Strollerderby : josef fritzl

American Incest Dad Gets 109 Years In Jail

Brett Singer — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 04:55:00 GMT

Austrian Incest Dad, meet American Incest Dad.

Josef Fritzl's American counterpart, Lindolfo Thibes of Los Angeles, was sentenced to 109 years in prison for having a sexual relationship with his own daughter and fathering three children with her.

"I hope he suffers," the daughter said. "I want him to die in there in jail because that's what he did to me. He confined me." She is 29 now; her father began abusing her when she was 6. He threatened to kill her if she told anyone, and used surveillance cameras to keep track of her. Thibes physically abused her as well.

Well, I guess this time, justice was served. Horrible story but now he'll be off the streets and out of his poor daughter's life. Physically, at least.

Source: Times of India

Image: SXC

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Morning News - iPhone Gets Feature Other Phones Already Have

Brett Singer — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Updating yesterday's Natasha Richardson story: an autopsy reveals that she died of bleeding in the brain and "she might have survived had she received immediate treatment." The thing is, people with this sort of injury typically feel fine at first. So sad.

NBC is launching a show to compete with "American Idol." Simon Cowell probably thinks this is a "horrible" idea. ("Horrible" is one of the words he uses a lot, right?) On "Idol", Alexis Grace went home. She was shocked. Shocked. Why are they always so surprised? I guess you have think you're a major talent to get on TV and sing like that but just once it'd be fun to hear someone say, "Yeah, I suck. It was only a matter of time before I got the boot."

Why is Steve Wozniak on "Dancing With The Stars"? Based on this quote from his website, I guess the reason is because people said he wouldn't be able to do it. I wonder if Apple fans will keep voting for him the way football fans did with Jerry Rice. Woz has definitely been keeping in touch with his audience, accusing "Dancing" producers of rigging the voting in order to goose the ratings, then apologizing, all via his Facebook page. If this keeps up, I might actually have to watch the show.

Speaking of Apple, the new iPhone software will include bleeding edge features like the copying and pasting of text. What's that, your phone has been able to do that for years? Mine too. The iPhone is nifty but certain omitted features prove that Steve Jobs could probably sell water to a drowning Apple fan if it had that logo on it. (Personally, until the iPhone has an actual keyboard, I won't even consider buying one.)

Financial news update: stocks tanked and it wasn't CNBC's fault. Are you happy, Jeff Zucker?

Austrian monster dad Josef Fritzl was sentenced to life in a psych hospital. Life in prison would be better, but even though he could be paroled in 15 years, it's not likely to happen. The speed of the trial was kind of impressive; in the U.S., these things seem to take a lot longer. I'm sure there's a reason for that but I don't know what it is.

And finally, there were a heck of a lot of babies born in 2007. Madeline points out that it wasn't Octomom's fault -- "she only gave birth to one baby that year."

That's all for now. Have a great weekend and we'll see you on Monday.

Image: Woz.org

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UPDATE - Josef Fritzl Sentenced To Life In Psychiatric Institution

Brett Singer — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 01:35:00 GMT

UPDATE: Josef Fritzl has been sentenced to life in a psychiatric institution. While onthe surface this seems like justice has been served, The Scotsman says that the ruling means he could be free in 15 years if a doctor says he's been cured of whatever they decide is wrong with him. Basically, Fritzl is eligible for parole in 15 years. It's not a big chance, but it could happen. Which would be bad. The Scotsman's Stephen McGinty does say that, "It is likely...that [Fritzl] will die in prison," since he is 73 years old.

Earlier posts follow.

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Josef Fritzl's daughter Elisabeth testified against him on Tuesday, according to CNN. Thankfully, it was by videotape. Elisabeth and the children she had as a result of her father's abuse are living in an undisclosed location with new identities.

How do you go on after something like that? I'm amazed and oddly impressed that Elisabeth has the strength to go on living, much less testify against her father. Of course, I imagine she would like nothing more than to see him go to prison for the rest of his life.

The case has become a major media event in Austria, with crowds gathering in and out of the courtroom. Press has been barred from certain parts of the trial, including Elisabeth's testimony.

