Read Girl in the Cellar Online
Authors: Allan Hall
Girl in the Cellar (20 page)
Shocked, too, were the followers of this strange relationship when it was revealed that Natascha paid her
respects to her kidnapper by spending ten minutes alone with his body in the morgue of the Vienna Institute of Forensic Medicine and lit a candle in front of the closed coffin. The young woman was accompanied by her psychiatric adviser Professor Friedrich, in what was reportedly a âsolemn and intimate ceremony of grief lasting several minutes'.
Local media have suggested that the visit to the morgue was probably advised by Professor Friedrich as part of the process of Fraulein Kampusch coming to terms with her eight-year ordeal. Professor Berger said that Natascha insisted on seeing her abductor's coffin, as she was not allowed to attend his burialâin an unmarked grave at an unidentified cemetery.
âShe wanted to go to Herr Priklopil's funeral,' said Berger, âbut I told her it was not a good idea and talked her out of it. She then went to the morgue instead and asked to spend ten minutes alone in a room with his coffin.' Neither he nor Professor Friedrich said whether she cried during the farewell, but he did confirm the reports that she was angry with the police for letting him die. He said: âFraulein Kampusch blames herself for the death of Herr Priklopil and for the suffering it inflicted on his mother. She still feels guilty, but is also very angry with police, because in her opinion they let him die. She blames the police for not preventing his suicide.'
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Wolfgang Priklopil was buried in an anonymous grave during a quiet ceremony without a priest in the presence of his mother and his business partner Ernst Holzapfel's
sister Margit Wendelberger. The only other people present at the small and desolate Laxenburg Cemetery, several kilometres south of Vienna, were about 20 civilian-clothed police officers and two undercover journalists and photographers disguised as cemetery workers. The bid to keep the monster's final resting-place a secret had failed.
The ceremony only took a few minutes, with the two women quietly saying the Lord's Prayer. They laid red and pink roses and an evergreen wreath with an inscription reading: âLast fond farewell from your beloved ones.'
The news that Natascha mourned by his coffin and wanted to go to his funeral was relayed against the very public backdrop of her apparent indifference towards her parents. A spat that her high-profile, high-cost legal/media minders wanted to keep a lid on soon played out in the papers. Again, it went some way towards turning public opinion against Natascha at a later stage.
After Natascha was free she was given a psychologist, as she requested. She also contacted the Weisser Ring organisation, which helps victims of violence. She was familiar with their work from listening to the radio during her time in captivity.
Natascha than asked to be put in touch with Austria's most prominent child and adolescent psychiatrist Professor Max Friedrich, whom she also knew from his numerous radio interviews. Professor Friedrich immediately took on the job and then invited Professor Ernst
Berger and other expert advisers to deal with different aspects of her care.
The enormous media interest in seeing the first pictures and having the first interview then led to people contacting the mother, but it soon became clear that she was not the person to deal with, as she had only met her daughter once since Natascha's escape. Natascha apparently distanced herself from her parents and wished to be taken care of away from them both.
Ludwig Koch then tried to start negotiating on Natascha's behalf, and hired an agent, Rupert Leutgeb. He was sidelined, however, when it was revealed that Natascha had been given her own lawyer, Dr Guenther Harrich. He was invited by the psychiatrists, as he had already worked with them on the case of an Austrian girl who had been kept in a box by her stepmother.
But Dr Harrich's telephone lines were instantly blocked with callers wanting an interview, and as a result a professional PR adviser was hiredâthe PR and lobbying expert Dietmar Ecker of Ecker & Partners, whose other clients include the Republic of Serbia. Ecker was invited by Professor Berger, as the pair of them were friends and went back a long way.
The original lawyer, Dr Harrich, resigned after about a week, admitting that he had been overburdened by the case. âI cannot deal with it any more,' he said, âas it would mean neglecting my other clients. I also cannot deal with
this incredible media pressure. I would like to be able to go home without having a dozen reporters and TV crews besieging my apartment.'
Dr Harrich himself recommended Natascha's current legal representatives, Lansky, Ganzger & Partners, who are one of Austria's biggest corporate law firms specialising in media law. Thus began the healingâand marketingâprocess of Natascha Kampusch. It is unclear which of these processes came first in her mind, but the rush for advisers created bitterness in her family.
Frau Sirny was the first to complain that she'd hardly seen her daughter since she escaped. âA daughter also needs her mother,' she said, railing against the medical experts who tried to explain the depth of isolation and confusion that Natascha was experiencing. âWhy can't I see my child?' was one headline in an Austrian newspaper. âNatascha is locked away
againâ
that is simply terrible for me,' said Frau Sirny, who said in an interview:
Psychologists and physiciansâyes, that is both important and good. But nevertheless, a daughter needs her mother.
Every time the phone rang I was both excited and anxious. I always hoped for news of my daughter but dreaded the thought of it being bad. And every so often the police would ask me to come to the station to identify items of clothing or girls' belongings they had found, whether it was underwear, a school bag
or shoes. Each time it was like going to my own execution.
At times I even wished they would find Natascha's bodyâat least then I could have striven towards some kind of closure and had a grave where I could mourn my beautiful daughter.
But instead I continued as if she would walk through the door at any minute. And nowâ¦now I can't see her.
Nothing would make me happier than if Natascha came to live with me, but she is not a child any more and that is a decision she will have to make. At the moment I'm not even allowed to see her, which is torturous for me.
She is so pretty, just like in her old photos, but much too thin. It's strange for me because when she vanished she was just a child, but now she is an adult. I always knew she had an iron will. It's unbelievable that she has survived such an ordeal and was strong enough and clever enough to escape. I'm so proud of her.
