Austrian dungeon rapist threatened to gas family

5/1/2008 - 1:11:35 PM

The man who kept his daughter and their children imprisoned in a home-made dungeon warned them they would be gassed if they tried to escape, police revealed today.

Austrian Josef Fritzl,73, who fathered seven children by raping his daughter Elisabeth, repeatedly told them they would die if they harmed him.

Police spokesman Helmut Greiner said Fritz warned gas would flow into the dingy, windowless cellar underneath his house in the town of Amstetten.

Fritzl told police about his threats during interviews and they were checking today to see if he had actually installed a device to carry them out.

They are also investigating another Fritzl claim that the reinforced door leading to the enclosure had a timer that let it be opened if he was gone for an unusually long time.

Police also said Fritzl forced his captive daughter to write a letter late last year indicating he may have been planning to release her from the cellar where she was held for 24 years.

They said DNA tests proved Elisabeth had written the letter to her family, who believed she had fled to a cult.

In it, the 42-year-old writes she wants to come home but “it’s not possible yet.”

“He may have had plans to end the captivity at some point,” a spokesman said.