Murder With Friends: Unterweger

In Membership, Murder With Friends - On Demand by Gigi Manukyan54 Comments

Grace Baldridge and comedian, Will Neff, talk Jack Unterweger, an Austrian serial killer who murdered prostitutes in several countries. After leaving prison the first time, he became a journalist and minor celebrity.

0 seconds of 32 minutes, 4 secondsVolume 90%
Press shift question mark to access a list of keyboard shortcuts
00:00
32:04
32:04
 

Comments

  1. Wow, I adore Will Neff. Not only is he a good storyteller (as in the way he can present information in an enlightening and entertaining way), but the fact he showed up and did this episode in the same outfit the subject wore to flaunt himself is just amazing. Pro serial killer connoisseur, which I just cannot compliment enough.

    I have to agree, that Unterweger may well have been beyond the top tier of serial killers, even though technically by raw definition he cannot be classified as such, because he kept himself from meeting the criteria on a god damn technicality through his epic send off. I hadn’t heard of many mainland European modern serial killers before (they don’t teach that heavily in regular psych classes, and most books here are very US/UK centric about them), and I’m thoroughly impressed. I would love to know what his IQ was, because it has to be up there with Ed Kemper, or even higher.

    Thank you for introducing me to a new subject, especially one as elevated as this.

  2. When you hang out with film-geeks, you learn that it’s exciting finding a genuine (questionably) human, an evil-wicked-twisted mortal who actually lived as a chillingly perfected cinematic, stylized villain; with a cliche secret life victimizing women from the familiar ‘community’ of his despised birth mother and mean childhood (during tumultuous times). Truth outdoes fiction, n’est-ce pas?

  4. I’ve never heard of this guy before and I used to watch Most evil back in the day sometimes too! This was really an interesting watch! Thank you!!

  5. How is this not a movie?!?? It’s all there! Perfectly disturbing in every possible way. Sharknado is a thing that someone paid to have made lol why is this readymade blockbuster boy in the works? Great story! Thank you for sharing because until now I had never heard his name.

    1. If I have to hear this guy, (who admittedly dressed for this appearance like Unterweger did in one of his publicity photos to “honor” him), say one more time how a technique this wretched, F***ing bastard used to kill his victims was “cool” I think I’ll puke.

      This was my first “Murder With Friends” episode. I will give it another chance because of the comments here and my interest in the subject matter.

      However, TYT needs to take a closer look at their “casual” style. Even in the political segments I often find myself thinking the commentary is disrespectful more so than contrary… which is what a Young Turk is all about… Yes?

      1. Give it a chance. This guest was not in line with Grace and her other guests who usually have a very balanced and dare I say respectful tone when discussing the murders. This episode was crazy uncomfortable and not the usual tone of this show… probably why Grace was basically mute. :(

        I agree with you about TYT… some hosts are better than others…. they ride a fine line. I am a new member… and I am still on the fence…. Cenk makes the network… and there are some good discussions among some of the guest hosts…

  7. I enjoy the fine line that Grace treads between being horrified by serial killers, while still finding them interesting. She and her guests typically do not lose sight of the suffering of victims or their loved ones, and their empathy is clear and genuine.

    The tone of this episode was so radically different that I was as uncomfortable as Grace. I don’t think she knew that Will’s attitude would be so distasteful, or that his admiration of the killer went so far as to dismiss and dehumanize his victims. He seems under the same spell that allowed Unterberger to conceal his monstrousness and continue killing.

    Grace won’t have Will on again. She seemed to recognize his tone deafness early on, but had no choice but to finish the episode. This isn’t representative of the show at all, and I believe the respectful tone will reappear next week, never to disappear again. Grace is smart and will not allow the show to run roughshod over the humanity and horror again. It is her show, after all.

    1. I agree. This guest was great. Great episode. I disagree with the commenter who said that the guest was “glorifiing” the killer. He made the killer more real, more vicseral.

  8. I have to second/third/fourth etc. the opinion that Will Neff wasn’t a great addition to the show. His demeanor seemed pretty disrespectful and almost creepy.

