isn't what it
used to be.
I don't really like the holidays in general.
Like any holiday.
Any holiday.
Like I like Halloween but I don't even think I like Halloween day.
(02:04):
Like it's just like another day.
I get that.
It's all like.
But that's like me and Simon's anniversary obviously.
Well yeah.
But like Halloween day.
Facts.
I don't really ever pass out candy or anything.
But I don't really live in a place.
It's very underwhelming.
I feel like holidays are underwhelming and to me personally I feel like when I was little
it was a thing because I feel like most holidays for kids are like a big over dramatic kind
(02:25):
of like thing for kids and then you become an adult and then you're like well no it's
not it's not fun.
No it's not the same.
I get that.
I like the I like the Halloween vibes.
I don't like the Christmas vibes.
Yeah I feel that.
I'm with you there.
And then I just don't like the holidays in general.
I feel that there.
Notice that we haven't covered a holiday case.
(02:47):
I know literally I was kind of like well I feel like that's so cliche so that's why
I kind of was like let's just do the Cecil hotel series and here we are so.
Also here in Michigan the weather is taking us from back a little.
(03:08):
Just being a bitch to I want to say this whole entire weekend from what we know.
Apparently we're supposed to have like some crazy amount of snow or like snowstorm but
I honestly don't believe it.
Like I'm not going to believe it until I see it.
I don't know if that's just the type of person I am but for some reason like I feel like
people are overacting like they normally do.
They might be.
(03:28):
I think we'll still get a white Christmas but I think that.
But like this is Michigan like we're used to snow.
Yeah we so are.
I think this is every year soon as we get like a bunch of snow everyone goes crazy.
I just think it's hopefully not going to be as bad as people say it is because currently
it is raining which not to rush this episode but I do want to get home at a reasonable
(03:49):
time so we don't have to put me through that and Bree also has to be up super super super
early so yeah there's that so not yeah not too much banter today or anything but.
Ever til last we digress.
I love saying that it rolls off the tongue pretty well.
(04:10):
It kind of does.
I love it though.
It's my new term.
I love it.
Well while I'm looking up our notes for today's episode if you guys have already listened
to it which I hopefully I'm sure you have last week's episode was.
Honestly they probably haven't you know how many views when we do two parts where people
(04:33):
watch like the second video.
Yeah what is with you guys in that.
I noticed that when we were looking at our analytics you notice that everyone listens
to the second part versus the first part and I'm like you know what I'm not going to go
back and explain everything that happens the first time I'll just let you guys go and
listen to it and then you can just let it continue here so let's just do that instead
(04:56):
of giving you a brief overview about what happened because I think that's how that's
how things are getting cheated here.
Now we love you guys know the last though.
We thank you guys for listening but definitely listen to the last episode.
It's pretty good.
And obviously if you haven't known already today's episode is an extension of last episode
about Jack Unterweger who is the Vienna Schrangler and where he goes by many other names that
(05:23):
they've given him or I should say the press has given him and he has done some terrible
shit as we've already known.
So let's continue part two.
It's story time.
Gather around children.
Woohoo.
So not long after Jack Unterweger had been admitted to the Stein prison he began taking
(05:51):
and began having these literary courses that were held at the prison.
He would take these literary courses along with writing courses and other literary just
other literary specific classes.
It's definitely the niche that he found for himself.
He wasn't uneducated by all means but he had little to no education and life skills
(06:13):
in general.
So eventually while there he became an editor for the Stein prison magazine and the literary
review that was also part of the prison.
Now going back to part one just briefly if we think back to the last episode Jack had
really been good at getting what he wanted and he started doing it at a very young age.
(06:38):
He basically kind of manipulated his own grandmother and scared off his grandmother and he already
had talked his way out of jail multiple times.
So Jack got really creative this time.
Now that he was learning to have better reading and writing skills he felt that he had gained
a new talent.
He used these skills to his own advantage.
(07:00):
He could combine his manipulation techniques and writing techniques together to use it
on the outside world.
So in 1979 about three years into his sentence Jack began to write short stories, plays,
(07:23):
poems, and even children's books.
Yeah you did hear me right children's books.
This man.
Crazy right?
He has no place writing children's books.
I'll tell you that.
Not at all.
Not at all.
And according to parkast's serocolor series Jack had been able to send his children's
books to ORF and I didn't even tip to type out what the acronym means in my notes because
(07:50):
it's all in German but it basically means Austria's national public broadcasting company.
The parents ate these books up actually if you're surprised.
Yeah I know.
And it kind of just became big over Austria assuming that they had little idea about the
(08:11):
infamous serocolor background that he had.
I'm just assuming.
But as time went on and his writing develops and increasingly got better and better, people
began to learn who this man was but it just seemed that they have to they just seem to
have forgotten about the murderer that he had committed against the woman or they did
(08:34):
like maybe just didn't mind it.
And a lot of these people reading his work were generally Austrians, well people of Austria
reading that his work was pretty much just written in German so it makes sense.
Though people did not need to do extensive research to understand what he did because
(08:54):
his writing did that for him.
And whatever he was writing convinced and started really having these citizens believing
he was a product of prison reform.
Now do I believe in prison reform?
It's a slippery slope.
I feel like, I don't know.
I feel like it's a, it really depends first of all for me what someone has done and how
(09:17):
often they have done it because I think that there is the availability for people to really,
I don't know, open up and be able to say, hey I did something really wrong, I want to
change, this is me and I'm being vulnerable to that.
Other cases I feel like sometimes people think they can but when you have a bad habit especially
(09:41):
when it's a habit like murder, I feel like that's hard.
I don't know, what do you think?
What exactly are we like talking about in prison?
Prison reform in general.
But like what does that entail?
Prison reform, more being so, being forgiven for what you've done, being you know, from
(10:01):
the outside world maybe even seeing it because you know how like some like serial killers
maybe even if we're talking specifically about serial killers have tried to tell like the
outside world that you know, please forgive me, what I did was terrible.
Okay, so this is kind of like when like a prison lets someone off.
(10:22):
Yes, yeah.
Let's them out early because good behavior.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I feel like with lighter sentences, yeah but if someone murdered somebody like in cold
blood, like not self defense, not like oh maybe like whatever, like if it was like cold
blood murder, like no.
No, okay.
No, like him?
(10:43):
Then we're on the same page.
Him?
Hell no.
No, yeah, exactly my point.
Like no.
Yeah.
Like he should rot essentially?
That's exactly my point.
It's just that especially when you've been giving a life sentence, why should you be forgiven
for what you have done?
You have taken someone else's life and you're asking to be forgiven for taking that life
(11:05):
and that you've changed.
Whether or not you've changed in my eyes again, this is just me, you should be able to suffer
with those consequences and if you are really sorry for it, you should be okay with having
to suffer with those consequences.
There's also many cases of like these literal murders like getting out early or getting
out on probation or getting what is that called like where they like get out for like a week
(11:28):
and then they go back.
Oh, I know exactly what you're talking about.
There's a word for it.
Yes, whatever.
They might be yelling it right now, but it's okay.
Yeah, you guys are probably yelling it.
I can't think of the word right now, but like it's a thing.
You're talking about a little peanut brain.
(11:49):
No, it's okay.
Like there have been many cases where like these people, murderers get out on whatever
reason why.
And they go and murder more like perfect example is him.
Yes, thank you.
There's like so many other cases too.
I can't really think of any right now because I'm on the spot, but I definitely know about
least probably two, three more of like people who got out early, got out for that week,
(12:13):
got out for whatever reason, probation, and then they just go and commit more crimes.
And they're given these freedoms.
Yeah.
Like why do they deserve any freedoms?
They don't.
Like whatever.
Like jail is full like and that you're used to let a murderer back into the general public.
Like what do you mean?
Yeah, no, you're definitely right about that.
And I definitely agree with you.
(12:34):
I don't think that someone should have that privilege, which is so irritating to me to
think about.
But for six years now into a sentence, Jack finished a memoir called Vega Foya.
If I think I'm saying that right.
It's actually in English translating to purgatory.
(12:56):
So it was fully published in 1982 by Moni Scripta, which is currently actually a literary
magazine company.
And it wasn't until a year later in 1883 when it had been published as a physical book.
Now this memoir had become an Austrian bestseller.
(13:17):
This serial killer created a book about his life, which it's a little problematic and
we'll talk about soon, but he created a book about his life.
And he, wait, and at this time it was known that he was like a serial killer, but a murderer.
Yeah, people know he murdered.
Yeah, the one person.
The one person.
(13:37):
Yes, exactly.
Yeah.
The general public scares me sometimes.
Who are you telling?
And like I thought about it too, because I was like, Oh, is this just like in Vienna?
Is this just in Germany?
Things like that.
I'm not putting any nation against one another, but it's honestly the whole world.
This whole entire world, we are all people.
We all need to really...
Do better.
(13:58):
Do better.
Do better.
Yes, exactly.
And so like I said, the memoir became an Austrian bestseller.
This monster of a man had brutally assaulted, strangled, and killed women, and later became
a fucking bestselling author from this.
He natives really stopped viewing him as a serial killer.
(14:19):
And after reading his book, they saw him as a man that had been neglected at a very early
age, which led him to murder.
And they just started seeing him as a victim.
Are they the novicious criminal?
It's the sympathizing.
It's the sympathizing.
You can sympathize for like...
I know we kind of talked about this in Eileen Warner was this case.
(14:40):
Yes, yeah, yeah.
You can sympathize for what they went through, but you cannot sympathize for their actions.
Thank you.
Just because you had a terrible childhood does not mean that you need to go and murder
now.
Yeah.
Like, yeah, you did have a terrible childhood and that does incredibly suck.
And yes, I do feel very bad that you had to go through that, but that does not mean
(15:04):
that you have any right to take away or torture anybody else.
And Eileen, yeah, beautifully put, because...
Is that not an alternative opinion?
No.
It's like no.
No, it's so true.
Is this controversial?
No, I hope not.
Like guys, I get it.
And honestly, I have people in my life who have been through a lot of trauma.
(15:24):
I do too.
So much trauma.
And they turned out to be decent humans.
They turned out to be decent humans.
So what does that give you any right to take someone else's life because you're quote,
unquote, trauma or him and his sake is quote, unquote, trauma and decide to just do this
and then say, oh, let me write a book and just grains everyone's attention so they can
sympathize.
(15:44):
And the victim card when the victim that he victimized is now dead.
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So from a podcast series I referenced before, they had actually included a opening excerpt
from his memoir.
I found that from that podcast series I had talked about Sarah Killers.
(16:06):
I actually was going to buy their book or buy Jack Entori's book just to read through
or rent it at least, but that book is $80.
I am not doing that.
So $80.
To rent or to buy?
To buy.
You can only buy it and it's $80, at least from what I found on Amazon.
So Jeff Bezos, I'm sorry, but that's not happening.
(16:27):
Why is it $80?
I was already in the same thing.
Where's the PDF?
Who has the PDF?
Yeah.
If you want to have the PDF, I would really like to look through it.
The only problem about that is it's also in German.
So I don't think I gained anything from that and I don't think it would be worth it either
way.
Who is the money going to at this point?
I want to say in terms of like, I was going to say, he doesn't really even have a family.
(16:51):
I want to say when things like that happen and necessarily maybe write something and
it's worth something, I think it just goes to like an organization or something, quite
honestly.
I hope it goes somewhere good.
Yeah.
I was going to say for maybe like victims of something or something like that.
I've heard that before, but I'm not actually sure about who the money goes to, but hopefully
it's no one that has done shitty shit like him.
(17:15):
And Bree's going to just quote this excerpt for us real quick.
