Speaker 1: Welcome back. I'm Nicole and I'm Ben.
Speaker 2: Of course, welcome back. But you're listening to wicketing.
Speaker 1: Around, a true crime podcast.
Speaker 3: My podcast listener, we both said welcome back.
Speaker 1: I said it first, I win.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but first the worst, second the best. Sure you
Speaker 2: know how that works. Second is the best. I learned
Speaker 2: that in like grade two. Come on now, oh my god,
Speaker 2: that's elementary.
Speaker 1: Welcome back.
Speaker 2: Oh now you're trying to be third the golden turd.
Speaker 1: It literally feels like we have not been on here.
Speaker 2: Forever, I know, and it's it's only been slightly over
Speaker 2: a week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I think with Halloween Week, it was such
Speaker 1: a part of our life for so long. Okay, only
Speaker 1: a week, but it was just a lot of effort
Speaker 1: every day, and so it just it's felt like this
Speaker 1: was a really long break.
Speaker 2: It did. It felt I mean a break we needed,
Speaker 2: but it was definitely lengthy. And that's what she said.
Speaker 1: Halloween Week was so epic that for quite a while
Speaker 1: after Halloween actually, I was like, you know what, screw Christmas,
Speaker 1: I'm done with you. I don't want any part of you,
Speaker 1: because that was just like my favorite Halloween ever, I think,
Speaker 1: And but I'm starting to get into the Halloween spirit.
Speaker 2: I bought Christmas lights getting in that Christmas spirit.
Speaker 1: Oh, the Christmas spirit. Now, yeah, I'm still stuck on Halloween.
Speaker 1: It's it's slowly coming because I love Christmas. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: have to pick some Christmas cases.
Speaker 2: Oh, we'll definitely have to pick Christmas cases.
Speaker 1: Totally goats.
Speaker 2: But also side note, because Halloween did go so amazing
Speaker 2: and so awesome. Just the other day, we hit a
Speaker 2: total of two hundred thousand lifetime listens on the podcast,
Speaker 2: so our episodes because of all you listeners out there,
Speaker 2: all you patrons, all you people who support the shit
Speaker 2: out of us, you have listened to us two hundred
Speaker 2: thousand times. That's wild, It's insane.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you, Thank.
Speaker 2: You so much from the bottom of our little shoveled
Speaker 2: up grinch hearts that are about to grow three times
Speaker 2: with Christmas.
Speaker 1: It's so funny that you say something with the Grinch,
Speaker 1: because I say something with the Grinch in my case.
Speaker 2: Oh really, Oh well, look at us go.
Speaker 1: We're in sync totally?
Speaker 2: Or is that is that Backstreet Boyds? Oh shit, I
Speaker 2: always get to make I always get a make.
Speaker 1: Know someone will tell us if we're wrong, which is
Speaker 1: totally fine. Okay, So we have some patrons to thank
Speaker 1: you do and then before I end up forgetting the
Speaker 1: case I'm doing today. Actually, one of our patrons requested
Speaker 1: and her name was Samantha. Sorry for a minute that
Speaker 1: I almost thought I was saying the wronger, but Samantha,
Speaker 1: because yeah, I put a little selfie up there and
Speaker 1: I was like, take a request. And there was some
Speaker 1: sweet requests that came in and we will definitely be
Speaker 1: covering some of those, but for today we picked Samantha's.
Speaker 2: So, Samantha, thank you very much for the request.
Speaker 1: Yeah, super appreciate it you're doing.
Speaker 2: I don't even know what it is. Well, I know
Speaker 2: the name, I know the gist of the case in
Speaker 2: like a one sentence summary. Oh dude, it's yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: It's it's a bad one.
Speaker 2: I'm looking forward to hearing it, looking forward to what
Speaker 2: happened that it does not sound good, but I'm anxious
Speaker 2: to hear wild Wild. But before we get into the details,
Speaker 2: can we thank our patrons?
Speaker 1: Absolutely?
Speaker 2: Okay, So since we last thanked our patrons for signing up,
Speaker 2: we have a few more to thank like Solangel, Tracy Shandy,
Speaker 2: Julie Phillips, Alex I almost did, Alexandria, Alexia, Kevin, Kyle Dylan,
Speaker 2: and Teresa Ends.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Thank you all.
Speaker 2: Signing up on our Patreon and supporting the shit out
Speaker 2: of round you. Yeah, and we're going to put another
Speaker 2: request up on Patreon to see what you guys want
Speaker 2: us to do for the Patreon exclusive episode.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I forgot about that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, if you want to sign up for Patreon,
Speaker 2: see that exclusive episode where we were completely shmammered and
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Speaker 2: us know what you want for a Patreon only exclusive episode.
Speaker 1: Thank you, yes one seriously super appreciate it. Okay, do
Speaker 1: you drink? Don't? I don't actually have a drink today.
Speaker 1: I'm it's kind of sad.
Speaker 2: I have like a leader of.
Speaker 1: It, but you have a leader. So if I need
Speaker 1: a drink, I'm just gonna steal some.
Speaker 2: And fear not. There is Irish cream in it, so
Speaker 2: we're good.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So I don't know, we can start going, let's
Speaker 1: do it. I think we have other updates but we
Speaker 1: probably chit chatted enough, so let's dive right in. So
Speaker 1: this is the story about Joseph Fritzel and Elizabeth Fritzel.
Speaker 1: But we're going to focus more on Elizabeth because she's
Speaker 1: the victim, and we try to focus on the victims
Speaker 1: around here as much as possible. So Elizabeth was born
Speaker 1: on April sixth, nineteen sixty six, to parents Joseph and Rosemary.
Speaker 1: She was the fourth child to be born out of
Speaker 1: their seven children. Now, trigger warning, This story is quite intense,
Speaker 1: including some extreme sexual abuse. So I'm just warning you
Speaker 1: right off the back here. If you don't you want
Speaker 1: to hear it, stop now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is your official second warning. Yes, because we
Speaker 2: have a warning at the beginning of the episode. But
Speaker 2: and now here's your second chance.
Speaker 1: To give you a second one. So, now, out of
Speaker 1: the seven children, Joseph seemed to gravitate towards Elizabeth, taking
Speaker 1: a special interest in her and treating her differently than
Speaker 1: the rest of the children, on an obsession towards her.
Speaker 2: If you will, an obsession obsession I missed. Did you
Speaker 2: say how many children he had?
Speaker 1: Seven?
Speaker 2: Seven? Okay?
Speaker 1: Seven? If he needed to go somewhere, he'd want Elizabeth
Speaker 1: to come with him or if he needed help. It
Speaker 1: was Elizabeth he wanted help from. He liked for her
Speaker 1: to always be in his sight. At the age of eleven,
Speaker 1: Joseph would start to sexually abuse Elizabeth. Fuck, which is
Speaker 1: honestly horrific. Like that, that's her father, Yeah, like her father.
