We take a look at some of Austria's most notorious serial killers, some of whom will be in prison until they die, with no chance of parole.
This is a list of notable serial killers from the Austria, ranked by number of proven victims (deadliest):
| # | Name: | Number of victims: |
| 10. | Elfriede Blauensteiner | 3 – 5+ |
| 9. | Martha Lowenstein Marek | 4 |
| 8. | Hugo Schenk | 4 – 6+ |
| 7. | Max Gufler | 4 – 18+ |
| 6. | Harald Sassak | 7 |
| 5. | Frederick Mors | 8 – 8+ |
| 4. | Johann "Jack" Unterweger | 10 – 12+ |
| 3. | Austrian Baby Farmers in Przemysl | 27 – 27+ |
| 2. | Lainz Angels of Death | 49 – 200+ |
| 1. | Am Spiegelgrund clinic | 789 – 800+ |
(See also 7 Myths About Serial Killers)
(See also The Last Words of 30 Famous Serial Killers)
(See also Top 30 Serial Killers By Number of Victims (20th century))
(See also Top 30 Intelligent Serial Killers With Highest IQ)
(See also Top 30 Famous German Serial Killers)
10. Elfriede Blauensteiner (3 – 5+)
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| (Elfriede Blauensteiner) |
Elfriede Blauensteiner (January 22, 1931 – November 16, 2003), dubbed the "Black Widow", was an Austrian serial killer who murdered at least three victims by poison. In each case, she inherited the victim's possessions.
Elfriede Blauensteiner sat some years in the woman Mrs. Schwarzau, before she died 2003 at the age of 72 years at the consequences of a brain tumor.
A.K.A.: "The Black Widow"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Poisoner - Obsessive gambler - To fuel her expensive addiction
Proven victims: 3
Possible victims: 5+
Date of murder: 1981 - 1995
Date of arrest: January 1996
Date of birth: January 22, 1931
Victim profile: Her husband, two former lovers and two other men
Method of murder: Poisoning (Euglucon)
Location: Vienna, Austria
Status: Sentenced to life in prison in 1997 and 2001. Died on November 18, 2003
On January 11, 1996, this 64-year-old Austrian widow confessed to killing five people. Although she later recanted her confession authorities believe she is responsible for more deaths in a killing spree spanning over a decade. Dubbed the "Black Widow" by the local press, Elfriede confessed to murdering her husband, two former lovers and two other men because "They deserved to die." An obsessive gambler, authorities believe she killed them to fuel her expensive addiction.
Her first victim was the janitor of her apartment building who, in 1981, she "helped commit suicide" because he was abusing his wife and children. Next came her second husband, Rudolf Blauensteiner, who died in August 1992 after being in a mysterious coma for 10 days. Four months later, a wealthy woman who was Blauensteiner's neighbour in Vienna died after being cared for by her. Coincidentally, she had just changed her will in favour of Frau Elle. In June 1995, a 65-year-old man whom she met through a newspaper personal add died after spending a year in her care.
One octogenarian "companion" died of cancer before she could intefere with his healthcare. Ever the resourceful criminal, Frau Elle falsified his will to pocket a $15,000 inheritance. Another would-be-victim who survived her care said that although he had fought in World War II and had been a prisoner of war in Russia for five years, he never felt worse than he did after eating a meal cooked by his loving Elfriede.
Mrs. Blauensteiner's trial in Krems started on February 10, 1997. Because of a lack of physical evidence, Elle was only charged with the murder of Alois Pichler, a 77-year-old pensioner who died in November 1995, a few months after meeting Frau Elle through a newspaper add. Friedrich Kutschera, the state prosecutor, accused Blauensteiner of putting at least 70 doses of euglucon in his milk, a drug to lower his blood sugar.
The day before the widower's death Frau Elle gave him 20 anti-depressant tablets, left him in a room with the windows open all night and then put him in a cold bath, causing his fatal heart attack. The prosecutor also accused Harald Schmidt, Blauensteiner's former attorney, of helping her put the pensioner in the tub and of falsifying his will so that she could collect an $100,000 inheritance. Frau Elle is said to have learned about drugs to lower blood sugar when she treated a diabetic male friend who died in 1986.
On her first day in court, Elle appeared in a beige suit and clutching a little golden crucifix. "My hands are clean. I've nothing to hide," she told the throng of reporters that crowded around the steps of the courthouse in Krems, a town 30 miles west of Vienna. Asked if she would plead guilty, she said: "I would never kill. I believe in my innocence." Then, in a strange existential moment, she proclaimed: "Death is only the beginning of eternal life."
