Jack Unterweger, a convicted murderer who gained fame as a poet and journalist after his release from prison, secretly resumed killing, murdering at least nine women before his final arrest. His case exposed the dangers of misplaced trust in rehabilitation narratives.
First Murder and Conviction
In 1974, Unterweger burgled a house in Ewersbach, Germany, with a female accomplice. When 18-year-old Margret Schäfer surprised them, he kidnapped her to nearby woodland, beat her repeatedly with an iron bar, sexually assaulted her with the bar, and strangled her. He tied her bra around her neck in a "hangman's knot" and covered her body with dirt and leaves.
He continued his crime spree, picking up a second underage girlfriend, acting as a pimp, and committing several sexual assaults similar to Schäfer's murder. After running out of money, he attempted to ransom one girlfriend to her parents but was arrested. He was convicted of four counts of rape and sexual assault, plus murder, and sentenced to life in prison.
Manipulation Behind Bars
In prison, Unterweger wrote poems and essays that gained national attention. He edited a literary magazine, wrote plays, and published an autobiography that made him a minor celebrity. His autobiography claimed his mother, a sex worker, became pregnant by a US serviceman, and that his grandfather forced him to watch sex acts and involved him in livestock theft. He also claimed to have watched his friend die under a steamroller. His mother disputed these stories, saying he invented her prostitution "to make his book sell better."
Writers, artists, journalists, and politicians championed his cause, seeing him as proof of rehabilitation. Austrian writer Kolleritsch visited Stein prison to hear him read: "He was so tender, and at that moment we decided we had to get him pardoned."
Release and New Killings
In May 1990, Unterweger was granted parole. He became a national celebrity, hailed as "a triumph of the individual over all the social and political pathologies into which he’d been born." He gave readings, wrote plays, and worked as a reporter for Austria's national broadcaster.
But after release, he killed at least nine women, possibly 11, each with her underwear tied around her neck in the "hangman's knot" he used on Schäfer. He established himself as a true-crime reporter and was invited on national TV to comment on the killings across Czechoslovakia and Australia. Commissioned by an Austrian magazine to write about crime and prostitution in Los Angeles, he went on an LAPD ride-along. During his visit, three sex workers were strangled with his signature knot.
Arrest and Suicide
An FBI agent who met Unterweger described him as a "presence ... a malevolent thoroughbred." Despite suspicions, he escaped capture until evidence mounted. Realizing arrest was imminent, he fled to Miami, where US Marshals arrested him in February 1992. Extradited to Austria, media still supported him, calling him "the Murder Poet" and stressing he was "only a killer of prostitutes."
On June 29, 1994, he was sentenced to life without parole. That night, he used his trouser drawstring and wire to make a final hangman's knot. Because he died before the court could hear an appeal, the guilty verdict was not legally binding under Austrian law.
