Elfriede Martha Blauensteiner (22 January 1931 – 18 November 2003), dubbed The Black Widow, was an
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
n
serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
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* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
who murdered at least three victims by
poison. In each case, she inherited the victim's possessions.
Crimes
On 7 March 1997, Blauensteiner was found guilty of murdering 77-year-old Alois Pichler and sentenced to
life imprisonment. Her former lawyer Harald Schmidt was jailed for seven years for being an accomplice to grievous bodily harm and for forging the will of Alois Pichler. She was a gambling addict and it is believed that she would deliberately date rich elderly men and poison them before gambling away the money which had been left to her in their fabricated wills. Four years later, she was found guilty of murdering her 64-year-old husband Friedrick Doecker and 84-year-old female neighbour Franziska Koeberl. Although she was only convicted of a total of three murders, Austrian police believe that she may have murdered at least 10 people. Keoberl is believed to have been her only female victim.
After serving less than seven years of her life sentence, Blauensteiner died from a brain tumor on 18 November 2003 in a Vienna hospital.
She was cremated at
Feuerhalle Simmering
Feuerhalle Simmering is a crematorium with attached urn burial ground in the Simmering (Vienna), Simmering district of Vienna, Austria. It lies at the end of an alley, directly opposite Vienna Central Cemetery's main gate.
Description
Opened on ...
, where also her ashes were buried.
See also
*
List of medical and pseudo-medical serial killers
References
*Peter Vronsky: "Female Serial Killers: How and Why Women Become Monsters”,
Berkley Books, New York (2007), p. 439
External links
Mayhem Net
1931 births
2003 deaths
Austrian female murderers
Austrian female serial killers
Austrian people convicted of murder
Austrian people who died in prison custody
Austrian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
Burials at Feuerhalle Simmering
Deaths from brain cancer in Austria
Mariticides
People convicted of murder by Austria
Poisoners
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Austria
Prisoners who died in Austrian detention
Serial killers who died in prison custody
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