Meanwhile Elfi has released her memoirs in the Austrian weekly "News". In them she claims that she has done nothing evil, because she only wanted to help her husbands.
Unfortunately for her, on March 7, 1997, she was found guilty of the first degree murder of Alois Pichlerand sentenced to life in prison. Schmidt -- her former lawyer -- got seven years for helping the frau with the crime and forging the victim's will.
Elfriede Blauensteiner sat some years in the woman Mrs. Schwarzau, before she died 2003 at the age of 72 years at the consequences of a brain tumor.
9. Martha Lowenstein Marek (4)
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| (Martha Lowenstein Marek) |
Martha Lowenstein Marek (1904 – December 6, 1938) was an Austrian serial killer, born in Vienna, Austria, she was a foundling who was adopted by an impoverished couple.
The motive for the bizarre slayings committed by Martha Lowenstein Marek was rooted in a pathological greed of astounding proportions. She resolved at an early age to live well, no matter the cost, even if the cost included human lives. Her early poverty undoubtedly kindled the dark ambitions that found reality in serial killings.
Brought to trial, Martha Marek was charged with four murders. She was convicted of murdering Lowenstein, Kittenberger and her husband and daughter, after prosecutors proved that Martha had been regularly buying thallium from a pharmacist in Vienna.
Though she continued to insist upon her innocence, the serial killer was condemned to death, capital punishment having been restored in Austria after Hitler had taken over the government.
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Poisoner - To collect insurance money - To inherit
Number of victims: 4
Date of murders: 1932 - 1937
Date of arrest: 1938
Date of birth: 1904
Victims profile: Emil Marek (her husband) / Ingeborg Marek (her daughter) / Suzanne Lowenstein (an elderly relative, whose money and house she inherited) / Felicitas Kittsteiner (a lodger in her house)
Method of murder: Poisoning (thallium)
Location: Vienna, Austria
Status: Executed by guillotine in Vienna on December 6, 1938
Martha Lowenstein Marek was guillotined by the Bavarian State executioner, Johann Reichhart, in Vienna on the 6th of December 1938, for the poisoning of her husband, their baby daughter, an elderly relative, whose money and house she inherited, and finally a lodger in her house.
Emil Marek had conspired with his wife Martha to defraud his insurers by getting Martha to chop off his leg in order that they could collect $30,000 in accident insurance he had taken out. Martha, however, was not very good at wielding the axe and it took 3 blows to sever the leg. The insurer's doctors were not convinced that it was an accident that had occurred while cutting down a tree as the Mareks claimed and therefore rejected their claim.
Emil died, apparently from tuberculosis, in July 1932 and their 9 month old baby daughter died a month later. When her lodger Felicitas Kittsteiner died, his relatives became suspicious because he had told them that when he ate or drank anything that Martha prepared, he immediately felt violently sick. Martha had taken out a life insurance policy on him before he died.
The relatives informed the police who ordered the exhumation of all 4 bodies. They found that they had all been poisoned with a compound of thallium. She was arrested and brought to trial in Vienna in 1938.
Hitler had re-instated capital punishment in Austria when he took control of it and a new guillotine was sent to Vienna by rail, packed as "industrial machinery" on October 3rd, 1938. As you read earlier, it was to see plenty of use. No woman had been executed in Austria for over 30 years and there was some reluctance on the part of the authorities to execute Martha.
Martha was alleged to be paralysed so it was decided to take her from the condemned cell to the execution chamber in a wheelchair. The executioner, Johann Reichhart, and his assistants practised tipping the wheelchair in front of the guillotine so that Martha would fall directly onto the bench in the right place.
On the morning of the execution, however, Martha's paralysis seemed to have disappeared and she struggled violently with her guards and was able to land a heavy kick on Reichhart before being subdued and tied to the bascule by his assistant. Reichhart executed 3,165 people between 1924 and 1947.
Many British accounts of Martha Marek state that she was beheaded with an axe but this is not correct and may well stem from an incorrect translation of the German for guillotine -Fallbeil- literally drop or fall hatchet (axe).
8. Hugo Schenk (4 – 6+)
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| (Hugo Schenk) |
Hugo Schenk (February 11, 1849 – April 22, 1884), A.K.A.: "The Viennese Housemaids Killer", was an Austrian serial killer who murdered at least four victims.
