Ernst Dostal

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Ernst Dostal (* 1951 or 1952; † June 26, 1973 in Altlengbach , Lower Austria ) was an Austrian violent criminal who in 1973 triggered the largest manhunt in the Second Republic.

Richard Dvorak's murder

On Wednesday, June 13, 1973, a gendarmerie patrol discovered a wide explosion crater with fragments of bone and body parts on the roadside of the Südautobahn near a bridge in the municipality of Guntramsdorf (Mödling district). A first suspicion was directed towards a gang of burglars that had been active for months, which opened safes with explosives and had already struck three times successfully in this federal state (Lower Austria) in the past two weeks. Investigators assumed that perhaps one of the gang members had been involved in an accident with the explosives or had been eliminated in this way by his accomplices. A second theory assumed that someone was planning an attack on the bus transport of Jewish emigrants to the transit camp at Schloss Schönau , but had blown himself up by improper handling. The police suspected Emanuel K., who had already been convicted of explosive attacks on several occasions, had been released from prison just four months earlier and was believed to be impossible to find.

The dead person was identified on June 15. It was about the 30-year-old father Richard Dvorak, a contract employee in the Vienna City Hall. His mother provided the crucial clues that led to his identification. Ernst Dostal, who was considered a close friend of Dvorak, was questioned for the first time by the homicide squad on June 18 and testified that he had not seen Dvorak for days.

Rampage in the Rennweg barracks

On Friday, June 22nd, Dostal was again invited to a questioning about Richard Dvorak in the Rennweger barracks in Vienna . Because it was not considered dangerous or suspect, it had not been searched.

When Dostal testified that he had been to a certain inn on the night of the crime, but the officers pointed out that it had closed at the time in question, he suddenly reached into his jacket pockets and began to fire two hidden pistols at the officers. The officers Ottokar Pücher (38), Matthias Horvath (42) and Harald Syrinek (48) were hit and seriously injured; Pücher and Syrinek were still in mortal danger even after days. While trying to escape from the building, he injured the 57-year-old civil servant Leopold Ullrich with a shot in the stomach before he was finally able to escape by jumping out of a window on the first floor. He stole a driving school car and continued his escape to Südtiroler Platz, where he bought a pistol and 200 rounds of ammunition in a gun shop.

Manhunt and double homicide

Immediately after the incident, the Dostals' house in Tullnerbach , their farm near Ober-Grafendorf and an apartment rented by the Dostals in Vienna were searched, and the gendarmes seized a considerable amount of weapons. On the farm, the officers also found a soundproof torture chamber with stretch beds and necklaces next to a wooden figure that had been shot, shooting targets and piles of empty cartridge cases.

Robert Dostal, Ernst Dostal's father, had also gone into hiding before his son's rampage and was now also wanted by an arrest warrant.

On Sunday morning, Ernst Dostal shot the couple Viktor (45) and Johanna Steiger (43) in their weekend house on Sachsengang , where he was observed by a neighbor. The police assume that Dostal had already broken into the weekend house of the couple from Vienna-Döbling on Saturday and stayed there overnight.

On Monday morning a coordination center was set up in the Ministry of the Interior in Vienna, in which all wanted reports about Dostal were collected. A radio journal service, which was able to receive 200 radio calls from individual patrol vehicles at the same time, evaluated all reports and directed the emergency vehicles to the locations. The armed forces provided special maps of Lower Austria on which the security authorities could find and trace every possible escape route. Later that same day, the "Vorortelinie" campaign was set in motion; Safety chains were put in place on all entry and exit roads from Vienna to Lower Austria and vice versa and every vehicle was checked, and traffic control points were also carried out in the surrounding districts of Vienna, Sankt Pölten and Lilienfeld.

Up until then, Dostal's crimes had triggered the largest manhunt in the history of the Second Republic .

suicide

The attempt to contact his father with an encrypted newspaper ad ultimately revealed his whereabouts; “1919, I waited in vain for you by the tower on Monday, I'll try again Wednesday and Thursday around 10 p.m. I can currently be reached at 02774/326. ”Since 1919 is the year of Dostal's father's birth and the house owner told the associated phone number that he had not placed the ad, special units surrounded the property in Altlengbach on Tuesday and stormed it using tear gas. The property was deserted, but Dostal's getaway car was in the garage.

However, shortly afterwards, Dostal himself was observed and arrested on the nearby Klarahöhe when leaving a property. After a brief firefight, Dostal was shot and committed suicide by being shot in the head.

Later surveys revealed that Dvorak and Dostal had jointly planned a series of kidnappings. When Dvorak wanted to get out, Dostal shot him and then blew up his body. This and hiding his clothes and bones should make identification impossible and complicate the investigation.

Dostal's father Robert, who was also involved in the crimes, traveled to Switzerland after his son's escape became known and then to Lüneburg in Germany, where he also committed suicide by shooting in a hotel room.

The officer Ottokar Pücher, who was injured by a shot in the neck in the Rennweg barracks in Dostal, remained paralyzed from the neck down until his death in 2010.

literature

  • Andreas and Regina Zeppelzauer: The most spectacular murders in Austria. Psychograms, pictures and reports. VF Collector Verlag, Graz 2005.
  • Hans Bankl: The knife is in the back. Forensic Medicine Stories. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-218-00692-9 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Bieber: gunman Ernst Dostal judged himself. In: Kurier (daily newspaper) . September 22, 2013, accessed December 16, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Riddle about explosives on the Autobahn. Misfortune or crime? - Body parts scattered on the roadway . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna June 14, 1973, p. 7 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  3. ↑ Autobahn: Was the body blown up? In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna June 15, 1973, p. 11 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  4. ↑ Bomb dead known - victim or assassin? In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna June 17, 1973, p. 5 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  5. ↑ Farewell party before bombing . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna June 19, 1973, p. 7 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  6. ^ Robert Plank: From Science Fiction to Life and Death. [1]
  7. ↑ Torture chamber discovered in Dostal's farm . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna June 24, 1973, p. 5 ( Arbeiter-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  8. ↑ Gendarmerie: Dostal will continue shooting . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna June 26, 1973, p. 7 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  9. ^ In a firefight near Altlengbach: Dostal killed . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna June 27, 1973, p. 1 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
  10. ↑ The gunman's father shot himself . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna June 29, 1973, p. 9 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dostal, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian murderer
DATE OF BIRTH 1951 or 1952
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1973
Place of death Altlengbach