Speaker 2: There's that two perspectives. There's the age of being so
Speaker 2: young and eleven, and then there's the that's your fucking dad.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like, oh my gosh, I just can't. At fifteen,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth would com, oh, do you have something to say,
Speaker 1: my love?
Speaker 2: It just reminded me of a joke. So whenever you're ready,
Speaker 2: so I tell you the joke. Go ahead, Okay, sorry.
Speaker 2: Why do teenage girls always travel in odd numbers?
Speaker 1: Oh gosh, I feel like I've actually heard this, but
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: Know because they can't even.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, they can't even. That's awesome And I
Speaker 1: even said that. Yeah, So am I like a teenage girl?
Speaker 2: Pretty much?
Speaker 1: Pretty much? Yeah, pretty much?
Speaker 2: Sorry, I digress.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Okay. So at fifteen, Elizabeth would complete her
Speaker 1: necessary schooling, and once that was finished, she started a
Speaker 1: course to become a waitress. When she was sixteen years
Speaker 1: old in January nineteen eighty three, she would run away
Speaker 1: from home with a friend, but honestly can't blame her.
Speaker 2: No kidding.
Speaker 1: They went into hiding in Vienna, Austria, but were found
Speaker 1: by the police and returned to their parents three weeks
Speaker 1: after running away. I should mention the story itself itself
Speaker 1: takes place in Amsted in Austria. Once back home, Elizabeth
Speaker 1: rejoined her waitress course and completed it in nineteen eighty four,
Speaker 1: being offered a job in Lintz, which was a nearby town. Now,
Speaker 1: much to Nolan's knowledge, Joseph was realizing he was losing Elizabeth.
Speaker 1: She was becoming an adult and soon she would be
Speaker 1: off on her own. The plan he would come up
Speaker 1: with next is just horrific, And like I'm probably gonna
Speaker 1: say it again, like I keep saying horrific, but it's honestly,
Speaker 1: there's just like no other word to describe this.
Speaker 2: The one detail I do know is the detail you're
Speaker 2: leading up to, and it's fucking disgusting. Yeah, it's far
Speaker 2: beyond horrific. Yeah, there are no words.
Speaker 1: Like my jaw. Researching was pretty much just constantly on
Speaker 1: the ground. So in nineteen seventy eight, the Fritzalhouse would
Speaker 1: undergo a renovation. The house was a larger, older home,
Speaker 1: dating back to the eighteen nineties. It had many rooms,
Speaker 1: some of them being rented out to tenants. Joseph had
Speaker 1: applied for a building permit to extend his basement, some
Speaker 1: reports saying for it to be an atomic bomb shelter.
Speaker 1: He went through all the necessary permits to make his
Speaker 1: renovation legal stumble, which initially surprised me. But he was
Speaker 1: a smart man, and I think this would prevent people
Speaker 1: from investigating at a later date by him going through
Speaker 1: the paperwork.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Once the shelter was complete, and to no one's knowledge,
Speaker 1: Joseph would go even further, adding more space to the basement,
Speaker 1: reading a small prison.
Speaker 2: Yep, here we go, We're going there up. No one,
Speaker 2: this is fucking nasty.
Speaker 1: Oh it's it's yeah, yeah, yeah, it's real bad. No
Speaker 1: one in his family was allowed to go to the basement.
Speaker 1: It was for Joseph's use only. He referred to it
Speaker 1: as his kingdom, and he was busy while down there,
Speaker 1: and not to be disturbed. He was a trained engineer,
Speaker 1: and apparently this is where he did his work. As
Speaker 1: you can imagine, he had much control over the family,
Speaker 1: and you did not question Joseph.
Speaker 2: Fuck this guy, I know I already. I just can't
Speaker 2: this guy his kingdom.
Speaker 1: Fuck yeah, he just deserves nothing.
Speaker 2: So I'm a king of nothing, king of nothingness, King
Speaker 2: of the pilot who.
Speaker 1: On August twenty eighth, nineteen eighty four, Joseph would end
Speaker 1: up luring Elizabeth into the basement of the family house,
Speaker 1: saying you needed help carrying a door or something to
Speaker 1: that extent. This favor would change Elizabeth's life trajectory completely.
Speaker 1: As Elizabeth was helping her father, Joseph would reveal an
Speaker 1: ether soaked towel, bring it to his daughter's face, and
Speaker 1: hold it there until she lost consciousness. She would later
Speaker 1: regain consciousness handcuffed in the secret prison cell her father
Speaker 1: had started working on years prior. This would be her
Speaker 1: home for the next twenty four years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's oh fuck, I can't imagine.
Speaker 1: Like that is a long fucking time.
Speaker 2: Yep.
Speaker 1: That It's just it's unimaginable. It's unthinkable, Like holy frank,
Speaker 1: like I just almost feel like i'd rather die.
Speaker 2: Well, and I know I'm jumping way ahead here, but
Speaker 2: after those twenty four years, can you imagine what it
Speaker 2: would be like to get out of there? That's Stockholm
Speaker 2: syndrome that you're oh gosh.
Speaker 1: And just like the amount of life that you've just
Speaker 1: missed out on, Oh yeah.
Speaker 2: For sure, literally a quarter of your life if you
Speaker 2: are lucky enough to live to be one hundred.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my gosh. Okay, So I didn't know exactly where
Speaker 1: to mention this, but his unwanted acts to words Elizabeth
Speaker 1: were not his first. He was known for indecent exposure,
Speaker 1: peeping into people's windows and watching them in intimate moments,
Speaker 1: which is just He's Tom, It's just so disgusting Jesus,
Speaker 1: often masturbating in parks while watching women.
Speaker 2: Okay, well that one's completely normal. Oh my gosh, kidding,
Speaker 2: don't sorry. That was a bad joke.
Speaker 1: That was a terrible joke. And in nineteen sixty seven,
Speaker 1: he was actually arrested for following and raping a woman
Speaker 1: in her home. Fuck and get this, Like, I was like,
Speaker 1: what the fuck? He served twelve months of his eighteen
Speaker 1: month sentence. Why the fuck was it only eighteen months?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 1: And he even raped someone?
Speaker 2: And even still, why did he only serve twelve months
Speaker 2: of that.
Speaker 1: Eighteen Oh okay, so you literally followed someone home, raped
Speaker 1: them in their goddamn home, and you had to go
Speaker 1: to jail for a year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so you followed someone raped someone. We're given
Speaker 2: the fucking ridiculous minimum sentence of eighteen months and you
Speaker 2: didn't even have to serve that whole period. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: a whole fucked up situation.
Speaker 1: That is just i'd oh, like that is too low.
Speaker 2: That's a whole home that is.
Speaker 1: It makes my head hurt.