After a bit of research, it turned out we were not the only ones to be mislead by the dashing Schenk’s kind eyes. Known as “the girl murderer with the gentle face” (rough translation), Schenk had no trouble wooing Viennese housemaids in the mid-1800s. Donning a Polish accent, Schenk told women that he was a count named Winopolsky. If they were impressed, he would quickly court them, eventually inviting them to a secluded picnic spot for a bit of “romance.” Unfortunately, Schenk’s idea of romance was deadly.
Schenk would rape his victim, steal whatever scant belongings she might have, tie a boulder to her feet, and toss her into the icy Danube. Sometimes his brother acted as his accomplice, other times, he worked alone. Raping, murdering and stealing was a full-time occupation for Schenk, who was plotting against his next victims before he has even disposed of his current one. When he was finally caught, it was discovered that he had been corresponding with at least 50 women, all of whom he no doubt considered future victims.
Though drowning was Schenk’s preferred method of disposal, on at least one occasion he got more creative. During one of his doomed picnics, Schenk taught a housemaid, Theresia Ketterl how to play the lighthearted game of Russian Roulette, with an empty gun, of course. He told Theresia to give it a try, but not before secretly loading the gun – the poor housemaid did the dirty work for him.
Schenk was finally hanged in 1884, and his skull sits in the Vienna’s Kriminalmuseum (Crime Museum) to this day.
A.K.A.: "The Viennese Housemaids Killer"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape - Robbery
Number of victims: 4 - 6 +
Date of murders: May-December 1883
Date of arrest: January 10. 1884
Date of birth: February 11, 1849
Victims profile: Josephine Timal / Katharina Timal / Therese Ketterl / Rosa Ferenczy
Method of murder: Shooting - Drowning
Location: Vienna, Austria
Status: Executed by hanging on April 22, 1884
Hugo Schenk's murders
The New York Times
February 5, 1884
Before being delivered up to justice Hugo Schenk confessed to the police that he had planned five murders for last week, which were to provide him with 30,000 florins. With this sum he intended to escape to America with Emily Höchsmann.
Two of his intended victims are daughters of respectable families. One is a servan to the Baroness Malfatti, whose chambermaid he had indiced to steal pearls worth 20.000 florins, which the imperial family had presented to Dr. Malfatti for attending Napoleon's son, the Duke of Reichstadt, during his last illness.
This maid, who had lived in the family for 12 years, was so thoroughly trusted that the pearls were not missed until Schenk's arrest gave the clue to the robbery. She had prepared everything for Schenk and his accomplice's reception in the house on the very night he was arrested.
Schenk said to her he would give all the inmates, herself includes, a dose of morphia; but he has confessed that his real intention was to murder them all. If he had not been arrested on the 10th, this crime would have been added to the others.
The Baroness Malfatti had about 10,000 florins' worth of plate and jewels, besides much cash, in the house, a solitary villa in an outtying suburb. She is a most generous old lady, who founded and keeps up an asylum for old women. Her pearls were pawned in Linz. The maid's deposition confirmed Schenk's confession.
Evetry step that the police take serves to reveal fresh crimes of the brothers Schenks and their accomplice, Schlossarek. Schenk acted by minutely prepared plans, and several times he plotted against one girl even before he had disposed of another, who seemed ready to give up all to him.
He is tall, handsome, well-mannered, speaks fluently several languages, and has the bearing of a gentleman.
His brother has confessed to having helped him to murder the cook Ketterl, whom they shot dead and threw into the Danube early in August, 1883. This is the fifth murder which seems, so far as we may say so before actual convictions, to be established, but three others are probable.
Hugo Schenk's wife and his child have dissapeared altogether. A man answering his description was seen from a railway train near Lundenburg, on the Northern Railway, wrestling with a woman, whom he seemed to stab.
This affair was not cleared up, because the police sent from the station where the train stopped could find no trace of murderer or victim. Schenk confesses to hanving murdered a woman near Lundenburg, but refuses to give details.
The principal witness against Hugo Schenk will be his sweetheart, Emily Höchsmann, whom he first enticed, like his other victims, but finding her poor, yet attractive, spared her life, and even spent upon her much of the money obtained by his terribles crimes.
She offered herself as a witness when she heard who her lover really was.
His acquaintances were all made by means of advertisements in the local papers.
Schenk made the women believe that he was a Nihilist agent, a Polish Count with untold gold, that he had uncles in America, and noble relations who would not hear of a marriage with a servant.
Clandestine marriage was always the excuse for leaving Vienna, and once en route, with the girl's money safe in her bag, he got out at some romantic spot, where he met his accomplices, and after murdering his victim, returned by next train.
