Family wiped out

Austria’s most dangerous prisoner wants to be free

After his bestial triple murder, Werner Kniesek was once sentenced to life imprisonment plus committal to an institution for mentally disturbed criminals.(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Krone-Archiv)

Werner Kniesek had already committed two attempted murders when he killed a family in 1980. In a bestial manner. The mentally disturbed perpetrator has now been in prison for 45 years. A psychiatrist is now to decide whether he can be released - perhaps soon.

Countless reports about him are collected in thick folders in the "Krone" archive. About this man - who looks almost bland in old photos - who once committed an unbelievable crime; a crime so extremely cruel, so completely absurd.

Even today, Werner Kniesek - small in stature, his facial features almost delicate - appears rather harmless on the outside when he sits at a table in the Krems-Stein prison in Lower Austria and begins to talk about himself in a calm voice.