It reads, quote, My hands sweaty with fear were twisted behind my back and the steel
chains tightened around my wrists.
The hard pressure on my legs and back makes me realize my only escape is to end it.
A new package of razor blades lies ready.
(17:37):
Also a long leather strap.
I have prepared for the minute of the last decision.
I can see my body go to sleep with a final convulsion fleeing from this vegetative life.
Is that the answer?
End quote.
So basically I think in a nutshell, Chuck just really starts his mind.
(17:58):
My or right off just letting readers know I have committed a terrible act.
I've learned my lesson and I hate myself for it.
I am contemplating suicide.
That's at least what I took from it.
Yeah.
All I kind of took from it was like I'm a shitty person and I want to kill myself.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm a shitty person.
(18:19):
I want to kill myself.
Everyone give me attention.
Yeah.
Pretty much.
Like I want everybody to know about it.
Yeah, exactly.
Oh, sorry.
Someone's turning on the car outside.
It's very loud.
My heat kicked on.
Like he kicked on, someone's turning on their car.
Sorry about that.
The person who lives below me is turning on their loud ass car.
Is that what that is?
Do you think it's their car?
(18:40):
I think it's their car.
Oh shit.
Okay.
I don't know though.
But it does not look like it should be the loudest.
Their muffler is loud as fuck.
But I think it quiet down now so we're good.
But yeah, no, I definitely think that it's definitely some bullshit and as we'll see
later someone comes back to certify that this bullshit is bullshit.
(19:01):
So we'll kind of wrap it around to that.
But obviously he hasn't really, I feel like maybe contemplated this, maybe he has, maybe
he hasn't.
But the whole reason, you know, the whole reason to even call this name purgatory is
if some of you are not aware purgatory according to Roman Catholic doctrine is the temporary
(19:24):
punishment between heaven and hell and what souls are sent to this purgatory for their
sins, having the ability to be cleansed of like their sins before having to be sent to
heaven.
So that's pretty much like what purgatory is.
If you guys are still confused about it, just watch American Horror Story.
I'm sure it was at season three or something.
(19:47):
What was it?
The American Horror Story Coven?
They talk about purgatory.
Do they?
Yeah.
If I'm not mistaken, I think in that season one of the witches after dying spoiler goes
to like purgatory and she's stuck there or whatever.
So there's that.
You have to watch it.
I have to watch it again.
(20:08):
I actually rewatch it now too long.
Really?
I have to rewatch it again.
But I do definitely remember that season.
I think they talk about a couple other seasons.
It's really good.
But anyways, I'm getting off topic.
Sorry.
I definitely watched that and that's kind of like just a little overview about what purgatory
is and that's just based off what I found and what I know about.
In between.
Yeah.
(20:29):
In between.
And so this is what Jack wants.
He wants people to believe that he could be sent to this purgatory quote unquote being
prison, reformed and sent back into society as a new man being heaven.
So this isn't really what he believed and his intentions were the same as they always
were though to deceive and continue taking what he wanted to take.
(20:54):
Also I did kind of imply that all of Austria really began buying up his memoir and believing
that he could be reformed.
And a lot of people did by the book, but most people really were being.
I can't speak today.
Geez.
I'm sorry.
Most people that were being convinced and persuaded were Austria's elite.
So when I say elite, I kind of mean government officials, musicians, socialites, actors,
(21:19):
etc, etc.
So this was the group that really believed that Jack Unterweger was a changed man.
They'd read his story and see, wow, this guy has really been through so much.
He was neglected by his father and mother.
They made the mother mate her means through sex work.
He was abused by his grandfather and it still went to find his neglectful mother later on.
(21:47):
He didn't find her as he's telling, but he found his sex working on it, who then got close
to but lost her because she had been murdered by a client.
And if you don't remember that, it was in the last episode, so you can just go back
and listen.
But again, I mean, don't forget y'all, we don't know if his mother really was a prostitute.
(22:10):
We don't know if his grandfather really abused him and his mother later recounted never even
having a sister.
So this book could honestly entirely be a fantasized piece of bullshit for all we know.
But I mean, I'm just like facts.
(22:31):
I'm just saying, I think it could be, but whatever.
Um, but not only did Jack have this best selling memoir out and selling to the public, but
he gave this hell of a nice readings to his office book from the shine prison.
They literally let him do this.
And again, many of these viewers were wealthy Austrian.
I keep saying Australian, Austrian people that were captivated by the story.
(22:55):
What they really loved about him was that to them, he didn't come off as a man looking
for money or attention.
He to them was a man that once murdered, but sought forgiveness.
That's just what they believed.
On top of this, they hadn't seen what Jack looked like prior to his televised reading.
It's the 80s guys.
So they couldn't just Google him and just see what he looked like like we can today.
(23:21):
So they thought, you know, this is a big tall guy who's intimidating, scary looking, but
in reality, if you've seen pictures of him at least, he was just a opposite actually.
He was about five, five with a very small, slim, kind of boyish looking stature.
And luckily for Jack around the same time, the Austrian government had just been taken
(23:44):
over by an innovative group of people that also wanted to push for the, uh, sorry, ideology
of prison reform.
So he also had government officials leading towards this shit that he was selling, which
is just so aggravating to me that a government officials would buy into this too.
(24:07):
Not girl, not on my watch.
So in 1985, these people began to petition for Jack Unterweger to be released from his
sentence.
He was the new face of prison reform in Austria, pretty much, I could say.
Now to also mention and remind, he was also to serve a life sentence for the brutal murder
(24:30):
of Margaret Schaefer.
And as far as everyone knows, he has only murdered Margaret.
No one, but the inspector, if you remember in Salzburg, inspector Angus Schreiner has
connected him to the murder of Marista Horvath.
According to Austria Germany laws at the time, if convicted for a life sentence, but then
(24:51):
pardoned, the convicted felon must serve at least 15, 15 years sentence and at this
point Jack had only served 10 years.
So in the meantime, an Austrian film agency produces his memoir into a fucking movie.
Dad.
(25:11):
Deceased?
Yeah, like a movie.
Why?
And you know what's worse?
This, hold on.
This, okay, the fact that I hate that they do this, did you see I'm getting off topic?
No, go ahead.
But what is that bitch's name?
Casey Anthony?
Yeah.
Hulu made a movie about her and she's getting money from it.
(25:33):
What is she really?
Yeah, she is getting money from this movie that Hulu made.
So every time someone watches, she is making money, even though she highly likely killed
her daughter.
That's just crazy to me.
Oh, I want to know what you guys all believe about that case.
I don't know if everyone's heard about it.
It's a very, very big case in America.
But um, yeah, Casey Anthony had allegedly allegedly allegedly don't come for us.
(25:58):
Casey killed her daughter and she had been served a sentence.
I don't know a lot about that case.
We can cover it one day, but that is a pretty crazy case.
Yeah, long story short, before we get to off topic, who made a movie about it, which is
eerily similar to this and it's people who don't deserve fame getting fame.
Yeah.
And to make it all the worse on top of that, Jack had been actually invited formally to
(26:24):
the premiere in 18, sorry, 1988 to the Fells Film Festival.
And I'll post pictures of this because you can actually see him in the picture standing
on the red carpet in this decked out outfit.
It fucking annoys me.
We're giving this man who has been sent to jail for murder, the opportunity to make a
(26:46):
film out of his memoir and then you invite him to a fucking film festival.
What the fuck?
You can't make this shit up.
I have a lot to say, but I'm not gonna say anything.
And then on top of that, I'm also pretty sure when I was researching, I had Kim across his
IMBD page.
So that's just another thing in itself.
I hate that.
(27:06):
I hate it.
Oh my God.
So he has served that 15 years and he was served afterwards a psychiatric evaluation.
The psychiatrist was Garhardt Kaiser and he felt that he was perfectly reformed and he
was restored to normal, quote unquote.
(27:26):
And the court then agreed.
So on May 23, 1990, Jack was released on parole not long after or sorry before his
40th birthday and was a free man.
Now, well into his 40s as a successful author, Jack was also very wealthy as a man at this
(27:50):
point at least and was loved by so many people.
Literally why?
Again, not to be redundant and be like a broken record, but he killed somebody.
So just know that.
He started getting these big ass gigs to to speak on talk shows and interviews for magazine
(28:11):
articles.
This man was basically a celebrity and he was really feeling himself at this point.
I'll post pictures more about, you know, all the professional photos that he had taken
because it's truly just astonishing to me that he was even able to do this.
If I remember correctly, I think one is like him.
He's at a coffee shop.
You can't tell because he's just sitting on a black chair, but he's at a coffee shop
(28:34):
and he just looks so happy.
He's like pointing at the camera.
He got a dog.
I think it was like some kind of like, what's the, what's that dog from?
Oh, it's a German shepherd.
That's what I'm thinking of.
It makes sense.
German.
He had a German shepherd.
He had a German shepherd and picture and he's like pointing at the camera and it was by
(28:55):
this like really like famous photographer.
And then there's another picture of him that I'll post that is of him like shirtless and
it makes me like gag.
It's a gross.
Instead of his nickname being the Vienna Strangler, I feel like it should be like the most like
(29:16):
serial killer.
The most like serial killer.
That's a really good way to put it.
Because what the fuck?
Yeah, literally, literally.
Why is everybody just like literally dropping their pants for this man right now?
Like taking the pictures, letting him out of jail early.
You know what it fucks me up to?
Is that?
(29:36):
Yeah.
And that even that picture like of him shirtless, he has a big ass like chest that too that
he got, I guess, when he was in jail.
And it literally says in little words, make love not war.
Like what the fuck dude?
Like you.
Boy.
Make love not war my fucking ass.
Make it make sense.
Again, you can go, you guys can go find that on our Instagram at WLGTO podcast.
(30:00):
Look, go look it up.
But it's definitely very aggravating to even look at.
So just know that.
So not long after his unfortunate claim to fame for lack of a better term, he's thinking,
okay, I need to go and find an actual job because I am a conniving piece of shit that
is only making an income from this book.
(30:21):
Okay, he didn't actually say I'm a conniving piece of shit.
I said that, but.
But he should have.
I had to shoehorn that in there.
Yeah, you're right.
So he ends up getting offered a job at the Austrian public broadcasting company as a
reporter.
The same people who publish his children's book, by the way.
Girl.
(30:41):
And let me just say, if this criminal can get this kind of work offered to him, I guess
we can do anything because what the fuck.
And nobody should be homeless because.
You literally.
What?
Okay, that's like a joke.
No, no.
Yeah, but they know what we mean, right?
I mean, come on.
Like if a literal serial killer can get a job that easily, like we can be the president
(31:09):
of the United States and all the homeless people should be working somewhere because
what the hell.
I went to school and got my degree in multimedia journalism.
And he's having a rough time finding things.
I'm having a time, bitches.
I'm having a good time trying to find.
And Mr. Man just goes and kills a woman.
And just because he's a reporter.
(31:31):
And finds a job, writes a children's book and gets famous.
Like what the fuck?
What the fuck?
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
Like literally.
So when I had also been researching about what topics he was specifically enjoying
reporting about, you can only guess what he was invested in reporting into.
(31:53):
Sex workers in the red light districts of various territories and countries.
LOL.
LOL.
So yeah, Friday, September 1990.
I didn't even put the date.
I'm sorry guys.
I don't even know where it went, but he flies home from his, he flies from his home in Vienna
(32:16):
to Prague to find a solid story to report on.
And oh boy, does he find a real one to create his own with.
Ironically, the same day he had flown in, 30 year old Bianca Bokova.
Let me guess.
Goes missing?
Yeah.
(32:37):
Oh my gosh.
Who would have thought?
Yeah.
So she had gone missing.
She lived in Prague.
