houses of horror

When you buy someone else’s house you have no idea what horror took place within its walls that never made the headlines, and while Amana can understand why Josef and Rosemarie Fritzl’s neighbors are now petitioning for his house of horror in Amstetten, Austria, to be razed to the ground – in the same manner as was Fred and Rosemary West’s horror house in Gloucester, England – she believes that the stink of the crimes committed in these houses cannot be so easily eradicated.

"The stink will continue to permeate the entire town for a long time to come," says Amana, "because it says as much about the neighbors as is does about the monsters who carried out their abominable crimes right under their noses."

"The Josef Fritzl horror story has raised a lot of questions about neighbors, particularly the ‘mind your own business’ mentality of the Austrians – which I believe to be true of most western societies," says Amana, "but I also believe that despite being imprisoned behind eight doors, deep in a dungeon under the Fritzl’s apartment complex, screaming her guts out hoping someone might hear her, Elisabeth may have had a way out by using the plumbing her father had installed for her providing, of course, that a neighbor recognized a distress signal and was willing to do something about it."

“Anyone who’s ever lived in an apartment knows that noise travels loudly through plumbing, and by banging the pipes or shouting through the toilet bowl could she have alerted one of the tenants?” asks Amana. “I ask this because anyone could become trapped in an apartment, not just a cellar, and because we rely on our neighbors to help in emergencies – not to spy on us – it’s something we all need to know.”

“It’s possible Elisabeth tried this – one of the tenants did hear noises, but was told by Fritzl it was a problem with the boiler,” says Amana, “so what was really needed was an alert tenant, not a dense one, and obviously a knowledge of Morse Code, by both Elisabeth and the tenants, would have helped – but who knows how to tap out a simple SOS these days? Isn’t it something we should be teaching our kids and make sure every immigrant knows?”

“Could Elisabeth have flushed a message down the toilet?” adds Amana. “Are sewerage workers trained to watch out for this sort of thing? Probably not.”

“Could Elisabeth have kept the taps on full blast, 24/7, to deny the upstairs tenants water pressure and possibly to alert the water authorities of excess water use and possibly an underground leak?” asks Amana. “This ploy would have worked well during the period Fritzl was overseas. Rosemarie, or her son, would have had to call a plumber and he would have figured out that the problem came from the basement and, following the pipes, would have become aware that someone was down there using the water.”

“That a plumber did visit the cellar on a least one occasion, it’s possible that Elisabeth did try to attract attention by blocking the toilet deliberately or doing something else,” says Amana. “That plumber has not come forward, so we may never know what he saw and what excuse Fritzl gave him.”

“Did anyone see the plumber leave?” asks Amana. “Perhaps he was murdered, chopped up and chucked in the incinerator – which was the fate of one of Elisabeth’s babies.”

“That everyone in Amstetten except, appparently, his family knew that Fritzl was raping his 11-year old daughter (but said nothing) and a tenant saw him take a wheelbarrow of food into the cellar shortly after Elisabeth disappeared (but didn’t put two and two together) – and unauthorized extensions to the cellar were being made under everyone’s noses without anyone, especially the wife, Rosemarie, querying why Fritzl needed extra cellar space – makes me believe that perhaps there could be something odd about the people in Amstetten that may not necessarily apply to all western societies,” says Amana. “Perhaps the Amstetten authorities were also guilty of doing nothing, as well as seeing and saying nothing, and that’s why nobody bothered to report what they knew. Nothing would have been done about it.”

“When Fritzl started expanding his subterranean domain to house his expanding cellar family, the earthworks were done without planning permission,” says Amana, “and because I’m pretty sure the planning regulations are as strict in Austria as they are elsewhere, I find it difficult to understand why Fritzl wasn’t nabbed on this fact alone – like the ganger Al Capone was finally nabbed by the taxman rather than the cops.”

“If nobody heard the digging noises then surely they must have noticed the tons of earth that must have been excavated and brought up for disposal?”

“Surely he did not follow the example of POWs who stored the earth in their trouser legs and spread it around as they walked?

“Tenants were not allowed in the garden area, but their windows overlooked the garden and they must have seen not only wheelbarrows of food going into the cellar but wheelbarrows of earth coming out,” says Amana, “and Rosemarie, for sure, must have seen the mounds of excavated earth, washed his dirty clothes and seen his sweaty body.”

“Didn’t she wonder why he was expanding the cellar space, especially as it was not used by tenants and she had no use for extra storage? Did she not ask herself what the hell was he doing down there, what did he need the extra space for and why was he risking doing earthworks under the house without permission when he could be heavily fined for doing so?”

“As this guy already had two convictions – for rape and arson – you’d think she would be terrified of him getting into trouble again and would have kept a close watch on him.”

“Rosemarie says that she was not allowed into the cellar – nobody was – and yet a tenant saw her helping Fritzl with wheelbarrow loads of food, and one of her sons was seen using the cellar, too,” says Amana, “so it may be a family crime rather than just Fritzl’s.”

“Either that, or the whole town including the rest of the Fritzl family was way below the average IQ,” says Amana. “How desperately sad for Elisabeth Fritzl that her monstrous father was the only intelligent person in town.”

“I’m as guilty as the next person as far as keeping to myself is concerned – the prospect of having a busybody as a neighbor, spying on everything I do, is as bad as having a family like the Fritzls living next door,” sighs Amana, “but there’s no way I’d do nothing to help an 11-year old girl escape a rapist father or ignore a series of strange events – even if it meant a risk to me – and I’d like to think my neighbors would be similarly inclined.”

“I guess we never know about these things, though, until we’re tested.”

Check out these other stories about the Fritzl family:

Elisabeth Fritzl’s Amazing Survival

Rosemarie Fritzl Wasn’t a Fat Housefrau

locked up living fritzl dolls

Austria’s Aryan Heritage

Elisabeth Fritzl Locked Up For Smoking

Secrets of Elisabeth Fritzl’s Age

Secrets of Josef Fritzl's Age