# "House of Horror"- some people need to be hit with an ax **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 28, 2008, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281 "2008-04-28T22:20:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Weird\_One](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@The\_Weird\_One](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Weird_One)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/41 "2008-04-29T15:18:55Z")
[QUOTE=The Chao Goes Mu] [Stockholm Syndrome.](http://www.mental-health-matters.com/articles/article.php?artID=469) You can ask anyone who’s been in an abusive relationship and stayed all about what it’s like. I’ve been there myself. [/QUOTE] In fact, I’m incredibly impressed that after 20 years, the daughter still seems to have her wits about her and the will to escape. In other stories I’ve read of similar captivities, it seems like the captive eventually gives in to the abuser and loses sense of the outside world as their reality become “normal.” The fact that she had the presence of mind and the willpower to hide a note on her daughter, convince her father to take her to the hospital, and relate her story to the authorities speaks tremendously of her mental and emotional fortitude. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_chao_goes_mu/32/3191_2.png) [@The\_Chao\_Goes\_Mu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Chao_Goes_Mu)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/42 "2008-04-29T15:23:39Z")
[QUOTE=The Weird One] In fact, I’m incredibly impressed that after 20 years, the daughter still seems to have her wits about her and the will to escape. In other stories I’ve read of similar captivities, it seems like the captive eventually gives in to the abuser and loses sense of the outside world as their reality become “normal.” The fact that she had the presence of mind and the willpower to hide a note on her daughter, convince her father to take her to the hospital, and relate her story to the authorities speaks tremendously of her mental and emotional fortitude. [/QUOTE] Most definitely. I’m thinking of anyone she might have a chance at having a somewhat “normal” life again someday. ---
**Author:** ![redma3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@redma3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redma3)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/43 "2008-04-29T15:31:57Z")
My God, the depth of human cruelty is only limited by our imaginations. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/44 "2008-04-29T16:08:46Z")
Coincidentally, the very slogan on the inspirational poster hanging in my cube. ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/45 "2008-04-29T16:17:38Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] From your link, I didn’t get a clear idea why Waldheim is supposed to be so high on the asshole list. What did he do? -FrL- [/QUOTE] He was in the German (Austrian) military, not in the flower-planting division, and fibbed about it. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/46 "2008-04-29T16:23:11Z")
[He apparently left them enough food while he went on a two-week vacation.](http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23481007-details/Incest+dad+insists+he+acted+alone+as+DNA+proves+he+fathered+daughter's+seven+children/article.do) Warning…pictures of Austrian Asshole #2 in his speedo…you have been warned… I’m going to put the wife down as completely cowed too. Apparently, the children he did bring upstairs to raise say he ruled the house with an iron rod. That is a man you do not question, “But dear, why are you making double pans of lasagna tonight?” ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/47 "2008-04-29T16:40:44Z")
Hmm, this isn’t the only story of a woman being kept in a basement prison for years to serve essentially as a sex slave to come out of Austria. Does the name Wolfgang Prinkipl ring any bells? Here’s a link: [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=15&entry\_id=8407](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=15&entry_id=8407) Is “basement prison with sex slave” some kind of weird meme among Austrian sickos? I think maybe the Austrian police need to routinely start checking out basements. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/48 "2008-04-29T17:32:09Z")
[QUOTE=Evil Captor] Hmm, this isn’t the only story of a woman being kept in a basement prison for years to serve essentially as a sex slave to come out of Austria. Does the name Wolfgang Prinkipl ring any bells? Here’s a link: [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=15&entry\_id=8407](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=15&entry_id=8407) Is “basement prison with sex slave” some kind of weird meme among Austrian sickos? I think maybe the Austrian police need to routinely start checking out basements. [/QUOTE] We’ve had them here in the U.S. too. [Charles Ng](http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/ng/call_1.html) and [Cameron Hooker](http://www.crimelibrary.com/criminal_mind/psychology/sex_slave/index.html) come to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/49 "2008-04-29T17:53:48Z")
[QUOTE=Huerta88] He was in the German (Austrian) military, not in the flower-planting division, and fibbed about it. [/QUOTE] Yeah but you were saying he’s second only to Hitler or the guy in the OP. Why’s that? -FrL- ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/50 "2008-04-29T17:59:04Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] Yeah but you were saying he’s second only to Hitler or the guy in the OP. Why’s that? -FrL- [/QUOTE] Oh, I didn’t say that, someone else made that assertion . . . . ---
**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/51 "2008-04-29T19:18:17Z")
This is the part that gets me: > [@](#): > > “The mother had memories [of the outside world] and got used to the situation,” Polzer told a press conference Monday afternoon. “The others knew nothing else.” Imagine being 19 years old, and _never having seen daylight_. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/52 "2008-04-29T20:11:07Z")