That night she had gone out with some girlfriends for drinks.
Now it's unknown from my research if she was a sex worker.
She had been in a poly, oh, some say, according to different sources and I don't want to say
(32:59):
whether or not she was or wasn't.
Some say she was maybe in a polyamid relationship because she did have a husband or she was
having an affair.
I don't know.
It's not our business to really wonder, but her friends had known her to do this here
and there.
But allegedly.
But allegedly.
(33:19):
She wanted to hang out at the bar after her friends had left and her friends were not stoked
about it, but they offered her, I mean, they offered her rights back.
She didn't want to.
So they respected her wishes, assuming she didn't want to go and they just assumed she
could home safe.
Days age, don't do that, but definitely understand where they're coming from.
(33:42):
When you have a friend, the most you can do.
You can ask them.
Strongly suggest.
You can't force someone to do something they don't want to do.
So she wanted to hang out back at the bar and they had respect to her wishes.
But unfortunately, that was the last time she'd be seen alive.
(34:03):
Saturday, September 15th, 1990, one day later, as hikers were hiking through the woods along
the Voltava River in Prague, they spotted the body of a nearly nude woman found only
wearing knee-high stockings in a wedding ring.
Her legs were spread apart and she had been noticeably strangled.
(34:25):
The investigators did find that she had been assaulted with an instrument of some sort
based on the vassional terror, but that instrument had not been found and the item she was strangled
with had been found either at the crime scene.
This victim was obviously in fact Blanca Volkava and she had left behind two children in her
(34:45):
wake.
It's really sad to me because she had a whole family and this asshole just took that from
her.
The next day of scouting the area, investigators did find her clothes and ID, but no evidence
indicating who had done this awful thing to her.
Oh, and if you were mildly wondering because I didn't technically say who it was, it was
(35:07):
yours truly, Jack Unterweger.
Had to also mention that just because if anyone was thinking he has everything he needs, why
kill?
This is what he really wanted from the beginning.
This life the mayor brought him did not stop his ability to take these women's lives.
They only subdued it and then just continued the criminal tendencies.
(35:31):
And the book only really drew in sympathy from others to help him, I guess, flee prison
with no repercussions.
Now do I think he knew he would become famous from this?
No, I don't think he did.
I think he knew it would help him in his favor to get out of prison and have prison reform
because he knew of the timing of it and he knew that the government had been open to
(35:54):
the prison reform kind of thing, but I don't think that he knew that he was going to become
famous from it.
So I think that's just him getting lucky, unfortunately.
But like I said, the police did end up finding Blanca's clothes and ID that she had on the
night that she was murdered, but no actual leads as to who had done this were found.
(36:15):
A couple of witnesses did tell investigators that they had seen her the previous night
conversing with a man in his early 40s and Winslaw Square, which wasn't very far from
Voltava River where she was found, but the description of the mysterious man cannot really
be defined enough to have details.
So far the proc police department as they knew they just had nothing to go off of.
(36:41):
The case really just ended up going cold all the while.
Unterweger just went back to Vienna undetected with no suspicions.
So on October 26, 1990, in Graz, Austria, 39 year old sex worker Bruhilda Maza was
witnessed sometime after midnight conversing with a taxi driver.
(37:02):
Apparently they kind of knew each other and after the taxi driver drove off she had been
stopped by another witness, sorry, by another person that witnesses recount being a dapper
wild dressed man in his 40s seemingly wanting to pick her up, so she went off with him and
this would be the last time Bruhilda would be seen alive.
(37:25):
So January 5, 1991, nearly two months later, her body had been discovered.
Children were playing in the woods when they thought they had found a dirty abandoned
mannequin, but they didn't realize at first and after a closer glance they noticed it
was a woman's body.
(37:48):
Whenever it's like a kid finding the deceased dead body of someone else it's just truly
terrifying.
Traumatizing.
Traumatizing.
Cannot think about or fabricate how it must be for me as an adult to see that.
Cannot imagine when it must be like for kids to see that.
It's so sad.
So like I said, her body was found, like Blanca she had been sexually assaulted, stripped
(38:14):
of her hair, and her neck showed signs of strangulation.
Now by the way I didn't know this, but sex work is actually legal in Austria for anyone
over the age of 19.
Didn't know that.
I know that it's legal in, what is that, Amsterdam where they have the red light district and
stuff like it's really not that uncommon in Europe.
(38:36):
Yeah that's interesting.
So it was really interesting, it was really like puzzling for, I mean if we're thinking
way, way back maybe to like a lot of early days we can like think about from Europe at
least like Jack the Ripper and things like that.
But it was still a little weird that someone was just targeting all these sex workers.
(39:00):
So it was weird.
It was a weird thing.
Now the next victim I believe was in Vienna, the narcissist seemed to be accurate on this.
After Jack had returned on December 5th 1991, he had targeted 31 year old sex worker Heidi
Marie, a hammerer.
It was until near stay actually of 92 when the hiker had discovered her body nude from
(39:26):
the waist down and her pantyhose wrapped around her neck used to strangle her.
So now he's just going for it.
It's this really, it was like him kind of killing year after year and now it's just rapidly
progressed to month after month.
And it's like his signature trademark too.
(39:48):
Yeah it really is.
Isn't this how he killed the first victim?
Like how did they not catch on?
How did they not put one and one together?
Yeah that's what I'm saying.
Is he in a different country now?
He's back in Vienna so this is like the same area Austria like he's in that area.
Yeah like they literally should catch especially because he's like famous now?
Like he's a no-name.
That's what I'm saying.
Oh my god.
(40:08):
If frustrates me to the core and I feel like we're going to get a little more frustrated
in a minute here so just hold on to your butts.
Just imagine how if you wouldn't have been let out how these women would literally still
have their lives.
They would.
They definitely, they definitely, I always think about that.
I'm sorry to like go off topic again but side note.
(40:30):
I always think about with these murderers, have they not killed these people?
How would their families turn out?
How much would the world change?
Butterfly affects people?
Really?
Really?
We have to do a, we should do like a episode on that kind of thing.
That would be really interesting.
So early that year in 1991, yeah actually tried to write a play called Dungeon which would
(40:56):
be a prequel to his memoir.
Some motherfuckers trying to be a playwright.
Literally.
Oh my god.
But good thing it wasn't making much money and the way that he thought it would and this
failure really just started to bother him because he cannot bear failing I guess.
So he wrote another play called Scrumaphore and this actually stretched to a couple different
(41:22):
cities in Austria.
Easy to note, when one of the performances had gone what's going on, he literally left
the production and found a sex worker.
Her name was Afrida Strength and Gros but instead of just strangling her, he actually
forced her to give him, give her his number of her parents and talk to them on the phone
(41:47):
while he was sexually assaulting her and killing her.
Bro what?
She's elevating it to another level.
That's also so risky for him.
Very, very risky.
That's just traumatizing and that's also just terrible.
Wow.
I can imagine having my child and like I don't know if, I don't, I don't know again.
(42:08):
She was a sex worker, I don't know if her family knew this or not but it's just crazy
to think that he had forcibly got her parents' phone number, caught them and then abused
her over the phone.
And saying that that even happens.
(42:29):
It's truly another level of just brutal and just terrible, terrible stuff.
Now before leaving Vienna between April and May of 1991, he'd murdered four more women
on top of the five women he had already killed by this point.
So he's at nine?
Yeah.
Oh my god.
(42:50):
Four in one month by the way.
Holy fucking shit.
He says it's like one a week.
It's one a week, literally one a week.
These women were 23 year old Sylvia Zogler, 25 year old Sabina Mosey, 33 year old Regina
Prim who like Alfreda had called Regina's family and taunted them while killing her
(43:15):
and 25 year old Katrina Roku also discovered strangled.
To make this all the worse, he's still a reporter keep in mind.
He went to Vienna's Rettlite District to interview sex workers that were terrified about these
murders that they heard about.
So he literally committed these murders and then he went out to report about the murders
(43:36):
that he committed to other sex workers.
Well, that's one way to get like interesting stories.
Yeah, right.
To report to commit something and then do it and then make.
Yeah, right.
Like what the fuck.
Kind of innovative.
Yeah.
No, absolutely terrible.
It's a sinister innovative way to get your name out there.
(43:58):
Yeah.
Oh my god.
This man is like maniacally smart.
Yeah.
All the while, police are just finding these terrible.
Women are just I mean, the police are just finding these women and stretch all over Vienna
and barely beginning to just notice the M.O. that this serial killer has are strangling
these women in their own underwear.
And they're not puzzle pieces together.
(44:22):
They're being it's very frustrating and I don't know what was going on with this department
at the time.
I don't know why they weren't connecting these together, but it's the same M.O.
It's the same thing.
But if you remember, Salzburg inspector Angus Schreiner, who again was connected to sorry,
connected him to the murder of Marisa Horvath, but did not have enough evidence to charge
(44:48):
him with was not letting this go.
He knew exactly who this was.
And he was the badass that would get this story kind of off the top off the off the
off the ground, I should say.
Now this is really when the press starts to give the killer of these sex workers a name,
(45:08):
which they called him the Vienna Woods killer.
So Angus Schreiner calls the homicide sector of Vienna police and tells them, I think Jack
Unterweger, who was convicted of Margaret Schaefer's death is behind this.
But the Vienna replete, but the Vienna police were not convinced.
(45:33):
They don't want to believe that it's Vienna's reform star writer.
So they just didn't believe it.
So that same week, Jack walks into the Vienna police station to interview police about their
findings on this so called serial killer.
Jack finds that the police have been struggling to find any evidence of the guy committing
(45:54):
these crimes, even though he's the guy doing it in the station.
He's so smart.
He's so equipped about that, like it's so crazy that he's so swift about doing all this
and no one, no one suspects it.
No one suspects it, even though he has this criminal record already of killing somebody.
(46:14):
So he interviews officer Edelbacher and he questions Edelbacher at least he had questions
what expector Schaefer had to say about Jack, even though he didn't want to believe that
Jack could do this and resort back to the violence.
To him, he had seemed like a changed man, but he wanted to follow up this tip and that's
(46:35):
what he did.
So Jack leaves the station and after interviewing Edelbacher, Edelbacher has sent police officers
to surveil him for the next couple of days.
So those next couple of days, officers have found nothing about Jack.
They followed him around.
He was just going to restaurants.
(46:56):
He wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.
And on June 10th, Jack returns to Edelbacher to inform him that he was going to travel
to the US to work.
Now keep in mind, he's on, what's the word?
He's on probation.
Yeah.
So thank you.
He's on probation.
So he can't obviously really just leave the state.
(47:18):
I mean, the state, he can't really just leave the country without telling somebody.
So he did let Edelbacher know that he was just going to go to do more work for his job
as a reporter.
And Edelbacher was okay with it.
He was some luck, but Edelbacher was still kind of wary about this.
(47:39):
He was kind of suspicious.
Really wish he hadn't done that.
Because on June 1991, Jack flies into LAX.
He takes a car into downtown Los Angeles where he checks into the infamous, the one and only,
where you got this.
Cecil Hotel.
(48:00):
You got that right.
That's freaking infamous hotel.
The infamous hotel.
Jack under Rigger was once a, they resident at the Cecil Hotel.
A resident or a guest?
Guest.
Sorry, I didn't mean to say resident.
Oh, it was like he lived there?
Okay.
So he was a resident, but he did check into the Cecil Hotel.
(48:23):
Well, guess as to how he found out about this hotel.
He read about the infamous serial killer, Richard Ramirez, aka the Night Stalker, and was so
enthused by who he was and what he had done that he found out about the Cecil Hotel and
he checked into this hotel.
