The misogynist

“My fantasies are beyond my control”

"My fantasies are beyond my control"

(Bild: Geprompted von: MediaPrint Online Produktion)

Nobody around him had any idea of his dark secret: from childhood, Helfried B. wanted to be a woman - and to kill women. "At some point, I just couldn't help myself," he says: "I had to kill."

There was this one particular event. That was probably decisive for everything that was to happen to me. I was about 13 at the time and happened to see a neighbor throw old high heels into a garbage bin. Somehow - I don't know why - that triggered something in me. In any case, I waited a bit and took the shoes out of the bin at an unobserved moment. In a strange way, they were a treasure to me. So I washed and cleaned them at home and then hid them in a box in my room. The thought of my secret excited me immensely. And every night I just waited for the moment when I knew for sure that my parents and siblings were fast asleep. And then I took the shoes out of their hiding place, put them on and lay down in bed. The feelings I had were wonderful ..."

It is June 12, 2002 and an outwardly completely unremarkable man - 180 centimetres tall, weighing 83 kilos; short brown hair; wearing a carefully ironed polo shirt and jeans - is sitting in an interrogation room in the security office.

The perpetrator Helfried B.

(Bild: Prewein Martina)

The ÖBB employee collected countless newspaper reports about gruesome murders in folders at home: "Because I got very excited when I read these stories."

(Bild: Prewein Martina)

The perpetrator: "At night I put on sexy lingerie and high heels, and I put on a wig. So I went to the Prater and imagined I was a whore."

(Bild: Prewein Martina)

His name: Helfried B. A native of Styria, 38 years old, locksmith at ÖBB, registered in a "railroad garçonnière" in Vienna-Hütteldorf. And previously blameless. "Yes, it's true," he says in a calm voice, "I killed Elisabeth and I'll show you where she is in a moment..."