In March, 1883, he was released after two years' imprisonment. In May he murdered the two Timals, after four weeks' acquaintance.
In August the cook Ketterl was murdered, and in the last days of December, when the police had already traced him, he killed Rosa Ferenczy. During all this time he professed to be in love with two girls, and corresponded with at least 50 others.
Last August he left Emily Höcksmann for one day, promising to meet her at night in a certain public garden. She waited for him with her relations, and when he came his merriment kept him busy all day, and them surrounded by dozens of people, gave Emily Höcksmann a watch, bracelets, and rings which he had taken from the murdered Ketterl three hours previously.
Next day he started on a Swiss tour with his sweetheart, and only left her when money fell short.
The most pitiable of his victims was his last, Rosa Ferenczy. The illegitimate daughter of a Hungarian nobleman, she was full of fanciful ideas, and when, at the age of 30, this handsome man offered her his hand and heart she believed fate had turned at last, and leavin service followed him.
He took some of her money, 1,800 florins in all, and lodged her in a remote suburb, visiting her sometimes. The landlady states that Rosa Ferenczy suspected him when absent, but whenever he showed himself she always believed him.
At Christmas he took her to the theatres and the opera, promising to visit his sister in her company soon. She prepared for departure, and said, crying, to the landlady: "You'll either see me happy and married, or never again."
The landlady recognized Schenk and Schlossarek as the two men with whom Rosa drove to the station. Next day her body was found in the Danube, near Presbourg.
The sums which Schenk obtained by his murders, and which he must have divided with his brother and his accomplice Schlossarek, do not amount to 6,000 florins. But he never worked, and lived comfortably, often traveling, for three years at least, as also did his accomplices.
He must, therefore, hace obtained money by other means, or many other murders, to which no clue is as yet obtained, were his work.
The Pesth police have asked for his likeness, several girls having been abducted from that city of late years in a similar manner to that practiced by Schenk.
7. Max Gufler (4 – 18+)
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| (Max Gufler) |
Max Gufler (May 1, 1918 – 1966) was an Austrian serial killer who was convicted of killing 4 women. He was suspected of up to 18 murders. He was reportedly subject to outbursts of rage after being struck on the head with a rock at the age of nine. Gufler killed his victims after luring them with matrimonial advertisements. Sentenced to life in prison on May 1961. Died 1966.
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Poisoner - "Bluebeard"
Number of victims: 4 - 18 +
Date of murders: 1946 - 1958
Date of arrest: November 1, 1958
Date of birth: May 1, 1918
Victims profile: Women (after luring them with matrimonial advertisements)
Method of murder: Poisoning - Drowning
Location: Austria
Status: Sentenced to life in prison on May 1961. Died 1966
Is this man a Bluebeard?
The Montreal Gazette
November 6, 1958
St. Poelten, Austria, Nov. 5 - (Reuters) - Austrian police said today the recent arrest of a man may bring to light a case resembling that of Henri Desire Landru, the French "bluebeard" executed in 1922.
The man, 50-year-old Max Gufler, who lives in this lower Austrian town was arrested on suspicion of having killed 47-year old Maria Robas, whose body was found Sept. 22.
While searching his rooms, police found piles of ladies' bags, suitcases and other articles that they have established belonged to women who disappeared in the last six years.
Police claimed they have proof to convict Gufler of at least three murders.
'Bluebeard' on trial in Vienna
The Miami News
April 11, 1961
Austria's "Bluebeard" went on trial in Vienna yesterday and claimed he was forced to confess to four murders because his fiancee has been arrested as hostage.
"I would have confessed to 20," declared Max Gufler, a 50-year-old traveling salesman accused of killing the women after luring them with matrimonial advertisements.
The judge challenged Gufler, pointing out that he even reconstructed one of his crimes for the police.
A 65-page indictment said he took the women on motor tours, then gave each a cherry liqueur and drowned her in river.
6. Harald Sassak (7)
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| (Harald Sassak (right) and the phantom image that led to his arrest) |
Harald Sassak (1948 – August 21, 2013, Weitra, Austria) was an Austrian serial killer. Sassak was known as "The Gas Man" because he posed as the employee of an energy firm. He throttled seven pensioners, raping one of them, before ransacking their homes for cash and jewellery. Released in the 2010's. Died on August 21, 2013, Weitra, Austria.
