When love turns to murder

Sometimes love turns to hate, or worse still, murder. This became a reality in the case of 22-year-old Franz Stockreiter. He simply could not come to terms with the break-up from his great love, Leopoldine R. For weeks after the split, he had been lying in wait for Leopoldine and threatening her with a knife. Leopoldine subsequently reported Franz to the police, and he was remanded in custody for a few hours in April 1974. After his release, Franz had only one goal: he wanted to murder Leopoldine. To this end, on 12 April 1974, he hid in her parents’ barn in Weissenbach an der Triesting in Lower Austria. When Leopoldine’s mother unexpectedly turned up there instead of Leopoldine, he bludgeoned her to death with a wooden club. Leopoldine’s mother had previously called out for help. Leopoldine had heard these cries for help and rushed to the barn, where she met the same fate as her mother. Franz had also bludgeoned Leopoldine to death. Franz then fled on foot but was arrested by the police near the town of Heiligenkreuz. For the double murder, Franz Stockreiter was sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1975 at the Wiener Neustadt Regional Court. He was admitted to Stein Prison. Due to his increasingly severe delusions, he was transferred in 1988 to the prison for mentally abnormal offenders in Göllersdorf. There he underwent therapy and was even granted a total of 194 days’ leave between 1988 and 1995, intended to prepare him for his possible release. Franz worked in Göllersdorf as a sort of caretaker, who in March 1995 happened to find some of his prison files in the waste paper, which appeared to contain a negative prognosis. Franz believed he would never be released from prison, which led to a violent, impulsive reaction. Armed with a chainsaw and a petrol can, Franz barricaded himself in the refuse room. He demanded to speak to the judge responsible for his release. However, his therapist, Veronika Kreuzinger-Hitz, managed to calm Franz down and persuade him to give up. Yet just two weeks later, on 4 April 1995, Franz lost his temper during a therapy session with Veronika. When Veronika told Franz that she would be leaving the Göllerdorf Special Prison in a few weeks’ time to undertake further training, Franz flew into a rage. He grabbed a craft knife that he had found in the rubbish and used it to kill Veronika. In December 1995, Franz Stockreiter, who had confessed shortly before his release, was once again sentenced to life imprisonment by the Korneuburg Regional Court. The murder of the psychotherapist led to a shift in focus regarding the management of dangerous offenders at Göllersdorf Prison.