73-year-old local Joseph Fletzler took the seriously ill 19-year-old girl Kirsten to the hospital and told the doctor that this was the abandoned granddaughter he picked up at the door of his house, and her mother-also It was Joseph's eldest daughter Elizabeth-who had ran away from home 24 years ago and joined the cult.
Kirsten is already the fourth child that Joseph found at the door of her house and was discarded by her (the previous three have been adopted by him)
Kirsten is in a very serious condition and is obviously malnourished. The doctor urgently needs Elizabeth to come over in person. Inform the medical history. After repeated requests, one week later, on April 26, Elizabeth, who had not been seen for 24 years, appeared in the hospital accompanied by Joseph. The police suspected that Kerstin had been tortured and quarantined Elizabeth for questioning.
Elizabeth, who was only 42 years old at the time, had gray hair, dead white skin, old appearance, and extremely nervous. She suddenly asked the police whether they could guarantee that she and her children would never see Joseph again?
Subsequently, Elizabeth told a heinous horror story-she had been sexually assaulted by her father Joseph in captivity for 24 years, during which she gave birth to 7 children (1 died).
In fact, since Elizabeth was 11 years old, Joseph began to harass her, molest her, and put pornographic magazines under her pillow. She ran away from home twice and tried to escape, but was unsuccessful (one of which was sent home by the police).
On August 28, 1984, Joseph deceived 18-year-old Elizabeth to go to the cellar to help install a door. He suddenly put her down with medical polyether, handcuffed her to an iron rod with a chain, and raped her.
Since then, Elizabeth has been locked up in a small underground chamber with a reinforced concrete hidden door and an electronic code lock, no glass, and only about 1.6 meters high.
On the second day, Joseph and his wife Rosemary called the police, saying that Elizabeth was missing. One month later, Joseph received a letter from Elizabeth stating that she had joined a religious organization and asked her parents and the police not to find her. Of course, Joseph forced Elizabeth to write this letter!
Elizabeth tried to resist, but only incurred more harm.
"He kept beating and kicking me all over."
In the dark dungeon, sexual assault became commonplace. Joseph even used pornographic videos to force Elizabeth to imitate the actors in it. Prolonged violent sex caused Elizabeth to suffer serious internal injuries.
In 1986, Elizabeth became pregnant for the first time, but gave birth 10 weeks later. In October of the following year, she became pregnant again. At her insistence, Joseph gave her a book about pregnancy and a pair of scissors. On a filthy blanket, Elizabeth gave birth to her first child by herself-later Kerstin.
In February 1990, his son Stefan was born; in August 1992, his daughter Lisa was born; in February 1994, his daughter Monica was born; in April 1996, twin sons Alexander and Michael were born; the youngest was born in December 2002 Son Felix descended to the world.
Among them, Michael fell ill shortly after birth, Joseph did not want to take him out for treatment, and died soon. The body was secretly incinerated by Joseph, and the ashes were scattered in the garden.
Sally, Monica, and Alexander were taken away by Joseph when they were about one year old. They all lied to be Elizabeth, who had run away from home, unwilling to raise them, and abandoned them to him. Did not arouse any suspicion.
And the sexual assault continued, every night, just a few feet away from the children!
In those years, Joseph's house lived in tenants, and there were countless visitors, but no one thought that Elizabeth and the other three children were locked under their feet.
There, the space is small, the rats are rampant, the sewage is gathered, the ventilation is poor, the summer is humid, the winter is cold, there is no hot water, no heating, the power is often cut off, and only a little painkiller is given to sick people. And Joseph has been threatening them:
"If you don't do what I say, your treatment will be worse, and you will not be able to escape this cellar anyway."
All three children suffer from immune system deficiency, vitamin deficiency, rickets, anemia and other diseases, and most of their teeth have even fallen out. They have never seen the outside world, have never breathed the outside air, have never been in the sun, have not felt the breeze... The
local sheriff Leopold Aites described some details of the time when the two boys had just been rescued. , I was trembling with fear when I was in a car for the first time, when I saw the moon for the first time.
"They opened their mouths in surprise, and touched each other with their elbows and pointed at each other."
He was also impressed by:
"We are surprised by their good upbringing, which shows how his mother used limited resources to educate. Her child's."