A.K.A.: "The Gas Man"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape - Robbery
Number of victims: 7
Date of murders: August,31 1970 – February, 12 1972
Date of arrest: February, 12 1972
Date of birth: 1948
Victims profile: Women
Method of murder: Strangle
Location: Vienna, Austria
Status: Sentenced to life in prison. Released in the 2010's. Died on August 21, 2013, Weitra, Austria
5. Frederick Mors (8 – 8+)
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| (Frederick Mors (born Carl Menarik), headline The New York Times in 1915) |
Frederick Mors (born Carl Menarik, October 2, 1889, Vienna, Austria – after 1916) was an Austrian serial killer who, while employed in a nursing home in New York City, killed eight elderly patients by poisoning. He liked to dress up in a white uniform with a stethoscope around his neck and have the patients call him "Herr Doktor".
When questioned by police he was very cooperative, readily admitting to the murders. After being arrested, Mors was diagnosed as a megalomaniac and committed to an insane asylum from which he later escaped. He was never recaptured.
A.K.A.: "Frederick Mors"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Poisoner - Confessed to the murders of eight "superannuated octogenarians," killed in order to "make room for more inmates" at the home
Proven victims: 8
Possible victims: 8+
Date of murders: 1914 - 1915
Date of arrest: February 2, 1915 (surrenders)
Date of birth: October 2, 1889
Victims profile: Elderly patients at rest home
Method of murder: Poisoning (arsenic and chloroform)
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Status: Confined to asylum, 1915. Escaped 1916. He was never recaptured
Immigration
Mors immigrated to New York City from his native Austria-Hungary in June 1914. Being from German-speaking Vienna, he was soon able to gain employment at the German Odd Fellows Home, a kind of nursing home, located in the Bronx.
Soon after he began work there, he exhibited signs of megalomania. He would wear white lab coats with a stethoscope around his neck. He also adopted an arrogant attitude and would insist that the elderly patients, whom he terrified, address him as "Herr Doktor." Inexplicably, though he terrified the older patients, younger patients and visitors seemed to like him and enjoy his company.
Murders
In a four month period from September 1914 to January of the following year, an unusually high number of patients died at the Home. In all seventeen died. Mors had been purchasing pharmacy items from a local druggist, including arsenic and chloroform, which he had been using to murder at least eight of the elderly residents, though he later claimed he was "putting them out of their misery".
He commissioned his first murder using arsenic. Encountering difficulties with this method he later switched to the use of chloroform. Fearing foul play, the administration called the police in to investigate.
Investigation
Early in the investigation, police learned of the fear the elderly patients had for Mors. On these grounds he soon became the primary suspect of the investigation. When questioned, Mors readily and calmly admitted to killing eight of the seventeen patients that had recently died.
He claimed that these were mercy killings and that they had been nuisances. In detail, he described his method as:
"First I would pour a drop or two of chloroform on a piece of absorbent cotton and hold it to the nostrils of the old person. Soon my man would swoon. Then I would close the orifices of the body with cotton, stuffing it in the ears, nostrils and so on. Next I would pour a little chloroform down the throat and prevent the fumes escaping the same way."
Mors was found to be criminally insane and was committed to the Matteawan Institution for the Insane. He later escaped the institution in the late 1920s. He was never caught and disappeared into obscurity, never being heard from again.
4. Johann "Jack" Unterweger (10 – 12+)
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| (Johann "Jack" Unterweger) |
Johann "Jack" Unterweger (16 August 1950 – 29 June 1994) was an Austrian serial killer who murdered prostitutes in several countries. First convicted of a 1974 murder, he was released in 1990 as an example of rehabilitation. He became a journalist and minor celebrity, but within months started killing again. He committed suicide following a conviction for several murders. Austrian psychiatrist Dr. Reinhard Haller diagnosed him with narcissistic personality disorder in 1994.
A.K.A.: "Vienna Woods Killer"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: Rape
Proven victims: 10
Possible victims: 12+
Date of murders: 1976 / 1990 - 1992
Date of arrest: February 27, 1992 (in Miami, Florida, USA)
Date of birth: August 16, 1951
Victims profile: Women (prostitutes)
Method of murder: Strangulation
Location: Austria / California, USA / Czechoslovakia
Status: Sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole on June 29, 1994. That night, he took his own life by hanging himself in his cell
Johann "Jack" Unterweger (born 1950 in Steiermark, died 29 June 1994 in Graz) was a serial killer who murdered prostitutes in several countries.
He was born in 1950 in the Austrian state of Steiermark to a Viennese prostitute and an unknown American soldier. He grew up in poverty with his abusive, alcoholic grandfather in a one-room cabin.
He was in and out of prison several times during his youth for assaulting local prostitutes. He murdered 18-year-old German Margaret Schäfer in 1974 by strangling her with her own bra.