Speaker 2: That is a whole bunch of messed up wrapped in
Speaker 2: whole burritoce. That's like going to Taco Bell, getting the
Speaker 2: cheapest chocolate you can, throwing it on the floor, stepping
Speaker 2: on it, and then eating it. Ew exactly. That's just
Speaker 2: like why I think of the shit because it's a
Speaker 2: whole messed up situation wrapped up. And I was gonna
Speaker 2: say burrito, and then I thought taco and then I
Speaker 2: thought taco bell, and I was like, how can you
Speaker 2: make taco bell any shittier? You throw it the ground
Speaker 2: and step on her.
Speaker 1: Here is always thinking about taco tacos. I was gonna
Speaker 1: say taco bell, but just tacos. I don't generally have
Speaker 1: taco bell clearly, so this is even weird. Okay, not
Speaker 1: even weird. Actually I shouldn't say that, but his Okay,
Speaker 1: me being a wife, I think this fucked. His wife.
Speaker 1: Rosemary would stay with him through all of this. Did
Speaker 1: she know that that she visited him in prison? And shit?
Speaker 2: Oh oh sorry, I thought you were skipping.
Speaker 1: Ahead to Oh no, no, I'm still talking about like okay,
Speaker 1: so like the twelve month sentence and shit, like she
Speaker 1: would visit him and like just pretend like nothing happened. Really,
Speaker 1: like I'm pretty sure that is me.
Speaker 2: And I'd be like, pigs, your Prince Charming just raped
Speaker 2: someone's in prison, and you're.
Speaker 1: Like that's disgusting, Like I'm out.
Speaker 2: I'd be like, your fucking nasty. I'm your nasty.
Speaker 1: Okay. So initially Elizabeth's mother, Rosemary, would report Elizabeth missing.
Speaker 1: She was not part of this plan and had no
Speaker 1: knowledge that her daughter was locked just below the floors
Speaker 1: of her home.
Speaker 2: Well, and Rosemary had a history of running away, so
Speaker 2: of course she could be missing. Rosemary or her daughter.
Speaker 1: Who did I say, Elizabeth or Elizabeth? Rosemary is the mother?
Speaker 2: Okay, sorry, Elizabeth has the history of running away. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so of course that's to be suspected. Now she's done
Speaker 2: it before.
Speaker 1: I guess, But I mean like she's found. I mean
Speaker 1: I don't know. Okay. So Joseph would put on an
Speaker 1: act too as a distraught parent, even apparently crying at
Speaker 1: one point to the police, like freaking bastard. Not okay
Speaker 1: with that.
Speaker 2: This guy sucks.
Speaker 1: He was able to dodge this missing person's report by
Speaker 1: handing over a letter to the police, the first of
Speaker 1: what would be many letters he would force Elizabeth to
Speaker 1: write while he was holding her in captivity. The letter
Speaker 1: would address that Elizabeth was tired of living with her
Speaker 1: family and that she had joined a cult. It warned
Speaker 1: her parents not to look for her. This would close
Speaker 1: the investigation to look for Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: See, anytime there's a letter, don't look for me, that's
Speaker 2: a red flag to say, fucking look for the person.
Speaker 1: I can look like real hard. Yeah, but you know,
Speaker 1: it closed done. They're finished looking for her. Now, what
Speaker 1: exactly was Elizabeth living in? Well, I'm going to share
Speaker 1: with you.
Speaker 2: Oh no, here we go.
Speaker 1: Initially, going down into the basement, you were met with
Speaker 1: a utility room and a workshop Joseph's workshop. Behind a
Speaker 1: bookshelf in the workshop was a secret door only measuring
Speaker 1: one meter high that would lead to the cellar. The
Speaker 1: cellar consisted of a bathroom, kitchen, and two bedrooms, all
Speaker 1: connected by very little, narrow passageways, which I thought was
Speaker 1: really interesting. It covered approximately an area of approximately five
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety square feet, but it wasn't always that large.
Speaker 1: And we'll touch on that a bit.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean that square footage of that it's like
Speaker 2: what we're living in in our tiny it's actually bigger.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean we have windows.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, we have luxuries that she would not have.
Speaker 1: Yea, like literally like no daylight whatsoever.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Like I just could only imagine like the air, how
Speaker 1: like non fresh it would.
Speaker 2: Be in there, like and in the cellar you got
Speaker 2: that cool damp stone foundation air and like, yeah, no,
Speaker 2: that's that's not fun.
Speaker 1: It would just be awful. There were two access points
Speaker 1: into the cell a hinge door and this okay that
Speaker 1: I found it apparently weighed like a thousand pounds. This door,
Speaker 1: which is incredibly hard for me to envision, but became
Speaker 1: unstable over years due to the weight and the metal
Speaker 1: door and then there was a metal door reinforced with
Speaker 1: concrete on steel rails that weighed like six hundred pounds,
Speaker 1: so like he's like enforcing the shit out of this place.
Speaker 2: He was making sure no one got out, or if
Speaker 2: they didn't, if they were trying to look for someone.
Speaker 1: So that that door was located behind the shelf in
Speaker 1: Joseph's basement workshop and was very protected. So for one
Speaker 1: it was hidden. There was an electronic code using a
Speaker 1: remote control unit to enter, and in order to have
Speaker 1: reached this door, apparently five locking basement rooms had to
Speaker 1: have been crossed to get to Elizabeth. Eight doors in
Speaker 1: total needed to be unlocked. Wow, two of them being
Speaker 1: additionally secured by electronic locking devices. Like that is a
Speaker 1: massive like there's no escaping that really, Like there's this,
Speaker 1: I just don't think it's possible.
Speaker 2: The pre planning there, the premeditation involved in all this,
Speaker 2: the years, the saying I'm going to make sure if
Speaker 2: she gets past door number one or two or three,
Speaker 2: she's still fucking locked down.
Speaker 1: It's like, could you imagine if you got cross this
Speaker 1: store one like just you'd probably just be like yes, yes,
Speaker 1: like the relief, and.
Speaker 2: Then you're met by another door. Yeah, and you get
Speaker 2: past it and the fucking oh my god, the heartbreaks like.
Speaker 1: Oh goodness. Okay, but then also to me, Okay, So
Speaker 1: if I lived in this home and there was an
Speaker 1: area of my home that I couldn't go into and
Speaker 1: that was just locked, I think I'd be suspicious, like
Speaker 1: af like, I just wouldn't. I wouldn't be okay with that.
Speaker 1: There'd be no way that I would not be breaking
Speaker 1: in there.
Speaker 2: Well, my my assumption wouldn't be that you're holding our
Speaker 2: child captive in there, Okay.