  9. Man, these comments are rough. Will was great on the show! Having someone who is passionate for the subject matter makes the presentation better, not worse. Y’all are a great combo for this type of program and I would love to see y’all do another one together.

  10. clap clap, “Well Done”… seriously??? Have to comment to agree with other comments because Will’s unbridled enthusiasm and joyfulness at the killer’s “genius” was too freaking weird for me. An interesting story made really uncomfortable by being told as if this sick horror of a human was one of the greatest creative minds of the century.

  11. In terms of the number of victim as well as the level of suffering of the victims, Unterweger is by far not at the top of the list.
    Only in terms of his cynicism of taunting the police he reaches a very high level.

    I’m not exactly happy about Will’s presentation.
    Please do not depict murderers using expressions like “cool” or applauding them.
    Also reduce your swearing a bit.
    This show is too good for this.

  12. Grace!
    Do you ever read these comments?

    While Will seems to be an interesting, over-the-top guy, I kinda hafta agree with a lot of the comments here.
    He appears to IDOLIZE this serial killer.
    Not just that he is fascinated with the crime story, but he appears to admire him!

    He praises Unterweger profusely for his intelligence & charisma & devious, twisted mind.
    It’s a bit unsettling.

    Does he have an alter built to Unterweger, and that is why you moved out?

  13. Not a good show sorry! It seems downhill.

    This guy as guest will is a scary guy i think besides the swearing and saying cool for murder etc he dehuminised the victems.

    Further more why 32 minutes?? It used to be 1 hour then 45 then 42 now 32??!! Comeone the story went in speed 10x

    Further more if you dont have more then 32 minutes of this guy its a bad case to present! Almost nothing about evidence trial etc.. or about the victems..

    It was rush.. it was cold.. and will should stay off for good please go back to 1 hour cases! This is sad . Not why i became a member…

    So not most evil!!

  14. I liked this episode. Will really knew a lot about this serial killer. And yeah i understand why ppl think he’s belittling the victims but i take it as that this seal killer was just really smart in knowing how to not get caught and he chose his victims perfectly in that sense. I also find it all interesting. I guess him saying it was cool, was taken in the wrong way but yeahhhhhh, I Love this show, Grace. Keep it up, <3

  16. I think that John Orr would be a really interesting subject. More of an arsonist but he certainly caused at least four people’s deaths

  18. Great show as usual, Grace.

    That said… If you never have Will Neff on again as a guest, you will get no complaints from me.

    There is something very unsettling about him. Not right in the head. The most revealing moment was the explosion of belittling and disgusting language he used to describe the brilliance of choosing prostitutes as victims. And, either he does not know what the word “cool” means… or there is something wrong with him. Glad you no longer are roomies.

    Good rule to live safe by: Stay away from manic egocentrics who idolize serial killers.

    1. I agree with Deb-n-NCAL. i would also like to add that the comment (not even a joke) about him stealing Grace’s gold star was terrible. laying sexual claim (truly or falsely) is how men discredit the women they work with. this guy doesn’t even have any nuance about it. dump him as a friend again, Grace. love you, love your spirit and love your good heart!

  19. I agree with most that Will might be better suited to just going for cheep laffs. I had never heard of this Serial killer, but was impressed with his level of control. Born into the world of prostitution and frequenting it to profit from it’s weaknesses is classic for serial killers. I was intrigued about his girlfriend and would like to know what happened to her? Did she receive an aiding and abetting charge?
    Have you done anything about the Belgian killer Marc Dutroux? Aren’t you a femme des frites, Grace? This was perverse since there seems to be a sub-plot of being a supplier to richer more powerful people. I would be interested to learn a little about your upbringing when you investigate this sad chapter over a Leffe.

  20. Unlike most people who watch (I assume), I’ve never been interested in serial killers, and the first time I watched was because I wondered what it was about. I found it to be a respectful, educating show about people whose names I had only heard of, but knew nothing about. I find it interesting, and I manage to keep more or less detached because of the way you handle it, but today made me feel highly uncomfortable.

    I don’t care about the swearing, but I was appalled at how the victims were described, and how the killer was glorified, and the inappropriate amount of excitement over the deaths of several women.

