Bailey Sarian (40:40)
So in May of 2009, it was like almost a year later, Some of yosef's conversations, like, with his lawyers, were released to the media. You know, the media was all over this. I mean, obviously, this is like a what, what? Right, What? So media frenzy. So when, like, anytime yosef spoke or anything, like, people are leaking stuff all the time. But according to yosef, he believed that the media was making him out to be some kind of beast. He was like, this is unfair, you know? And he was nothing like the beast that the media was making him out to be. He's like, this is not true. It was consensual. So Joseph said, this is a quote. When I went into the bunker, I brought flowers for my daughter and books and stuffed animals for the children. He said they watched adventure movies while Elizabeth cooked their favorite meals. And then we all sat around the table and ate together. You Know, trying to prove that they lived this, like, happy life. I was like, okay. Then when elizabeth became pregnant, yosef said that he gave her medical books so she knew what she had to do on the day. He also went on to say that he gave her towels, disinfectant, and bandages. As if we're just supposed to be like, oh, well, alright then. You know, you're good. You gave her bandages and a book. All right, Makes sense. You're a good guy. I could not believe that answer. I was like, is he fucking serious? Oh, he's serious. He's serious. He went on to say that, like, he knew what he was doing the whole 24 years was, like, not right. But that it had become a normal occurrence to kind of lead the second life. Like, one in the house and one in the basement. And he's like, that was just my normal. When yosef was asked why Elizabeth, why her? Yosef said that he chose elisabeth because, again, she looked like his mother, maria. And also because her rebellious teenage behavior offended his love of discipline. The whole mom comment is like. But it gets worse because, listen, yosef said that he succeeded in suppressing his lust for his mother, maria, but he could not control himself when it came to Elizabeth. He went on to say, quote, my desire to have sex with elizabeth became ever stronger. It was a vicious circle from which there was no exit, not only for elizabeth, but also for myself. Bro, the. This guy's a different level of sick. So yosef, he loved to tell everyone and anyone that, like, elizabeth was a difficult child, as if this was, like, some good, great reasoning as to why he did it. He said, quote, elizabeth was very different to my other children. She'd go out the whole night long, drank alcohol, even ran away twice. I tried to get her out of this rut that just made her fight me all the more. That's when I decided to find somewhere for her, even if I had to force her from the outside world. God, what do you even say? I don't know. I don't know. So yosef had admitted that he spent years preparing the cellar before drugging and imprisoning Elizabeth in 1984. He said that he started working on the cellar in, like, 1981 and 1982. I mean, so he was thinking about it for a while, right? So when he was first arrested, you know, he sat with the forensic psychiatrist and they interviewed yosef to kind of figure out what the hell is wrong with this guy, right? So they sit down, they do the interview. And then, of course, like, the transcripts they got leaked to the press. So during this interview, yosef, like, dug a little more into his relationship with his mom. Now, first he was like, he loved his mom. He was like, she's the best in the world. I love that bitch. Like, she was strict, but it was necessary. And he was like, team mom. But then he finally flipped the script, and he went on to say, like, that his mom never showed him love, that she beat him until he was lying in a pool of blood, like, on the floor, that she would often leave him feeling weak and humiliated. And that, like, he never got a kiss or love from her. And that all he did was, like, try really hard to please her. But it was, like, it didn't work out for him. And the only thing she would do with him is, like, go to church. So kind of sounds a lot like himself. So yosef also said in the interview that his mom would call him a satan, a criminal, a no good. And then he had, like, a horrible fear of her again. It's just like, oh, it sounds so familiar. Yosef. I wonder if he ever connected those dots. I'm not sure. Maybe they did in this conversation. I don't know. But I guess things had changed in his relationship with his mom in 1959. This is when it gets even more weird. I know. How can it get even more weird? Let me tell you. Joseph and rosemary, they got married, right? They bought this house together. And when they got the house, Yosef's mother ends up moving in with them. Now, yosef had said that over time, the roles had reversed, and now his mom was afraid of him. Oh, yeah. So I guess he treated her pretty poorly. Well, I