Speaker 1: But if I had an area that have our host
Speaker 1: ben you're not allowed to go in here, and it
Speaker 1: was constantly locked, you would need to go in there.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, both of us would break into each other.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, But I'm just saying I was leading up
Speaker 2: to my point here, Like I wouldn't assume like they're
Speaker 2: fucking hiding our missing child in there. I need to
Speaker 2: go in the field.
Speaker 1: No, you wouldn't be married to that person.
Speaker 2: I would be like Nicole's fucking grown a shit ton
Speaker 2: of weed in her basement. I guarantee it. Either that
Speaker 2: or she's like some sort of dealer something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, accounts growing.
Speaker 2: Now, I'd be like, why isn't the bank account growing?
Speaker 2: You gotta harvest this crop? What are you doing?
Speaker 1: Let me help you?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, no, but I totally yeah, I'd be
Speaker 2: busting in, like what the fuck?
Speaker 1: Yeah, There'd be no way that I would not be
Speaker 1: in there.
Speaker 2: I'd send you a grocery shopping or something, and then
Speaker 2: I'd be looking at getting through the doors, and then
Speaker 2: I'd be questioning, why is there fucking eight locked doors
Speaker 2: down here that I can't get through?
Speaker 1: That You would get through them, though, would so Joseph
Speaker 1: would visit Elizabeth, usually every day, bringing her food and
Speaker 1: other essential supplies. At these visits, he would, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure you guessed, also repeatedly rape her, which brings us
Speaker 1: to an even worse part of the story, and that
Speaker 1: is the story of the children yep, that would be born.
Speaker 1: Here we go in this hidden seller fuck. Elizabeth would
Speaker 1: become pregnant a total of eight times, with seven children
Speaker 1: being born. Did you know that many?
Speaker 2: I knew? Well? Generally with these cases, there's not any
Speaker 2: sort of birth control being used. So if someone is
Speaker 2: being locked up and being used like that against their will,
Speaker 2: there's usually multiple at least pregnancies, whether it's children being born.
Speaker 2: Is it a different story. There's at least multiple pregnancies.
Speaker 1: I didn't look into it. I feel like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I feel like there almost wouldn't have been birth control,
Speaker 1: but there totally could have been. Or sorry, there was
Speaker 1: birth control because every child was born almost like after
Speaker 1: two years kind of thing. And there was numerous reports
Speaker 1: that he raped her upwards of three thousand.
Speaker 2: Times totally fun in the span of those.
Speaker 1: Twenty four years. So the fact that she had that
Speaker 1: few of children is almost surprising.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm gonna do that math for how.
Speaker 1: I did actually do that math or even I can remember.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, you keep going on, on, Okay, calculate.
Speaker 1: So her first pregnancy, in November of nineteen eighty six,
Speaker 1: ended with a miscarriage when she was about ten weeks pregnant.
Speaker 1: Her having to deal with this being completely alone, locked
Speaker 1: in a dark, dingy cellar. I just couldn't imagine. On
Speaker 1: August thirtieth, nineteen eighty eight, Elizabeth would give birth to
Speaker 1: her first child, a little girl named Kirsten Chris Kirstine.
Speaker 1: I think it is It's like they pronounced it maybe
Speaker 1: differently than us over there. I wanted to say, Kirsten, I.
Speaker 2: Got the number, and honestly, I'm surprised it's that small
Speaker 2: of a number.
Speaker 1: Because that's over it's over twenty four years.
Speaker 2: Twenty four years, that's eighty seven hundred and sixty days, Okay,
Speaker 2: divided by three thousand times, that's an average of two
Speaker 2: point nine to two, so that's about every three days. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm surprised it was that little, to be honest, really,
Speaker 2: I'm surprised, Like if you were going through that trouble
Speaker 2: to essentially have a slave for.
Speaker 1: Your bidding, a sex slave, yeah, then.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised you're not taking more advantage.
Speaker 1: But there would be times he was away, I mean
Speaker 1: times that like she was pregnant and probably like having
Speaker 1: a baby.
Speaker 2: So it's just like, I don't know that's true.
Speaker 1: Some it did say on times that it could have
Speaker 1: been numerous times a day, but then it would say
Speaker 1: it was like a minimum of three times a week usually,
Speaker 1: So yeah, ah, like gross, okay, so bad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fucking gross. Regarless, don't give you this.
Speaker 1: So on August thirtieth, nineteen eighty eight, Elizabeth would give
Speaker 1: birth to her first child, a little girl named Chris, Kirsten,
Speaker 1: who would live in the cellar with Elizabeth. I even
Speaker 1: struggled to write this, But Elizabeth birth these babies completely
Speaker 1: on her own, no help from anyone. Fuck, And if
Speaker 1: that doesn't show like her strength, I don't know what the.
Speaker 2: Fuck does Badass of the day.
Speaker 1: Joseph would provide her with towels, scissors, and a pregnancy
Speaker 1: book and that is all.
Speaker 2: That is it, that is it.
Speaker 1: And she was literally left alone to give birth to
Speaker 1: this child.
Speaker 2: Does he realize the risk involves in there?
Speaker 1: I think he doesn't give a shit.
Speaker 2: But he could have been dealing with a dead body
Speaker 2: coming back down there. Yeah, because childbirth.
Speaker 1: Is there's so many things that could go wrong.
Speaker 2: There is high risk for fatality in that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And like she literally had to do that herself.
Speaker 1: Like I just can't even imagine the strength that you
Speaker 1: would have to pull out of yourself to do that.
Speaker 1: No shit, Like holy crap. On February first, nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: so that's basically like just under two years, little Stephan
Speaker 1: would be born and would also stay in the cellar
Speaker 1: with Elizabeth. Just over two years later, on August twenty ninth,
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety two, Lisa would be born and interesting enough,
Speaker 1: Lisa would not remain living with Elizabeth.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: When she was just nine months old, she would be
Speaker 1: discovered outside the family home in a cardboard box, allegedly
Speaker 1: being left there by Elizabeth, but it was really Joseph
Speaker 1: with a note asking for the child to be looked
Speaker 1: after by Joseph and Rosemary.
Speaker 2: Why did he select this one?
Speaker 1: So there was quite a few different stories about it,
Speaker 1: some saying the seller was running out of room, okay,
Speaker 1: so like they wanted to bring some of the children above,
Speaker 1: Some saying that some of the children were louder than
Speaker 1: the others. Oh, so then he would let these children
Speaker 1: to go upstairs to like decrease noise.
Speaker 2: Noise, yeah, because.
Speaker 1: There was like tenants and stuff in this area and
Speaker 1: in this house, and people would sometimes say they heard things,
Speaker 1: but Joseph like would always say that or have excuse
Speaker 1: of it being something else. And then also he was
Speaker 1: a landlord, and he was kind of I don't know, dominating, right,
Speaker 1: and so I don't know how much could you say
Speaker 1: to your landlord.
