one by one prostitutes die across central europe austrian authorities believe one man is responsible but they have no experience hunting serial killers [Music] they turn to an fbi profiler for help he finds the same killer has come to america and the death count keeps rising until the fbi stops him [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] beginning in 1990 europe found itself in the clutches of a serial killer he became an international outlaw hopping from country to country to evade capture and to kill again i'm jim calstrom former head of the fbi's new york office legal cooperation between countries and continents is not common but neither are serial killers in europe desperate to apprehend him austrian authorities called on the fbi for help in austria the exchange of sex for money has been legal for years here prostitutes walk the streets for men willing to pay for their services throughout most of the 1980s hayden marie hammer worked in the city of bergens as a prostitute a licensed professional for almost 10 years she was used to unusual requests [Music] but on the night of december 5th 1990 a customer went too far [Music] the killer hurriedly redressed his victim then he dragged her through a secluded forest some 10 miles away and left her body [Music] the crime went undiscovered for three weeks on the morning of new year's eve 1990 a pair of hikers stumbled upon hammer's body though the body had been left exposed to the elements the winter temperatures helped preserve the remains austrian authorities determined that hamura had been strangled with her own pantyhose her wrists were bruised from restraints at the autopsy they found no sexual discharge on her body but they did find fibers that were inconsistent with her clothing she was only the first victim over the next several months three more prostitutes died violently throughout austria brunhilde mosser was recovered in a stream bed near grotz [Music] alfreda shrimp also from grotz was found nearby in the woods [Music] near vienna sylvia zogler was discovered in a stand of trees the women had all been bruised strangled with their pantyhose and left in various states of undress lying face down in wooded areas the austrian public was shocked on april 4th 1991 the authorities gathered their most experienced investigators to focus on the slains because of the similarities in the four cases investigators reasoned that one person was responsible [Music] austria had its first serial killer in modern history [Music] they had no experience investigating these offenders dr ernst geiger one of austria's leading detectives was assigned to coordinate the hunt no lead was promising all the leads ended nowhere we had no will suspect the first break came when a retired policeman read of the murders in a salzburg newspaper [Music] they reminded him of a case he solved in 1974. [Music] detective geiger received a phone call from the retired officer 15 years earlier he told geiger a young woman had been strangled with one of her undergarments and dumped in the woods just like the present victims the killer was caught and convicted but had recently been paroled it's included detective geiger took the name of the ex-convict johann jack underwenger czech was paralleled after 15 years because he had murdered a young girl before and while he was in poison he became a writer quite a famous writer but was it possible that this famous writer could be a serial killer geiger and his team began looking into the journalists background until 1990 jack until had led a difficult life he was born to a german prostitute who quickly abandoned him he suffered neglected abuse shuttling between various foster situations as a teenager jack began to play out the rage of his dismal childhood [Music] by age 25 that fury earned untowaver a life sentence [Music] wunderweger continued his education and started writing while in prison [Music] he published letters plays short stories and an autobiography in the book that became a bestseller hunter vega painted a tragic tale of himself as victim critics in the public alike embraced the author for the apparent honesty with which he confronted his past the literary community suggested that art had redeemed him eventually the press and the public at large demanded that his life sentence be commuted on may 12 1990 austrian authorities agreed he was a free man determined never to spend another minute of his life behind bars [Music] shortly after his release he was hired by a major german magazine to cover the prostitute murders he promised to use his writing in a socially conscious way he told his editor that he wanted to give voice to the dispossessed caught in the underbelly of society as he once was by july 1991 after two more prostitutes were found strangled psychologist tom mueller of austria's criminal investigation division joined the team when we started the investigation against jack until it was pretty hard because all his friends were within the media and they couldn't understand that he could be the bad guy even among investigators only a handful considered this celebrity journalist a possible suspect through receipts and travel records geiger and mueller learned that onteweger had been at each murder location this was not suspicious in itself since he was covering the story as an investigative journalist yet he always reached those destinations before the murders took place investigators also discovered that ontaveger had visited prague in september 1990. just before a czechoslovakian woman blanca was strangled with her pantyhose she was the earliest victim in the string of murders