    1. ^if you’re not familiar with this one: French doctor during Nazi occupation who set up bogus escape route for those trying to escape persecution. But instead of getting them to Argentina., he’d take a fee for service, kill them, take their belongings the dispose of bodies. May have killed 60+…

  23. Don’t like the word “panties” either. Just say undies. It seems to be a universal word.

    I believe Will was nervous. He displayed so much nervous energy and Grace did look uncomfortable. He’s not a good guest for the show.

    I didn’t care for this MWF. Y’all glossed over the murders and the crime scenes. This MWF wasn’t as in depth as past ones. However, I was introduced to someone I hadn’t heard of. Thanks for that. Now to go research Jack.

  24. I watched this last night, but didn’t comment because I wasn’t sure what to say, and I was tired, but I had to come back to comment tonight because this guy really pissed me off. I agree with everyone about Will coming off as crass and glorifying the killer. Cursing is fine with me, but cursing just for the sake of it is a little much. And he just came off like he’d never watched the show, and had no idea that it wasn’t a “Let’s Present Killers As If They’re Rock Stars” kind of thing. I can’t imagine a show like that getting much viewership from anyone other than sociopaths and psychopaths.

    Grace looked very uncomfortable, and I felt bad for her. I think she tried to correct the tone a little in the beginning, but gave up, and really, there wasn’t anything she could have done by then.

    Just, please, never have him back.

  25. Not really a fan of this guest. His glorification of this killer was very uncomfortable. I didn’t appreciate his comments about prostitutes being filthy and techniques of this killer being “cool”.

    Great job as always, though, Grace! Love watching your work!

  27. I didn’t say graces brother crossed a line and that’s because I don’t think he actually crossed the line at any point, however some of his jokes are insensitive and misplaced. I only said he’s the only other person who made me feel uncomfortable. I said will crossed a line for all the same reasons u think he crossed a line.

    1. Grace’s brother knew his stuff, but I think in his episode there was a sibling dynamic that came out, and some of the importance of the discussion was lost in that dynamic.

    2. I completely respect that opinion :) I just thought it seemed wrong to compare the two, as Will went beyond just a little distracting to flat out super uncomfortable. It’s Murder with Friends, so it makes sense some episodes will be more casual, given the different dynamics of the guests. Just clarifying my point, but I understand your view!

  29. Nom de plum means a different name used by a writer to publish his work. Signature is the word that Will should use. He tries too much to appear sophisticated.

  30. I must say I also felt uncomfortable with will as I also found him to glorify him by saying he’s “amount the greats” non of them are great but I understood that he really meant infamous but his enthusiasm did seem to come off as if he admired this monster for his “genius”. Another MWF host who made me uncomfortable before was actually graces brother as he seems to find details very funny and jokes too often but I found wills energetic admiration was crossing a line

    1. Yeah, Will calling him “one of the greats like Gacy, Bundy, etc.” and just how excited he seemed about that made me super uncomfortable. I know he probably meant infamous, and just a totally fucked up person, but it felt wrong.

      Grace has much better balance between being fascinated by criminal history and without glorifying violent rapists and murders.

    2. I have to disagree with the bit about Grace’s brother – I really liked him, maybe in part because it reminded me of my own friendship with my brother. I didn’t think he was out of line at all, even though he had some humor. That seemed fine!

      But Will I was a little less fond of, and I kind of hate to say that because I think he really tried – and actually it was the trying too hard that messed up the vibe. Maybe he was nervous? There was just entirely too much cursing and I don’t feel like I learned as much about the murders as I would’ve with other guests.

      Definitely not great at toeing the line between admiring and being horrified by killers. I was particularly annoyed by the way he talked about the prostitutes. These were victims. They were murdered and they had families. People know what you mean when you say there’s a lot of different DNA on prostitutes. You don’t need to say they had cum in their hair. He wasn’t ‘cool’ for killing prostitutes, or for his weapon of choice. He was a monster. And maybe it feels more comfortable to pretend this guy was a movie villain, but he was horrifying and in no way ‘cool’.