Elizabeth uses the only TV as a teaching material to tell children fairy tales every day to impart knowledge and language.
However, Elizabeth's demon, in the outside world and in the eyes of outsiders, has another appearance-"a good man in Amstetten".
The local deputy mayor, Rapo Stutts, is a good friend of him.
"Fry Cile in my eyes is a smart, successful man he always loved to talk about his perfect family, but he was very hard on the children.."
Joseph second daughter's husband - often come to visit father and Elizabeth did not expect to finish Survive hard at your own feet.
"He is very hardworking at home or at work. This family can't see any problems at all. He is friendly and has a good reputation among neighbors. It is really hard to accept the facts like this."
Why is he here? There is such a big contrast between light and dark? How to become such a beast?
Whenever normal people encounter a perverted personality that they cannot understand, they always like to find some reasons they can understand. Now the most popular is the shadow of childhood.
Joseph did not disappoint the psychologists, and he recalled his childhood when he appeared in court for the first time.
"I had a nightmarish gray childhood. My mother didn't like me at all, and even hated me.... When I was a child, being beaten was commonplace for me. I was terrified of her and her moodiness. She always insulted me, Said I was a devil, a criminal, and said I was worthless...
Her insult made me weak and dignified. When I was 12 years old, I suddenly realized that I could no longer be'slaughtered' like this, so I became a'Satan' , A'demon' in her mouth! "
What a good reason for the cruel abuse of a single mother, but what a good excuse for sympathy! He even defended himself.
"I locked Elizabeth to protect her, fearing that she would be addicted to drugs. She was a headache child."
However, investigators discovered that as early as 1978 when he first started harassing Elizabeth, he was on guard. In the name of the nuclear bomb attack, he applied for the construction of a basement. In 1983, the basement was meticulously remodeled, adding code locks and soundproofing facilities.
"All indications indicate that Joseph began to plan this case carefully many years before the incident. Perhaps the idea of imprisoning her was born when he started to assault Elizabeth."
What did he think? I'm afraid I can never really know. Human nature is so subtle that it is really difficult to detect. The evil of human nature is often beyond imagination.
When the case opened, media from various countries gathered outside the court, and a large number of demonstrators gathered to protest, saying that they were "ashamed of Austria." A man hung multiple baby dolls on his body and shouted: "This is a baby that is not protected by society."
A large number of tourists even visited the cellar where Elizabeth was imprisoned for 24 years to take pictures.
In the end, the eight jurors unanimously found that Joseph was convicted of illegal imprisonment, enslavement, rape, and incest at the same time and sentenced to life imprisonment. Joseph accepted the verdict. The eight jurors all received psychological counseling afterwards.
The prison where Joseph served his sentence was a spacious room of 12 square meters. It had an independent bathroom, a TV, and a computer for Internet access. He could read books, newspapers, listen to music, and spend 1 hour of outdoor activities a day. If he wants, he can also raise flowers, he can raise a small pet...
And he said that he wanted to write his own experience into a book, telling the story of the incident and explaining why he treated his daughter like this!
Elizabeth and his children received long-term psychological treatment and security in an isolation center. They were encouraged to use paintings to express their inner love. Among them, the youngest child (the prototype of the 5-year-old Jack in the novel/movie "The Room") Felix's painting looks like this. To the effect:
"Thank them for the happiness and peace they have now, thank God, and thank people for their enthusiastic help, making her believe that there is still "good" on this planet."
Later, it was reported that Elizabeth was recovering well and fell in love with bodyguard Thomas. , Psychotherapy has ended.
In 2010, Irish writer Emma Donoghue (Emma Donoghue) was inspired by this case to create a novel "The Room". She avoided the criminal part and the cruelty and viciousness. From the perspective, to explore the victim’s spiritual world, the flower of love emerges from sin.
"From the very beginning, I didn’t want to write a story about violence and rape, nor did I want to write it as a crime story. I would rather write this story about imprisonment as a fairy tale, but not so magical. Fairy tales based on realism.”
In 2015, a film of the same name based on a novel was released, with extreme situations and moving emotions. At the 88th Oscar, he played Brie Larson, who was imprisoned and sexually assaulted a girl. ) Won the queen laurel, and Jacob Tremblay (Jacob Tremblay), who plays the role of a child, is also widely praised.
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