that now totaled seven it was outstanding for us that exactly at any time where czech hang out at any place in prague in the western part of austria in the south in the southern part of austria exactly in that time period there was always a dead body somewhere in the woods [Music] in austria another woman regina prem had been missing for months and presumed dead her family waited desperately for news of her fate in october of 1991 the grief-stricken husband and son received a chilling phone call to their unlisted number the caller told him that he was regina's killer and described what she was wearing the night she disappeared [Music] the caller claimed that he was the executioner that god ordered him to do it that she was left lying on the place of sacrifice with her face turned towards hell the phone call was cruel torture to an already traumatized family when police recovered her body they confirmed regina prem was the killer's eighth victim to date the discovery put them no closer to stopping the killer vienna october 22nd 1991. austrian authorities questioned unterwegger for the first time with no hard evidence to connect him to the crimes they hoped for a confession he admitted to consorting with prostitutes for his writing assignments and for sex but he denied knowing the victims [Music] although his alibis were weak investigators were forced to release him [Music] their evidence was merely circumstantial and his public support was growing but mueller and geiger still believed unterveger was a strong suspect and continued digging into his past they tracked down the car jack drove when he was first released from prison but it had been a year since he sold it and the likelihood of finding any usable evidence was slim the team uncovered little except a hair fragment although it was a long shot investigators sent the hair fragment to the university of bern for analysis enough of the hair root remained for lab technicians to extract a dna sequence that sequence was compared to those of the victims of the eight women's slain the dna from the hair matched the earliest victim from prague blanca bokova killed in september 1990. was a breakthrough but that only proved the woman was in the car when jack owned it investigators needed stronger evidence now back at police headquarters geiger questioned austrian prostitutes [Music] they recognized unteweger as a regular customer who insisted they wear handcuffs during sex more importantly one recalled seeing him approach her friend haida marie hammerer the first victim discovered in brigance she also remembered he wore a brown leather jacket on that night on the strength of this identification and the hair fragment found in his car geiger obtained a warrant to search unto vegard's apartment winter on a time when the police arrived until was nowhere to be found they took away clothing including a brown leather jacket for forensic examination then one of the detectives discovered some receipts in a trash can they were from a seafood restaurant in malibu california dated nine months earlier jack unterweger had been to the united states but the apartment search yielded less than the investigators had hoped they found no hard evidence that directly tied unto vega to the slayings since their case was still too weak to issue an arrest warrant the investigation stalled jack underwager was still one step ahead to stop him geiger needed help from those more experienced with catching serial killers he needed the fbi the austrian investigators visited the u.s embassy [Music] they met with legal attache julianne slisco an fbi agent stationed in vienna i'm hoping you could help us with the fbi slisco called the criminal profiling unit in quantico virginia hi agent mccrary she was patched through to special agent greg mccrary killings here in austria now retired mccrary spent the last 10 of his 25 years in the fbi pioneering the science of profiling the austrians contacted the fbi uh because they were trying to tap into our experience of dealing with serial homicide investigations this was the first serial murder investigation in modern history in austria mccrary agreed to assist the austrians he would help them determine if one perpetrator could have committed all the murders when geiger told swisco that untowager had traveled to la the previous summer she authorized a telex to be sent to california to inform local authorities over the next several days geiger and mueller prepared for their trip to the fbi packing crime scene reports autopsy protocols and photos then they received a call from la detective fred miller miller had received their telex and said that california had suffered a similar pattern of killings during the prior summer now investigators turned their attention to la 6 000 miles away in the hunt for the austrian serial killer by the fall of 1991 eight women had been found dead in central europe the prime suspect was austrian celebrity writer jack unterweger but little forensic evidence tied him to the crimes [Music] and the public believe the police were pursuing an innocent man an fbi telex from vienna to california caught the attention of los angeles detective fred miller he and his partner jim harper had been working for months on a series of unsolved murders [Music] in style and pattern the la crimes resembled the ones that utavega was suspected of in austria this immediately lit the fires and it was just unbelievable to go all these eight months and and without the suspect turning up or another murder this was quite a boost to the investigation the american and austrian investigators compared notes the cases