      As always, love Grace and love MWF.

  31. In England we say undies u also occasionally hear “underklackers” but I have a feeling undies also would b a word that grace would prefer not to use, as panties and undies sound very jeuvenile when talking about such serious instances

  32. This is the first mwf guest I thought was ill suited for the show. I don’t know if he could squeeze one more “cool” or “bullshit” in there if he tried. It wasn’t his crass approach, the grammar was just lazy and I found glorifying the murderer and comparing him to “greats” was just unsavory. Thanks for not doing the whole 40 minutes. Hadn’t heard of the murderer, at least.

    1. Totally agree. He wore the same god damn suit as the guy pretty weird. The way he described the victims as well was very disrespectful.

      1. Yeah that too! Describing them as awash in cum and ‘whatever else they’d been rolling around in’ while calling the murder ‘one of the greats’ was really vile.

  33. While I liked Will, I also wasn’t too happy with the way he seemed to glorify Unterweger. This episode felt like it was more fanfare of the killer as opposed to looking at the prolific nature and the lasting cultural impact of his crimes. (For instance, I thought the discussion in the episode about Ed Gein was much more thought-provoking.) I felt you could have dug more into the whole cult of personality aspect of this story instead of talking about how “genius” he was.

    I did also feel a bit uncomfortable with Will’s comments on prostitutes. I’m hoping that if and when MWF discusses Robert Pickton that you look a bit more into the complicated aspects that the disadvantaged members of society (prostitutes, drug addicts and the homeless) face when it comes to violent crimes. They are easy prey, rarely noticed when missing, and rarely seen as reliable witnesses if they come forward with knowledge about a crime.

  34. i’m going to miss MWF. cancelling my membership because i can’t afford to support too many causes, and between TYT and Sam Harris … well, Sam Harris is #1.
    BUT, while i’m still here — Will, as another commenter remarked, you need to cool it majorly. cursing. is not obligatory, nor is it cool; it’s necessary at certain points in time. i’m no angel, but you overused it to the nth degree. Grace looked a bit uncomfortable, despite her affection for you. maybe i’m wrong, but still … chill.
    not impressed with this Jack. i still prefer the Ripper’s MO more. much more creative and colorful, artistic even. and last week’s Jodi Arias was pretty lame, to me at least. there was no there there. just sex and stab wounds. whoppee.

  35. What is left out of this very disturbing story is:

    A) The tumultuous conditions throughout the region of Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia both during the separation of West and East Germany (the continuing Cold War), at the point of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and the transition to one Germany during the years following,

    B) the fact that the then yet-to-be identified Jack the Ripper continued to elicit gross admiration from more and more ‘fans’ watching loads of new TV productions glorifying him,

    C) the continuation to this day of blaming / non support for women in the Oldest Profession and

    D) societies that continue to this day to give perks/ the benefit of the doubt to white men regardless of their criminal records.

    I really appreciate Will Neff coming on the show with how he learned about this humongous creep, as well as his wearing the guy’s infamous white suit — a very good way to burn this guy into our consciousness. But I think Will needs to cool it with the ‘cool’ and other ‘he’s a superstar’ remarks, this is the kind of fervor Jody Arias is feeding on AT THIS VERY MOMENT.

    We see clearly here once again what a narcissistic torturer / killer fears MOST — going to jail for life with no chance of parole and zero control over their own lives. THAT is what Unterweger should have gotten and unforgivable authorities in Arnold Swartzenegger’s birth country bungled it away from all those grieving families and all of us with blinded, lax security. THAT is what Issei Sagawa should have gotten but he walks around free here in Japan doing fucking interviews talking about writing a goddamn book! And THAT’S what Arias IS getting but if they don’t kick that fucking with the media shit she’s doing to the curb we’ll have another Unterweger/Ripper cult on our hands making a hero out of her.

  36. Hi Grace in England we don’t say panties, we say knickers. Jus giving u and alternative as u said u hate the word panties

    2. what about ‘undies’? simple, classic aussie. is it used elsewhere though ? fairly sure ‘undergrunders’ is an official aussie term.

Leave a Comment