Ludwig, after his euphoric reunion with Natascha, also complained that he feared he was becoming a stranger in the world of Brand Natascha. Aware of the phenomenal media interest coupled with his daughter's determination to map out her own future, he railed in frustration: âI lost her once before and I have lost her now. I, her father, must beg to see her. Is that not some kind of insanity? Many psychiatrists have told
me that it would be for the best if she was with me. Why not, then? Isn't it crazy that I don't know where she is?'
Whatever Natascha attempted to do, or not do, it came across, to a public scrutinising and dissecting her and her motives like those of no other individual, as a somehow callous disregard for her own flesh and blood. It seemed that she preferred the chase for fame and fortune to the love and affection of a family who thought they had lost her permanently. Perception is everything when you are a media star. That is why her media team had to move quickly to try to preserve the purity of the NK image, as she was referred to by the Porsche-driving, cocktail-sipping PR set.
It became apparent that Natascha was the most sought-after âproperty' for the media in the world at that moment. One journalist said that if Osama bin Laden had been found and Natascha Kampusch had spoken on the same day, she would have beaten the terrorist mastermind to the top item on the evening news.
Such massive interest, with interview offers flooding in and fantastical sums of money being promised, made Natascha anxious to explain, at least in part, how she was feeling. She did it by means of a curious âLetter to the world', released five days after she escaped and reprinted in full below.
Dear journalists, reporters, and people of the world.
I realised quite early what a strong impression the news of my captivity has made on people, but I ask for
understanding in satisfying the tremendous interest of the public. I realise how shocking and worrying the thoughts about my time in my prison must be, and that something like this could even be possible. I also realise there is a certain amount of curiosity and a desire to know more about the circumstances in which I lived.
But at the same time I want to make it clear that I don't want to answer any details about intimate personal matters, and am prepared to take steps to ensure this interest does not get out of control.
She then goes on to release some details of her captivity:
My personal space: my room was equipped with everything I would need and I made it my home, and it was not meant to be shown to the public.
My daily life: This was carefully regulated, mostly it started with a joint breakfastâhe was anyway not working most of the time. There was housework, reading, television, talking, cooking. That's all there was, year in and year out, and always tied in with the fear of being lonely.
On my relationship: He was not my master. I was just as strong as him, but he would, symbolically speaking, sometimes be my support and sometimes be the person who kicked me. But with me he had picked the wrong person, and we both knew that.
He did the kidnapping alone and prepared everything in advance. After that we furnished the room together, and it was not 1.6 metres high. I also did not cry after I made my escape. It was no reason to cry.
In my eyes, his death was not necessary. It would not be the end of the world if he had simply been given a prison sentence. He has been a big part of my life, and as a result I do feel I am in a sort of mourning for him. It is true that my youth was different to the youth of others, but in principle I don't feel I missed anything. On the contrary, there are certain things I avoided, having nothing to do with smoking or drinking to start off with, and I didn't meet the wrong friends.
Message to the media: The one thing I would appeal for from the press is a stop to the insulting reports, the misinterpretations of reality, the commentaries that claim to know better and the lack of respect for me.
At the moment I feel very well in the place where I'm staying, although perhaps I feel a little bit too much controlled. I am the one who has decided only to have telephone contact with my family. I'm also the one who will decide when I want to have contact with journalists.
On my escape: It happened as I was cleaning the car in the garden and saw that he had walked away during the vacuum cleaning. That was my chance, I dropped the vacuum cleaner and left it running.
I also want to stress that I never called him master, although he demanded it. I think that's what he wanted, to be addressed like that, but he never meant it really.
I have a lawyer who discusses the law with me. The youth lawyer Monica Pintertis has my trust, together with Dr Friedrich and Dr Berger, with whom I feel I can speak. The investigations team were very good to me,
and I greet them warmly, although they were a bit too curious, but that is after all their job.
Intimate questions: Everybody wants to ask intimate questions, but these have nothing to do with anybody else. It may be that one day I speak to my therapist about it and maybe not. At the end of the day my private life is mine alone.
To the man who was the friend of her kidnapper she said:
Herr H should not feel guilty, it was Wolfgang's own decision to throw himself in front of a train. I also feel sympathy for the mother of Wolfgang. I can put myself in her position and I feel for her and have understanding. I and we both are thinking of him. I want to thank all the people who've taken part in my fate. But please let me have some peace in the immediate future. I hope that Dr Friedrich will be able to use this letter to make that clear. There are many people caring for me now. Please let me have time until I feel I can talk for myself.
The Herr H referred to in the last paragraph is Ernst Holzapfel, the man she met briefly in captivity and who took the last phone call from Priklopil before his suicide.
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Natascha's letter did not damp down the flames of curiosity. Rather it made them burn even more brightly. This clear affection for Priklopil, later to be expressed in print and her famous TV interview, coupled with her
conviction that she didn't miss much in life, began slowly to halt the course of the lumbering supertanker of public opinion and would, in a short space of time, turn it 180 degrees against her.
On the night of Wednesday 6 September, two weeks after she had freed herself, and showing her innate love of, and capacity for, control, Natascha Kampusch coordinated a triple media strike of TV, newspapers and magazines in an effort to keep a grip on what she saw as her own story, which was to be told in her own way.
Each of the three lucky winners in the behind-the-scenes bidding war for the first interview had signed contracts, all of them scrutinised and the list finalised by Natascha herself in marathon sessions with her lawyers, in which they agreed to pay syndication fees to a foundation of her choice. The interviews with the
Kronen Zeitung
newspaper, the Austrian
News Magazine
and the ORF TV special all came out within two hours of each other, as she specified.
Austria's
News Magazine
hit the streets first. The magazine sold out within hours as readers scrambled to read the details of the girl in the cellar. It gave a clearer portrait of the âvictim' who despised the very term. Speaking to its editor-in-chief, Alfred Wurm, Kampusch said:
