dirty old men

When the Josef Fritzl story hit the headlines Bernadette shuddered with disgust at what that monster had done to his daughter, Elisabeth, and she thanked her lucky stars that her own encounter with a dirty old man was with a cousin, not her father, and that it only involved one instance of inappropriate sexual contact rather than 24 years of incarceration in a cellar being raped repeatedly.

"It only happened once when I was about six years old," says Bernadette, "and I remember the incident well because I was staying with my uncle and aunt while mom was in hospital having my baby brother."

"My cousin Michael was 19 - thirteen years older than me - so he wasn't a kid like me."

"My aunt made up a bed for me in the living room and Michael and I watched television until late."

"He explained all the shows to me and made me laugh," says Bernadette, "and I didn't mind him kissing me goodnight - I thought that was a nice thing for him to do as I was missing mom badly."

"I stayed there for a week and while my uncle and aunt were at work during the day Michael looked after me."

"He didn't have a regular job - he was a footballer - and he took me to his football practice some days, then we’d walk along the beach, but most times we’d just stay home watching television."

"One day he called me into his bedroom and asked whether I'd like to play doctors and nurses," says Bernadette.

"It wasn't exactly doctors and nurses because we didn't have a third person to be the patient so he let me be the doctor and I had fun bandaging his foot."

"Then he took a turn at being the doctor and said that I had a tummy ache he needed to look at," relates Bernadette, “and that’s when the inappropriate sexual contact happened.”

Read more by Bernadette on this subject:

predatory cousins

dirty family secrets

For the Fritzl stories read:

locked up living fritzl dolls

Elisabeth Fritzl’s Amazing Survival

Rosemarie Fritzl Wasn’t a Fat Housefrau

Austria’s Aryan Heritage

Elisabeth Fritzl Locked Up For Smoking

Secrets of Elisabeth Fritzl’s Age

Secrets of Josef Fritzl's Age

Elisabeth Fritzl’s Neighbors

liberated mothers

Elisabeth Fritzl's heroic story hit a raw nerve with Shannon because while she had spent the past twenty years raising the children of a deadbeat dad, Elisabeth had spent 24 years locked up in her father's cellar effectively doing the same thing, being raped repeatedly at the same time, but while Shannon craves for the day when her children leave home and set her free it would appear that Elisabeth credits her children for keeping her sane and quite rightly sees liberation in a very different light.

"In my mother’s time," says Shannon, "women were expected to stay at home or work in 'suitable' jobs until such time as they snared themselves a husband, but my fate was largely determined by the Women's Liberation Movement of the 60s that ultimately gave me the dubious honor of working a full day outside the home as well as performing traditional mothering and housewifely duties."

"My mother had never worked outside the home - and she had a reasonably happy marriage," says Shannon, "but my marriage cracked very early under the pressure of it all. My husband disappeared -- to South America, I think -- and that's how I became a single working mother."

"I tried very hard for the dream of interdependence in my marriage," says Shannon, "but for all the lip service he paid to parenthood, housework and bread-winning being a shared responsibility my husband was no different to the traditional man, like my father, and his before him, who never lifted a finger to help with the children and housework."

"Women of my generation were told that they can have it all," says Shannon, "but even though a whole new generation of men have grown up after women’s liberation I've yet to see a truly liberated women in marriage."

"As a single mom I yearn for liberation and independence," says Shannon, "and yet I accept that with mouths to feed - too many people dependent upon me - I am the antithesis of the liberated woman. I have been little more than a slave for the past twenty years -- it's been like a life sentence."


"Right now, my kids are dependent upon me for accommodation," explains Shannon, "and while this dependence doesn't drag me down too much, I am nevertheless annoyed that children these days are encouraged to stay at school until they’re 21, rather than getting a job and leaving home at 16, like I did."

"I'm even more annoyed by the fact that the money young adults do earn these days is wasted on automobiles and entertainment rather than saved to put towards a home of their own."

"My own mother left home at 14 to go into domestic service," says Shannon, "so I feel very sorry for the single moms of the future whose children may be leaving home at 30 or 40!"

