Fritzl's sister-in-law describes "horror father" as a "tyrant"

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Photo: EFE

The sister-in-law of Austria's accused "horror father" Josef Fritzl claimed he served 18 months in prison for a 1967 rape conviction, but added Fritzl's wife, Rosemarie, never believed her husband was involved in the 24-year disappearance of their daughter.

Police say the 73-year-old Fritzl has confessed to imprisoning his daughter in a dingy dungeon for over two decades, repeatedly raping her and fathering her seven children.

In an exclusive interview conducted on behalf of the The Associated Press, the woman, who asked only to be identified as Christine R. because of the wide attention the case has received, provided details of the life of oppression inside the Fritzl home.

Speaking at her home in upper Austria, Christine R. claimed her niece ran away from home as a 17-year-old to join a cult, about six months before police say she was locked into the soundproofed, windowless cellar.

Her statement about the alleged rape comes after the Oberoesterreichische Nachrichten daily printed what it said was a 1967 court record found in the state archives in Linz, in which a Fritzl was accused of breaking into the apartment of a 24-year-old nurse and raping her.

"I believe he spent a year and half in prison," she said. She did not have more information on the rape conviction.

Police have declined to comment, saying records that old would have been erased under Austria's statutes of limitation, but authorities are awaiting old court records that the media say document the case.

Christine R. said her sister reacted with "shock" about the alleged rape, but believed in that "everyone makes a mistake." "I think this changed their relationship a little," Christine R. Said. "You can surely imagine that a woman in such a situation would have been utterly broken and shocked over something like this."

Culture of fear

She described Fritzl as a "tyrant" who instilled a culture of fear at home which helped him create the elaborate cover story that Elisabeth ran away to join a cult and abandoned three children on their doorstep.

"When he said it was black, it was black, even when it was 10 times white," said Christine. "I did not feel confident to say anything in any form that could possibly offend him, then you can imagine how it must have been for a woman that spent so many years with him."

If wife Rosemarie had challenged Fritzl, "we don't know what he would have done to her. Maybe he would have slapped her," the sister said. "In any case, he was a tyrant. What he said was good and the others had to shut up."

Christine R. also painted the most complete picture to date of her sister: a woman who against all odds fought to hold together a troubled family, yet never suspected that the cause of so much pain was in her own home. "She never believed him capable of it," the woman said of her 68-year-old sister.

Wife did not know anything

Police have said they have no evidence that Rosemarie was complicit in her husband's alleged atrocities and that Fritzl confessed to the imprisonment, rape, and incinerating the body of one of the children he had with his daughter after it died in infancy.

Fritzl is accused of concocting the cult story and impersonating his daughter in a phone call to convince his wife of its truth and of forcing his daughter to write letters that were used to explain the three children apparently found at their doorstep.

Police have said he actually brought the three children from the cellar for fear they were "crybabies" who would give away the dungeon. "Every person that looked in his eyes was fooled by him," Christine R. said.

She said Rosemarie had no idea that her daughter was locked in the basement and did for a while frantically look for her elsewhere.

The sister, 12 years her junior, remembered herself searching for Elisabeth in train stations and where homeless people hang out. Christine R. said her sister devoted her life to her children - a task that she focused on with even greater effort after her husband was jailed.

"He was just as strict with her as he was to every other child," Christine R. said. "There was nothing in particular that could lead you to say he was more intimate with her. From the child as well it never came out. She never confided in anyone."

Christine R. said she spoke to her sister last about "four or five days" after the daughter's admission to the hospital, which would mean about a day or two before Fritzl's arrest. She said she has received updates on the condition of her sister and Elisabeth from a "good source."

"My sister is apparently doing very badly and Elisabeth is not in the best shape either," she said. "I know my sister and when something is wrong with her children the world collapses. "For sure, the world has collapsed for her," she said.

Authorities first began to unravel the complex story on April 19, when Elisabeth's eldest daughter was admitted to a hospital suffering from an unidentified infection.

Doctors, unable to find any medical records for the girl, appealed on TV for her mother to come forward. Fritzl then accompanied Elisabeth to the hospital April 26 and opened up to police.

Fritzl faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on rape charges, the most grave of his alleged offences, unless prosecutors can charge him with "murder through failure to act" in connection with the death of the infant.

That is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.