Speaker 2: Well and true, if you're renting a room or something
Speaker 2: from your landlord, who's to know. Maybe they had their
Speaker 2: sister over who has a baby and you heard the
Speaker 2: baby cry.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh ye. Numerous rooms in there and stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: There was one report though that someone said they had
Speaker 1: a dog, and so this dog daily would just constantly
Speaker 1: be staring at the floor and like kind of growl
Speaker 1: and stuff, really because he could hear things that were
Speaker 1: happening under there, right, and it was just like, what
Speaker 1: the fuckuck, So that's hole.
Speaker 2: That's like fucking hair standing at the back of my neck.
Speaker 1: It's super sad.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety three, and I mentioned this earlier, but
Speaker 1: the area they were living in was not always five
Speaker 1: hundred and ninety square feet. It was only initially three
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty square feet, but as the family grew,
Speaker 1: a larger area was needed, so Joseph put Elizabeth and
Speaker 1: the children to work. They were expected to dig out
Speaker 1: the soil to enlarge the prison using only their hands.
Speaker 2: Fuck, you fucking.
Speaker 1: Asshole, can you not just give them a shovel.
Speaker 2: Right, go to the dollar store get a garden hole?
Speaker 2: Come on.
Speaker 1: So it took them years, but they eventually got to
Speaker 1: a place where the prison was enlarged two hundred and
Speaker 1: ten square feet.
Speaker 2: Like, I hate that fuck.
Speaker 1: On February twenty sixth, Are you okay.
Speaker 2: I just this fucking guy. If it's not bad enough
Speaker 2: that you're holding a human and then subsequently multiple humans
Speaker 2: after that captive and using them as a fucking sex slave,
Speaker 2: which is disgusting enough. That's your daughter daughter, Yes, sorry,
Speaker 2: I've forgotten that detail. God, And then you have the
Speaker 2: fucking audacity to not even have any human decency left
Speaker 2: in you to even help in a fucking childbirth. And
Speaker 2: then you're like, if you want more room for the
Speaker 2: family that I am making, you have dig it out,
Speaker 2: dig it out with your bare fucking hands.
Speaker 1: Like he is a monster, a monster far beyond far
Speaker 1: my gosh, and honestly, dude, like you haven't even heard
Speaker 1: the worst fuck.
Speaker 2: I need a lot more alcohol in.
Speaker 1: This just to make an actual beer.
Speaker 2: I need like whisk I need moonshine after this.
Speaker 1: So on February twenty sixth, nineteen ninety four, so again,
Speaker 1: basically two years after Lisa was born, the fourth child
Speaker 1: would be born, named Monica, and again, like Lisa had been,
Speaker 1: ten month old, Monica was left and found outside the
Speaker 1: entrance of the home in a pushchair. This time, Rosemary
Speaker 1: received a phone call, sorry, our dogs are making noise. Sorry,
Speaker 1: sorry the pause. So this time, Rosemary the mom received
Speaker 1: a phone call from presumably Elizabeth, but it's thought to
Speaker 1: have been recording, asking them to take care of her child.
Speaker 1: Rosemary reporting this incident to the police, concerned that Elizabeth
Speaker 1: knew their new unlisted number and reading that, I was like,
Speaker 1: who the fuck cares? Like, that's so good that she
Speaker 1: found you, and I just feel like maybe you should
Speaker 1: kind of help her because she's obviously in a shitty situation.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so they took this child and again and
Speaker 1: raised it as their own. On April twenty eighth, nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety six, Elizabeth would give birth to twin boys, one
Speaker 1: named Michael and one named Alex. Unfortunately, Michael would not survive.
Speaker 1: He was born with respiratory failure and Joseph refused to
Speaker 1: bring him to the hospital.
Speaker 2: Of course he did.
Speaker 1: He was less than three days old when he died,
Speaker 1: and had he gotten the help he needed, he would
Speaker 1: have survived.
Speaker 2: Of course.
Speaker 1: Yep, So that's murder right there. Joseph would remove his
Speaker 1: body and cremate him in the family home, spreading his
Speaker 1: ashes in the back garden.
Speaker 2: That's so far the only human thing this fucking person
Speaker 2: has done.
Speaker 1: Oh I don't think that he like burnt, he like
Speaker 1: cremated and burnt the baby in like their furnace or
Speaker 1: some shit.
Speaker 2: It's there's still some semblance of honoring the debt. That's it.
Speaker 2: It's not he didn't just fucking in a bag in
Speaker 2: the dumpster or something. You know.
Speaker 1: I guess, I guess.
Speaker 2: That is the first symbol of anything decent in all.
Speaker 1: But it's not even in my opinion.
Speaker 2: Oh it's not. It's not, don't get me wrong. I'm
Speaker 2: just I'm trying to salvage anything, anything heart. He still doesn't,
Speaker 2: don't get me wrong.
Speaker 1: No, So Alex, the other twin, at fifteen months old,
Speaker 1: would be discovered as his previous two sisters and be
Speaker 1: taken to live upstairs with the three children living upstairs
Speaker 1: with Joseph and Rosemary. Social Services was actually involved and
Speaker 1: they were approved as foster parents. It was explained how
Speaker 1: the three infant grandchildren just appeared on their doorstep and
Speaker 1: during regular visits by social workers, no suspicious activity was
Speaker 1: ever seen or heard to deem them as a fit
Speaker 1: foster parents. Now I had to kind of like look
Speaker 1: into that because I was like, he was like a rapist.
Speaker 2: Like, excuse me, I was just thinking that too. I'm like,
Speaker 2: deemed fit foster parents, criminal record of a fucking rapist.
Speaker 1: So apparently, and I don't know if this is still
Speaker 1: a thing. I didn't look into that. But after fifteen years,
Speaker 1: in accordance with Austra Australian whoa Austrian law, your criminal
Speaker 1: record is cleared.
Speaker 2: Really really holy shit.
Speaker 1: So fifteen years after that incident occurred, like he didn't,
Speaker 1: he didn't fine, Like he did nothing wrong. Wow, And okay,
Speaker 1: I can maybe see that with like some incidents and
Speaker 1: stuff like I don't know, I stole a car or something.
Speaker 1: But rape, no, no, yeah, that is much worse.
Speaker 2: That's another human you're you're committing your crime against, rather
Speaker 2: than stealing a car is just a tangible, literal object.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you took something from a human.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a human is not an object, So that doesn't
Speaker 2: fucking count.
Speaker 1: No. So the last and final child to be born
Speaker 1: would be Felix, and he was born on December sixteenth,
Speaker 1: two thousand and two.
Speaker 2: I love that name, Felix.
Speaker 1: It's a good name actually. But he was left to
Speaker 1: live in the cellar with Elizabeth and her two oldest children,
Speaker 1: as Joseph's wife could not look after any more children.