"I appreciate that a lot of traditional entry level jobs have been lost to automation," says Shannon, "and that there are far too many people in the world and not enough jobs for them. So, it's not my kids' fault that their desires for independence - and my desire to get on with my life - have been squashed by the new world order."

"In my mother’s time," says Shannon, "women were expected to stay at home or work in 'suitable' jobs until such time as they snared themselves a husband - often referred to a lifetime meal ticket."

"Independent women were often forced into marriage against their desire, but some were able to escape this fate by the good fortune of having enlightened parents or rich parents."

Shannon’s marital fate was largely determined by the Women's Liberation Movement of the 60s that ultimately gave her the dubious honor of working a full day outside the home as well as performing traditional mothering and housewifely duties.

"It was very difficult working and raising children on my own," confides Shannon, "and I am full of admiration for a growing number of women these days who are either delaying having children until they're financially independent or are choosing not to have children at all."

"There are still a lot of women who opt to become totally dependent upon a man or welfare," says Shannon, "but the dream remains for many women that they can share life with a partner in an interdependent relationship."

" Actually," laughs Shannon, "I am growing more and more to believe that most men are just not suited for an interdependent relationship with a woman."

"It is a rare man who can truly accept a woman into his life without wanting more than he is prepared to give in return," sighs Shannon. "Also, two people starting off in an interdependent relationship can become far too dependent upon each other over time and the situation can become unhealthy."

"Being stuck with children to raise on my own was not healthy either," admits Shannon, "but it was a lot better than being married to a total deadbeat as far as shared responsibilities were concerned."

"I am most certainly not against men or sex or children," says Shannon, "yet I feel that if a woman cannot find a truly interdependent relationship - where two people can live independent lives and yet share togetherness - it is better to be totally independent, a free agent, living your life authentically, being responsible for what happens in your life rather than being trapped in a relationship that is essentially based upon a man’s convenience."

"As a single mom I yearn for liberation and independence," says Shannon, "and yet I accept that with mouths to feed - too many people dependent upon me - I am the antithesis of the liberated woman. I have been little more than a slave for the past twenty years -- it's been like a life sentence."

Shannon is not dependent upon others for her living expenses or happiness, but her adult children are still dependent upon her in certain respects and this restricts her freedom.

"If I left them, they are likely to suffer financially and emotionally," says Shannon. "So, I do have responsibilities and I take them seriously."

"It's hard to say whether I would choose to have children if I had my life to live over again," says Shannon. "Twenty years ago was a very different world to what it is today, and in twenty years' time it will be a very different world to what it is today!"

"I am just looking forward to spending the next half of my life free of people dependent upon me," says Shannon, "and if that makes me selfish then it's a healthy selfishness - not an uncaring selfishness."

Josef Fritzl’s Sacred Sperm?

Winsome draws upon Josef Fritzl’s strict Catholic upbringing as well as Austria’s Nazi past and Hitler’s peculiar Aryan master race theory to explain his obsession with making babies and passing on his ‘superior’ genes.

Having been raised by the church to believe that his sperm was sacred - and the civic leaders of his youth to believe that his Aryan sperm was superior - was Fritzl doing his bit for the Pope and the old Fatherland by fathering so many children?

Was his baby-making bunker at Amstetten designed to be along the lines of Hitler’s Aryan baby-making farms? Did he select Elisabeth because of her Aryan looks (her sisters were brunettes when young)? Did he deliberately use Elisabeth’s womb to provide a new family upstairs for himself and Rosemarie? Did Rosemarie know?

A lot of articles dwell on Austria’s Nazi past to explain not just Joseph Fritzl’s brutal behavior but also that of everyone within his orbit for their ‘turn a blind eye, I know nothing’ mentality, and this may be true but a more important factor for Winsome – who holidayed in Austria some years ago and remarked only on the fastidious cleanliness and tidiness of the people – is that he may have clung to Hitler’s Aryan ideals of creating a master race and was merely doing his bit for the Fatherland by fathering seven more children in his cellar.

