The publicityseeking merry widow Elfriede "Sugar" Blauensteiner had 2 obsessions: Gambling and a vivid interest in pharmacy.
Her last victim, retired and wealthy Alois Pichler (77) answered her personal ad in 1995 - and survived the Black Widow´s care just 5 weeks.
With the helping hands of her attorney, Harald SCHMIDT, she faked Pichlers last will in her favour for a profit of appr. 190,000 EURO. The victim´s nephew - who meant to be heir - became suspicious and informed police.
Elfriede Blauensteiner confessed immediately to 5 murders (including her first husband, Rudolf Blauensteiner) using the drug "Euglucon" (lowering blood sugar), but withdrew her confessions soon after.
The autopsy of Alois Pichler proofed a fatal dose of "Anafranil" (an antidepressant). Furthermore there where traces of "Euglucon" found. Not enough, Elfriede Blauensteiner and Harald Schmidt had also dragged Alois Pichler into a bathing tub, showered the victim with cold water and opened the windows to winter temperatures. Then they had left him to his fate.
Elfriede Blauensteiner was sentenced 1997 to lifetime prison for murder and fraud - and had her mediashow throughout the trial, laughing and waving to the journalists... Her attorney got away with 7 years.
In 2001 the second trial took place - after exhumation of two more suspected victims confirmed more traces of deadly caretaking - and Euglucon. There was a wide public discussion about the costs of a second trial - as Austrian law does not allow an additional verdict after the maximum penalty. The second trial was held anyway - "for psychological reasons".
After her neighbour, Franziska Koeberl (84) had handed her over a savings book with appr. 170,000 EURO and the password "heaven" in 1992, she soon passed by - diagnosed with "low blood sugar level". With 230 visits to casinos per year, the money did not last long enough...
1994 Elfriede Blauensteiner met retired Friedrich Doecker (64) and married him. His honeymoon lasted until he transferred his house over to his spouse. This had a fatal effect on his blood sugar level...
The death of her first husband, Rudolf, was not subject of the trial - she admitted anyway, that with him she just "experimented" with Euglucon "for him gaining weight".
The merry widow showed up with some black humour in the second trial as well. When she was asked how the drugs could be found in the victims, she blamed it on the pathologist "at last he became professor just by my case - he found Euglucon always on Blauensteiner victims"...
The jury had less a sense of humour and convicted her in two more cases of murder.
Elfriede Blauensteiner serves her lifeterm in Austrian Prison "Schwarzau" and recently complained about the movie "Die Gottesanbeterin" (The Mantis) as basing on her "story" - at least she had deserved a Liz Taylor starring...
The Black Widows announced memoirs have never been published...
NEWS ARCHIVE
| 2003_11_15: "The Mantis" dead | Vienna |  |
| Elfriede BLAUENSTEINER died during the night of November 15th 2003 in a Vienna Hospital due to a brain tumor. Elfriede Blauensteiner spent a life sentence at the women´s prison of Schwarzau (Austria) after being verdicted for the murder on her last companion in 1997 and for the murders on a female neighbour and a former companion in 2001. She was never accused for the - possible - murder on her former husband. Elfriede Blauensteiner complained to be innocent ever since. |
||
| serial killers by country |
| serial killer couples |
| serial killer teams |
| female serial killers |
| angels of death |
| black widows |
| black widows infanticide |
| bluebeards |
| baby farmers |
| nicknames sorted by name |
| nicknames sorted by nickname |
| serial killer victims |
| faces of evil |