Austrian 'celebrity killer' convicted
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Your support makes all the difference.GRAZ (AP) - A former prison author who thrilled Austrian intellectuals with his writing was convicted yesterday of murdering nine prostitutes in Europe and the United States.
Jack Unterweger, 43, was convicted on nine counts of murder and one charge of grievous bodily harm. The eight-member jury voted six to two to convict, and five to three to clear him of two further charges of murdering Austrian prostitutes.
The court sentenced him to life, sending him to an unidentified institution for mentally disturbed criminals. Unterweger made a passionate plea of innocence to a silent courtroom before the jury began nearly nine hours of deliberation. But he was calm as he heard the verdict, which his lawyers said they would appeal.
The drama of the two-month trial was high to the end. Early yesterday, a bomb exploded at the Graz courthouse where Unterweger was on trial, causing heavy damage. But the explosion did not delay the final arguments. The state prosecutor Karl Gasser demanded conviction on all 11 murder counts, while Unterweger himself acknowledged that he had led a reprehensible life, but pleaded innocent.
'I implore you, even if you are disgusted by Jack Unterweger's way of life, to think whether that is enough to say, 'He doesn't deserve to live in freedom',' Unterweger told the jurors.
Unterweger was convicted of murdering a woman in Germany in 1974, and sentenced to life in prison. He began writing, attracting the attention of Austrian intellectuals, and on 23 May, 1990, was paroled in what prison officials described at the time as successful 'resocialisation'. That was eight years after a Graz magazine published the first instalment of his autobiographical novel Purgatory, or the Trip to Jail - Report of A Guilty Man. Unterweger lived a flashy life in freedom, favouring silk shirts, gold chains and driving a Ford Mustang Mach 1 with the number plate 'Jack 1'.
He was accused of murdering 11 prostitutes, beginning only three months after he was released from prison. The last three murders occurred in the Los Angeles area in summer 1991.
All the prostitutes were met in urban red-light districts and taken to remote areas. All were abused, choked and strangled, in many cases with their own bras.
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