Imprisoned In A Cellar For 24 Years

The NYTimes had a story this morning about Josef Fritzl, an Austrian man who kept his daughter imprisoned in his cellar for 24 years, raping her and fathering seven children. This freaked me out immensely and obviously required further investigation. Here's my journalism-paraphrasing:

• Fritzl kept her locked in a cellar under the house, that he fixed up with a bathroom, refrigerator and hot plate.
• He made the daughter write letters in captivity, claiming that she had run off to join a religious cult. Fritzl's wife claims to have known nothing believes those letters.
• Fritzl told his wife that he was building machines down there. He had the door barred with a keyless lock that only he could open. He told the people in "the bunker," as he called it, that he would kill them with gas if they tried to escape, and that the door was electrified.
• Fritzl had a prior conviction for rape and said he was born to rape. He said he locked up his daughter when she started to get unruly as a teenager, to keep the influence of the outside world away from her.
• Three of the children lived underground with their mother. He claimed to have "found" three of them at his door step, and raised them with his wife as adopted children. He murdered one of a set of twins who was born with breathing problems.
• He put in an expansion to the basement to get more room.
• His wife claimed to know nothing of her daughter's captivity just below her, and believed that her daughter had run of to join a cult.
• Everything came crashing down for Fritz when the oldest daughter got sick and Fritzl took her to the hospital. The daughter is now free and, most likely, living in some kind of hospital with her children. She moved in with her mother for a short period of time, but had a falling out with her because her mom did not stand up for her growing up.
• Here's what she looked like as a teenager, and also a map of the cellar:

There's a lot more info on this story, since it's received worldwide attention. Here's a story with a movie clip attached that I could not embed. Of course, there's always Wikipdia, the world's most reliable source of information.

Wow, that was uplifting. Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody!!!