Kenneth Glad
True crime stories usually end with a monster locked safely behind bars. But sometimes the system meant to reform people creates the perfect cover for a predator instead. One European nation learned this the hard way when a celebrated author returned to society with a dark secret.
In the early 1990s, Jack Unterweger was the darling of the Austrian cultural elite. He went to prison in 1974 for the brutal murder of an 18-year-old girl, receiving a life sentence that should have kept him locked away forever. But the small, slight man reinvented himself behind bars. He took correspondence courses to improve his reading and writing, eventually emerging as an intellectual, a playwright, and a poet.
He published an acclaimed autobiography about his troubled childhood, writes HistorieNet, and his work became so popular that national radio even broadcast his fairy tales as bedtime stories for children. The European cultural scene at the time was swept up in a wave of social romanticism. Intellectuals saw the convict as the ultimate proof that a man could be rehabilitated through art.
A killer on the loose
Following a massive public petition signed by famous actors, celebrated writers, and two future Nobel Prize winners, he walked free in 1990. He had served exactly 15 years. He quickly secured a high-profile job as a journalist for the national broadcaster ORF. Driving a flashy sports car and wearing tailored suits, he began reporting on the very streets where he used to find victims.
Polite society praised his apparent rehabilitation. Behind the scenes, a gruesome pattern began emerging across Europe. Sex workers were vanishing from the streets of Vienna, Prague, and Graz.
Each victim was found in secluded wooded areas, and investigators noticed the suspect always struck while the writer was nearby on assignment. He even billed the state for travel expenses that placed him near the crime scenes.
As fear gripped the city over the fresh wave of murdered prostitutes, Unterweger visited Vienna police inspector Max Edelbacher to discuss the string of unsolved killings, according to HistorieNet. Dressed impeccably in a white double-breasted suit with a red carnation in his lapel, the polite reporter asked detailed questions about the ongoing investigation.
The detective answered openly. He had no idea he was speaking to the prime suspect until he went home that evening, and his wife loudly pointed out the visiting reporter’s dark past.
The American connection
The writer took a working holiday to Los Angeles in 1991. He checked into the Cecil Hotel, a budget spot near the city’s Skid Row.
He talked his way into a ride-along with local police officers. He asked detailed questions about the red-light districts during the patrol, claiming he was gathering background material for a magazine project.
Three women in the surrounding area soon turned up dead. All of them had been strangled with their own undergarments, and the killer had used a highly specific knot.
An LAPD knot expert noticed the unique signature. She warned European colleagues about the disturbing similarities, pointing the finger directly at the visiting reporter.
Catching the killer
The international dragnet tightened. One American police representative noted in a letter to Vienna that he hoped the killer would face the gas chamber.
The net finally closed around the reporter in early 1992, says HistorieNet. Police tracked him down in Miami Beach after a local publisher tipped off authorities about a frantic request for emergency cash.
He had fled Europe just days after pulling a bizarre live radio stunt. Speaking from a public phone, the fleeing writer loudly proclaimed his innocence to a national audience.
“Because I have come out, they are trying to pin all these murders on me,” he told listeners on live radio.
A final escape
But the physical evidence proved overwhelming. During his 1994 trial in Austria, prosecutors presented damning DNA matches. The most striking piece of evidence was a single blonde hair found in his luxury sports car.
The LAPD knot expert flew in to testify. She identified the highly unusual signature tie used in both the American and European strangulations.
The jury convicted him of nine murders late that evening. He promised to appeal the decision, but he would never serve out his sentence.
Guards discovered his body just hours later. The notorious writer had taken his own life using a simple drawstring from his prison trousers and a thin wire.
Source: HistorieNet