So while in Los Angeles, Jack met up with Hollywood reporters and also toured LA to Sightseeing.
(48:49):
He also wanted on the side to find his American father who had lived in America and had some
reporters had to help him, but had no luck.
And I think this kind of just really angered him a little bit that he couldn't find his
father.
Well, one night on June 19, 1991, in downtown LA, 35-year-old sex worker Shedin Exley had
(49:14):
gotten to a cab from her home making her way to 7th Street to begin her work that evening.
This area was also known as Skid Row.
Not long after, she was approached in a car by a man in his mid-40s with a very nice dapper
(49:35):
looking outfit on.
He wrote down his window and he asked her how much.
He had broken English, but was clear enough for her to understand, and then he looked
mighty wealthy, so she tells him how much it is, and he invites her into the car and they
drive off.
They drive down 7th Street over the bridge along Los Angeles River and park in a deserted
(49:59):
light in Boyle Heights.
The next day, on June 20, 1991, Shedin's body was found near a pile of garbage discovered
by a group of girls passing by.
Her body was found somewhere to the rest, nude with her bra wrapped tightly around her
neck indicating that she had been brutally strangled.
(50:22):
In the next couple days, Jack decides to participate in the LGBTQ Parade in West Hollywood.
Yeah?
Yeah?
This man.
And nothing happened.
It was like nothing happened.
He even partnered and rode along with the LAPD to watch him for his article about LA violence.
(50:44):
This man is literally a fever dream.
Yes, this fuckface gets in a car with LAPD, rides around with him as he's a fucker that's
over here committing these crimes, and then on top of that, he goes to a fucking queer
parade.
What?
What?
Oh, I'm sorry guys, I get a little into it, but June 28, Jack finds 33 year old sex worker
(51:08):
Aynira Rodriguez near the CISA Hotel.
She had just gotten to town from a greyhound, and unfortunately she had been a heroin addict,
so she paid her addiction through prostitution.
He drove her to a similar spot like Shannon in abandoned parking lot outside the city
and strangles her with her own bra, leaving a syringe needle beside her, beer body.
(51:32):
So not long after this, on July 3, Jack had checked down a successful Australian filmmaker.
His name is Robert Darhelm, I'm sorry if I butcher that.
He actually lived in the hills of LA, and Jack had basically wanted to check him down
to help him make his memory into an American version of his film, which fuck off, don't
(51:57):
bring that over here.
And I guess this interaction did not go well.
Darhelm knew who he was and kind of mocked him, and this really just pissed Jack off.
So what does Jack do?
He finds 26 year old Sherry Long, who looked to become a star, who moved to LA, but found
no luck and became an addict to drugs soon becoming a sex worker to pay for them.
(52:22):
She met Jack on the street, Jack had picked her up and drove her outside of the town,
out of the public view, where he once again assaulted, strangled, and left her dead body
in an open parking lot to be found days later.
So July 20th, he decides to leave Los Angeles and heads back to Vienna to publish his story
(52:43):
on the crime in America, ironically, and the next day Jack is confronted in the cafe by
his step-cousin, who you guys may remember from part one, Charlotte O'Hower.
We talked about her last episode, she was his ex-cousin who lived with him, their grandfather,
(53:03):
their grandmother.
She had read his memoir while he had been away and was furious about the lies that he
told.
This asshole tried to act like he didn't know who she was when she walked up to him,
and then she pulled out a photo of her, him, and their grandparents, and she threatens to
tell everyone the truth about his story, and you know what he tells her?
(53:25):
Be quiet or something that may happen to you.
So understandably, she was fearful and agreed, but she isn't the only one that tried to
tie things together.
Because not long after in September of 1991, Jack finds an article that seems to suggest
that the Viennese police finally have suspects.
(53:47):
Jack starts to begin freaking out.
So he goes back to Sergeant Autobocker to question about the Vienna Strainler for his
story.
When Autobocker tells him, we've got nothing so far, but we're keeping it across the chest,
we might have leads.
So Jack starts really thinking, they're onto me.
In reality, Autobocker lied, Jack was the main suspect, the only suspect.
(54:11):
So on October 7th, 1991, Jack returns to Autobocker, and Jack is seemingly taking more notes for
his quote unquote work for his reporting job, and he tries to wiggle in these different
alibis to kind of throw Autobocker off course to make him think that it's not him.
And I think Autobocker was kind of just trying to decompress Jack, so he wouldn't think Jack
(54:35):
was onto the police, and Jack believes it.
It's business as usual for him.
He's like, okay, I think I'm good.
And he goes on his merry way.
Also on November 16th, 1991, Jack meets an 18 year old Bianca Rack, who was a young girl
that had Jack tied up.
(54:56):
I think I don't know where she came from, but they just seemingly got this romantic
thing going on.
These two actually moved in together and pretty much groomed her into being his fiancee,
long story short.
And by the next year, they were married.
It is not known why he found and chose Bianca to be his wife, and I'm not sure if that was
(55:19):
his life, but I do know for sure that that was his fiancee, but she was seemingly naive
and had kind of had a thing for him.
So it's kind of weird.
And I think he was just kind of using her for leverage.
So that that would make sense.
Yeah.
But Jack is an idiot.
(55:40):
And this did not help because the case against Jack was getting very strong.
They even assembled a whole team specifically looking into Jack.
So February 1992 had came and Jack read an article in the paper saying, quote, murder
series and arrest warrant for Jack Unterweger.
(56:04):
Immediately Jack fled.
They're onto him.
And it's in time because that next day, the Viennese police forced their way into Jack's
home where he had already left and fled.
And they found receipts to purchases that he had made in Los Angeles.
The Vienna police had contacted the LAPD to which they had then been able to connect the
(56:25):
Los Angeles murders to Jack Unterweger.
So now they had solid evidence and the question stands, where the fuck did Jack go?
So he had convinced and taken him and Bianca to France where they then bought tickets to
New York.
Then from New York, they went to hide out in Florida.
So they're back in the United States.
(56:47):
While in Miami, Jack had gotten Bianca as a go-go dancer.
He kind of convinced her to do this.
And while she did that, he worked on where they flee to next.
So Garrett Schmidt, who was a editor for Success Magazine, actually found Jack and told him,
hey, you know, you're on the run and I won't turn you in, but if you do an interview with
(57:09):
me, I can wire you some money and help you flee.
And so Jack agreed, unknowingly, that the money transfer was wired to alert authorities
of Jack's whereabouts.
So they're getting pretty smart here, I guess.
And thanks to Garrett, this actually really happened.
This really helped.
So that next day, Jack had gotten Bianca to go in and get the money for him, to which
(57:32):
she agreed.
While she went in, he sat in the car, but noticed something was off.
He was looking around and noticed that there were cars that people were just staring at
him in.
And at that moment, he knew what was happening.
As soon as Bianca had came out, he shouted, telling her to hurry up, we need to go, but
(57:53):
she couldn't hear him from afar and wasn't speeding up quick enough.
He had just sped off.
This went down the block, making it only so far before the police had trapped him and
immediately cuffed and arrested him and Bianca.
So now he's finally caught.
He was held in a Miami jail while Vienna and Los Angeles authorities worked together to
build a case against him.
(58:14):
They thought that he had just killed these two places.
They were madly wrong because in his Miami apartment, authorities have found a journal
according, I'm sorry, emitting to his murders in various countries in Europe.
So on May 28, 1992, he was sent to prison in Vienna to weigh his trial.
(58:37):
He couldn't bear to be back, so he wanted to seem suicidal at first to cut his wrists,
but he's a dumbass and they just banished him right back up.
And he sat left rotting for the next two years until the trial began on April 20, 1984.
And there he had begun being tried for the 9 to 11 murders of women between Prague, Vienna,
(59:03):
and Los Angeles.
These weren't even all the murders that he had committed, but they were the only murders
that they could really tie him to.
On June 28, Jock Unterweger was found guilty of the murders and was set to spend the rest
of his life behind bars.
But the next day, on June 29, 1994, at Graz, Giacomini Prison, Jack's body was found hanging
(59:27):
from his prison cell.
He had used a jaw string on his pants to hang himself from a coat hook.
Good riddance.
This piece of garbage took his life because he could not bear to deal with the consequences
of the murders that he committed.
Seemed like he was doing pretty good to me until he got thrown back in jail.
Yeah, hell yeah.
(59:48):
And may he rest in distress.
And if Purgatory Israel, I hope he never leaves it and I hope he fucking, fucking...
If any of that's real, he's in hell.
He's in...
Oh yeah, he's definitely in hell.
But yeah, that is the case of Jack Unterweger that takes us to the ends of the Vienna Stringler.
(01:00:08):
Thanks for hanging with us through that long episode, I think today was pretty long, but
a lot of that needs to be said and I hope I can give a lot of those victims the voice
that they needed to be heard.
I truly am just taken aback even from taking those notes based on the shit that he actually
(01:00:30):
had done because it's just crazy to me.
This man did murder at least almost up to 11 and on with these murders and it's just like,
why?
For what?
Like, I get the mama drama shit, I get the torture and the whatever that he may have
been through as a kid that he had supposedly said that he had been through, but quite honestly,
(01:00:53):
I'm like, dude, like, he had no reason.
These women had lives.
These women had children to take care of.
They needed to stole that from them.
Not only did you do that, but you wanted to extend that to by going to another country,
many other countries and just taking other people's lives.
Yeah, and just keep doing it.
Just keep doing it.
It's just so crazy to me.
(01:01:14):
But yeah, that is the end of that.
Before we wrap up fully today, we had kind of given you a little Easter egg about the
next case that we're going to be talking about and it's not going to just be one story.
We're wrapping up this year with two.
We'll ask, sorry, that's wrong.
(01:01:35):
It's one story, but two parts, just to be clear.
I think you guys can go back and figure it out yourselves, but it will be a good one.
It will be a good way to end up the year.
So, Merry Christmas.
Stay safe.
If you live in the Midwest, I'm sorry.
Stay warm.
(01:01:55):
Yes, stay warm.
If you live anywhere else in the world with a lot of snow, stay warm.
We love you.
As always, the ways to reach us are going to include Instagram at WTLGO podcast and Kendall's
personal Instagram at this is Kendall Hudson.
Our Facebook page, when the lights go out, Twitter WTLGO podcast, our email WTLGO increase
(01:02:21):
at gmail.com and our YouTube WTLGO podcast, hope and post some stuff there, maybe within
the next new year.
As always, feel free to DM, comment, or email any stories that you want us to cover for
next year as well as send in listener stories as well.
We really want to read them and feature them.
(01:02:41):
And that is all.
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode.
Tune in and join in and supporting us.
We'll catch you in the next episode.
Hell yeah.
Happy holidays.
Woot!
Episode 17.
Episode 17, y'all.
We're making it pretty, pretty, pretty far.
I'm so proud of us.
(01:03:03):
And again, Merry Christmas.
We love you.
We'll hope you get everything you wish for, including our beautiful voices.
And with that, we will see you when the lights...
Goes out.
Before you start this episode, a quick warning, today's episode does cover sexual assault
(00:05):
that some may find offensive.
We do understand if this may be a lot and we will see you on the next episode.
Listener discretion is advised.
Happy Holidays!
I'm Ken Kringle.
And I'm Brianna Bells.
And this is When the Lights Goes Out.
(00:40):
No we need like Christmas music.
No I hate Christmas music.
Fuck that damn right.
Oh yeah I'm put Christmas music.
I hate Christmas music.
I can't stand the Christmas.
The only Christmas song I can actually somewhat stand is...
Actually is there a Christmas song I can stand?
I don't think there is.
Literally no.
(01:00):
I really really really want to say that I can stand the All I Want For Christmas is
You but it's been played so many fucking times.