Speaker 1: So to go into more detail on the captives living situation,
Speaker 1: they had a television, a radio, a video cassette player,
Speaker 1: and Elizabeth had also requested learning material as she would
Speaker 1: want to teach the children. She did teach the children
Speaker 1: each day and had taught them to read and write,
Speaker 1: which was like fucking good for done, Like that's just like.
Speaker 2: Amazing, fucking go Elizabeth, like incredible.
Speaker 1: She also taught manners. They were very well mannered children good,
Speaker 1: So I'm like this lady is just a superhero. She
Speaker 1: tried to make their situation as normal as possible. There
Speaker 1: was a refrigerator that food could be stored in, as
Speaker 1: Joseph would often go on trips and they would be
Speaker 1: left to fend for themselves, with reports being upwards of
Speaker 1: three weeks.
Speaker 2: That's a long fucking time, no kidding.
Speaker 1: They would cook or heat their food on hot plates.
Speaker 1: So as Elizabeth was trying to give the children as
Speaker 1: normal of an upbringing as humanly possible, Joseph obviously was
Speaker 1: doing the complete fucking opposite. Yeah, besides from them being
Speaker 1: locked away like prisoners. At times, he would go even
Speaker 1: further with their punishment by shutting off their lights or
Speaker 1: refusing to deliver food to them for extended periods of time.
Speaker 1: And this, this is brutal. He would even bring down
Speaker 1: photos of the children living upstairs to show the kids
Speaker 1: living downstairs how good and normal of a life they
Speaker 1: were having, showing them swimming in the pool, celebrating their birthdays,
Speaker 1: having summer barbecues, being just outside.
Speaker 2: Why.
Speaker 1: I don't know, because he's a complete asshole.
Speaker 2: Holy sh I was just like, what for a moment there,
Speaker 2: I thought you were going to say, he's bringing down
Speaker 2: photos of the kids so Elizabeth and the kids can
Speaker 2: see their siblings. No, but no, he's showing the activities
Speaker 2: and a life they're living.
Speaker 1: And there's also reports and stuff where he go down
Speaker 1: like talk about the delicious food and stuff that he
Speaker 1: was eating and just being like a right asshole.
Speaker 2: Holy fuck. Yeah, I want to punch this guy square
Speaker 2: in the ball so he tastes his own fucking nuts.
Speaker 1: Okay, but you're ready, because this is the most you
Speaker 1: remember when I was sitting at the counter researching and
Speaker 1: I was just like no, no, no, like having my
Speaker 1: little spas. So this is the part.
Speaker 2: You ready, Yeah, I'm ready.
Speaker 1: Okay, So this horrified me, and I did think about
Speaker 1: leaving it out because it's horrifying, but like, we're here
Speaker 1: to just give all the facts. So Joseph would force
Speaker 1: Elizabeth to watch pornographic videos, make her reenact them with him,
Speaker 1: and he would be doing this in front of the
Speaker 1: children in order to completely humiliate her. Yep, Like I
Speaker 1: was like, no, no, Like, no one would do that.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I honestly think that is like one
Speaker 1: of the most disgusting things I've ever heard in my life.
Speaker 1: So this guy, like, there, there you go. If you
Speaker 1: didn't think he was disgusting already, he's real disgusting. So
Speaker 1: to instill fear in Elizabeth and the children, Joseph would
Speaker 1: tell them that if they ever tried to escape, he
Speaker 1: would either gas the place or they would receive an
Speaker 1: electric shock, both resulting in death. When he was home,
Speaker 1: Joseph would go into the basement most mornings, telling the
Speaker 1: upstairs family he was going down there drawing plans because
Speaker 1: I can't remember if I mentioned that he was an engineer,
Speaker 1: Ye you did, okay, often being down there for extended
Speaker 1: periods of time, but that they were not allowed to
Speaker 1: bother him. His wife not even allowed to bring him
Speaker 1: down a cup of coffee. Joseph had two completely separate lives.
Speaker 1: When he closed the door to the basement, he also
Speaker 1: closed the door in his head. He didn't think about
Speaker 1: the basement family when he was outside of the basement.
Speaker 1: He'd shop for the upstairs family at a different time
Speaker 1: than he'd shot for the downstairs area. And he'd shop
Speaker 1: or sorry the downstairs family at another time, and often
Speaker 1: it would be across town or sometimes in a different
Speaker 1: time all together so that he would not get caught
Speaker 1: because he could be buying, like say, stop something for babies,
Speaker 1: but like diapers or something, maybe have a baby or whatever, right,
Speaker 1: and then he would bring them their supplies in the evening. Okay,
Speaker 1: So now that I've just basically probably completely traumatized everyone,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're wondering, like how the situation ends for
Speaker 1: Elizabeth and her children.
Speaker 2: I'm curious because in the midst of this conversation, I
Speaker 2: realized something. Did a little quick google and found out
Speaker 2: that my brig no, it's not not facts about this, Okay,
Speaker 2: there's there's a movie based off this case. And I
Speaker 2: was like, this sounds familiar, and I googled it and yes,
Speaker 2: that movie is based off it.
Speaker 1: I don't remember the name, but I did that. Okay, yeah, I've.
Speaker 2: Seen that movie with Bree Larson. It's a good movie.
Speaker 1: Okay, I want to read I want to watch it again. Okay.
Speaker 1: So it would take one of Elizabeth's children, Kirsten, to
Speaker 1: get extremely ill for this shit show to end. On
Speaker 1: April nineteenth, two thousand and eight. Kristen, who was the
Speaker 1: oldest child and nineteen years old at this point.
Speaker 2: Holy shit, really, she lived her.
Speaker 1: Whole life underground in that cellar. No daylight, no sun
Speaker 1: ever hitting her face, no rain, no puddles to jump in.
Speaker 1: Like the list goes on and on. Yea, like on and.
Speaker 2: On, missing out on your entire childhood yeah, and adolescence.
Speaker 1: Like fuck, like it just breaks it breaks her heart.