“That he chose his daughter Elisabeth to produce his second family is also understandable in this context because she not only carried his superior genes but was red haired rather than a brunette as photos show her older sisters to be when they were younger,” explains Winsome. “This guy was obsessed, it seems, with passing on his genes, and in choosing Elisabeth as his underground baby maker he was ensuring the next batch of babies would be golden Aryan children.”

“I’m blonde myself and speak German reasonably fluently so I really didn’t notice anything strange about Austrians,” says Winsome. “Because I fitted in so well with the local people I suppose I was unable to notice what other visitors have said about Austrians, especially the older generation, being cold towards people with a darker skin.”

“Austria is very much like Switzerland and Bavaria as far as its scenery, culture, language and people are concerned,” says Winsome, “and the only words I can really muster up to say about the place is that it’s nice, orderly and clean. It’s really not remarkable in any way and the only way you would remember it is if something remarkable happened to you there.”

“Nothing remarkable happened to me there and I would never have given the place another thought had it not been for the recent spate of cellar incarcerations, and that may say more about the proliferation of cellars in that country than the people themselves,” says Winsome. “After all, Fred and Rose West of Gloucester used a cellar to incarcerate their victims, including their daughters, but making babies wasn’t their aim as it appears was Fritzl’s.”

“I wracked my brains to remember everything about my holiday in Austria in order to detect something dark and secret in the country, something resembling its Nazi past, and there was nothing,” laughs Winsome, “unless, of course, you think being fastidiously clean and tidy is something to worry about, washing away sins or something like that.”

“The Austrian men, women and children were no different from Swiss or Bavarian men, women and children – but admittedly very different from other Europeans,” says Winsome. “You expect to see patriarchal families, polite and well behaved children, a lot of lederhosen and beer drinking, and that I did.”

“I’m doing my best to make sense of Fritzl’s horrific crime,” says Winsome, “and because Fritzl himself did not believe he was doing wrong, and believed he took good care of his cellar family, you have to believe that this guy was first and foremost a family man and believed in the superiority of his genes.”

“He didn’t get his family values from his Catholic upbringing, did he?” questions Winsome. “Austria’s Nazi past and Hitler’s peculiar master-race theory and Aryan baby-making farms must have had something to do with it – how else can you explain this man’s obsession with fathering children that he’d devise such an elaborate subterfuge to bring them into being?”

“The question I need answered is whether he used Elisabeth’s womb to provide a new family for himself and Rosemarie.”

“Twenty years ago in 1988 Rosemarie Fritzl was 48 and after a lifetime devoted to her seven children – one of whom was missing, presumed having joined a cult - she was probably feeling a little lost, as was Fritzl.”

“That Elisabeth had her first baby, Kerstin in 1989 – after five years of imprisonment – may not be a coincidence.”

“Perhaps Fritzl deliberately planned Elisabeth’s babies for Rosemarie to raise upstairs, but Elisabeth refused to let the first children go and only relented with her third and subsequent babies when she couldn’t care for them properly in the cramped cellar.”

“We are led to believe that Fritzl hated his wife, and she him, but that may not be true at all – or at least it was not true twenty years ago,” says Winsome. “We are also led to believe that Rosemarie was not an accomplice, but maybe the lure of having babies again to fuss over was too much for her to resist.”

“Some women are so crazy for babies that they’d rip open a pregnant woman’s stomach to steal one,” sighs Winsome, “and that Rosemarie took to the role of surrogate mother with such gusto and relish shows that she was not exactly a reluctant grandmother dumped with unwanted kids.”

“Josef and Rosemarie Fritzl appear to have had a very happy life upstairs with their adopted cellar children – dining out with them regularly, but never, apparently, going on holidays together with them,” says Winsome. “One of them was always at home, and this, along with Rosemarie’s statement that she never queried why Fritzl was spending so much time in the cellar and expanding it, strikes me as odd.”

“Like Fred and Rose West, the Fritzl’s were apparently unremarkable to their neighbors – a pretty normal couple – but I think if three babies were left on the West’s doorstep over the years, ostensibly the offspring of a missing daughter, the neighbors and the authorities would have wanted to know where the daughter was and who the father was.”

