Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
A murder so brutal that it shook the whole of Austria was that of 59-year-old Hungarian businesswoman Ildiko, whose killer was her own son. Ildiko had once married a count from an ancient Hungarian noble family. But shortly after the birth of their son Michael, they divorced. Since then, Ildiko had been living in a chic apartment on Gentzgasse in Vienna’s 18th district, Währing, where she ran the boutique “Beatrice” two streets away. There she sold expensive designer fashion. Ildiko loved her son Michael, whom she affectionately called “Prince,” more than anything. Her highly intelligent son received an excellent education and was now a budding academic at the Vienna University of Economics and Business. The 26-year-old computer science student lived in a 115-square-meter apartment in the posh villa district of Vienna’s 19th district, Döbling. Thanks to his mother, he drove luxury cars, wore designer clothes, and always had enough money in his wallet. But instead of being grateful to his mother Ildiko for this, he preferred to disparage her. In his opinion, she tarnished his blue blood by going to work. Michael was proud that he was aristocratic, which he let everyone know. His hatred for his mother Ildiko grew steadily until it erupted in a mad act on March 28, 1993. It was a Sunday morning when Ildiko reprimanded her son, who had spent the night at her apartment, for watching television all night. Michael then flew into a rage. He forced his mother to undress. Then he cut off her red-dyed mane, which he considered a “sign of evil.” After that, he broke both her arms before Michael, who was a hunter, rammed his hunting knife into her neck. He stabbed his mother a total of 15 times, then disemboweled her like game. He then cut off her head. He draped it as depicted in the family crest. But instead of impaling the head of his defeated opponent, in this case his mother, on a dagger, he stuck it on his hunting knife and put it in a plastic bag. With this trophy, he left the apartment of his murdered mother. When a neighbor encountered him in the stairwell and asked Michael about the screams, Michael showed him the plastic bag containing his mother’s head without any emotion and dryly remarked that she had screamed loudly. Then he ran to his mother’s boutique, the so-called “place of evil,” which he vandalized. He placed her head in the shop window. A short time later, the police, who had been called by the neighbor, arrived. They overpowered Michael, who was arrested. Michael stated that his motive was that he had to rid the world of his mother. After nine months, Michael was put on trial for the murder of his mother. Since he was found to be mentally incompetent at the time of the crime due to schizophrenic psychosis, as determined by two experts, he was admitted to the closed ward of Baumgärtner Höhe, an institution for mentally abnormal offenders, on December 21, 1993. Already in June 1999, after only six years, he was released from there as cured. Michael fled to Hungary, the homeland of his ancestors, without informing the Austrian authorities. From then on, he lived in a hotel, where he squandered his millions. Michael repeatedly attracted negative attention by harassing hotel guests or lighting a campfire in the hotel courtyard. When he was thrown out by the hotel manager, Michael went berserk, threatening him with a knife to his throat. Michael was then arrested again and brought to trial. It turned out that he had been discharged from the psychiatric ward despite urgent warnings from his doctor. Michael had to return to the psychiatric ward. What became of him after that is unknown.
