1. Jack Unterweger's work gained the attention of Austrian intellectuals, who interpreted it as evidence of his supposed rehabilitation.
33 Facts About Jack Unterweger
1. 2.
Jack Unterweger hanged himself in prison after being convicted of nine more murders in June 1994.
3.
Jack Unterweger was born in Judenburg, Styria, to Theresia Jack Unterweger, a barmaid and waitress from Klagenfurt.
4.
Jack Unterweger's mother chose the nickname "Jack" for her son this way, but he was more frequently called "Hansi" during his childhood.
5.
Jack Unterweger's mother stated that Unterweger invented the allegation to slander her and "make his book sell better".
6.
In February 1952, Jack Unterweger was put into custody of his grandfather, Ferdinand Wieser, and his life partner Maria Springer, with whom he was to remain until the age of eight.
7.
Jack Unterweger described Wieser as a philandering alcoholic and reputed "rough fellow" who regularly used his grandson to help him steal farm animals.
8.
Neighbours, relatives, and government records contradicted this characterization, saying that Jack Unterweger was cared for and that neither Wieser or Springer drank excessively.
9.
Jack Unterweger stated that after meeting his new stepfather, he began doubting his mother's initial claim and that he believed van Blarcom was his biological father due to their physical resemblance.
10.
Between 1962 and 1965, Jack Unterweger was brought up in an Evangelical reform school in Treffen.
11.
Jack Unterweger dropped out of school in 1965 and took an apprenticeship as an assistant hotel waiter in St Veit an der Glan, a position he held for six months before being fired.
12.
Jack Unterweger was sentenced to three days jail with a subsequent 13-month stay at the Bundesanstalt fur Erziehungsbedurftige Kaiserebersdorf, a federal juvenile detention facility, in Vienna's Kaiserebersdorf quarter for rehabilitation.
13.
Carinthia boxing federation president Karl Blaha and St Veit Box Club chairman Willibald Piketz denied Jack Unterweger's claims, saying he was never a member and that there was no record of either his fights or a theft linked to him.
14.
When Jack Unterweger turned 18, the regional court sent a letter to his mother, informing her that they would not provide further social services to Jack Unterweger as "educational measures are unlikely to be successful".
15.
From this point on, Jack Unterweger drifted through Austria and worked occasional labour jobs.
16.
Between 1968 and 1969, Jack Unterweger served two sentences for theft, totalling ten months.
17.
In 1970, Jack Unterweger was sentenced to seven months imprisonment for the kidnapping a minor from her legal guardians and theft, with the sentence extended by three months after he sent a threatening letter to a woman from prison.
18.
Inside the vehicle, Unterweger hit H in the back of the head with a metal rod, stripped her naked, tied her up with underwear and sodomized her with the rod while masturbating.
19.
Jack Unterweger had been bound and gagged with a pantyhose and a distinct necktie.
20.
On 22 October 1973, Unterweger picked nurse Maria W as a hitchhiker in Kitzbuhel.
21.
Shortly after again being convicted of theft in March 1974, Unterweger entered an abusive two-week relationship with Elisabeth L in Rohrbach.
22.
In July 1974, Jack Unterweger physically assaulted two women, with one victim losing an incisor.
23.
Several figures, including Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek, have since questioned whether Jack Unterweger actually wrote Purgatory.
24.
Jack Unterweger had plagiarized at least some of his works, largely children's stories, from Sonja von Eisenstein, a journalist who had kept correspondence with him during his imprisonment, and sent her several poems by Hermann Hesse, claiming them as his own with minimal alterations.
25.
Jack Unterweger repeated a defence he had made during his trial, claiming that his criminal ways were the result of a traumatic childhood.
26.
Jack Unterweger was released on 23 May 1990, after the required minimum fifteen years of his sentence.
27.
Jack Unterweger himself hosted television programmes which discussed criminal rehabilitation and worked as a journalist for the public broadcaster ORF, where he reported on stories concerning the very murders for which he was later found guilty.
28.
On 14 September 1990, less than three months following his release, Jack Unterweger met 30-year-old butcher shop employee Blanka Bockova while in Prague.
29.
Between October 1990 and May 1991, Jack Unterweger killed at least seven women in Austria.
30.
In summer 1991, Jack Unterweger was hired by an Austrian magazine to write about crime in Los Angeles and the differences between US and European attitudes to prostitution.
31.
Jack Unterweger met local police, even going so far as to participate in a ride-along in the city's red light districts.
32.
Jack Unterweger was extradited back to Austria on 27 May 1992 and charged with eleven murders.
33.
Two of his girlfriends, Margrit Haas and lawyer Astrid Wagner, were vocal about their support of Jack Unterweger, based on the perception he was innocent, until they read the original court transcript for the murder of Margrit Schafer.