The voice in my head

A brutal double murder of an innocent retired couple took place on May 19, 2015. On that beautiful spring day, 75-year-old former district councilor Gerhard Hintermeier and his 74-year-old wife Erna were murdered in their detached house on Böckingstraße in Vienna’s 22nd district, Donaustadt. Two days later, on May 21, 2015, their 54-year-old son found his parents’ bodies in the garden. He immediately called the police. The autopsy revealed that both had been killed with extreme violence. 74-year-old Erna had been beaten so brutally in the face that her cheekbone and nasal bone were broken, as were her dentures. In addition, both bodies had numerous cuts in the neck and shoulder area caused by a long knife, which was found next to Erna’s body. Erna’s husband Gerhard had also been shot. But the strangest thing was that the murderer had written the word “TANTAL” in brown wood stain on Erna’s body from her shoulders to her legs, which is why the murderer was given the name “Tantalus Murderer” in the media. What did this mean? Was the murder motivated by the occult? In Greek mythology, Tantalus is the progenitor of the Tantalids. Tantalus’ blasphemy incurred the wrath of the gods, who placed a curse on his family, so that for five generations they were dominated by murders within their own family. Tantalus himself was thrown into Hades for his sacrilege against the gods, where he suffered eternal torment, known as “Tantalus’ torment.” Investigators soon tracked down the cruel double murderer using DNA found at the crime scene and a photo from a surveillance camera. The murderer had withdrawn money in Raasdorf using Erna’s stolen ATM card. The perpetrator was Dariusz Pawel K., a Polish man already known to the police, who had served several prison sentences for burglary and violent crimes. The bald Polish man, who had a penchant for Greek mythology, had been a member of a youth gang that committed numerous robberies at the age of 12 before founding his own gang. He not only used drugs, but also dealt them. He had already dropped out of school after 7th grade and also broke off an apprenticeship early on. Dariusz loved to travel through Northern Europe. For a while, he lived in his own apartment and did odd jobs in Great Britain. After that, he made a living by committing burglaries and staying in other people’s houses for some time. He visited Austria for the first time in 2011 and 2012. He traveled via Vienna to the west, where he committed burglaries in Salzburg, Bischofshofen, Granz, and Arnoldstein. In April 2012, he and an acquaintance from the red-light district robbed a shop owner in Salzburg. When the man pursued them as they fled, Dariusz pulled his “Rambo knife” out of his backpack and stabbed the man, who survived the knife attack. On June 8, 2015, Dariusz was handcuffed at Düsseldorf Central Station after the Federal Criminal Police Office issued an international arrest warrant. After two weeks, he was extradited to Austria. During questioning, Dariusz confessed that an “inner voice had ordered him” to kill the couple. Dariusz had spent two days in the bushes spying on the house before murdering the pensioners. He had cycled from Czechia to Vienna. Not only was he hungry, but he also wanted to wash. First, he took some cushions from the porch of the house, which he used to sleep on. When the house was quiet, he broke into the garden shed. But the 75-year-old pensioner heard him and suddenly stood in front of Dariusz, who shot him and stabbed him with his knife. He then killed his wife Erna. After the crime, he made himself comfortable in the house, washed his clothes, cooked himself a meal, and helped himself to their clothes before driving away in their car with their jewelry and Erna’s ATM card. He withdrew money in Lower Austria before taking the train to Znaim and then to Germany. Dariusz also confessed to the robbery and attempted murder of the Salzburg shop owner and the murder of 79-year-old Bo Georg E. on April 22, 2015, in Gothenburg. He had broken into his house because he thought no one lived there anymore. When he was surprised by the 79-year-old, he stabbed him in the neck with his knife until he was dead. He then wrote the word “Tantal” on the dead man’s body with his blood. An expert diagnosed Dariusz with untreated paranoid schizophrenia, which is why he was placed in the special institution in Göllersdorf and treated after his arrest. For this reason, Dariusz was not criminally responsible, which is why he was not tried for murder. Dariusz was admitted to an institution for mentally abnormal offenders, where he is said to be housed to this day.