Josef Fritzl divorces wife as she never visits him
Austrian cellar monster Josef Fritzl has had his revenge on his long suffering wife Rosemarie with the granting of a divorce from her while serving life imprisonment.
Rosemarie wanted nothing more to do with him after his terrible crimes against their daughter were exposed – but she wanted to keep his name in order to be entitled to his pensions.
Because she moved to a small flat in Linz, changed her name and refused to answer any of his jailhouse mail, Fritzl ordered divorce proceedings.
Fritzl, who fathered seven children with his captive daughter Elisabeth he held for 24 years in a stinking dungeon carved beneath the family home in Amstetten, Austria, was bitter that Rosemarie turned her back on him when he was arrested in 2008.
Rosemarie was married to him for 55 years and family friends say she has never recovered from the shock of what he did. As much a victim as her own daughter, she was bullied by him for years and even took him back after he was jailed in the 1960’s for two years for raping a nurse.
According to Austrian media reports, Fritzl was granted the divorce several weeks ago. It means Rosemarie can no longer get the same pension rights and will get nothing if her 77-year-old ex-husband dies before her.
Rosemarie’s sister Christine Ranner – who has been writing to him at his jail in Austria since he was caged for life in 2009 for kidnap, rape and murder following the death of one of the incest children in the cellar – has told how Rosmarie said the split would be “one last triumph” for the pervert.
Christine revealed: “My sister decided not to file for divorce since this would be Josef’s final triumph over her. It would have meant she would not receive any pension if he had passed away before her – after 55 years of marriage.
“Because she refused to stand by him and answer his letters he spitefully divorced her anyway.”
In one letter to her he tried to distance himself from his crimes, refusing to apologise for them. “Only those directly affected can write about ‘feeling sorry’ and about feelings,” he said.
“What happened was never planned. I need to carry the guilt all alone. I have to say that I’d rather stick to foreigners who have more trust in me than my whole family put together.”
Elisabeth, who was knocked out at the age of 18 to be imprisoned in the cellar where she was raped over 3,000 times over 24 years, now lives with her six surviving incest children fathered by her demonic dad in a house provided by the Austrian government. She has never spoken of her ordeal.
She developed a relationship with her bodyguard after he was imprisoned but that ended and she is now once again alone.
Initially angry at her mother for allowing her father back into the family fold after he
was released from jail, she has since reconciled with her.
Fritzl hid his crimes with meticulous precision over the years. He told gullible authorities that his daughter had run away to join a cult. Because there was no space to bring up all of his incestuous brood in the subterranean prison he put three babies on his doorstep and claimed his daughter had left them there with notes saying they should be looked after.
He was finally stopped in 2008 when one of the children, Kerstin, was admitted to hospital from the cellar she had never left as she lay at death’s door. Fritzl told doctors she had been dumped by his wayward daughter on his doorstep but they were suspicious and alerted the police.
The cellar was uncovered and the enormity of his crimes revealed. He is in a prison for the criminally insane and is expected never to be freed.
Nikolaus Rast, Fritzl’s klawyer, declined to comment on the divorce.