He was sentenced to life in prison and used that time to study. He became an author of short stories, poems, plays, and an autobiography, "Fegefeuer – eine Reise ins Zuchthaus" which was a success with critics and the public. He was released after only 16 years of his life term, thought to be a successful "resocialized" prisoner.
In the first year after his release, however, police found later that he killed six prostitutes in Austria.
In 1991, he was hired by an Austrian magazine to write about crime in Los Angeles, California, writing articles about prostitution and riding around town with the local police. During his time in Los Angeles, the three prostitutes Shannon Exley, Irene Rodriguez, and Sherri Ann Long were beaten, sexually assaulted with tree branches, and finally strangled with their own brassieres.
Back in Austria, police had enough evidence for his arrest, but he was gone by the time they entered his home. After police chased him through Europe, Canada and the USA, he was finally arrested by the FBI in Miami, Florida on February 27, 1992. While a fugitive, he had time to call Austrian media to try to convince them of his innocence.
Back in Austria, he was charged with eleven homicides. The jury found him guilty of nine murders because no cause of death could be determined for two of them, as nothing was found of them but bones. On June 29, 1994 he was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. That night, he took his own life by hanging himself with his pants.
Because he died before he could appeal the verdict, it was never legally valid. Thus, according to Austrian law, Unterweger is to be regarded as innocent.
In popular culture
Dramatizations
In a 2008 performance, actor John Malkovich portrayed Unterweger's life in a performance for one actor, two sopranos, and period orchestra entitled Seduction and Despair, which premiered at Barnum Hall in Santa Monica, CA.[10] A fully staged version of the production, entitled The Infernal Comedy premiered in Vienna in July 2009. The show has since been performed throughout Europe, North America and South America.
Film
In 2015 Elisabeth Scharang directed a film called Jack about Unterweger.
Broad Green Pictures is also developing a film Entering Hades starring Michael Fassbender.
Television
The story of the police investigation, pursuit and prosecution of Unterweger is the subject of an episode of The FBI Files entitled "Killer Abroad" (Season 2, Episode 14). He is also the subject of an episode of Biography entitled "Poet of Death".
Music
Austrian musician Falco's controversial song Jeanny (Part-I) depicts a murder and rapist's thoughts, and its promotional video contains a number of references to crime scenes both real and fictional; while the "news break" in it (which is also heard in the song) refers in an oblique way to Unterweger, who was still in jail at the time of the single's release.
3. Austrian Baby Farmers in Przemysl (27 – 27+)
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| (Austrian Baby Farmers in Przemysl) |
Austrian Baby Farmers in Przemysl caught with 27 dead vabies vuried in cigar boxes - March 6, 1893.
Przemyśl is a city in south-eastern Poland with 66,756 inhabitants, as of June 2009. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was previously the capital of Przemyśl Voivodeship. In 1772, as a consequence of the First Partition of Poland, Przemyśl became part of the Austrian empire, in what the Austrians called the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.
Three baby farmers were arrested as Przemysl yesterday through the suspicious death of the daughter of a Government official who had been kept secluded for several days at the houses of one of the midwives. On Friday the woman was placed under surveillance and the back yard of her house was dug over. The bodies of twenty-seven very young infants were found in cigar boxes a few inches beneath the surfaces. A similar investigation of the premises of these two resulted in the discovery of the skeletons of 19 infants. The women confessed, but said that if arraigned they would shake the city with their revelations.
[“Wholesale Infanticide. – Terrible Revelations of an Austrian Baby-Farm – Dozens of Bodies Found by the Authorities – Social Scandals Threatened.” The Toronto Daily Mail (Canada), Mar. 6, 1893, p. 1]
NOTE: One of the reasons so many baby farmers who committed serial murder, from all parts of the world, managed after their arrest to avoid harsh penalties, is that their clients or parties in between them and the babies’ parents (namely prostitutes, procurers, abortionists) serviced wealthy and powerful members of the community. It is frequently argued that baby farm infanticides are motivated by fear that the parents could not afford to raise the child. Yet it was quite common to see such cases as this where it appears that the children were murdered with the parents’ permission because the wealthy parent(s) were not able to spend money or risk social standing to save the life of an innocent baby.