Speaker 2: Can you literally imagine being nineteen And I mean I
Speaker 2: know that there's people around the world, like third world
Speaker 2: countries and stuff who definitely do not get this luxury,
Speaker 2: But living in a first world country and being nineteen
Speaker 2: and not even getting to celebrate your birthday.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I bet you. Well, Elizabeth might not have
Speaker 1: really known dates and stuff because I'm just thinking, like
Speaker 1: Elizabeth being the mom she was, I bet you she
Speaker 1: would try to do something about definitely, I mean like
Speaker 1: probably not have a cake and decorations and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, they go through that a little bit in
Speaker 2: the movie room with the birthday situation. Oh okay, but yeah,
Speaker 2: and it's just it's heartbreaking up.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So she was in very rough shape, and surprisingly
Speaker 1: Joseph ended up calling an ambulance or taking her and
Speaker 1: one or the other. And if she were to have like, okay,
Speaker 1: I think the reason he basically did that because if
Speaker 1: she were to have died, what would he have done
Speaker 1: with this full grown, you know, dead woman's body. Like,
Speaker 1: I just don't think he would be able to deal
Speaker 1: with that. So he gets Elizabeth to write a note
Speaker 1: that she's once again dropping off one of her children
Speaker 1: who was sick and she can't take care of her. Like,
Speaker 1: at some point, these notes just have to be like
Speaker 1: so ridiculous that you wouldn't even take them seriously. No kidding,
Speaker 1: I just can't even believe at this point you would
Speaker 1: still be taking them seriously. So Kirsten is admitted to
Speaker 1: intensive care in very rough shape, and the nurses and
Speaker 1: doctors become immediately suspicious. For one, there is absolutely no
Speaker 1: record of this child ever existing when they try to
Speaker 1: look up her medical history, absolutely nothing. To the government,
Speaker 1: she doesn't exist.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: For two, she was whiter than a ghost and displaying
Speaker 1: illnesses to them that kind of had them puzzled. One
Speaker 1: of them, for example, being that she was so deficient
Speaker 1: in vitamin D that it surprised them that she had
Speaker 1: even like lasted this long. I mean they I'm sure
Speaker 1: he wasn't supplementing.
Speaker 2: No, probably not. He's probably just giving him cheap ass food,
Speaker 2: no vitamins, no nothing, And like you say, no windows
Speaker 2: in a basement, sellar, So there's no vitamin D coming in.
Speaker 1: Yeah nothing.
Speaker 2: I mean, at least you could put some fucking proper
Speaker 2: light bulbs in there that might have a little bit
Speaker 2: of fucking proper Come on.
Speaker 1: No, he gave no.
Speaker 2: Shits, no shits.
Speaker 1: Because Joseph wasn't offering basically any assistance and just wanting
Speaker 1: to get out of the hospital as quickly as possible,
Speaker 1: the hospital put out a search to try and find
Speaker 1: Kirsten's mother During the evening of April twenty six, two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight. Joseph basically had no choice but to
Speaker 1: release Elizabeth, informing his wife, Elizabeth's mother mother that oh,
Speaker 1: Elizabeth just decided to come home, like geez.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you imagine that Elizabeth is not going to
Speaker 2: say a word and that everyone's going to believe all
Speaker 2: this and like think.
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, so and this is being like she was
Speaker 1: twenty four years like and then just boom yeah here, like.
Speaker 2: No, can you imagine that conversation, Oh, how was your
Speaker 2: twenty four years away? Sweetie? Well let me tell you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my gosh. Joseph takes Elizabeth to the hospital to
Speaker 1: see her daughter, and everyone is shocked by her appearance.
Speaker 1: At this point, She's in her forties but looks years
Speaker 1: beyond that, looking to be around fifty or sixty years old,
Speaker 1: with extremely pale skin like her daughter. It's described as
Speaker 1: almost being transparent looking. And she herself looked quite sickly.
Speaker 1: I can imagine, like, I mean, just the trauma that
Speaker 1: she had been through is just appalling. Someone from the
Speaker 1: hospital tipped off the police that Joseph and Elizabeth were
Speaker 1: at the hospital. This would lead to the two of
Speaker 1: them being taken into police custody for questioning. Now, initially
Speaker 1: they were getting quite upset with Elizabeth. The police. Apparently
Speaker 1: she wasn't saying much for about the first five hours,
Speaker 1: and in their opinion, they're thinking she was a neglecting mother.
Speaker 1: She'd left three children on the porch of her of
Speaker 1: her parents, and now another one of her children is
Speaker 1: brought into the hospital like deathly ill. She does eventually break,
Speaker 1: but needed a promise from the police that she would
Speaker 1: never have to see her father again.
Speaker 2: Well, and to be fair, look at it, look at
Speaker 2: it from that police perspective.
Speaker 1: Oh totally. I'm not saying anything bad against the police.
Speaker 2: Because you have this frair looking woman who looks years
Speaker 2: beyond her age. Her skin is ghostly pale, and like,
Speaker 2: what does that sound like?
Speaker 1: It sounds like a cult, Like she could have been
Speaker 1: in a cult.
Speaker 2: Well, it sounds like drug abuse to me, an addiction,
Speaker 2: that's true. Yeah, So generally with addiction you have struggles
Speaker 2: with families and you have abandonment issues and that sort
Speaker 2: of stuff or neglect of children. That sounds like right
Speaker 2: off the bat, just from looking at her, I could
Speaker 2: see that authorities would pinpoint that as the first thought.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and no. I mean I could also see
Speaker 1: that the story of her just being in a cult
Speaker 1: because I feel like sometimes you see people that are
Speaker 1: in the cults and they don't seem like they're they're
Speaker 1: taking care of themselves either and stuff, right, true, Yeah, so.
Speaker 2: A lot of cults they'll deal with substance abuse and.
Speaker 1: Drugs, yeah, and alcohol and stuff too. So so at
Speaker 1: this point, Elizabeth reveals her story to the police, and
Speaker 1: it was a dozy no shit for them to understand,
Speaker 1: so much so that initially they didn't believe poor Elizabeth, like,
Speaker 1: give this hericking woman a break, for God's sakes, but
Speaker 1: she insisted, causing the investigation to lead to the Fritzl
Speaker 1: house and them to find the cellar below ground and
Speaker 1: then to find two children in that cellar. Stephan and
Speaker 1: Felix were still in there. At this point they had
Speaker 1: been saved, like, oh.
Speaker 2: My gosh, thankfully after twenty four years of all the school.
Speaker 1: It was reported that on the way to the hospital,
Speaker 1: Felix was just glued to the window, amazed by the sky,
Speaker 1: the trees, cars that were passing by them on the road.
Speaker 1: He had just never seen anything so magical, which it
Speaker 1: almost likes you want to cry.
Speaker 2: Well, they depict that in that movie Moom or that
Speaker 2: movie Room really well and that's why it's called room
Speaker 2: because the main characters in the movie, she only has
Speaker 2: one child that she's dealing with. Oh, but they live
Speaker 2: in just a single room. It's a shed, and he
Speaker 2: knows nothing. He can't comprehend anything outside of that. To him,
Speaker 2: the entire world is that shed is a room. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so the fact on being outside of a room is
Speaker 2: mind blowing.
Speaker 1: Oh, I know, you just couldn't imagine what would be
Speaker 1: going through their little heads, like like you just absorb
Speaker 1: everything and just be in awe. So Joseph was obviously
Speaker 1: arrested immediately, and thank you. The thought that he could
Speaker 1: have even gotten away with this for that long, for
Speaker 1: as long as he did, is mind blowing. The community
Speaker 1: was absolutely shocked though, because in their mind, Joseph was
Speaker 1: quite a respectable member of the.
