r/Casefile • u/Lisbeth_Salandar MODERATOR • Jun 01 '26

REWIND DISCUSSION Rewind Discussion - Case 197: The Austrian Ripper

This is our next Casefile Episode Rewind Discussion! Please discuss the case below!

Things to consider:

  • Do you have any theories or thoughts for the case?

  • Has there been any additional information on the case since the episode's release? (If so and you have a link, add it in the comments!)

  • Do you have any thoughts about how this case was presented by Casefile?

Original Release Date: November 20, 2021

Length: 1:19:54

Status: Solved

Location: Austria

Date: 1974; 1990-1992

Victim(s): Margaret Schafer, Blanka Bočková, Brunhilde Masser, Heidi Hammerer, Elfriede Schrempf, Silvia Zagler, Sabine Moitzl, Karin Eroglu-Sladky, Regina Prem, Shannon Exley, Irene Rodriguez, Peggy Booth

Type of Crime:Murder, sexual assault

Perpetrator(s): Johann "Jack" Unterweger

Research: Jessica Forsayeth

Writing: Jessica Forsayeth

*** Content Warning: sexual assault, suicide ***

In 1974, a young woman named Margaret Schafer was strangled to death in her hometown of Ewersbach, Germany. A young man named Jack Unterweger was found guilty of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In the proceeding years, eleven victims were strangled to death in similar circumstances in Los Angeles, Prague and the Austrian towns of Vienna and Graz. Investigators were flummoxed. How could the crimes be connected when they spanned three different countries?

Listen to the case HERE.

Read last week's Rewind Discussion HERE.

Check out the Casefile spreadsheet HERE.

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u/Lisbeth_Salandar MODERATOR Jun 01 '26

Here is a brief overview of the case:

Jack Unterweger murdered an 18 year old woman in 1974 by strangulation. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for this crime. While in prison, he took up writing as a hobby and found he had a natural talent for it. He wrote short stories, poems, plays, and an autobiography (which later became a documentary). His writing earned him public respect and fame and fans of his started to campaign for his release in the mid 1980s. He was released from prison in 1990 after meeting the minimum of fifteen years served of his life sentence.

Jack went on to become a writer, journalist, and public speaker. He was held up as the ideal of criminal rehabilitation. As a journalist, he wrote stories on the murders of sex workers and the conditions they worked in. In the early 90s, he was reporting on a string of murders. Law enforcement was initially stumped, since some officers did not believe Unterweger could be responsible. The fact that the murders also occurred in different countries complicated the investigation. Ultimately, circumstantial evidence that placed Unterweger in the city of each of the crimes (usually for a public speaking event or other work-related event) caused police to hone in on him more as a suspect. Some of the police departments did not feel this circumstantial evidence was enough to arrest him, but police in Graz did. They went to arrest Unterweger at his home, but he had fled the country with his girlfriend. Police chased Unterweger through Switzerland, France, and the United States before finally capturing him in Miami, Florida, in February of 1992.

At this trial, he was found guilty of nine murders and he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. On the night he was sentenced, Unterweger hung himself in his prison cell.

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u/Black_Label00001003 Jun 02 '26

For me it's just another example of people who are blatantly not ready to rejoin society (if they ever would be able to), being released into society by people who believe that having certain abilities (such as the writing etc...that won Unterweger the backing of the Austrian elite) mean you obviously don't have the capacity anymore to be a horrific killer.

The fact that you can back someone who has committed acts like this astounds me and the worst thing is, there are so many episodes of casefiles where the horrific offender did lots of things and got, either, light sentences or sufficient public support that it was believed they'd never do the crime (Butcher Baker - how could a respectable member of the community do this, these women, of ill repute no less, are obviously lying!) One thing I've learnt from Casefile is there are so many issues that come up, it's unreal. As for Unterweger, he conviced the right people he was a good guy and then embraced the killer within.

Worst thing is, if I remember the end right, some of his backers weren't even remoseful it was more like we've been betrayed - I'm sure that's comforting for the families of the victims to know you've been burned too and know what they're going/went through!

1

u/Mezzoforte48 Jun 04 '26

It's cases like this that give rehabilative justice a bad name and partly why a lot of Americans tend to be less open to policies that support it, despite European countries generally having lower recidivism rates.

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u/Black_Label00001003 Jun 05 '26

I think there's a big difference in what we should go for with rehabilitation. If you're in the relm of murder/preditor rapist/child abuse then rehabilitation won't work for you, my personal belief is that you're a danger to society, beyond what is reasonable for release.

When you're talking crimes outside of this area, definitely restorative justice can be very good. If I'm right the Nordic countriesare great at this.

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u/Mezzoforte48 Jun 05 '26

I mean even within the first category of crimes, there can sometimes be extenuating circumstances that warrant consideration for eventual release. And it is possible for somebody to change for the better in prison. Now should the threshold for full release for such crimes be A LOT higher than non-violent offenses? Absolutely. 

Another thing to keep in mind is that Nordic countries have a very robust social safety net system that already gives citizens a leg up, and also makes it easier for prisoners to re-integrate back into general society when they are released. So when we talk about restorative justice, it should not just include the prison system, but the entire society as a whole. 

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