2. Lainz Angels of Death (49 – 200+)
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| (Lainz Angels of Death, Maria Gruber, Irene Leidolf, Stephanija Mayer, and Waltraud Wagner) |
Maria Gruber, Irene Leidolf, Stephanija Mayer, and Waltraud Wagner made up one of the most unusual crime teams in 20th Century Europe. The four Austrian women were nurse's aides at the Geriatriezentrum am Wienerwald in Lainz, Vienna who murdered scores of patients between 1983 and 1989. The group killed their victims with overdoses of morphine or by forcing water into the lungs. By 2008, all four of the aides had been released from prison. It is worth noting that this hospital had been involved with exterminating the elderly in the Nazi era.
Waltraud Wagner (15+)
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| (Waltraud Wagner) |
A.K.A.: "Lainz Angels of Death"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: 'Death Angel' - Nurse - Poisoner
Number of victims: 15+
Date of murders: 1983 - 1989
Date of arrest: April 7, 1989
Date of birth: 1960
Victims profile: Men and women (patients)
Method of murder: Poisoning (morphine overdose)
Location: Vienna, Austria
Status: Convicted of 15 murders, 17 attempts, and 2 counts of assault. Sentenced to life in prison in March 1991. Released in August 2008
Irene Leidolf (5+)
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| (Irene Leidolf) |
A.K.A.: "Lainz Angels of Death"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: 'Death Angel' - Nurse - Poisoner
Number of victims: 5+
Date of murders: 1983 - 1989
Date of arrest: April 7, 1989
Date of birth: 1962
Victims profile: Men and women (patients)
Method of murder: Poisoning (morphine overdose)
Location: Vienna, Austria
Status: Convicted of 5 murders. Sentenced to life in prison in March 1991. Released in August 2008
Stephanija Mayer (1+)
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| (Stephanija Mayer) |
A.K.A.: "Lainz Angels of Death"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: 'Death Angel' - Nurse - Poisoner
Number of victims: 1+
Date of murders: 1983 - 1989
Date of arrest: April 7, 1989
Date of birth: 1940
Victims profile: Men and women (patients)
Method of murder: Poisoning (morphine overdose)
Location: Vienna, Austria
Status: Convicted of 1 murder. Sentenced to 20 years in prison in March 1991. Released in the 2000's
Maria Gruber (1+)
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| (Maria Gruber) |
A.K.A.: "Lainz Angels of Death"
Classification: Serial killer
Characteristics: 'Death Angel' - Nurse - Poisoner
Number of victims: 1+
Date of murders: 1983 - 1989
Date of arrest: April 7, 1989
Date of birth: 1964
Victims profile: Men and women (patients)
Method of murder: Poisoning (morphine overdose)
Location: Vienna, Austria
Status: Convicted of 1 murder. Sentenced to 15 years in prison in March 1991. Released in the 2000's
Background
Wagner, 23, was the first to kill a patient with an overdose of morphine in 1983. She discovered in the process that she enjoyed playing God and holding the power of life and death in her hands. She recruited Gruber, 19, and Leidolf, 21, and eventually the "house mother" of the group, 43-year-old Stephanija Meyer. Soon they had invented their own murder method: while one held the victim's head and pinched their nose, another would pour water into the victim's mouth until they drowned in their bed. Since elderly patients frequently had fluid in their lungs, it was an unprovable crime. The group killed patients who were feeble, but many were not terminally ill.
Investigators criticized the hospital for meeting them with "a wall of silence" as they attempted to look into a suspicious 1988 death. The aides were caught after a doctor overheard them bragging about their latest murder at a local tavern. In total, they confessed to 49 murders over six years, but may have been responsible for as many as 200. In 1991, Wagner was convicted of 15 murders, 17 attempts, and two counts of assault. She was sentenced to life in prison. Leidolf received a life sentence as well, on conviction of five murders, while Mayer and Gruber received 20 years and 15 years respectively for manslaughter and attempted murder charges.
As the state attorney put it, "It's a small step from killing the terminally ill to the killing of insolent, burdensome patients, and from there to that which was known under the Third Reich as euthanasia. It is a door that must never be opened again."
In 2008, the Justice Ministry in Austria announced that it would release Wagner and Leidolf from prison due to good behavior. Mayer and Gruber had been released several years earlier and had assumed new identities.
In custody, the “death angels” confessed to forty-nine specific murders. Wagner allegedly claiming thirty-nine on her own. “The ones who got on my nerves,” she explained, “were dispatched directly to a free bed with the good Lord.” It was not always simple, she allowed: “Of course the patients resisted, but we were stronger. We could decide whether these old fogies lived or died. Their ticket to God was long overdue in any case.” [Michael Newton, Bad Girls Do It!: An Encyclopedia of Female Murderers, Loompanics Unlimited, 1993, pp. 8-9]
1. Am Spiegelgrund clinic (789 – 800+)
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| (Am Spiegelgrund clinic - 1946) |
Am Spiegelgrund was the name of a children's clinic in Vienna where hundreds of children were killed under the Nazi Regime Children's Euthanasia Program.