I can't stand it.
It's been played so many times.
I used to love it as a kid and then yeah it became a trend and sorry Mariah.
I'm just a Grinch.
I don't like Christmas for any reasons.
I don't blame you on some aspects.
(01:22):
It's not what it used to be to me.
Well I like like giving gifts and like obviously like getting gifts but I like giving them
more but I just don't like Christmas in general.
Like I don't like the holidays.
I don't like how people are during the holidays.
I feel like.
I don't like holidays.
I get that.
Yeah.
(01:43):
No I'm very kind of ick these days.
I think again when I get older and I start to look around I'm like this isn't what it
used to be.
I don't really like the holidays in general.
Like any holiday.
Any holiday.
Like I like Halloween but I don't even think I like Halloween day.
(02:04):
Like it's just like another day.
I get that.
It's all like.
But that's like me and Simon's anniversary obviously.
Well yeah.
But like Halloween day.
Facts.
I don't really ever pass out candy or anything.
But I don't really live in a place.
It's very underwhelming.
I feel like holidays are underwhelming and to me personally I feel like when I was little
it was a thing because I feel like most holidays for kids are like a big over dramatic kind
(02:25):
of like thing for kids and then you become an adult and then you're like well no it's
not it's not fun.
No it's not the same.
I get that.
I like the I like the Halloween vibes.
I don't like the Christmas vibes.
Yeah I feel that.
I'm with you there.
And then I just don't like the holidays in general.
I feel that there.
Notice that we haven't covered a holiday case.
(02:47):
I know literally I was kind of like well I feel like that's so cliche so that's why
I kind of was like let's just do the Cecil hotel series and here we are so.
Also here in Michigan the weather is taking us from back a little.
(03:08):
Just being a bitch to I want to say this whole entire weekend from what we know.
Apparently we're supposed to have like some crazy amount of snow or like snowstorm but
I honestly don't believe it.
Like I'm not going to believe it until I see it.
I don't know if that's just the type of person I am but for some reason like I feel like
people are overacting like they normally do.
They might be.
(03:28):
I think we'll still get a white Christmas but I think that.
But like this is Michigan like we're used to snow.
Yeah we so are.
I think this is every year soon as we get like a bunch of snow everyone goes crazy.
I just think it's hopefully not going to be as bad as people say it is because currently
it is raining which not to rush this episode but I do want to get home at a reasonable
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time so we don't have to put me through that and Bree also has to be up super super super
early so yeah there's that so not yeah not too much banter today or anything but.
Ever til last we digress.
I love saying that it rolls off the tongue pretty well.
(04:10):
It kind of does.
I love it though.
It's my new term.
I love it.
Well while I'm looking up our notes for today's episode if you guys have already listened
to it which I hopefully I'm sure you have last week's episode was.
Honestly they probably haven't you know how many views when we do two parts where people
(04:33):
watch like the second video.
Yeah what is with you guys in that.
I noticed that when we were looking at our analytics you notice that everyone listens
to the second part versus the first part and I'm like you know what I'm not going to go
back and explain everything that happens the first time I'll just let you guys go and
listen to it and then you can just let it continue here so let's just do that instead
(04:56):
of giving you a brief overview about what happened because I think that's how that's
how things are getting cheated here.
Now we love you guys know the last though.
We thank you guys for listening but definitely listen to the last episode.
It's pretty good.
And obviously if you haven't known already today's episode is an extension of last episode
about Jack Unterweger who is the Vienna Schrangler and where he goes by many other names that
(05:23):
they've given him or I should say the press has given him and he has done some terrible
shit as we've already known.
So let's continue part two.
It's story time.
Gather around children.
Woohoo.
So not long after Jack Unterweger had been admitted to the Stein prison he began taking
(05:51):
and began having these literary courses that were held at the prison.
He would take these literary courses along with writing courses and other literary just
other literary specific classes.
It's definitely the niche that he found for himself.
He wasn't uneducated by all means but he had little to no education and life skills
(06:13):
in general.
So eventually while there he became an editor for the Stein prison magazine and the literary
review that was also part of the prison.
Now going back to part one just briefly if we think back to the last episode Jack had
really been good at getting what he wanted and he started doing it at a very young age.
(06:38):
He basically kind of manipulated his own grandmother and scared off his grandmother and he already
had talked his way out of jail multiple times.
So Jack got really creative this time.
Now that he was learning to have better reading and writing skills he felt that he had gained
a new talent.
He used these skills to his own advantage.
(07:00):
He could combine his manipulation techniques and writing techniques together to use it
on the outside world.
So in 1979 about three years into his sentence Jack began to write short stories, plays,
(07:23):
poems, and even children's books.
Yeah you did hear me right children's books.
This man.
Crazy right?
He has no place writing children's books.
I'll tell you that.
Not at all.
Not at all.
And according to parkast's serocolor series Jack had been able to send his children's
books to ORF and I didn't even tip to type out what the acronym means in my notes because
(07:50):
it's all in German but it basically means Austria's national public broadcasting company.
The parents ate these books up actually if you're surprised.
Yeah I know.
And it kind of just became big over Austria assuming that they had little idea about the
(08:11):
infamous serocolor background that he had.
I'm just assuming.
But as time went on and his writing develops and increasingly got better and better, people
began to learn who this man was but it just seemed that they have to they just seem to
have forgotten about the murderer that he had committed against the woman or they did
(08:34):
like maybe just didn't mind it.
And a lot of these people reading his work were generally Austrians, well people of Austria
reading that his work was pretty much just written in German so it makes sense.
Though people did not need to do extensive research to understand what he did because
(08:54):
his writing did that for him.
And whatever he was writing convinced and started really having these citizens believing
he was a product of prison reform.
Now do I believe in prison reform?
It's a slippery slope.
I feel like, I don't know.
I feel like it's a, it really depends first of all for me what someone has done and how
(09:17):
often they have done it because I think that there is the availability for people to really,
I don't know, open up and be able to say, hey I did something really wrong, I want to
change, this is me and I'm being vulnerable to that.
Other cases I feel like sometimes people think they can but when you have a bad habit especially
(09:41):
when it's a habit like murder, I feel like that's hard.
I don't know, what do you think?
What exactly are we like talking about in prison?
Prison reform in general.
But like what does that entail?
Prison reform, more being so, being forgiven for what you've done, being you know, from
(10:01):
the outside world maybe even seeing it because you know how like some like serial killers
maybe even if we're talking specifically about serial killers have tried to tell like the
outside world that you know, please forgive me, what I did was terrible.
Okay, so this is kind of like when like a prison lets someone off.
(10:22):
Yes, yeah.
Let's them out early because good behavior.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I feel like with lighter sentences, yeah but if someone murdered somebody like in cold
blood, like not self defense, not like oh maybe like whatever, like if it was like cold
blood murder, like no.
No, okay.
No, like him?
(10:43):
Then we're on the same page.
Him?
Hell no.
No, yeah, exactly my point.
Like no.
Yeah.
Like he should rot essentially?
That's exactly my point.
It's just that especially when you've been giving a life sentence, why should you be forgiven
for what you have done?
You have taken someone else's life and you're asking to be forgiven for taking that life
(11:05):
and that you've changed.
Whether or not you've changed in my eyes again, this is just me, you should be able to suffer
with those consequences and if you are really sorry for it, you should be okay with having
to suffer with those consequences.
There's also many cases of like these literal murders like getting out early or getting
out on probation or getting what is that called like where they like get out for like a week
(11:28):
and then they go back.
Oh, I know exactly what you're talking about.
There's a word for it.
Yes, whatever.
They might be yelling it right now, but it's okay.
Yeah, you guys are probably yelling it.
I can't think of the word right now, but like it's a thing.
You're talking about a little peanut brain.
(11:49):
No, it's okay.
Like there have been many cases where like these people, murderers get out on whatever
reason why.
And they go and murder more like perfect example is him.
Yes, thank you.
There's like so many other cases too.
I can't really think of any right now because I'm on the spot, but I definitely know about
least probably two, three more of like people who got out early, got out for that week,
(12:13):
got out for whatever reason, probation, and then they just go and commit more crimes.
And they're given these freedoms.
Yeah.
Like why do they deserve any freedoms?
They don't.
Like whatever.
Like jail is full like and that you're used to let a murderer back into the general public.
Like what do you mean?
Yeah, no, you're definitely right about that.
And I definitely agree with you.
(12:34):
I don't think that someone should have that privilege, which is so irritating to me to
think about.
But for six years now into a sentence, Jack finished a memoir called Vega Foya.
If I think I'm saying that right.
It's actually in English translating to purgatory.
(12:56):
So it was fully published in 1982 by Moni Scripta, which is currently actually a literary
magazine company.
And it wasn't until a year later in 1883 when it had been published as a physical book.
Now this memoir had become an Austrian bestseller.
(13:17):
This serial killer created a book about his life, which it's a little problematic and
we'll talk about soon, but he created a book about his life.
And he, wait, and at this time it was known that he was like a serial killer, but a murderer.
Yeah, people know he murdered.
Yeah, the one person.
The one person.
(13:37):
Yes, exactly.
Yeah.
The general public scares me sometimes.
Who are you telling?
And like I thought about it too, because I was like, Oh, is this just like in Vienna?
Is this just in Germany?
Things like that.
I'm not putting any nation against one another, but it's honestly the whole world.
This whole entire world, we are all people.
We all need to really...
Do better.
(13:58):
Do better.
Do better.
Yes, exactly.
And so like I said, the memoir became an Austrian bestseller.
This monster of a man had brutally assaulted, strangled, and killed women, and later became
a fucking bestselling author from this.
He natives really stopped viewing him as a serial killer.
(14:19):
And after reading his book, they saw him as a man that had been neglected at a very early
age, which led him to murder.
And they just started seeing him as a victim.
Are they the novicious criminal?
It's the sympathizing.
It's the sympathizing.
You can sympathize for like...
I know we kind of talked about this in Eileen Warner was this case.
(14:40):
Yes, yeah, yeah.
You can sympathize for what they went through, but you cannot sympathize for their actions.
Thank you.
Just because you had a terrible childhood does not mean that you need to go and murder
now.
Yeah.
Like, yeah, you did have a terrible childhood and that does incredibly suck.
And yes, I do feel very bad that you had to go through that, but that does not mean
(15:04):
that you have any right to take away or torture anybody else.
And Eileen, yeah, beautifully put, because...
Is that not an alternative opinion?
No.
It's like no.
No, it's so true.
Is this controversial?
No, I hope not.
Like guys, I get it.
And honestly, I have people in my life who have been through a lot of trauma.
(15:24):
I do too.
So much trauma.
And they turned out to be decent humans.
They turned out to be decent humans.
So what does that give you any right to take someone else's life because you're quote,
unquote, trauma or him and his sake is quote, unquote, trauma and decide to just do this
and then say, oh, let me write a book and just grains everyone's attention so they can
sympathize.
(15:44):
And the victim card when the victim that he victimized is now dead.
Yes.
Thank you.
Thank you.
So from a podcast series I referenced before, they had actually included a opening excerpt
from his memoir.
I found that from that podcast series I had talked about Sarah Killers.
(16:06):
I actually was going to buy their book or buy Jack Entori's book just to read through
or rent it at least, but that book is $80.
I am not doing that.
So $80.
To rent or to buy?
To buy.
You can only buy it and it's $80, at least from what I found on Amazon.
So Jeff Bezos, I'm sorry, but that's not happening.
(16:27):
Why is it $80?
I was already in the same thing.
Where's the PDF?
Who has the PDF?
Yeah.
If you want to have the PDF, I would really like to look through it.
The only problem about that is it's also in German.