“In this respect, I think the Fritzl crime is peculiarly Austrian - ‘turn a blind eye, I know nothing’ - a legacy, perhaps of a Nazi past, as is the peculiar procreation of children with superior genes in a baby-making bunker.”

“Bearing in mind that Austria also produced Sigmund Freud,” sighs Winsome, “I do hope that the Fritzl family, the upstairs and the downstairs one, is not further abused in psychological laboratory studies.”

“If the world turns a blind eye to the fate of the family now - preferring to focus attention on other issues - we would be as guilty as we claim the Austrians are of not caring.” Check out these other stories about the Fritzl family:

Rosemarie Fritzl Wasn’t a Fat Housefrau

locked up living fritzl dolls

Elisabeth Fritzl Locked Up For Smoking

Secrets of Elisabeth Fritzl’s Age

Secrets of Josef Fritzl's Age

Elisabeth Fritzl’s Neighbors

Elisabeth Fritzl’s Amazing Survival

Was Rosemarie Fritzl Blameless?

Patrice not only raises the question of Rosemarie Fritzl’s negligence in relation to breeding and raising children with a convicted rapist and sex addict, but she also exhorts all mothers to open their eyes, take note of any changed behavior in their children and to let them know that they can talk openly about anything – especially secrets with daddy or male relatives – which is something that Rosemarie’s children could not do.

“No mother of little girls wants to consider the possibility that her partner, the father of her children, could look upon them with lust,” says Patrice, “but my husband was so over-sexed that I most certainly did think of this possibility and took precaution at all time with my daughters.”

"Whether we wanted to have children or not, and whether we hold down a full-time job or not," says Patrice, “the law may say that parenting is an equally shared responsibility but we all know, deep down, that mothers are 100% responsible for their children’s welfare, especially their daughters

“What sort of relationship did Rosemarie have with her 11-year old daughter that Elisabeth could not turn to her for help -- was she jealous of her pretty daughter?” asks Patrice. “And why did she repeatedly take in Elisabeth’s dumped babies without demanding that the authorities track her down, check on her welfare and discover who the father was (for birth certificate reasons if not child support payments)?

“Didn’t Rosemarie speak to other women or come across any media material dealing with male sexuality?” asks Patrice. “Didn’t she know that a lot of men fantasize about incest, and when the opportunity presents itself -- especially when they have no other outlet -- they are likely to act out these fantasies?”

"In that pretty little Elisabeth was first raped by her father at the age of 11, right under her mother's nose -- and this despicable situation continued until the girl was incarcerated in the cellar at 18 despite repeatedly running away and being returned by the authorities -- I believe that Rosemarie was particularly derelict in her duty towards the child because she not only must have discovered, as I did, that her husband had an abnormal sexual appetite but also, in view of his previous conviction, she knew without a doubt that he was perfectly capable of rape and no pretty young girl was safe to be alone with him -- particularly in his own home -- and having more brains or decency than her mother perhaps this is why Elisabeth did not allow her friends to meet her father.”

“We may never learn the truth about Rosemarie, but whatever it is, her reconciliation desire never to be parted from Elisabeth again is a scary prospect of yet another period of filial bondage for the unfortunate daughter."

Read more by Patrice on this issue:

locked up living fritzl dolls

hunks, trunks and living dolls

Josef Fritzl and Sex Addiction

the bearded man in the sky

empty nest divorce time

Rosemarie Fritzl a Protective Crab?

what’s civilized about western men?

fritzl wives

rosemarie fritzl's bad decision

the cliff richard generation

dependence enables evil

are sex addicts evolutionary dinosaurs?

incest horror

the cliff richard generation

When the horrific Josef Fritzl story hit the headlines around the world, Patrice was immediately taken back to her childhood - a time when Cliff Richard was crooning about living dolls being locked up in a trunk, a time when men were masterful, women were submissive, nobody believed little children when they told about daddy's dirty little sex game (or the priest’s), western male men thought they were superior and civilized and the bearded man in the sky looked down upon us all and was pleased.