don't guess. Cause he actually said Yosef later admitted that he had his mother living up in, like, the attic of the home and that he put a lock on the outside of the door to keep her locked in. He also bricked up her window. I think there's only one window. Windows, I don't know. But he bricked them up. And, like, if anyone asked where she was, like, the neighbors or something, he would tell them that she died. She did. Yosef didn't give a clear answer as to, like, how long he kept his mother locked up there, but it's believed to be around 20 years until her death in 1980. So what I'm saying is he had done this before, you know, Now I don't know if there was anything sexual going on with his mom. I think probably. I don't know. So many questions. I know, I know. And I couldn't find any answers. Like, didn't his wife have questions like, hey, where's your mom? She was here one day and now she's gone. Or did she know, you know, what did he tell the rest of the family? Like, leave grandma up there. Don't let her out. Like, did she go to the bathroom? Like, in a bucket or something? Like, what? Again, nobody ever said that he did anything, like, sexual with his mom or anything. That's just, like, my own opinion. No one really knows. I also was trying to think, like, what did he do with her body when she died? Did she go into the incinerator? Because, again, there was no, like, answers there. Did she get buried? But then she. I don't know. I don't know. I hate not knowing. Yosef had told the psychiatrist that he actually had thought up this plan about locking up his daughter way back when he was sitting in prison for his rape conviction. I guess he had a lot of time to think. He admitted that he planned to lock his daughter up so that he could contain and express his evil side. This is what he said. He said, quote, I was born to rape, and I held myself back for a relatively long time. I could have behaved a lot worse than locking up my daughter. I think he did because, remember all, like, the crimes that happened in the beginning that were, like, unsolved, I think he did so much more that. And he was traveling all the time for work. I mean, who knows what he did? So yosef told the psychiatrist that Elizabeth and the children, they actually enjoyed being in the cellar and that their life was normal, saying, quote, they didn't miss anything, as I really tried to make their life in captivity as pleasant as possible. We played, we chatted, we laughed in the cellar. We actually led a completely normal family life. End quote. It was a direct quote. Can you believe that? What? What? What? What? I was like, he can't be. He's serious. He was serious. They loved it down there. No windows or anything. So the forensic psychiatrist, they gave him, like, a lengthy diagnosis and recommended that he receive psychiatric care for the rest of his life. Yeah, that sounds about right. Right? So then finally, they go to trial. Yosef's trial started March 16, 2009. He was being charged with rape, incest, enslavement, and the murder of one of his children. So on the first day, when he was, like, entering the courtroom, you could see footage of this. But yosef, like, he's trying to hide his face from the cameras behind a blue folder, as if, like, that did something he's trying to hide. He doesn't want everyone to see him. Little coward, you know? But then once inside the courtroom, all the journalists and the spectators, they were asked to leave. And that's when he finally took down, like, the blue folder from his face. But yosef, at first, he pleaded not guilty to all charges. Yosef's counsel, in their opening remarks, they tried to convince the jury that yosef wasn't that bad. You're not that bad. He's not the monster you guys think. And then their example. Their example was that yosef brought a Christmas tree down into the cellar during the holiday season. See, would a monster? Like, would a monster do that? No, a monster would never do that. I was like, all right, okay. So on the first day, the jurors, they watched the testimony that Elizabeth had recorded back in. In 2008. It was said that the tape was harrowing. That's a hard one for me. I don't know why harrowing, but it was awful, right? So the eight jurors, they watched this testimony, and, like, bits spread out over the day because they didn't want the jurors to, like, tap out. The prosecutor, obviously was, like, pushing for life imprisonment in, like, a institution for the criminally insane. So she demonstrated to the jurors the low height of the ceiling in the cellar dungeon by making a mark on the door to the courtroom at like, 174cm or like, 4.5foot, 8.5 inches. So made a little mark and then described the seller as damp and moldy, and then passed around a box of, like, musty objects that were taken from the cellar. And, you know, the jury's all, like, holding it, and they could smell it. And I guess, like, the jurors were just getting sick from the smell. Besides the video testimony, Elizabeth's older brother, his name was Harold, he actually testified. Not much else was said about with the family, but, like, Harold testified, and Harold said that yosef was, like, physically abusive towards him as a kid and then shared his own experience. But other than that, like rosemarie and like Elizabeth's children, they all refused to testify. So yosef was also on trial for the. For the baby, baby Michael, who died less than three days after being born. So the judge had asked Yosef, like, hey, were you aware that the infant was, like, super ill? And yosef had responded by saying, quote, I just overlooked it. I thought the baby was going to survive. I should have realized. It was only yesterday I realized for the first time how cruel I was to Elizabeth. I had Never realized it before. What? Yeah, he's like, just yesterday. I real. Just yesterday. Shut the up. What a dumbass. On March 18, 2009, Elizabeth, she attended the second day of trial. And it was said that when yosef saw her and, like, recognized that it was elizabeth, he went completely pale and then, like, broke down. I don't know what came over him with the spirit or something, because the next day, he had changed his not guilty to guilty on all charges. On March 19, 2009, Yosef was found guilty on all charges, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for, like, 15 years. He shouldn't be even allowed parole, but whatever. Yeah, so he got sent away. Now it's your turn to get locked up, buddy. So he's been living his life in prison. I guess it's not. It hasn't been going too well for him. He's been getting beat up and stuff. Oh, so sad. I know. Tragic. And then in, like, 2017, Yosef, he changed his name from yosef fritzel to yosef mirhoff. Something like that. He changed his name? Most likely. Well, everyone thinks, you know, it's because everyone knows his name and he wanted to, like, hide from that. But also, he was getting, like, treated like shit behind bars, and he thought maybe changing his name would, like, help stupid. You know, while behind bars, he hasn't really shown any remorse. I don't think he's capable of it. He really thinks he, like, didn't do anything that bad. There was, like, a direct quote that he gave saying, like, just look into the cellars of other people. You might find other families and girls down there. Like, he was hinting that, you know, like, I'm sure there's other people out there who, like, are doing what he did. Or maybe, like, even worse. There's probably tons of people you don't even know about. So recently, yosef was released from a psychiatric detention facility to, like, a regular prison. And this decision was made in, like, 2022 based off a psychiatric reform fort that said he was no longer, like, any danger. He's still serving a sentence. I came across this article that said that, like, he gets free time outside of prison. I need to clarify, and I'm sorry, I'm not ready with that, but, like, I think I saw that or I'm making it up. Either way, he's still serving us time. It's just, like, seems a little bit relaxed because of his good behavior in May of 2023. He's still talking. He loves to talk. Yosef Gave an interview to the sun saying, I miss my family very much. I'm sure that we are going to be reunited and I think they are going to forgive me for what I have done. Then saying I'm extremely sorry and that he regrets his crimes. He also added that he watched the whole coronation of King Charles and that, quote, I'm a big fan of King Charles, end quote. I was like, all right, okay. In January of this year, there were reports that Yosef is like suffering from dementia. I don't know, I think it's the early stages, they said, but that's the thing. So Elizabeth and her family, woo. They have been through it. Elizabeth and her children, obviously, like life has been, I'm sure, like confusing and difficult. Right. I mean, once they got out of the cellar, it was said, like the kids obviously completely shocked. They were taking everything in. It was like they were experiencing a lot of firsts, like riding in the, in a car, going outside, seeing rain, being around other people. It just must have been a lot to wrap their heads around. Just one day you're out and you're like, wait, what? I didn't even know. Like, I was stuck somewhere. So when they got out of the cellar, they were immediately taken into care. So it's like Elizabeth, all six of her children again, her mother Rosemary, they were housed in like a local clinic where they were completely shielded from the outside world. So they went from one locked in place to another. But at least they were free. Right. But while they were there, they received medical and like psychological treatment. Great. Right. The children who were living in the cellar, they didn't have the best health. Again, they had never seen sunlight. So it was said, like they had also a lot of different