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CNN is reporting that Josef Fritzl will plead guilty to rape and incest on Monday. He will not plead guilty to charges of "murder, enslavement and assault." Fritzl's lawyer says that his client "expects to spend the rest of his life in prison." Um, yeah, that sounds right. That said, the charges he's pleading guilty to carry relatively short prison terms -- five to fifteen years for rape, one year for incest. The biggest is the murder charge, which, as discussed below, some experts think will be tough to prove. I guess it's a good thing that Fritzl will definitely be found guilty of something, although if he goes to jail for only a couple of years, that would be tragic.

Original post follows.

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Josef Fritzl, the man who kept his daughter locked in the basement for more than 20 years and impregnated her multiple times, is finally going on trial.

Disturbingly, he may spend only 15 years in jail. Or less.

According to London's Times Online, the "Austrian incest monster" is about to stand trial for "murder, incest, unlawful imprisonment and enslavement." Fritzl thinks that he could receive less than 10 years in prison.

He may be right. Some lawyers feel that the murder charge, which is based on the fact that he allowed one of the children he had with his own daughter to die, won't stick. That leaves rape as the biggest charge, which under Austrian law carries a 15 year sentence. Parole, good behavior -- he could be out in five years.

I know that everyone is entitled to a defense, but the one that Fritzl and his lawyer are offering is almost as disturbing as what he did. Fritzl is "claiming that his daughter was having sex when she was barely out of her teens. She smoked. She took drugs. She drank. He wanted to save her." His lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, says of his client: "He is not a monster. He loved his daughter in his own way." The father also says that he took good care of his "captives", citing the fact that the bird he bought them lived as evidence of good air quality in their underground prison. (This is at least consistent with the insane statements he made last year.)

As a quick reminder, Fritzl kept his daughter Elisabeth in the basement, along with some of the children they had together. Three of them were allowed to live upstairs -- the "upstairs children". The cellar was equipped with soundproof walls. Elisabeth was forced to write a letter saying that she had run away and joined a cult. This was a well thought out crime. Fritzl says that he is "not normal," but that's as close as he's come to an apology.

Making matters worse, prosecutors may cut a deal that will allow Fritzl to choose the prison where he serves his short sentence. One that lets him sing in a choir and take cooking lessons. When he gets out, he wants to go back home and live with his wife.

According to the Times, many feel that this situation could have been avoided if social workers had done their jobs. That may be the case, but the idea that this monster could get off with a light jail sentence in a country club prison is horrible. Not as horrible as what he did. But it's pretty close.

Source: timesonline.co.uk

Image: BBC

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Brett Singer — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Apologies for forgetting St. Patrick's Day yesterday. I could make a culturally insensitive joke and say that I was drunk, but the truth is I just forgot. Apparently everybody was Irish on Tuesday, but today you're back to whatever it is you are the rest of the year.

Speaking of being culturally insensitive, it's a St. Paddy's Day tradition for the current Irish leader to bring the U.S. President a bowl of shamrocks. Faith and begorrah, laddie! Why doesn't he just dress up like the Lucky Charms mascot and dance an Irish jig on the White House lawn?

A group in Boston conducted a survey of local teens and asked them about Chris Brown and Rihanna. The results? Forty-six percent thought the beating Brown allegedly gave Rihanna "was Rihanna's fault, and fifty-two percent said it was both Rihanna and Brown's fault. Fifty-one percent blamed Brown." Wow. This story gets more depressing by the minute. I'm increasingly of the opinion that there are a lot of guys out there who think it's acceptable to hit a woman if she, you know, just doesn't listen or something. Scary thought.

In goofier entertainment news: Wow, Harry Connick Jr. got fat. I know that doesn’t really matter, but women are usually the target of this sort of nonsense, so I thought I'd share a pic of a famous guy who got caught lookin' chunky on the beach.

I'm not sure what it means when Judge Judy makes more sense than most of the people who talk about the state of our world today. It may be a sign of the apocalypse. Granted, anyone can look good next to Larry King, but Judge Judy sounds quite reasonable here.