“The Cliff Richard generation was the one before the baby boomers – loosely covering those born 1935 to 1945,” explains Patrice, “and being born right in the middle of this generation I remember it with mixed feelings.”

“Everyone’s childhood in this generation was overshadowed by a terrible war,” says Patrice, “and everyone’s teenage years were blighted by the brutal patriarchal values of an older generation that hushed up wife bashing, child sexual abuse and abominable attitudes towards women.”

“The boy band baby boomers swept aside all of those values – along with crooners like Cliff,” says Patrice, “but feminism and the sexual revolution came too late for women like me – and Rosemarie Fritzl – who married straight from school, never knew the independence of working and whose sole purpose in life by then was to have babies and do what their breadwinning husbands told them to do.”

“I am independent now, and so glad that younger women have opportunities and freedoms that I missed out on,” says Patrice, “but my whole life has been blighted by a childhood that was ruled by the brutal values of the generation before mine.”

“I have a special dislike of men my own age and older because they still act as though they ‘own’ women and can do what they like with them,” says Patrice, “and what happened in the Fritzl family is more common than most people believe.”

“The Cliff Richard generation is totally out of step with modern values and is fraught with psychoses.”

Read more by Patrice on this issue:

locked up living fritzl dolls

hunks, trunks and living dolls

Josef Fritzl and Sex Addiction

the bearded man in the sky

empty nest divorce time

Rosemarie Fritzl a Protective Crab?

what’s civilized about western men?

fritzl wives

rosemarie fritzl's bad decision

Was Rosemarie Fritzl Blameless?

dependence enables evil

are sex addicts evolutionary dinosaurs?

incest horror

locked up living fritzl dolls

When Josef Fritzl’s horror hit the headlines around the world, Patrice was immediately taken back to a time when Cliff Richard was crooning about living dolls being locked up in a trunk ‘so no big hunk can take you away from me' and she spent a long time reflecting upon the similarities between her life and that of the Fritzl family.

“Rosemarie Fritzl and I are the same age and had the same miserable marriage to a dominating man of the same age,” says Patrice. “We also had the same number of children and celebrated the same empty nest year in 1984 - the year that Elisabeth was incarcerated in the Amstetten cellar as a sex slave – a locked up living doll.”

“I wondered why Rosemarie didn’t take advantage of the empty nest to seek divorce, as I did, resulting in my enjoying 24 years of independence, now a blissful retirement,” says Patrice. “That Rosemarie chose to suffer 24 years of further domination and dependence, rather than seek freedom, is the prime reason why poor Elisabeth was locked up, and now Rosemarie has an old age ahead of her to spend wallowing in guilt, misery and shame.”

"Rosemarie’s behavior is decidedly bizarre – but so is the whole family’s,” says Patrice. “Elisabeth had several older siblings as well as aunts and uncles – why didn’t they worry about Elisabeth’s sudden disappearance in 1984 and mount some sort of campaign to find her?”

“Rosemarie is either mentally defective -- and thus cannot be blamed for a situation she enabled -- or she is guilty, if only of turning a blind eye to a heinous crime on the basis that when Fritzl was raping her 11 year old daughter, or someone else, she was being spared that ordeal herself or having to leave her comfort zone to do something about it.”

“Maybe she was the original locked up Fritzl doll?”

“To avoid an accomplice charge or guilt by association, I believe Rosemarie will play the thick as a plank card for all it’s worth," sighs Patrice. “She will do everything possible to come out of this smelling like the proverbial rose, but her image has been irreparably tarnished.”

Read more by Patrice on this issue:

hunks, trunks and living dolls

Josef Fritzl and Sex Addiction

the bearded man in the sky

empty nest divorce time

Rosemarie Fritzl a Protective Crab?

what’s civilized about western men?

fritzl wives

rosemarie fritzl's bad decision

Was Rosemarie Fritzl Blameless?

the cliff richard generation

dependence enables evil

are sex addicts evolutionary dinosaurs?

incest horror