The murder feud

Jack Unterweger: His mistress and the head of the criminal investigation department

Astrid Wagner and Ernst Geiger at Café Landtmann, a former haunt of the serial killer

(Bild: Heinz Stephan Tesarek)

They were once bitter enemies: lawyer Astrid Wagner, Jack Unterweger's last lover, and former head of the criminal investigation department Ernst Geiger, who brought him down. 30 years after his death, the two are now discussing the serial killer in front of an audience. Beforehand, they gave a heated double interview to the "Krone". 

Two opposites meet here: SHE - the last lover of "Jack", who will probably never stop raising doubts about his guilt. HE - the investigator who convicted Unterweger of his gruesome deeds. Both have recently written books about the serial killer. Wagner's is defensive, of course; Geiger's is accusatory, of course.

Now the two are sitting at a table in Vienna's Café Landtmann. Unterweger once gave readings there, performed his plays and often gave interviews. About his capital crime against a woman in 1974; about his premature release from prison in 1990; but above all about his career as a writer, which had already begun in prison.

Jack Unterweger during his short time in freedom. With his sheepdog, 1991, at a press appointment in Café Landtmann.

(Bild: picturedesk.com/Fritz FIEDLER / picturedesk.com)

The conviction, the suicide
But let's look back to June 1994. At that time, the spectacular trial against the perpetrator was taking place in Graz Provincial Court. The verdict on June 28: life imprisonment for nine counts of murdering a prostitute. "Jack" then hanged himself in his cell with the cord of a pair of jogging trousers. What was going on inside Wagner and Geiger after they found out about the suicide?

"I broke down crying," the lawyer recalls. "I was amazed that he had taken this step," says the investigator. And yes, he knew that "Astrid" - he had long been on a first-name basis with her - had "initially blamed him for Unterweger's suicide". Even publicly. Which she was soon forbidden to do by court order. "And our feud grew even bigger."

I still have strong doubts about Jack's guilt. The evidence against him was by no means overwhelming.

Astrid Wagner

Bild: Heinz Stephan Tesarek

Surprising: "For a little while, we only knew each other from the media." Even at the trial against the serial killer, the two claim never to have seen each other: "We were just in the courtroom on different days."

"Jack just called him 'Geifer'"
 Wagner: "Jack kept telling me during visits that Ernst Geiger - whom he called 'Geifer' - was obsessed with destroying him. Without taking any exonerating evidence into account. Such as the fact that a girl friend had initially testified positively - and only after interrogation had she testified negatively about him. Or that for some of the victims it remained completely unclear until the end when they were killed."

Jack Unterweger

Der „Jahrhundertfall“

Jack Unterweger, geboren am 16. August 1950, wuchs unter problematischen Umständen bei seinem Großvater in Kärnten auf. Bereits in der Jugend beging er Diebstähle und Einbrüche. Im April 1973 wurde er schließlich verdächtigt, eine junge Frau getötet zu haben – letztlich fehlten aber die für eine Anklage nötigen Beweise.

Als gesichert gilt: 1974 ermordete er eine 23-Jährige. 1975 wurde ihm deswegen der Prozess gemacht, er bekam lebenslang. In der Haft begann er, Gedichte und Romane zu schreiben, bekannte Künstler wurden auf ihn aufmerksam und feierten ihn als ein Musterbeispiel für eine gelungene Resozialisierung.

Die Folge: 1990 wurde der „Häfenpoet“ verfrüht in Freiheit entlassen. Kurz danach fing eine Mordserie an Prostituierten an. Elf Freudenmädchen – in Wien, in der Steiermark, in Vorarlberg, in Tschechien, in Los Angeles – soll „Jack“ mit grausamsten Foltermethoden hingerichtet haben.

1992 kam ihm die Polizei auf die Spur, kurz vor seiner geplanten Festnahme flüchtete er nach Miami, konnte dort aber bald gefasst werden.

1994 seine Verhandlung im Landesgericht Graz, Unterweger wurde dabei – „bloß“ – wegen neunfachen Mordes -  verurteilt. Wenige Stunden nach dem Schuldspruch erhängte er sich in seiner Zelle. 

The ex-chief of police brushes these arguments aside with a few terse words: "The prostitutes disappeared when Unterweger was in their vicinity. And what the witness said about his behavior was actually insignificant. The only important thing was that she could credibly confirm that he had been on the streets. And anyway - countless other facts also spoke against him."

Nevertheless, the perpetrator and his lawyers managed to convince some newspaper editors that "Jack" was wrongly suspected. An opinion that - according to Geiger - "was subsequently adopted by a significant proportion of the population".

The lawyer and the former investigator now have a relaxed relationship - but still have conflicting opinions about the perpetrator.

(Bild: Heinz Stephan Tesarek)

An opinion "that became extremely widespread and intensified when Astrid began to stand up for him. A likeable, pretty, clever woman, and a lawyer to boot. Why should she tie herself to a killer? - many people thought."

"After a talk show, we made up"
 Postscript, addressed directly to Wagner: "I never understood why you did it, by the way." SHE: "I was young, I only knew Jack from his good side, his empathetic side."

HE: "He didn't have a good side, he was abysmally evil." SHE: "No one is all evil. Maybe he had an evil part in him, and if that was the case, it developed as a result of the torment he suffered in his childhood."

I assume that Unterweger actually killed 13 women. He really was a classic serial killer.

Ernst Geiger

Bild: Heinz Stephan Tesarek

"Anyway, a year and a half ago, we were both guests on a German talk show about Unterweger. Afterwards, we made up over dinner. Since then, we've had a relaxed relationship."

How many women did he actually kill?
Except when the two of them talk about "Jack" - and his number of victims, for example. Geiger: "I assume that he actually committed 13 murders. The one he confessed to in the 1970s; another one, also at that time, but which could not be proven. And all eleven crimes for which he was charged in 1994."

The woman killer in 1992, after his arrest in Miami

(Bild: Polizei)

Wagner: "I think he was 'framed' for - at least some of - the crimes." And in any case, his guilt was "controversial", after all, "two out of eight jurors acquitted him". HE: "Because you did great PR for him, unfortunately." SHE: "Or maybe because he wasn't a serial killer after all?"

The two will soon be discussing the perpetrator in front of an audience under the title: "He divides them - he unites them." The dates of the events can be found on their Facebook pages.