So I don't think I gained anything from that and I don't think it would be worth it either
way.
Who is the money going to at this point?
I want to say in terms of like, I was going to say, he doesn't really even have a family.
(16:51):
I want to say when things like that happen and necessarily maybe write something and
it's worth something, I think it just goes to like an organization or something, quite
honestly.
I hope it goes somewhere good.
Yeah.
I was going to say for maybe like victims of something or something like that.
I've heard that before, but I'm not actually sure about who the money goes to, but hopefully
it's no one that has done shitty shit like him.
(17:15):
And Bree's going to just quote this excerpt for us real quick.
It reads, quote, My hands sweaty with fear were twisted behind my back and the steel
chains tightened around my wrists.
The hard pressure on my legs and back makes me realize my only escape is to end it.
A new package of razor blades lies ready.
(17:37):
Also a long leather strap.
I have prepared for the minute of the last decision.
I can see my body go to sleep with a final convulsion fleeing from this vegetative life.
Is that the answer?
End quote.
So basically I think in a nutshell, Chuck just really starts his mind.
(17:58):
My or right off just letting readers know I have committed a terrible act.
I've learned my lesson and I hate myself for it.
I am contemplating suicide.
That's at least what I took from it.
Yeah.
All I kind of took from it was like I'm a shitty person and I want to kill myself.
Yeah, exactly.
I'm a shitty person.
(18:19):
I want to kill myself.
Everyone give me attention.
Yeah.
Pretty much.
Like I want everybody to know about it.
Yeah, exactly.
Oh, sorry.
Someone's turning on the car outside.
It's very loud.
My heat kicked on.
Like he kicked on, someone's turning on their car.
Sorry about that.
The person who lives below me is turning on their loud ass car.
Is that what that is?
Do you think it's their car?
(18:40):
I think it's their car.
Oh shit.
Okay.
I don't know though.
But it does not look like it should be the loudest.
Their muffler is loud as fuck.
But I think it quiet down now so we're good.
But yeah, no, I definitely think that it's definitely some bullshit and as we'll see
later someone comes back to certify that this bullshit is bullshit.
(19:01):
So we'll kind of wrap it around to that.
But obviously he hasn't really, I feel like maybe contemplated this, maybe he has, maybe
he hasn't.
But the whole reason, you know, the whole reason to even call this name purgatory is
if some of you are not aware purgatory according to Roman Catholic doctrine is the temporary
(19:24):
punishment between heaven and hell and what souls are sent to this purgatory for their
sins, having the ability to be cleansed of like their sins before having to be sent to
heaven.
So that's pretty much like what purgatory is.
If you guys are still confused about it, just watch American Horror Story.
I'm sure it was at season three or something.
(19:47):
What was it?
The American Horror Story Coven?
They talk about purgatory.
Do they?
Yeah.
If I'm not mistaken, I think in that season one of the witches after dying spoiler goes
to like purgatory and she's stuck there or whatever.
So there's that.
You have to watch it.
I have to watch it again.
(20:08):
I actually rewatch it now too long.
Really?
I have to rewatch it again.
But I do definitely remember that season.
I think they talk about a couple other seasons.
It's really good.
But anyways, I'm getting off topic.
Sorry.
I definitely watched that and that's kind of like just a little overview about what purgatory
is and that's just based off what I found and what I know about.
In between.
Yeah.
(20:29):
In between.
And so this is what Jack wants.
He wants people to believe that he could be sent to this purgatory quote unquote being
prison, reformed and sent back into society as a new man being heaven.
So this isn't really what he believed and his intentions were the same as they always
were though to deceive and continue taking what he wanted to take.
(20:54):
Also I did kind of imply that all of Austria really began buying up his memoir and believing
that he could be reformed.
And a lot of people did by the book, but most people really were being.
I can't speak today.
Geez.
I'm sorry.
Most people that were being convinced and persuaded were Austria's elite.
So when I say elite, I kind of mean government officials, musicians, socialites, actors,
(21:19):
etc, etc.
So this was the group that really believed that Jack Unterweger was a changed man.
They'd read his story and see, wow, this guy has really been through so much.
He was neglected by his father and mother.
They made the mother mate her means through sex work.
He was abused by his grandfather and it still went to find his neglectful mother later on.
(21:47):
He didn't find her as he's telling, but he found his sex working on it, who then got close
to but lost her because she had been murdered by a client.
And if you don't remember that, it was in the last episode, so you can just go back
and listen.
But again, I mean, don't forget y'all, we don't know if his mother really was a prostitute.
(22:10):
We don't know if his grandfather really abused him and his mother later recounted never even
having a sister.
So this book could honestly entirely be a fantasized piece of bullshit for all we know.
But I mean, I'm just like facts.
(22:31):
I'm just saying, I think it could be, but whatever.
Um, but not only did Jack have this best selling memoir out and selling to the public, but
he gave this hell of a nice readings to his office book from the shine prison.
They literally let him do this.
And again, many of these viewers were wealthy Austrian.
I keep saying Australian, Austrian people that were captivated by the story.
(22:55):
What they really loved about him was that to them, he didn't come off as a man looking
for money or attention.
He to them was a man that once murdered, but sought forgiveness.
That's just what they believed.
On top of this, they hadn't seen what Jack looked like prior to his televised reading.
It's the 80s guys.
So they couldn't just Google him and just see what he looked like like we can today.
(23:21):
So they thought, you know, this is a big tall guy who's intimidating, scary looking, but
in reality, if you've seen pictures of him at least, he was just a opposite actually.
He was about five, five with a very small, slim, kind of boyish looking stature.
And luckily for Jack around the same time, the Austrian government had just been taken
(23:44):
over by an innovative group of people that also wanted to push for the, uh, sorry, ideology
of prison reform.
So he also had government officials leading towards this shit that he was selling, which
is just so aggravating to me that a government officials would buy into this too.
(24:07):
Not girl, not on my watch.
So in 1985, these people began to petition for Jack Unterweger to be released from his
sentence.
He was the new face of prison reform in Austria, pretty much, I could say.
Now to also mention and remind, he was also to serve a life sentence for the brutal murder
(24:30):
of Margaret Schaefer.
And as far as everyone knows, he has only murdered Margaret.
No one, but the inspector, if you remember in Salzburg, inspector Angus Schreiner has
connected him to the murder of Marista Horvath.
According to Austria Germany laws at the time, if convicted for a life sentence, but then
(24:51):
pardoned, the convicted felon must serve at least 15, 15 years sentence and at this
point Jack had only served 10 years.
So in the meantime, an Austrian film agency produces his memoir into a fucking movie.
Dad.
(25:11):
Deceased?
Yeah, like a movie.
Why?
And you know what's worse?
This, hold on.
This, okay, the fact that I hate that they do this, did you see I'm getting off topic?
No, go ahead.
But what is that bitch's name?
Casey Anthony?
Yeah.
Hulu made a movie about her and she's getting money from it.
(25:33):
What is she really?
Yeah, she is getting money from this movie that Hulu made.
So every time someone watches, she is making money, even though she highly likely killed
her daughter.
That's just crazy to me.
Oh, I want to know what you guys all believe about that case.
I don't know if everyone's heard about it.
It's a very, very big case in America.
But um, yeah, Casey Anthony had allegedly allegedly allegedly don't come for us.
(25:58):
Casey killed her daughter and she had been served a sentence.
I don't know a lot about that case.
We can cover it one day, but that is a pretty crazy case.
Yeah, long story short, before we get to off topic, who made a movie about it, which is
eerily similar to this and it's people who don't deserve fame getting fame.
Yeah.
And to make it all the worse on top of that, Jack had been actually invited formally to
(26:24):
the premiere in 18, sorry, 1988 to the Fells Film Festival.
And I'll post pictures of this because you can actually see him in the picture standing
on the red carpet in this decked out outfit.
It fucking annoys me.
We're giving this man who has been sent to jail for murder, the opportunity to make a
(26:46):
film out of his memoir and then you invite him to a fucking film festival.
What the fuck?
You can't make this shit up.
I have a lot to say, but I'm not gonna say anything.
And then on top of that, I'm also pretty sure when I was researching, I had Kim across his
IMBD page.
So that's just another thing in itself.
I hate that.
(27:06):
I hate it.
Oh my God.
So he has served that 15 years and he was served afterwards a psychiatric evaluation.
The psychiatrist was Garhardt Kaiser and he felt that he was perfectly reformed and he
was restored to normal, quote unquote.
(27:26):
And the court then agreed.
So on May 23, 1990, Jack was released on parole not long after or sorry before his
40th birthday and was a free man.
Now, well into his 40s as a successful author, Jack was also very wealthy as a man at this
(27:50):
point at least and was loved by so many people.
Literally why?
Again, not to be redundant and be like a broken record, but he killed somebody.
So just know that.
He started getting these big ass gigs to to speak on talk shows and interviews for magazine
(28:11):
articles.
This man was basically a celebrity and he was really feeling himself at this point.
I'll post pictures more about, you know, all the professional photos that he had taken
because it's truly just astonishing to me that he was even able to do this.
If I remember correctly, I think one is like him.
He's at a coffee shop.
You can't tell because he's just sitting on a black chair, but he's at a coffee shop
(28:34):
and he just looks so happy.
He's like pointing at the camera.
He got a dog.
I think it was like some kind of like, what's the, what's that dog from?
Oh, it's a German shepherd.
That's what I'm thinking of.
It makes sense.
German.
He had a German shepherd.
He had a German shepherd and picture and he's like pointing at the camera and it was by
(28:55):
this like really like famous photographer.
And then there's another picture of him that I'll post that is of him like shirtless and
it makes me like gag.
It's a gross.
Instead of his nickname being the Vienna Strangler, I feel like it should be like the most like
(29:16):
serial killer.
The most like serial killer.
That's a really good way to put it.
Because what the fuck?
Yeah, literally, literally.
Why is everybody just like literally dropping their pants for this man right now?
Like taking the pictures, letting him out of jail early.
You know what it fucks me up to?
Is that?
(29:36):
Yeah.
And that even that picture like of him shirtless, he has a big ass like chest that too that
he got, I guess, when he was in jail.
And it literally says in little words, make love not war.
Like what the fuck dude?
Like you.
Boy.
Make love not war my fucking ass.
Make it make sense.
Again, you can go, you guys can go find that on our Instagram at WLGTO podcast.
(30:00):
Look, go look it up.
But it's definitely very aggravating to even look at.
So just know that.
So not long after his unfortunate claim to fame for lack of a better term, he's thinking,
okay, I need to go and find an actual job because I am a conniving piece of shit that
is only making an income from this book.
(30:21):
Okay, he didn't actually say I'm a conniving piece of shit.
I said that, but.
But he should have.
I had to shoehorn that in there.
Yeah, you're right.
So he ends up getting offered a job at the Austrian public broadcasting company as a
reporter.
The same people who publish his children's book, by the way.
Girl.
(30:41):
And let me just say, if this criminal can get this kind of work offered to him, I guess
we can do anything because what the fuck.
And nobody should be homeless because.
You literally.
What?
Okay, that's like a joke.
No, no.
Yeah, but they know what we mean, right?
I mean, come on.
Like if a literal serial killer can get a job that easily, like we can be the president
(31:09):
of the United States and all the homeless people should be working somewhere because
what the hell.
I went to school and got my degree in multimedia journalism.
And he's having a rough time finding things.
I'm having a time, bitches.
I'm having a good time trying to find.
And Mr. Man just goes and kills a woman.
And just because he's a reporter.
(31:31):
And finds a job, writes a children's book and gets famous.
Like what the fuck?
What the fuck?
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you.
Like literally.