There's a six-year-old boy out there with a 176 IQ. At that level, shouldn't he be able to move objects with his mind or something? (Oh, and I bet his father was young.) When you see a story like this, do you look at your own kids and say, "Why can't you be that smart?" Yeah, me neither.

February saw an increase in the number of new homes being constructed, aka "housing starts." Here's the headline, which is pretty typical these days: "Housing starts take surprising jump in Feb. / But can gains continue amid all the housing industry's woes?" It’s like giving a child a piece of chocolate cake and then telling him you might have dropped it in the sink. Or that the frosting is actually made with carob. (Remember carob? It was supposed to be healthier than chocolate. I think people stopped using it in the 1970's.) Just once I'd like to get a piece of good news without being told, "hey, it's good, but don't expect it to last."

Alex Rodriguez, whom I refer to as The Rod, has revealed his true talent -- being annoying both on and off the field. I mean, how is it that the highest paid player in baseball isn’t playing and is on the cover of Details magazine with the headline, "A-Rod: Confessions of a Damned Yankee"? Yes, the cover was planned before he had his surgery. But what the hell, dude?

And finally, March Madness has arrived. If you're like me and have no officemates to play with (let's call it March Sadness), you can make a bracket at NYTimes.com and compete against random people for an Amazon Kindle, which is a nice prize. And CNET has a list of several NCAA-related websites to choose from. The tournament starts tomorrow (Thursday March 19), so get your bracket ready if you want to play. It's like the stock market, only more fun and with less sweating.

Image: CNET

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Morning News - Cheney, Duct Tape, Outer Space

Brett Singer — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Madeline is taking a little time off, so I'll be your Morning Newsperson for awhile. Gosh, I sure wish there was something to talk about. The news is so dull right now... Oh! Wait. My bad. Here we go:

Dick Cheney did an interview with CNN's "State of the Union" where he said that "reversing [Bush administration] anti-terrorism policies endangers Americans." See, if a Democrat said that about a Republican President, there would be an outcry. The former VP also said the Bush administration spent so much money (remember that surplus we used to have?) because "Stuff happens," and discusses the fact that his former boss (George W. Bush, remember him?) did not pardon Scooter Libby. That last one is interesting, I would have thought that Bush would do that. Guess not. There's a meeting it would be fun to be a fly on the wall for. "Dude, I am SO not pardoning Scooter." "Dude! You totally have to!" (Note: I wasn't there, but I bet that's not what they said.)

Some people who are out of work have decided to make their own jobs. The New York Times reports on a few folks who have found their inner entrepreneur, including Alex Andon, who makes jellyfish tanks. Seems that some people will spend big bucks for a nice home for their jellies. Who knew? If you can't make jellyfish tanks (and if not, that's OK, we can't all be good at everything), maybe one of your kids could make a YouTube video asking someone to hire you.

Investigators want to freeze the assets of Ruth Madoff, wife of Bernie. My only question is why did it take them this long to decide to do that?

The space shuttle launched! Um, what's that? You don't care? C'mon, isn't this still a cool thing? I remember being a kid and we were all so stoked whenever there was a launch. I guess it's just not that big a deal anymore. This particular mission sends the Discovery to the International Space Station "to deliver and install the fourth and final pair of solar wings." I don't know what that is, but "solar wings" sounds really cool to me.

Demon dad Josef Fritzl will plead guilty to some charges, but not the ones that carry the really long prison sentences. There will still be a trial, which CNN says will probably last less than a week. We could learn something from those Austrians.

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More tomorrow... same Babble time, same Babble channel...

Image: CNN

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Austrian incest mom speaks out

Brett Singer — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Remember Josef Fritzl, the human monster who locked his daughter in the cellar and got her pregnant multiple times? She's speaking to the press now, and while you know her story is a horrible one, the details are still chilling.

Elisabeth Fritzl, who was locked in an Austrian basement for almost 25 years and bore seven children by her father, says he raped her three times a week.