infections due to the filth that they were living in. Inside the cellar, it was like really humid. Bacteria was constantly growing. And then they were like breathing that in all of the time, all of their life. So therapy hasn't been that easy for them. They needed a lot of extra help for everything. Like, for one, like getting adjusted to the light after years in semi darkness. They also needed help coping with the extra space they had. Like, they could freely move about. But, you know, they were raised in a place that was so small, so they didn't know. They, they didn't know what to do with all the extra space. And then as time went on, it was revealed that like, Elizabeth and her children were more traumatized than they had thought. I mean, yeah, 24 years, I guess Kirsten, she would like, she was tearing out clumps of her hair. She would rip up dresses and, like, stuff them in, like, the toilet. Her son Stefan, he could not walk properly because he was over 5 foot 8. And again, the cellar ceiling was shorter than that. So he was walking around, like, hunched over all of his life, and he had a really hard time correcting that. And it was said that they had severe anxiety. Geez, I bet. I mean, duh. I mean, like, I'm sure we can all understand that. Well, you know, like, everyday, normal occurrences, like people dimming the lights or, like, closing doors would send Kirsten and, like, Stefan into panic attacks. And then Elizabeth's other children, her three other children that were raised upstairs in the normal house, whatever that is, you know, they dealt with, like, major anger and resentment afterwards. Yeah, just a lot. Right. And then Elizabeth and her mother, Rosemary, they had issues, too. It was said that Elizabeth kind of eventually, like, she started to have anger towards her mom, you know, for being passive during her upbringing. Don't blame her. Right. I guess they, like, didn't talk for a long time after she came out of the cellar. And, like, later down the road, they. They now have, like, a relationship. It said. Yeah, I would be pissed. Elizabeth and her children, they have moved to an unnamed village in northern Austria, and that's where they live and require ongoing therapy. I read they stopped doing therapy, but whatever. Like, I hope they're just doing well. Right. Elizabeth, though, she also found love. Oh, yeah. With a bodyguard who was working with the family during the trial. Over the years, it's been said that the family has been trying their best to do normal things like driving, being outside, playing video games, spending time with their mother and grandmother. Yeah, that's kind of. Kind of confusing. Is that their. Never mind. I'm kidding. I'm overthinking it, but, yeah, spending time with family, I guess. So. The family is said to be, like, really private. And the residents in the neighborhood where they live, they also help protect and, like, look out for the family, which must be really nice to have, like, that kind of support. Support system. Right? Because I guess a lot of people come around trying to get interviews and stuff, and, like, the whole community is like, nope, get the out of here. Elizabeth and the. The family, they haven't given interviews. They haven't been seen in pictures or anything since coming out. And, like, I'm sure they just want. They want to keep it that way. Right. Obviously. Which I'm glad, Like, good, good if that, you know, good for them. Let them heal. Seriously, like, maybe one day they'll want to share their story and experience or, like, maybe they won't. Either way, I'm sure we all can agree, like, glad they made it out, right? Oy vey. Other than that, the only other update was, like, In June of 2013, the Fritzl home was sold and the basement was covered in or filled with concrete. So, wow, we made it to the end. And that is the awful case of Josef fritzel. And I don't even. I don't even know what to say. I think, you know, I think. I think I'm not laughing. You know, I'm not. It's just uncomfortable. I'm laughing because it's uncomfortable. I think that we can all agree, like, it's glad they made it out, right? Like, life must be really challenging after the fact. So I think we. We all can agree. Glad that they're out, hope that they've been adjusting well. And it's really nice to hear that they have a community that, like, has their back and is looking out for them. Just hope that they can live their lives as best as possible, you know? As for yosef, what do you even say to that guy? I don't even know he. I hope he has a miserable time in prison. It's really all you can wish for, huh? This is like one of those stories that just sits with you for way too long. And I'm like, I can't believe there's people out there like this. Oh, my God. Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a good rest of your day. You make good choices. Please be safe out there. Right? And I will be seeing you guys later. Goodbye.