So when I had also been researching about what topics he was specifically enjoying
reporting about, you can only guess what he was invested in reporting into.
(31:53):
Sex workers in the red light districts of various territories and countries.
LOL.
LOL.
So yeah, Friday, September 1990.
I didn't even put the date.
I'm sorry guys.
I don't even know where it went, but he flies home from his, he flies from his home in Vienna
(32:16):
to Prague to find a solid story to report on.
And oh boy, does he find a real one to create his own with.
Ironically, the same day he had flown in, 30 year old Bianca Bokova.
Let me guess.
Goes missing?
Yeah.
(32:37):
Oh my gosh.
Who would have thought?
Yeah.
So she had gone missing.
She lived in Prague.
That night she had gone out with some girlfriends for drinks.
Now it's unknown from my research if she was a sex worker.
She had been in a poly, oh, some say, according to different sources and I don't want to say
(32:59):
whether or not she was or wasn't.
Some say she was maybe in a polyamid relationship because she did have a husband or she was
having an affair.
I don't know.
It's not our business to really wonder, but her friends had known her to do this here
and there.
But allegedly.
But allegedly.
(33:19):
She wanted to hang out at the bar after her friends had left and her friends were not stoked
about it, but they offered her, I mean, they offered her rights back.
She didn't want to.
So they respected her wishes, assuming she didn't want to go and they just assumed she
could home safe.
Days age, don't do that, but definitely understand where they're coming from.
(33:42):
When you have a friend, the most you can do.
You can ask them.
Strongly suggest.
You can't force someone to do something they don't want to do.
So she wanted to hang out back at the bar and they had respect to her wishes.
But unfortunately, that was the last time she'd be seen alive.
(34:03):
Saturday, September 15th, 1990, one day later, as hikers were hiking through the woods along
the Voltava River in Prague, they spotted the body of a nearly nude woman found only
wearing knee-high stockings in a wedding ring.
Her legs were spread apart and she had been noticeably strangled.
(34:25):
The investigators did find that she had been assaulted with an instrument of some sort
based on the vassional terror, but that instrument had not been found and the item she was strangled
with had been found either at the crime scene.
This victim was obviously in fact Blanca Volkava and she had left behind two children in her
(34:45):
wake.
It's really sad to me because she had a whole family and this asshole just took that from
her.
The next day of scouting the area, investigators did find her clothes and ID, but no evidence
indicating who had done this awful thing to her.
Oh, and if you were mildly wondering because I didn't technically say who it was, it was
(35:07):
yours truly, Jack Unterweger.
Had to also mention that just because if anyone was thinking he has everything he needs, why
kill?
This is what he really wanted from the beginning.
This life the mayor brought him did not stop his ability to take these women's lives.
They only subdued it and then just continued the criminal tendencies.
(35:31):
And the book only really drew in sympathy from others to help him, I guess, flee prison
with no repercussions.
Now do I think he knew he would become famous from this?
No, I don't think he did.
I think he knew it would help him in his favor to get out of prison and have prison reform
because he knew of the timing of it and he knew that the government had been open to
(35:54):
the prison reform kind of thing, but I don't think that he knew that he was going to become
famous from it.
So I think that's just him getting lucky, unfortunately.
But like I said, the police did end up finding Blanca's clothes and ID that she had on the
night that she was murdered, but no actual leads as to who had done this were found.
(36:15):
A couple of witnesses did tell investigators that they had seen her the previous night
conversing with a man in his early 40s and Winslaw Square, which wasn't very far from
Voltava River where she was found, but the description of the mysterious man cannot really
be defined enough to have details.
So far the proc police department as they knew they just had nothing to go off of.
(36:41):
The case really just ended up going cold all the while.
Unterweger just went back to Vienna undetected with no suspicions.
So on October 26, 1990, in Graz, Austria, 39 year old sex worker Bruhilda Maza was
witnessed sometime after midnight conversing with a taxi driver.
(37:02):
Apparently they kind of knew each other and after the taxi driver drove off she had been
stopped by another witness, sorry, by another person that witnesses recount being a dapper
wild dressed man in his 40s seemingly wanting to pick her up, so she went off with him and
this would be the last time Bruhilda would be seen alive.
(37:25):
So January 5, 1991, nearly two months later, her body had been discovered.
Children were playing in the woods when they thought they had found a dirty abandoned
mannequin, but they didn't realize at first and after a closer glance they noticed it
was a woman's body.
(37:48):
Whenever it's like a kid finding the deceased dead body of someone else it's just truly
terrifying.
Traumatizing.
Traumatizing.
Cannot think about or fabricate how it must be for me as an adult to see that.
Cannot imagine when it must be like for kids to see that.
It's so sad.
So like I said, her body was found, like Blanca she had been sexually assaulted, stripped
(38:14):
of her hair, and her neck showed signs of strangulation.
Now by the way I didn't know this, but sex work is actually legal in Austria for anyone
over the age of 19.
Didn't know that.
I know that it's legal in, what is that, Amsterdam where they have the red light district and
stuff like it's really not that uncommon in Europe.
(38:36):
Yeah that's interesting.
So it was really interesting, it was really like puzzling for, I mean if we're thinking
way, way back maybe to like a lot of early days we can like think about from Europe at
least like Jack the Ripper and things like that.
But it was still a little weird that someone was just targeting all these sex workers.
(39:00):
So it was weird.
It was a weird thing.
Now the next victim I believe was in Vienna, the narcissist seemed to be accurate on this.
After Jack had returned on December 5th 1991, he had targeted 31 year old sex worker Heidi
Marie, a hammerer.
It was until near stay actually of 92 when the hiker had discovered her body nude from
(39:26):
the waist down and her pantyhose wrapped around her neck used to strangle her.
So now he's just going for it.
It's this really, it was like him kind of killing year after year and now it's just rapidly
progressed to month after month.
And it's like his signature trademark too.
(39:48):
Yeah it really is.
Isn't this how he killed the first victim?
Like how did they not catch on?
How did they not put one and one together?
Yeah that's what I'm saying.
Is he in a different country now?
He's back in Vienna so this is like the same area Austria like he's in that area.
Yeah like they literally should catch especially because he's like famous now?
Like he's a no-name.
That's what I'm saying.
Oh my god.
(40:08):
If frustrates me to the core and I feel like we're going to get a little more frustrated
in a minute here so just hold on to your butts.
Just imagine how if you wouldn't have been let out how these women would literally still
have their lives.
They would.
They definitely, they definitely, I always think about that.
I'm sorry to like go off topic again but side note.
(40:30):
I always think about with these murderers, have they not killed these people?
How would their families turn out?
How much would the world change?
Butterfly affects people?
Really?
Really?
We have to do a, we should do like a episode on that kind of thing.
That would be really interesting.
So early that year in 1991, yeah actually tried to write a play called Dungeon which would
(40:56):
be a prequel to his memoir.
Some motherfuckers trying to be a playwright.
Literally.
Oh my god.
But good thing it wasn't making much money and the way that he thought it would and this
failure really just started to bother him because he cannot bear failing I guess.
So he wrote another play called Scrumaphore and this actually stretched to a couple different
(41:22):
cities in Austria.
Easy to note, when one of the performances had gone what's going on, he literally left
the production and found a sex worker.
Her name was Afrida Strength and Gros but instead of just strangling her, he actually
forced her to give him, give her his number of her parents and talk to them on the phone
(41:47):
while he was sexually assaulting her and killing her.
Bro what?
She's elevating it to another level.
That's also so risky for him.
Very, very risky.
That's just traumatizing and that's also just terrible.
Wow.
I can imagine having my child and like I don't know if, I don't, I don't know again.
(42:08):
She was a sex worker, I don't know if her family knew this or not but it's just crazy
to think that he had forcibly got her parents' phone number, caught them and then abused
her over the phone.
And saying that that even happens.
(42:29):
It's truly another level of just brutal and just terrible, terrible stuff.
Now before leaving Vienna between April and May of 1991, he'd murdered four more women
on top of the five women he had already killed by this point.
So he's at nine?
Yeah.
Oh my god.
(42:50):
Four in one month by the way.
Holy fucking shit.
He says it's like one a week.
It's one a week, literally one a week.
These women were 23 year old Sylvia Zogler, 25 year old Sabina Mosey, 33 year old Regina
Prim who like Alfreda had called Regina's family and taunted them while killing her
(43:15):
and 25 year old Katrina Roku also discovered strangled.
To make this all the worse, he's still a reporter keep in mind.
He went to Vienna's Rettlite District to interview sex workers that were terrified about these
murders that they heard about.
So he literally committed these murders and then he went out to report about the murders
(43:36):
that he committed to other sex workers.
Well, that's one way to get like interesting stories.
Yeah, right.
To report to commit something and then do it and then make.
Yeah, right.
Like what the fuck.
Kind of innovative.
Yeah.
No, absolutely terrible.
It's a sinister innovative way to get your name out there.
(43:58):
Yeah.
Oh my god.
This man is like maniacally smart.
Yeah.
All the while, police are just finding these terrible.
Women are just I mean, the police are just finding these women and stretch all over Vienna
and barely beginning to just notice the M.O. that this serial killer has are strangling
these women in their own underwear.
And they're not puzzle pieces together.
(44:22):
They're being it's very frustrating and I don't know what was going on with this department
at the time.
I don't know why they weren't connecting these together, but it's the same M.O.
It's the same thing.
But if you remember, Salzburg inspector Angus Schreiner, who again was connected to sorry,
connected him to the murder of Marisa Horvath, but did not have enough evidence to charge
(44:48):
him with was not letting this go.
He knew exactly who this was.
And he was the badass that would get this story kind of off the top off the off the
off the ground, I should say.
Now this is really when the press starts to give the killer of these sex workers a name,
(45:08):
which they called him the Vienna Woods killer.
So Angus Schreiner calls the homicide sector of Vienna police and tells them, I think Jack
Unterweger, who was convicted of Margaret Schaefer's death is behind this.
But the Vienna replete, but the Vienna police were not convinced.
(45:33):
They don't want to believe that it's Vienna's reform star writer.
So they just didn't believe it.
So that same week, Jack walks into the Vienna police station to interview police about their
findings on this so called serial killer.
Jack finds that the police have been struggling to find any evidence of the guy committing
(45:54):
these crimes, even though he's the guy doing it in the station.
He's so smart.
He's so equipped about that, like it's so crazy that he's so swift about doing all this
and no one, no one suspects it.
No one suspects it, even though he has this criminal record already of killing somebody.
(46:14):
So he interviews officer Edelbacher and he questions Edelbacher at least he had questions
what expector Schaefer had to say about Jack, even though he didn't want to believe that
Jack could do this and resort back to the violence.
To him, he had seemed like a changed man, but he wanted to follow up this tip and that's
(46:35):
what he did.
So Jack leaves the station and after interviewing Edelbacher, Edelbacher has sent police officers
to surveil him for the next couple of days.
So those next couple of days, officers have found nothing about Jack.
They followed him around.
He was just going to restaurants.
(46:56):
He wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.
And on June 10th, Jack returns to Edelbacher to inform him that he was going to travel
to the US to work.
Now keep in mind, he's on, what's the word?
He's on probation.
Yeah.
So thank you.
He's on probation.
So he can't obviously really just leave the state.
(47:18):
I mean, the state, he can't really just leave the country without telling somebody.
So he did let Edelbacher know that he was just going to go to do more work for his job
as a reporter.
And Edelbacher was okay with it.
He was some luck, but Edelbacher was still kind of wary about this.
(47:39):
He was kind of suspicious.
Really wish he hadn't done that.
Because on June 1991, Jack flies into LAX.