were clearly similar the victims were prostitutes all had been strangled using intimate apparel and all the bodies were left in remote locations [Music] now miller and harper began to reconstruct onto vegas visit to california they checked the airlines car rental agencies and hotel logs from these they created a timeline of his movements we learned that he came to los angeles in june of 91 on vacation uh before right around june the second or third and that he left around the 17th of july in the summer of 1990 ontaveker visited lapd headquarters and i'm a journalist and i am interested he strolled into the public relations office presented his press credentials and signed up for the ride-along program this program allows civilians to tag along with police in their cruisers as they patrol the city tonight at 8 30. as all jack's credentials were in order the request was accepted jack jack unto vega [Music] hunter beggar claimed he was writing a german magazine story contrasting american and european prostitution he asked to be shown where the city's prostitutes hung out the officers introduced him to the seedier areas of los angeles detective jim harper explains i mean if you come to a city as big as los angeles you know prostitutes don't hang out everywhere you gotta you gotta know where they hang out what better way to do that than get a ride along with the police department witnesses last saw 21 year old shannon nextly in the vicinity of 7th street and main street what's that you saying she had been working the street since she'd run away from home at 16. [Music] her life ended on june 20th 1991. her nude body was found with her bra wrapped around her neck marks on her feet told investigators she had already been strangled when she was dragged some 50 feet to where she was found lacerations across her neck medical technicians were able to isolate dna sequences from the semen of seven men but la detectives had no suspects with whom they could compare the samples ten days later investigators discovered a second prostitute irene rodriguez she was found behind a tractor-trailer only a mile and a half from where xle's body had been dumped both women had been strangled with their bras and both were last seen in the vicinity of 7th and main street the detectives discovered that untervega was living nearby we learned that he stayed at the ceasel hotel which is located at 643 south main which is right in the corner 7th of main street and that's the location where close proximity where both our victims were last seen a third victim sherry long was found near malibu less than two weeks later once again untivega was staying at a hotel in the vicinity long was last seen around her neck her bra was tied tightly detective jim harper remembers the unique method of strangulation the way the bras were tied around their neck was nothing that i had seen before it looked to me took a lot of intricate time to really take time with the victim and and put it around her necks and tie it los angeles criminalist lynn harold compared the knots to see if there was a pattern in the way each had been made and tied in order for the knots to be made the wearing apparel had to be dismantled in some form it's not like the bras were just taken and tied in a square knot but they were stripped of the elastic always on the left side and if three people randomly went out and strangled three people it is extremely unlikely that all three of them would come up with this same scenario now geiger and mueller added the information from the los angeles murders to their own case and headed to virginia they hoped that the fbi could determine whether one man had indeed killed all 11 women back in austria jack unterweger maintained a high profile [Music] the celebrity journalist continued to publish his articles and appeared on television to talk about the murders he told audiences that the austrian police were inept at finding the real killer and had singled him out as a scapegoat winterfeger claimed that the authorities were determined to send him back to prison even if that meant framing him for the grisly crimes remained popular with the public at large and in the nightclubs where he was irregular to his fans and especially women he was still charming he boasted the police had no evidence only theories and they would never be able to send him back to prison in august 1992 austrian detectives arrived at quantico virginia [Music] they needed an experienced fbi profiler to help them capture the serial killer that had left 11 women dead in central europe and california [Music] the austrians came with 12 boxes of [Music] on that evidence agent greg mccrary refused to look at any information on the prime suspect jack luntevega he didn't want any preconceived notions to interfere with his analysis instead mccrary wanted to focus on the victims i wanted all the case materials and all of the homicides victimology a lot about the victims and their background their history the method and manner of death autopsy reports crime scene photos everything that was available from an investigative point of view what we didn't want is suspect information we just wanted to take an objective look at all of the cases to see what we thought if they might be related or not and the type of offender that we thought might be most probably involved in committing these crimes let's get to work mccrary did not presuppose that the crimes were linked he examined the similarities among the cases to see if they were unusual enough to have been committed by one perpetrator he began to look for a behavioral thumbprint a criminal signature in