Further reading for Jack Unterweger
Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer by John Leake
Jack Unterweger is a sleeper among true crime enthusiasts. In 1974, Jack murdered Margaret Schafer by strangulation in Germany and was tried and convicted for the murder, sentenced to life in prison. But something truly unusual happened during his imprisonment. Jack began writing poetry and fiction and picked up a following of readership and a reputation as an intellectual and rising star of the literary world. His introspective autobiography, Purgatory, caught the eye of numerous celebrities as well as the broader public and in spite of the brutality of his crime, a campaign to see Unterweger released was started in 1985. German courts refused this until the minimum of his sentence, fifteen years, was served, and in 1990 he was released.
He set off on a killing spree almost immediately.
Two years later, Jack was picked up on murder charges in America after a world tour of carnage that left a minimum of fifteen women dead. Like a character from a Thomas Harris novel, Jack moved around several times, manipulating his way around the world, killing in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and The United States after having convinced an Austrian magazine to send him to Los Angeles to write about crime there. He even managed to convinced Los Angeles police officials to show him the hottest spots for sex workers, practically setting the table for the murders that would ultimately get him caught.
Unsurprisingly, hardly anyone that sought to see him released from prison ever had to reckon with what they were directly responsible for in the end.
Episodes: 445-446
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