He takes a car into downtown Los Angeles where he checks into the infamous, the one and only,
where you got this.
Cecil Hotel.
(48:00):
You got that right.
That's freaking infamous hotel.
The infamous hotel.
Jack under Rigger was once a, they resident at the Cecil Hotel.
A resident or a guest?
Guest.
Sorry, I didn't mean to say resident.
Oh, it was like he lived there?
Okay.
So he was a resident, but he did check into the Cecil Hotel.
(48:23):
Well, guess as to how he found out about this hotel.
He read about the infamous serial killer, Richard Ramirez, aka the Night Stalker, and was so
enthused by who he was and what he had done that he found out about the Cecil Hotel and
he checked into this hotel.
So while in Los Angeles, Jack met up with Hollywood reporters and also toured LA to Sightseeing.
(48:49):
He also wanted on the side to find his American father who had lived in America and had some
reporters had to help him, but had no luck.
And I think this kind of just really angered him a little bit that he couldn't find his
father.
Well, one night on June 19, 1991, in downtown LA, 35-year-old sex worker Shedin Exley had
(49:14):
gotten to a cab from her home making her way to 7th Street to begin her work that evening.
This area was also known as Skid Row.
Not long after, she was approached in a car by a man in his mid-40s with a very nice dapper
(49:35):
looking outfit on.
He wrote down his window and he asked her how much.
He had broken English, but was clear enough for her to understand, and then he looked
mighty wealthy, so she tells him how much it is, and he invites her into the car and they
drive off.
They drive down 7th Street over the bridge along Los Angeles River and park in a deserted
(49:59):
light in Boyle Heights.
The next day, on June 20, 1991, Shedin's body was found near a pile of garbage discovered
by a group of girls passing by.
Her body was found somewhere to the rest, nude with her bra wrapped tightly around her
neck indicating that she had been brutally strangled.
(50:22):
In the next couple days, Jack decides to participate in the LGBTQ Parade in West Hollywood.
Yeah?
Yeah?
This man.
And nothing happened.
It was like nothing happened.
He even partnered and rode along with the LAPD to watch him for his article about LA violence.
(50:44):
This man is literally a fever dream.
Yes, this fuckface gets in a car with LAPD, rides around with him as he's a fucker that's
over here committing these crimes, and then on top of that, he goes to a fucking queer
parade.
What?
What?
Oh, I'm sorry guys, I get a little into it, but June 28, Jack finds 33 year old sex worker
(51:08):
Aynira Rodriguez near the CISA Hotel.
She had just gotten to town from a greyhound, and unfortunately she had been a heroin addict,
so she paid her addiction through prostitution.
He drove her to a similar spot like Shannon in abandoned parking lot outside the city
and strangles her with her own bra, leaving a syringe needle beside her, beer body.
(51:32):
So not long after this, on July 3, Jack had checked down a successful Australian filmmaker.
His name is Robert Darhelm, I'm sorry if I butcher that.
He actually lived in the hills of LA, and Jack had basically wanted to check him down
to help him make his memory into an American version of his film, which fuck off, don't
(51:57):
bring that over here.
And I guess this interaction did not go well.
Darhelm knew who he was and kind of mocked him, and this really just pissed Jack off.
So what does Jack do?
He finds 26 year old Sherry Long, who looked to become a star, who moved to LA, but found
no luck and became an addict to drugs soon becoming a sex worker to pay for them.
(52:22):
She met Jack on the street, Jack had picked her up and drove her outside of the town,
out of the public view, where he once again assaulted, strangled, and left her dead body
in an open parking lot to be found days later.
So July 20th, he decides to leave Los Angeles and heads back to Vienna to publish his story
(52:43):
on the crime in America, ironically, and the next day Jack is confronted in the cafe by
his step-cousin, who you guys may remember from part one, Charlotte O'Hower.
We talked about her last episode, she was his ex-cousin who lived with him, their grandfather,
(53:03):
their grandmother.
She had read his memoir while he had been away and was furious about the lies that he
told.
This asshole tried to act like he didn't know who she was when she walked up to him,
and then she pulled out a photo of her, him, and their grandparents, and she threatens to
tell everyone the truth about his story, and you know what he tells her?
(53:25):
Be quiet or something that may happen to you.
So understandably, she was fearful and agreed, but she isn't the only one that tried to
tie things together.
Because not long after in September of 1991, Jack finds an article that seems to suggest
that the Viennese police finally have suspects.
(53:47):
Jack starts to begin freaking out.
So he goes back to Sergeant Autobocker to question about the Vienna Strainler for his
story.
When Autobocker tells him, we've got nothing so far, but we're keeping it across the chest,
we might have leads.
So Jack starts really thinking, they're onto me.
In reality, Autobocker lied, Jack was the main suspect, the only suspect.
(54:11):
So on October 7th, 1991, Jack returns to Autobocker, and Jack is seemingly taking more notes for
his quote unquote work for his reporting job, and he tries to wiggle in these different
alibis to kind of throw Autobocker off course to make him think that it's not him.
And I think Autobocker was kind of just trying to decompress Jack, so he wouldn't think Jack
(54:35):
was onto the police, and Jack believes it.
It's business as usual for him.
He's like, okay, I think I'm good.
And he goes on his merry way.
Also on November 16th, 1991, Jack meets an 18 year old Bianca Rack, who was a young girl
that had Jack tied up.
(54:56):
I think I don't know where she came from, but they just seemingly got this romantic
thing going on.
These two actually moved in together and pretty much groomed her into being his fiancee,
long story short.
And by the next year, they were married.
It is not known why he found and chose Bianca to be his wife, and I'm not sure if that was
(55:19):
his life, but I do know for sure that that was his fiancee, but she was seemingly naive
and had kind of had a thing for him.
So it's kind of weird.
And I think he was just kind of using her for leverage.
So that that would make sense.
Yeah.
But Jack is an idiot.
(55:40):
And this did not help because the case against Jack was getting very strong.
They even assembled a whole team specifically looking into Jack.
So February 1992 had came and Jack read an article in the paper saying, quote, murder
series and arrest warrant for Jack Unterweger.
(56:04):
Immediately Jack fled.
They're onto him.
And it's in time because that next day, the Viennese police forced their way into Jack's
home where he had already left and fled.
And they found receipts to purchases that he had made in Los Angeles.
The Vienna police had contacted the LAPD to which they had then been able to connect the
(56:25):
Los Angeles murders to Jack Unterweger.
So now they had solid evidence and the question stands, where the fuck did Jack go?
So he had convinced and taken him and Bianca to France where they then bought tickets to
New York.
Then from New York, they went to hide out in Florida.
So they're back in the United States.
(56:47):
While in Miami, Jack had gotten Bianca as a go-go dancer.
He kind of convinced her to do this.
And while she did that, he worked on where they flee to next.
So Garrett Schmidt, who was a editor for Success Magazine, actually found Jack and told him,
hey, you know, you're on the run and I won't turn you in, but if you do an interview with
(57:09):
me, I can wire you some money and help you flee.
And so Jack agreed, unknowingly, that the money transfer was wired to alert authorities
of Jack's whereabouts.
So they're getting pretty smart here, I guess.
And thanks to Garrett, this actually really happened.
This really helped.
So that next day, Jack had gotten Bianca to go in and get the money for him, to which
(57:32):
she agreed.
While she went in, he sat in the car, but noticed something was off.
He was looking around and noticed that there were cars that people were just staring at
him in.
And at that moment, he knew what was happening.
As soon as Bianca had came out, he shouted, telling her to hurry up, we need to go, but
(57:53):
she couldn't hear him from afar and wasn't speeding up quick enough.
He had just sped off.
This went down the block, making it only so far before the police had trapped him and
immediately cuffed and arrested him and Bianca.
So now he's finally caught.
He was held in a Miami jail while Vienna and Los Angeles authorities worked together to
build a case against him.
(58:14):
They thought that he had just killed these two places.
They were madly wrong because in his Miami apartment, authorities have found a journal
according, I'm sorry, emitting to his murders in various countries in Europe.
So on May 28, 1992, he was sent to prison in Vienna to weigh his trial.
(58:37):
He couldn't bear to be back, so he wanted to seem suicidal at first to cut his wrists,
but he's a dumbass and they just banished him right back up.
And he sat left rotting for the next two years until the trial began on April 20, 1984.
And there he had begun being tried for the 9 to 11 murders of women between Prague, Vienna,
(59:03):
and Los Angeles.
These weren't even all the murders that he had committed, but they were the only murders
that they could really tie him to.
On June 28, Jock Unterweger was found guilty of the murders and was set to spend the rest
of his life behind bars.
But the next day, on June 29, 1994, at Graz, Giacomini Prison, Jack's body was found hanging
(59:27):
from his prison cell.
He had used a jaw string on his pants to hang himself from a coat hook.
Good riddance.
This piece of garbage took his life because he could not bear to deal with the consequences
of the murders that he committed.
Seemed like he was doing pretty good to me until he got thrown back in jail.
Yeah, hell yeah.
(59:48):
And may he rest in distress.
And if Purgatory Israel, I hope he never leaves it and I hope he fucking, fucking...
If any of that's real, he's in hell.
He's in...
Oh yeah, he's definitely in hell.
But yeah, that is the case of Jack Unterweger that takes us to the ends of the Vienna Stringler.
(01:00:08):
Thanks for hanging with us through that long episode, I think today was pretty long, but
a lot of that needs to be said and I hope I can give a lot of those victims the voice
that they needed to be heard.
I truly am just taken aback even from taking those notes based on the shit that he actually
(01:00:30):
had done because it's just crazy to me.
This man did murder at least almost up to 11 and on with these murders and it's just like,
why?
For what?
Like, I get the mama drama shit, I get the torture and the whatever that he may have
been through as a kid that he had supposedly said that he had been through, but quite honestly,
(01:00:53):
I'm like, dude, like, he had no reason.
These women had lives.
These women had children to take care of.
They needed to stole that from them.
Not only did you do that, but you wanted to extend that to by going to another country,
many other countries and just taking other people's lives.
Yeah, and just keep doing it.
Just keep doing it.
It's just so crazy to me.
(01:01:14):
But yeah, that is the end of that.
Before we wrap up fully today, we had kind of given you a little Easter egg about the
next case that we're going to be talking about and it's not going to just be one story.
We're wrapping up this year with two.
We'll ask, sorry, that's wrong.
(01:01:35):
It's one story, but two parts, just to be clear.
I think you guys can go back and figure it out yourselves, but it will be a good one.
It will be a good way to end up the year.
So, Merry Christmas.
Stay safe.
If you live in the Midwest, I'm sorry.
Stay warm.
(01:01:55):
Yes, stay warm.
If you live anywhere else in the world with a lot of snow, stay warm.
We love you.
As always, the ways to reach us are going to include Instagram at WTLGO podcast and Kendall's
personal Instagram at this is Kendall Hudson.
Our Facebook page, when the lights go out, Twitter WTLGO podcast, our email WTLGO increase
(01:02:21):
at gmail.com and our YouTube WTLGO podcast, hope and post some stuff there, maybe within
the next new year.
As always, feel free to DM, comment, or email any stories that you want us to cover for
next year as well as send in listener stories as well.
We really want to read them and feature them.
(01:02:41):
And that is all.
Thank you so much for listening to today's episode.
Tune in and join in and supporting us.
We'll catch you in the next episode.
Hell yeah.
Happy holidays.
Woot!
Episode 17.
Episode 17, y'all.
We're making it pretty, pretty, pretty far.
I'm so proud of us.
(01:03:03):
And again, Merry Christmas.
We love you.
We'll hope you get everything you wish for, including our beautiful voices.
And with that, we will see you when the lights...
Goes out.
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