Cellmate: Incest dad wanted to kill family

ST. POELTEN, Austria, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- The Austrian man who hid his daughter in the basement and fathered a second family with her planned to use acid to get rid of them, a former cellmate alleges.

Patrik Jakob, now 19, told the British tabloid The Sun that in three months sharing a cell in the St. Poelten jail he saw two sides to Josef Fritzl, whom he described as "the upstairs Fritzl" and "the downstairs Fritz." One was a warm friendly man who told the 15-year-old arsonist he could rebuild his life and the other a man who could turn "nasty" if he could not get his news broadcast.

"Fritzl told me he was tired of living two lives and wanted to rest in his old age. He said he had two choices -- to let them all go and face justice, or kill them," Jakob said. "He said he had considered how he would kill them and the best option would be an acid bath, so all traces of his secret family would be destroyed."

Fritzl also tried to justify what he had done, claiming he locked his daughter in the cellar because he believed she was a drug abuser, Jakob alleged. He had seven children with her, including one who died and three who lived upstairs with Fritzl and his wife.