each of the murders [Music] a signature crime analysis is an assessment of the behavioral aspects of the crime which can in some cases be a single event but more often it's a constellation of behaviors that are consistent from crime to crime to crime and this allows us to link crimes together behaviorally based on the behavior of the offender could you come back [Music] he examined everything known about the 11 women how similar were their lifestyles almost all the women were prostitutes except for the first woman slain in prague this is a map of vienna [Music] a companion last saw blanca bocava on september 14 1990 leaving a bar in prague czechoslovakia [Music] bokova worked as a sales clerk at a butcher shop but was known to trade sex for favors her body was left on the bank of the vladva river in a stretch of woods near bocava's home the killer had strangled her with her own nylon stockings he left her naked covered with sticks and twigs he threw her clothes and identification in the river the first victim austrian police found had been a registered prostitute for 10 years hi to marie hammerer in the early part of her career she had suffered several violent attacks from customers she was known to be cautious amaro was last seen outside a parking garage on december 5th 1990 like the first five victims hamra was found in the woods close to water they all had restraint bruises on their arms and wrists and autopsies found no semen on any of the european victims to the profiler this suggested that the kill is struck out of impotence he was terribly insecure about his masculinity when he could not perform after being sexually stimulated the killer lashed out in anger he strangled the women he blamed for shaming him then he left their bodies in humiliating positions [Music] next they focused on the la murder victims did they fit the pattern that had been established in europe shannon nextley was found face down in a grassy area near a freeway exit she was nude except for a t-shirt and a pair of socks she had been dragged 50 feet from the pavement to the location where she was discovered after being strangled with her brassiere again this crime like the others in la and europe showed the killer had preferences and that the violence itself had become erotic to him it became clear that there was a pattern uh to these homicides uh that there was sort of a ritualistic behavior that occurred in each of these crime scenes each woman was similar in nature either a prostitute or a woman who traded sex for favors they were on the street when they were contacted when they were picked up very usually very surreptitiously no one really saw these women get into a car they were transported out to an area they were murdered ligatures strangled with an article of their own clothing disposed in a similar manner in an outdoor setting absence of sexual assault all right roughly from where she was after a week the study of the victimology convinced mccrary that there had indeed been only one killer behind the 11 homicides the fbi agent and the austrian detective spent the following week drawing up a profile of the assailant the evidence suggested the killer had a good degree of mobility he was older intelligent sophisticated and an organized defender to criminal psychologist tom mueller this described jack unterweger i would say jack was a very very good example for a typical type of organized offender and i would say he was a typical example for a natural psychologist he was able to understand the needs of other people he was able to come close to other people to listen to other people and then to manipulate them but the geography worked against the theory that there was one killer the murders that occurred in czechoslovakia austria and los angeles with minor exceptions most serial killers stay regent and pray within a comfort zone [Music] but enough time had elapsed between the slayings to permit one culprit to move around now the profiler compared onto vegas travels to the chronology of the murders and when i overlaid jack hunter vegas timeline on the timeline of the crimes they fit perfectly and that was really a dawning moment the the homo at the moment that's really exciting an analysis like this because now you have a suspect whose movements correlate perfectly with each of the homicides as well as his prior homicide that he had been convicted for bearing a lot of similarities to these homicides we can put them in each place at each time these crimes occurred and either jack underweigher was the unluckiest man in the world to have been there or he was an excellent suspect in austria untivegar continued to enjoy his freedom and notoriety some women still found him appealing even though the former convict was a prime murder suspect this perplexed detective fred miller one of the interesting uh facets of jack underwear was that he could carry on a normal relationship with a female and still be this cruel and murder other females high school student bianca merak was one of those that fell under his charm the impressionable 18 year old met onto vega in a wine bar where she worked as a waitress she was flattered by the attention from the celebrity writer he told her he was tiring of all the publicity in austria and might leave the country maybe to switzerland she agreed to go with him wherever he went august 1992 agent greg mccrary of the fbi worked with austrian detectives to solve a series of 11 murders eight women were killed in central europe three more in los angeles all circumstantial evidence pointed to celebrity journalist jack underwater as the culprit then they received a phone