A group of nurses known as the “Angels of Death” committed the murders of around 300 patients by administering overdoses of painkillers and drowning them during a terrifying spree. Waltraud Wagner and Irene Leidolf carried out the killings at Vienna’s Lainz hospital over a span of seven years from 1983 to 1989. They utilized various methods such as forcing water into patients’ lungs and injecting them with excessive amounts of insulin and tranquilizers. Maria Gruber and Stefanija Mayer were also involved in these heinous acts as accomplices.
The perpetrators confessed to authorities that they began targeting elderly and terminally ill patients out of a misguided sense of mercy in 1983. Wagner, the youngest at 23 years old, initiated the killings by administering a lethal dose of morphine to a patient. Subsequently, she recruited Gruber, 19, Leidolf, 21, and the group’s “house mother,” Meyer, 43. Wagner demonstrated to the others how to prepare the deadly injections. The process involved one person holding the victim’s head and covering the nose, while another poured water down their throat until they suffocated in bed, resulting in agonizing suffering.
The majority of the victims were aged 80 and above, with all being at least 75 years old. Regrettably, up to 22 individuals might have been saved if hospital administrators had cooperated fully with the authorities. Chief investigator Max Edelbacher encountered a significant lack of cooperation at the hospital. The culprits were eventually apprehended after a doctor overheard them discussing the murders in a local pub.
Initially, the four women admitted to their involvement in the deaths of up to 42 patients at the facility, which has since been transformed into a nursing home. Reports suggest the number of victims could be as high as 300. During the investigation, one of them callously remarked to the police about troublesome patients being sent off to meet their end. The then Mayor Helmut Zilk likened the nurse’s aides to “death angels” and drew parallels to the atrocities committed during the Nazi era at Auschwitz.
Renowned psychologist Professor Erwin Ringel, author of Austrian Soul, expressed his belief at the time that Austria had failed to confront its past, drawing comparisons to the Nazi era. Wagner and Leidolf were convicted of murder in 1991 and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, due to good behavior, they were granted conditional release in 2008, which allowed them to partake in day trips outside prison for activities like hair appointments and shopping.
Vienna resident Anna Rietsch criticized the leniency shown towards the convicted killers, highlighting the injustice faced by the victims’ families when perpetrators are granted freedom. Gruber and Mayer were convicted on lesser charges of attempted murder and manslaughter, released earlier, and provided with new identities to safeguard them from potential retaliation.