Murders linked to Jack Unterweger

Johann "Jack" Unterweger was an Austrian writer who had already served time for one murder before killing at least eleven more people across three countries between 1990 and 1991. In 1976 he was convicted in Austria of murdering 18-year-old Margret Schäfer in West Germany in December 1974 and was sentenced to life in prison. During his sentence he became known for prison writing that drew support from Austrian literary and political figures campaigning for his release, and he was paroled on 23 May 1990 after serving the mandatory minimum of fifteen years. Afterward he worked as a journalist and playwright, including reporting for Austrian public broadcaster ORF on the same killings for which he was later convicted.

On 14 September 1990, 20-year-old Blanka Bočková was killed in Prague, Czechoslovakia; she was found strangled the next day near the Vltava River. Between October 1990 and May 1991, at least seven sex workers were killed in Austria: Brunhilde Masser (41) in Graz, Heidemarie Hammerer (31) in Bregenz, Elfriede Schrempf (35) in Graz, and Silvia Zagler (23), Sabine Moitzi (25), Regina Prem (33), and Karin Eroglu-Sladky (25) in Vienna. Each was driven outside the city, beaten, raped, and strangled — manually in most cases, and with an item of underwear in others — before being left in a wooded area. Some bodies were not discovered for months; Regina Prem's remains were not found until April 1992, nearly a year after she disappeared.

In summer 1991, on assignment in Los Angeles to write about prostitution and policing, Unterweger beat, raped, and killed three more sex workers: Shannon Exley (35) on 20 June, Irene Rodriguez (33) on 28 June, and Peggi Jean Booth, also known as Sherri Ann Long (26), on 3 July. Investigators later connected the Los Angeles and Austrian killings through the distinctive way each victim's bra had been cut and retied into a knot used to control asphyxiation.

Austrian authorities regarded Unterweger as a suspect and placed him under surveillance, including two rounds of questioning by Vienna police councillor Max Edelbacher in late 1991, but found nothing definitive before he traveled to the United States. Once police in Graz assembled enough evidence for an arrest, Unterweger fled with his girlfriend through Switzerland, France, and the United States. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Miami, Florida, on 27 February 1992, extradited to Austria on 27 May 1992, and charged with eleven murders spanning the three countries.

At trial, psychiatrist Reinhard Haller told the court on 20 June 1994 that Unterweger had narcissistic personality disorder. A jury convicted him of nine of the eleven murders by a 6:2 vote, and on 29 June 1994 he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. That night he hanged himself in his cell at Justizanstalt Graz-Jakomini, using a knot matching the one found on the strangled victims. Because Unterweger had stated an intention to appeal, Austrian law did not treat his guilty verdict as legally final — it was never reviewed and confirmed by a higher court.