call from the university of bern austrian lab technicians that completed the fiber analysis of clothing confiscated from under vega's apartment weeks before the inspection had yielded results fibers from the lining of the brown leather jacket matched those on the body of haida marie hammerer the first prostitute found it was hard forensic evidence that tied unto her to one of the victims but investigators wanted to conclusively link the suspect to all the victims the fbi had another tool that could do just that vicar the violent criminal apprehension program the computer database holds the details of 10 000 solved and unsolved u.s homicides a programmer inputted the particulars of the european and los angeles cases details of the victims their manner of death locations where they disappeared and where they were found were all fed into the computer mccrary ordered an extensive breakdown a multi-dimensional search with 15 cross criteria that could show if the crimes were connected 48 hours later the detectives were called back to the vicam room to hear the answer the results were stunning the computer statistically linked all 11 slaves jack underweight was the killer yes i hope it's wonderful names for you the fbi had given the austrians solid proof for their case [Music] was still at large the austrian detectives immediately returned to vienna armed with the fbi profile authorities issued an arrest warrant for johann jack onto again the police descended upon the writer's residence [Music] but jack was gone he had abandoned his flat geiger called his office and ordered his team to check all of austria's ports of exit within hours all train stations and airports were canvassed but they found no sign of underwenger the serial killer was gone wunderweger had already fled with bianca maraq beyond the reach of austrian authorities jack antebega is a very good representative of an intelligent psychopath he became an award-winning author and playwright but psychopaths are very very manipulative and they have a supreme ability to con other people hello hello yeah it's been here on a stop in paris jack called into television shows and protested his innocence [Music] he said his flight was not an admission of guilt but an attempt to evade a frame up by the police he promised to return to austria and answer all questions if the arrest warrant was withdrawn despite his media appearances the austrian police had no idea where unterveger was hiding in vienna investigators interviewed underweight's friends they were unfazed by the fact that he had been indicted for multiple murders they said the jacket run off for a holiday in america with bianca merak a former waitress from the wine bar bianca was known to live with her mother so geiger paid a visit to mrs morales she acknowledged that she had been in contact with the fugitive couple sending the money via wire transfers [Music] they were in new york and heading down to florida geiger told her to contact him if her daughter called again mrs just days later she got a call from miami her daughter needed more money mrs murak promptly informed the austrian police u.s marshals were waiting at the western union the marshals id'd the couples they drove up he was jailed in miami to await extradition both the nation of austria and the state of california wanted to prosecute him lapd detective fred miller began conferring with his austrian counterparts after jack's arrest in miami we dealt almost on a daily schedule with the austrian authorities trying to put the information they had on their murders together with information on the california murders the austrian authorities made trips to los angeles they provided us with whatever materials we needed photographs of the crime scenes information on their victims information on jack [Music] the austrians wanted to prosecute onto vega in their court for all 11 murders but they knew that would be difficult the austrian public perceived jack as a celebrity detectives would have to convince them that jack's private evil side was the reality special agent greg mccrary explains what's interesting with jack if you look at different pictures from different parts of his life many times he's natalie attired with a bow tie and has this almost young innocent looking face but then if you see him with his shirt off and you look at these really diabolical involved uh prison tattoos that are typical of of the more violent psychopathic offenders you have in prison you you see the dichotomy between jack's outward appearance and and the the inner psychopathology becomes becomes more apparent the lapd detectives obtained a search warrant for tissue samples from the prisoner in miami a technician drew blood took hair samples and swabs of saliva for dna testing the samples were sent back to a los angeles lab for analysis his dna matched that found in the semen from shannon nextly but axley's body contained semen from six other men and there was no sexual discharge found in the other two la prostitutes jack underwear worried that he would be transferred to california where a death penalty was possible he did not want to die in the gas chamber but if he went back to austria he could be tried for the crimes on both continents criminal psychologist tom mueller explains if an austrian citizen is committing a crime wherever in the world the austrian law is responsible for that guy so um the american authorities uh gave the clearance to bring mr uh until here back to austria but underwrigger could delay this by fighting extradition you know jack l.a detectives pressured him they assured under vega that he would be found