Hitler's "Final Solution" was the order for the genocide of Jews in Europe. There were also many euthanasia centres in Germany and Austria for people suffering from mental diseases or handicaps : Hadamar Euthanasia Centre, and Hartheim Euthanasia Centre, for example. But not just adults were killed. Children were "mercifully" sent to Children's Hospitals. The most prominent of these was the Kinderspital (Children's Clinic) am Spiegelgrund in Vienna.
Euthanasia of children
During World War II, Spiegelgrund was a children's clinic led by Ernst Illing and for two years by Heinrich Gross (He was tried and hanged as a war criminal in 1946). Many patients who had been deemed seriously handicapped died in mysterious circumstances. Upon inquiry, they would blame pneumonia or a fatal muscle conniption caused by the mental state of the patient. In reality, the children were being killed by lethal injection and gas poisoning.
After death, the bodies were subjected to medical experiments. Brains and other body parts were removed, placed in formaldehyde jars and stored secretly in the basement for 'research'. After the war, the remains of over 800 children were discovered in the hospital and were buried in a secret memorial service. They were officially put to rest in 2002 and Gross had his Honorary Cross for Science and Art (awarded in 1975) stripped in 2003.
Detailed coverage of the burial ceremony, as well as full background are told in the 2004 film Gray Matter.
NOTE: 4 of the Am Spiegelgrund serial killer nurses were charged but managed to escape capture: Maria Bohlrath (born July 10, 1918, nurse), Erna Storch (born January 18, 1916, nurse), Emilie Kraguly (born September 4, 1914, nurse) and Klara Kleinschmittger (born August 23, 1909, nun care provider for infants).
Anna Katschenka
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| (Anna Katschenka: Austrian Serial Child-Killing “Death Panel” Nurse - 1946) |
Anna Katschenka (April 3, 1905 in Vienna – January 3 1980 in Vienna) was described by the matron at the training school from which she graduated as one of their best students, bearing superior intellect strong character. She became deputy chief nurse in the children's institution Am Spiegelgrund Institute for Children in Vienna, working there from 1941-1945, and participated in the murder of disabled children under that National Socialist policy of “death accelerations,” or euthanasia (under the guise of bioethics). Nurse Katschenka was not, however, a member of the National Socialist (“Nazi”) Party, yet she did receive bonus payments from the Reich Association (AOA) for her active participation in the death acceleration protocol. The program, which took the lives of 789 children, was ended in June 1945. She, along with a number of other medical colleagues (Marianne Tuerk & Margarethe Heubsch) from the same institution, was tried after the end of the war for manslaughter.
On April 9, 1948, following her confession to having performed “death acceleration” on 24 children, Katschenka sentenced to 8 years in prison. Her trial revealed that a number of other nurses refused to obey orders to kill children. Those physicians and nurses who did engage in the crimes numbered around 90. She was paroled December 24, 1950 after serving only 4 years (including detention period before sentencing. She returned to her profession as a children’s nurse.
Two Austrian Doctors, Marianne Tuerk & Margarethe Heubsch
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| (Two Austrian Doctors, Marianne Tuerk & Margarethe Heubsch - 1946) |
FULL TEXT: London, Tues – Dr Ernst Illing (42), who is on trial with two women assistants for the mass murder of 250 children, admitted killing “a certain number” of them, says Reuters man in Vienna.
Women are Drs Marianne Tuerk (32) and Margarethe Heubsch (43). All three claimed that the alleged murders were ordered from Berlin to “purify and improve the physical standards of the German race.”
They are said to have given overdoses of veronal, luminol and morphine to children afflicted with mental, lung and other diseases. Dr Jekelius and Professor Heyde, who are alleged to be implicated in the mass killings of children at Steinhof Hospital near Vienna are missing.
Dr Jekelius was once reported to be engaged to Paula Hitler, the Fuehrer’s sister and housekeeper.
[“Child Murders,” Daily News (Perth, Australia), Jul. 16, 1946, p. 3]
Dr. Marianne Türk sentenced to ten years' imprisonment at the People's Court. Information on the outcome for Dr. Margarethe Heubsch has not yet been located by this editor.
At least two other women were tried as participant in the child murder conspiracy: Dr. Margaret Nicely was acquitted and the nurse Anna Katschenka to eight years in prison.