Fritzl Blames Nazis, Says He Was Trying to Save Daughter

In jail-cell notes released by his lawyer, Josef Fritzl goes to bizarre lengths to defend the rape and imprisonment of his daughter, citing his Nazi upbringing for instilling “a high regard for decency and uprightness,” and a need to save the 18-year-old Elisabeth from drinking and dissipation. “She was going out to seedy bars and would spend whole nights there drinking and smoking," he wrote. "I only tried to rescue her from that life."

Fritzl said he didn't intend to rape her, but felt an “overpowering” desire for “a taste of the forbidden.” And once she had a baby, he thought they should keep coming because he “wanted them to always have someone to play with.” His attorney is offering these notes as the basis of an insanity defense; authorities point to detailed plans for his basement dungeon in rebuttal. (More Josef Fritzl stories.)