Priklopil, Wolfgang

Wolfgang Priklopil was born on May 14, 1962 in Vienna , Austria ^{[2] [3]} . He was the only son of Karl Priklopil, a representative of the German brandy company Charlachberg. Wolfgang's mother was Karl Waltraud’s wife, a housewife ^[4] .

In 1972, the Priklopiley family moved from a city apartment to a private house in Strasshof an der Nordbahn , inherited by Karl from his father Oscar ^[5] . From ten to fourteen, Wolfgang studied at the Hauptschule Afritschgasse school, designed for children of average development ^[6] . He studied mediocre, but received the highest marks in behavior ^[6] .

Already in childhood Priklopil began to show signs of mental deviations. He had no friends at school, as he preferred solitary activities, such as reading books or picking up puzzles ^[6] . At the age of thirteen, he himself made a pneumatic gun , from which he shot at sparrows, pigeons and wild dogs ^[7] . He also suffered from enuresis until adulthood ^[7] .

At fourteen, after graduating from high school, Priklopil entered college. A year later, Wolfgang left training and went to students at the German electronic concern Siemens for a salary of about 25 pounds per week ^[8] . According to his former colleague Ernst Winter, colleagues never noticed any oddities in the behavior of Priklopil ^{[8] [9]} .

During training, in 1981, Priklopil left the compulsory eight-month military service in the barracks of Maria Theresa in Vienna. During this time, he lived in the barracks only the first six weeks, the remaining six and a half months he always returned home ^[10] .

Priklopil graduated with good grades and was hired ^[8] . However, he was later fired from Siemens to reduce staff, and he got a job in the electronic Vienna campaign , serving the Austrian telephone network, where he worked from 1983 to 1991 ^[11] . In 1991, he moved from the apartment where he lived with his mother, back to Strasshof an der Nordbahn ^[12] .

Police psychologist Manfred Crumple said that, in his opinion, in the early 1990s Priklopil had already decided to abduct the child ^[12] . Crumple said the following ^[13] :

Priklopil apparently intended to create a kind of parallel world, his very personal closed area, inaccessible to anyone else. An area in which he would rule everything. And I think that all this resulted in one single thing - he had a severe lack of ability to form normal human relations.

On March 2, 1998, Priklopil abducted a ten-year-old girl, Natasha Kampush , who was going to school ^[14] . According to witnesses, he parked his white van on Melangasse Street, near the school gate ^[15] . According to Kampush herself, the kidnapper was in the van, and when she came closer, he got out of the car, grabbed Natasha by the arms and threw her into the van ^{[16] [17]} . After that, Priklopil drove Kampush to his home, where he locked in a basement of 5 m²: 2.78 m long, 1.81 m wide and 2.37 m high. It was built by the grandfather of Priklopil Oscar, who planned it as a bomb shelter in case of a nuclear war ^[18] .

During the crime, Priklopil was spotted by a 12-year-old girl. She saw a man throw a girl into a white van ^[19] . The police decided to interrogate the owners of all 700 registered white vans in Austria, among which was Priklopil ^[20] . He stated that on March 2 he was alone at home, and uses a car to transport building materials ^[21] .

During the investigation, many other testimonies were examined, but not one of them brought the police to the criminal ^[22] .

So far, Priklopil’s motive has not been established. Kampush in his interviews does not give specific comments as to whether the kidnapper raped her, claiming that their sexual relationship is her personal life. However, the first police officer who spoke with Natasha after her escape spoke of “sexual violence” ^[23] .

Priklopil held Kampush prisoner for more than eight years. On August 23, 2006, she managed to escape when, at 12:53 CET, a potential buyer of his car called Priklopil and he left Kampush for a few seconds ^[24] . Natasha, who had previously cleaned the thief’s car, the BMW 850i , left the vacuum cleaner and rushed off. She turned to Priklopil’s neighbors for help, and then was taken to the police station, where she was identified by a scar on her body and DNA test ^[1] .

Priklopil, realizing that the police were chasing him, threw himself under the Vienna S-Bahn train , heading to the North Station in Vienna. He died on August 23 at 20:59 ^[25] .

• In 2013, the premiere of the film “ 3096 days ”, based on the story of the abduction of Kampush, took place. It was directed by . The role of Priklopil was played by the actor Toure Lindhardt ^{[26] [27]} .

• Kampush N., Gronemayer H., Milbourne K. 3096 days . - Olma Media Group, 2011 .-- 320 p. - ISBN 978-5-373-04025-9 .
• Hull A., Laydig M. History of Natasha Kampush. - SPb. : Amphora, 2009 .-- 269 p. - ISBN 978-5-367-00922-4 .