guilty in california and reminded him of the state's death penalty of these crimes fearing the gas chamber despite the evidence he still enjoyed popular support at home and until believed he could persuade a jury that the authorities were wrong but the austrians were betting on the fbi profile when jack underweight returned to his native austria he faced 11 counts of murder seven women were killed on austrian soil but the laws of the central european country allow its citizens to be tried for crimes committed anywhere in the world [Music] the murder indictment had done little to diminish the writer's support in the media as he sat in jail awaiting trial jack continued to lobby the press that the police had framed him his case saturated the news in this highly charged environment austrian prosecutors prepared for trial if they wanted to win they had to present an airtight case lapd detective jim harper journeyed to vienna for the trial the o.j case here in la is the only thing i can kind of equate it to it was that big over there it was all over the newspapers headlines i mean and when we came into this town to testify uh it was a big deal we were all over the front page of the paper the whole deal the trial was held before a three-judge tribunal the prosecution argued their case with minimal physical evidence they were counting on agent mccrary's behavioral profile could you say why there's so many so it became increasingly important uh to link these crimes together behaviorally that really was the only way that jack could be linked to this this entire series of crimes so that became the critical uh component in the prosecution of jack and where we were most able to assist the austrian authorities mccrary related to the judges what he had deducted at quantico [Music] the killer always chose prostitutes or those who traded sex for favors [Music] he was criminally sophisticated older at least in his late thirties he wasn't panicky nor disorganized [Music] he possessed inner rage but it was very controlled the victims had bruises on their wrists as if they had been restrained with handcuffs mccrary was convinced untoward would ask the prostitutes to wear them to fulfill his sexual fantasy but it was about control the killer wanted their hands secured to prevent them from resisting the bodies were found mccrary's testimony linked the victims together were laid across two continents the trail of deaths followed jack unterweger where he went women died while he visited los angeles three prostitutes were murdered and their slayings mimicked those in europe shannon xle and the other two american women were strangled to death [Music] the offender used their braziers as ligatures [Music] and underwear tied the knots on the ligatures in exactly the same way as he had on the ones in europe [Music] mccrary pointed out that the probability was infinitesimal that more than one killer committed the crimes and what are the chances that more than one offender would be not only choosing to ligature strangle a victim with an article of her own clothing but he would tie the knots in exactly the same way very very remote chance that we've had different offenders committing the crime in that manner but the defense argued there was a difference the victims in los angeles had been strangled with their braziers and women in europe had been strangled with their pantyhose but mccrary countered that european prostitutes do not wear braziers [Music] what mattered to the killer was that he used an intimate article of the victim's clothing i'm sure that he was much more hurried l.a criminalist lynn harold was asked to compare the knots from the pantyhose to those from the bras in the case of the pantyhose you had one leg the second leg was double backed on itself and used as the third segment for the weaving or braiding in a manner extremely similar to one of the bra cases where the two pieces of elastic formed two segments and the left strap was pulled through as the third braid in all the trial lasted two and a half months on june 28 1994 a jury in grotz austria found johann jack unterweger guilty of nine of the murders the remaining victims were found too badly decomposed to convict unterveger beyond a reasonable doubt the verdict meant life in prison to a man who swore he would never spend another day behind bars and he never did wunderweger strangled himself with a nylon cord stripped from his uniform we normally think of suicide as coming from depression or someone who feels shame or guilt or remorseful in some way this is not at all what was going on when jack committed suicide now more psychopathic offenders like jack do it to exert control and it's the last great defiant act that that that he exercised to wrest control of this situation away from the government away from the the authorities he would not allow himself to be imprisoned for the rest of his life jack underweight proved that serial killers are not just an american phenomenon european law enforcement agencies realized that to fight criminals of this sort they would have to follow the fbi's example what we learned out of their case was that in austria and even in europe we didn't had a similar system like mycab violent crime apprehension program the criminal psychology service trying to get a similar system here to austria and therefore we can work with all sex crime cases and homicide cases now thanks to the lead of the fbi many countries have adopted profiling and a computerized criminal database in the hopes that open borders and conflicting jurisdictions will no longer allow these predators to escape justice [Music] you