[QUOTE=MrSquishy] This is the part that gets me: Imagine being 19 years old, and _never having seen daylight_. [/QUOTE] Plato’s _The Cave_ come to life. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2008, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/53 "2008-04-29T23:41:13Z")
[QUOTE=Frylock] Yeah but you were saying he’s second only to Hitler or the guy in the OP. Why’s that? -FrL- [/QUOTE] He was a former Nazi who lied about his military service in WWII - which is somewhat murky, but may well have involved in civilian massacres: certainly he was more than the mere clerk he claimed to be - in order to become Secretary General of the UN and later President of Austria. Not exactly one of history’s - or even Austria’s - greatest monsters, but a duplicitous, self-serving son-of-a-bitch with the moral sensibilities of a gas stove. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/54 "2008-04-30T00:22:07Z")
Caving into black humor, because really, what else can you do? > [@](#): > > From the BBC article:He said: “Yes I did have sex with her, but I haven’t for many months now.” Well, that’s all right, then! Off you go! [need shaking head in disbelief smiley here] ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/55 "2008-04-30T00:28:26Z")
Apart from seeing daylight, and occasionally going somewhere, and okay, the whole incest thing, the situation for millions of women in fundamentalistic Islamic countries isn’t that different. And they don’t have TV’s. Not to make light of this Austrian horror, on the contrary. I’m using the parallel to point out how awful the Islamic oppression of women is. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/56 "2008-04-30T01:25:05Z")
[QUOTE=Maastricht] Apart from seeing daylight, and occasionally going somewhere, and okay, the whole incest thing, the situation for millions of women in fundamentalistic Islamic countries isn’t that different. And they don’t have TV’s. Not to make light of this Austrian horror, on the contrary. I’m using the parallel to point out how awful the Islamic oppression of women is. [/QUOTE] Even with the caveat, this is kind of offensive. I don’t doubt that some Muslim guys use the combination of strong patriarchy + strict gender divide to abuse wives and / or children, but I’d like to see some evidence that there are _millions_ in this situation. Afghanistan under the Taleban is the closest I can think of, but there was enough protected female-only space that even though it was oppressive, I hardly think it’s equivalent to the situation in the OP. And I’m not making light of culture-sanctioned oppression of women, I just think it’s a different order of magnitude. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/57 "2008-04-30T01:59:38Z")
Many, many Islamic women are forces to be reckoned within their own families, and many many are loved and respected and just as many are both. I don’t agree with their cultural practices, but they are not imprisoned within their own homes–not the vast majority of them, anyway. It’s stretch to make this comparison. A better one, IMO, is the current situation with the FDLS children, but even there, those women were not abused and locked up, but the molestation and incest was occurring. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/58 "2008-04-30T06:26:50Z")
[QUOTE=Dr. Drake] …Afghanistan under the Taleban is the closest I can think of.. [/QUOTE] I was thinking indeed of Afgahnistan/Taliban, because I read the novel "[A thousand splendid suns"](http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Splendid-Suns-Khaled-Hosseini/dp/1594489505/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209536542&sr=1-1) By Khaled Hosseini. For those who haven’t read it, it is about a traditional Afghan middle aged guy who twice marries a shy teenage girl, and basically locks her away in his home to bear his children. The women do get out (veiled) only to go to the mosque with him. The first wife doesn’t have family living with her, and after she proves barren her husband neglects and mistreats her. She isn’t allowed to leave the house on her own; the husband does the shopping. Hosseini manages to make the situation sound both mundane and gruesome at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![JimB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f4b2a3/32.png) [@JimB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimB)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/59 "2008-04-30T06:40:26Z")
[QUOTE=Maastricht] I was thinking indeed of Afgahnistan/Taliban, because I read the novel "[A thousand splendid suns"](http://www.amazon.com/Thousand-Splendid-Suns-Khaled-Hosseini/dp/1594489505/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1209536542&sr=1-1) By Khaled Hosseini. For those who haven’t read it, it is about a traditional Afghan middle aged guy who twice marries a shy teenage girl, and basically locks her away in his home to bear his children. The women do get out (veiled) only to go to the mosque with him. The first wife doesn’t have family living with her, and after she proves barren her husband neglects and mistreats her. She isn’t allowed to leave the house on her own; the husband does the shopping. Hosseini manages to make the situation sound both mundane and gruesome at the same time. [/QUOTE] That’s a work of fiction. Art may well imitate life, but you wouldn’t watch Law and Order to learn about African-American culture, or Goodfellas to learn about Italian-American culture, would you? ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2008, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281/60 "2008-04-30T06:49:55Z")
Every time I hear a story like this, I think - somewhere, someone is still in that situation. How long till they are found? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-horror-some-people-need-to-be-hit-with-an-ax/447281.md?page=4)