Josef Fritzl also regularly threatened to abandon her and three of her children in the cellar, leaving them to starve if they didn't follow his commands, Elisabeth said in her first public comments, The Times of London reported Wednesday.

This went on for 24 years. Other than mass genocide, I have to say that this might be the most horrendous story of all time. It's certainly in the top 10. Back when we first posted this story, commenter SussLW said, "Rather reminds me of some early V.C. Andrews novels, actually, which were also disturbing, but at least they were works of fiction." Indeed.

Source: UPI, via Madeline's excellent Morning News, which you should be reading if you aren't already

image: BBC

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Monster dad's daughter is awakened from coma

Brett Singer — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

It's Friday the 13th, which seems like a good day for a story like this one.

Kerstin Fritzl, the incestuous daughter of Austrian lunatic Josef Fritzl, was awakened from an artificial coma this week. According to Reuters, "Doctors put her into an artificial coma after she suffered from cramping fits due to oxygen deficiency and kidney problems and was brought from the prison cellar to hospital by Fritzl."

The case is still being investigated by Austrian authorities, who are looking into charged Fritzl with "coercion, rape, incest and the death" of one of the children he fathered with his daughter Elisabeth. He has "admitted incarceration and incest"; I'm not sure how the Austrian legal system works, therefore I don't know if that admission is equal to an admission of guilt.

Now this is a tricky sentence: "Austrian media reported that Kerstin might have been reunited with her mother, her grandmother and her siblings who are all cared for at the hospital." What I think it means is that Kerstin was reunited with her mother, Elisabeth, who is also her sister. Her grandmother is also her great-grandmother… is that right? It's a little confusing.

If you've forgotten the details of this story consider yourself lucky, but if you want to refresh your memory, click here.

images: BBC

Satan upset at how he's been portrayed in the media

Brett Singer — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Well, not Satan specifically. But kind of.

Josef Fritzl, or "Incest dad" as CNN calls him, told his lawyer that he is unhappy at the picture of him that has been painted by worldwide media outlets. Apparently Fritzl told his attorney, "I'm only being portrayed as a monster and not as someone who committed monstrous acts."

Oh! Because you might be a nice guy who just happens to have committed an insanely vile act. Repeatedly. For over 20 years. Sort of a "Hitler liked dogs and children" kind of thing. Okay.

Fritzl also says that he "must have been crazy," because he knew what he was doing was wrong. "I tried as best I could to care for my family in the cellar…When I went into the bunker, I brought my daughter flowers and my children books and stuffed animals," Fritzl said, adding he would watch adventure videos with the children while Elisabeth cooked their favorite meals. "And then we'd all sit at the kitchen table and eat together."

Considering that the kids only speak in grunts, that must have been some dinner table conversation. Then after dinner he would go upstairs and continue to keep them locked in the basement. But he's no monster.

It actually gets worse from there – he first locked up his daughter (the one he fathered seven children with) when she hit puberty and stopped "following orders," and even makes a vague attempt to blame his actions on an unhappy childhood.

It bears repeating that even Howard Stern said there was nothing funny about this story. (The best I could do was "somebody's not getting a Father's Day present," which isn't very good.) The more we find out about this thing, the more disgusting it gets.

image: BBC

The face of evil: Cellar Dad revealed

Brett Singer — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:00:00 GMT

Austrian Police have released a photo of Josef Fritzl, who has now confessed to keeping his daughter, and the children he fathered with her, in the cellar of their home for 24 years.

I mean, ouch.

The BBC has a bunch of coverage on this story, reporting that DNA evidence backs up the charges, a timeline of the events of the case going back to 1984, and an analysis of the possible psychological effects the whole being-kept-in-the-basement thing can do to a person. One London pediatrician is quoted as say, "It is possible that if you eat a good diet, you won't necessarily need much sunlight." Oh, OK.

Here's a shot of the cellar, which has "a concealed network of windowless chambers."

This story is so horrible that Howard Stern actually said there was nothing funny about it. If he can't come up with a joke, I don't know who can.

Man kept his daughter in basement for 24 years

UPDATE: Dungeon Kids Only Speak In Grunts and Gurgles

images: BBC