Speaker 2: Community aside from his rape.
Speaker 1: Well, they like they didn't know that, yeah really right,
Speaker 1: Like his neighbors probably didn't know that he came across
Speaker 1: or just wait where am I here? Okay, there go,
Speaker 1: he came across nice enough to his neighbors. He took
Speaker 1: and he took on grandchildren that were dropped off by
Speaker 1: this cult member mother and had raised them as their own,
Speaker 1: he had a respectable job, like the list goes on.
Speaker 1: So from the outside he did appear quite fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's hiding it all, so yeah, what's
Speaker 2: there's no reason for anyone to suspect anything. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: could see that.
Speaker 1: I do have to mention he seems to appear quite
Speaker 1: fine other than his freaking eyebrows. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've seen a bit this guy, but he has freaking heft.
Speaker 1: He's actually quite a weird looking dude. There was a
Speaker 1: photo that I came across on his researching, and it
Speaker 1: was his face next to the face of the Grinch.
Speaker 1: Oh god, and there was actually, like so much of
Speaker 1: a resemblance that it was freaking hilarious.
Speaker 2: Okay, I Google, you have to google this.
Speaker 1: But this story would have no happy ending and Joseph's
Speaker 1: heart would not grow three sizes.
Speaker 2: Joseph, my god, he does look like the.
Speaker 1: Grin, doesn't he like a human Grinch?
Speaker 2: He also looks like a human piece of shit?
Speaker 1: Yeah, disgusting. So your phone was making noise?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was getting in too close to the recording feedback.
Speaker 1: So Joseph Strials started on March sixteenth, two thousand and nine.
Speaker 1: He was charged with rape, incest, kidnapping, slavery, and murder.
Speaker 1: Joseph's defense being that he wanted to protect Elizabeth from
Speaker 1: a lifestyle he didn't think was good for her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well that's his fucking call.
Speaker 1: Fuck off. After Elizabeth's testimony, which was recorded and not
Speaker 1: shared to the public to protect her, Joseph actually broke
Speaker 1: down and realized the crimes he'd committed. He apparently apologized
Speaker 1: for the pain he inflicted on his family, and pleaded
Speaker 1: guilty to all the charges.
Speaker 2: Yeah, years too late, I know.
Speaker 1: Wait, he was sentenced to life in prison, which is
Speaker 1: he which he is still serving today?
Speaker 2: Good.
Speaker 1: At one point in time, Joseph admitted that he had
Speaker 1: always planned to lock Elizabeth up so that he could
Speaker 1: contain and express his evil side, saying he was born
Speaker 1: to rape and he had held himself back for too
Speaker 1: long and could have behaved a lot worse than locking
Speaker 1: up his daughter.
Speaker 2: What the fuck? Yeah, I mean, I'm not surprised the
Speaker 2: fact that he always planned to lock her up. I
Speaker 2: could have guessed that on my own, But the born
Speaker 2: to rape, he could have done much worse. What the fuck?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Like, that's like he's almost making excuse for his
Speaker 1: horrific actions.
Speaker 2: Holy shit, this guy is disgusting.
Speaker 1: Like I don't even there isn't words to describe how
Speaker 1: how brutal he is.
Speaker 2: If the Devil is real, the Devil is We'll probably
Speaker 2: look at this guy and be like, uh the fuck.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was actually a video I was watching and
Speaker 1: they're like, the devil wouldn't have wouldn't treat his children
Speaker 1: this bad?
Speaker 2: No, no never.
Speaker 1: After finally being released from their prison, Elizabeth and her
Speaker 1: children lived in a clinic for a year, finally learning
Speaker 1: to live a normal life. They now live in an
Speaker 1: undisclosed location and have never accepted any interviews with media.
Speaker 1: They lost a ridiculous amount of their life and needed
Speaker 1: to learn what it would be like to be free
Speaker 1: to feel the rain on their skin, see grass, feel
Speaker 1: grass on their feet for the first time. Such simple
Speaker 1: things that I know a lot of us take for granted,
Speaker 1: but that we should be lucky to experience on a
Speaker 1: daily basis.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: So that's the story.
Speaker 2: That was a really good wrap up.
Speaker 1: Holy shit, I know I even have sus but it's
Speaker 1: it's true, Like I one hundred percent take those things
Speaker 1: for granted, and it's like, if this story can teach
Speaker 1: us anything like maybe just next time when you're outside,
Speaker 1: enjoy the blue sky.
Speaker 2: Even on your drive to work, looking out that window
Speaker 2: of your car, just being amazed by the world on
Speaker 2: that glass.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because it could be a hell of a lot worse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Holy shit.
Speaker 1: Quite the story.
Speaker 2: Eh, Yeah, I kind of knew of this case without
Speaker 2: even knowing of the case apparently. Yeah, although the movie
Speaker 2: is significant different, there's just there's details that made me
Speaker 2: draw the parallels.
Speaker 1: Was were they in that shed for that long? Like
Speaker 1: twenty four years long?
Speaker 2: I don't know if it was quite twenty four years,
Speaker 2: but it was definitely over a decade, maybe fifteen to
Speaker 2: twenty somewhere in there.
Speaker 1: Maybe I know, because it just amazes me that this
Speaker 1: shit actually happens, Like this is not the only story
Speaker 1: where someone has been held captive for just that extended
Speaker 1: period of time. It's just I don't know. I just
Speaker 1: feel like the doom you would feel would just be
Speaker 1: so much. So I mean, hopefully they're doing like okay
Speaker 1: and at least someone able to be enjoying the rest
Speaker 1: of their lives, right, Yes.
Speaker 2: No, kidd, I wish nothing for the best of that family,
Speaker 2: Oh totally, And as far as Joseph fucking.
Speaker 1: Rot yeah, rot, Yeah, he's disgusting, like he just.
Speaker 2: I hope he stubs his big toe. You know what, No,
Speaker 2: I hope he stubs his little toe. That's even worse.
Speaker 1: That's a lot worse.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, stubbing your little toe fucking hurts a lot.
Speaker 1: I hope he does that every fucking minute.
Speaker 2: So do. I hope he stubs his toe every Monday, Tuesday.
Speaker 2: I'll give him Wednesdays to maybe, you don't know, get
Speaker 2: the flu.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I just hope everything bad on him, because fuck that guy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's disturbing. Okay, well, there you go. We have
Speaker 1: the story. Thank you for listening.
Speaker 2: Thank you for tuning in to our patreons patreons patrons
Speaker 2: on Patreon to you guys. If you want to be
Speaker 2: a patron, check our link down below in the description
Speaker 2: of this podcast, and of course for you to be there,
Speaker 2: our social links as well.
Speaker 1: Facebook, Instagram, website.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're all down there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So until then, my friends stay wicked.