Jack Unterweger
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| Johann "Jack" Unterweger | |
|---|---|
| Born | 16 August 1951 Judenburg, Styria, Austria |
| Died | 29 June 1994 |
Johann "Jack" Unterweger (August 16, 1951 - June 29, 1994) was an Austrian serial killer who murdered prostitutes in several countries.
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[edit] Early life
Born to a Viennese prostitute (unproven) and an unknown American soldier, Unterweger grew up in poverty with his abusive alcoholic grandfather (although his aunt refuted this information about his 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 1976 by strangling her with her own bra, and was sentenced to life in prison.
[edit] Imprisonment and first release
While in prison, Unterweger became an author of short stories, poems, plays, and an autobiography, Fegefeuer – eine Reise ins Zuchthaus. He was released on May 23, 1990, after only 14 years of his life term, thought to have been successfully "resocialized". Upon his release, he hosted television programs which discussed criminal rehabilitation. His release followed numerous petitions of Austrian intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Elfriede Jelinek, to pardon Unterweger.
[edit] Murders
Law enforcement later found that Unterweger killed six prostitutes in Austria in the first year after his release.
In 1991, Unterweger was hired by an Austrian magazine to write about crime in Los Angeles, California, and the differences between U.S. and European attitudes to prostitution. Unterweger met with local police, even going so far as to accompany them on their patrols of the city's red light districts. During Unterweger's time in Los Angeles, three prostitutes — Shannon Exley, Irene Rodriguez, and Sherri Ann Long — were beaten, sexually assaulted with tree branches, and strangled with their own brassieres.
In Austria, Unterweger was suggested as a suspect for the prostitute murders. In the absence of other suspects, the police took a serious look at Unterweger and kept him under surveillance until he went to the U.S. — ostensibly as a reporter — observing nothing to connect him with the murders.
Law enforcement eventually had enough evidence for his arrest, but Unterweger was gone by the time they entered his home. After law enforcement chased him through Europe, Canada and the U.S., he was finally arrested by the FBI in Miami, Florida, on February 27, 1992. While a fugitive, he had called the Austrian media to try to convince them of his innocence.
[edit] Trial and death
Back in Austria, Unterweger was charged with 11 homicides, one of which occurred in Prague during the time he was visiting and was identical to the murders of the other prostitutes. The jury found him guilty of nine murders by a 6:2 majority (sufficient for a conviction under Austrian law at the time). On June 29, 1994, Unterweger was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. That night, he took his own life by hanging himself with a rope made from shoelaces and a cord from the trousers of a track suit. He is reported to have used an intricate knot identical to that used on the murdered prostitutes. Because he died before he could appeal the verdict, under a technicality of Austrian law, Unterweger is officially to be considered as innocent, despite the original guilty verdict; Unterweger's case was one of those considered in a review of this Austrian legal principle.
