World's Most Notorious Killers episode 2: A detailed case overview

Episode 2 of World's Most Notorious Killers, a true crime series on Peacock, will relive the brutality and cruelty that Austrian serial killer Jack Unterweger employed to murder his victims. Unterweger was a serial killer who started his kill spree in Austria and then moved to California, where he killed many in cold blood. His victims were mostly s*x workers.

After going to prison in 1974 for murder, he was soon released amidst his increasing popularity and public demand for a release in 1990. However, chaos erupted yet again, and several female bodies were discovered in Austria and the US shortly after his release.

On February 27, 1992, he was arrested and charged with 11 counts of murder. In 1994, he was sentenced to life in prison after he was found guilty of 9 murders out of the 11 he was arrested for. On the day of his conviction, Jack Unterweger, one of the world's most notorious killers, hung himself.

The episode of World's Most Notorious Killers is titled Vienna Strangler and premiered on September 17, 2024, on Peacock. The official synopsis for the same reads:

"Police in Vienna, Austria, are perplexed by a series of deaths; when similar murders occur in Los Angeles, detectives realize they are hunting the world's first transatlantic serial killer: a celebrity hiding in plain sight."

---

World's Most Notorious Killers episode 2: About the crimes of Jack Unterweger

Taking a deeper dive into episode 2 of World's Most Notorious Killers (Image by Rob Griffin/Unsplash)

Background

Reportedly, Jack Unterweger was a serial killer whose targets were mostly s*x workers. He was born in Austria in 1950. He was arrested 16 times between 1966 and 1974 because of several felonies. However, when he killed Margaret Schâfer in 1974, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

---

Arrest and release

After getting arrested and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Margaret Schaefer, Unterweger reportedly wrote a book in prison titled Purgatory or the Trip to Prison - Report of a Guilty Man, which was his out-of-prison card as readers of his book wanted him to be released, amidst increasing popularity. In 1990, he was finally released from prison, after which he got the job of a journalist.

However, the horrors began again as several bodies of female s*x workers were discovered yet again by the Austrian police. Reportedly, the bodies of the deceased Gertrude Seeger, Karin Eroglu, and Elfriede Schremf were found, among many others.

In 1991, Jack Unterweger was posted in the US to write about crime from his journalist agency and also to cover s*x work in the US. Several dead bodies of female victims surfaced there as well upon his arrival.

All the victims who were found slain were killed in the same manner. They were found naked and strangled using their bra, their hands tied up, s*xually assaulted, and half buried, as per the New York Times.

---

Investigation

Initially, the police had no clue about who the serial killer was as there was no evidence or lead. However, upon connecting the dots, the detectives understood Unterweger's possible involvement in this series of crimes. Reportedly, he was kept under the radar of the detectives for quite some time, even upon his arrival in the US.

---

Resolution

Crime Reporter Hans Breitegger connected all the dots and informed the authorities after he found that Unterweger had previously killed Margaret Schâfer in 1974 in a similar manner in which the recent female s*x workers were found slain in Graz. Hans Breitegger previously told Oxygen True Crime that:

“For me, it was clear there’s a thread connecting all the crime scenes. I was convinced we were on the right track. So, I informed the Graz Police.”

After the police began investigating the same, three s*x workers in Graz identified Unterweger from a picture that the officers showed them. Soon, Unterweger was linked to the murder of Blanka Bočková and several other murders.

In 1992, an arrest warrant was issued as there was enough evidence for the Graz police to arrest him. Jack Unterweger, one of the world's most notorious killers, was finally arrested on February 27, 1992, in Miami, Florida, while he was trying to flee with his girlfriend.

In May 1992, he was extradited to Austria. On May 27, 1992, he was charged with 11 counts of murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without chances of parole on June 29, 1994, when he was found guilty of 9 out of the 11 charges. A few hours after he was sentenced to life in prison, he hung himself using a shoelace and a cord.

---

To know more about this case, watch episode 2 of World's Most Notorious Killers. All five episodes of World's Most Notorious Killers are now streaming exclusively on Peacock.