𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑

For the sake of comprehension, it is recommended that you do not read the short story
"The Awakening Monster" until after you have finished the book.
-Naoki Urasawa

PREFACE
This text is a report detailing the connection between the crimes of the "Monster" Johan Liebert, from 1986 over a period of ten years, and the case of the "Axe-Murderer" Gustav Kottmann in Salzburg, Austria, November of 2000. This connection, while absurd at first glance, slowly hardened into conviction as I pressed on with my research.
With regards to the Johan case, I did my utmost to present the real names of all the people I interviewed, but for a variety of reasons (sometimes to protect the subject's life) some of them are introduced using aliases. There are no photographs, as nearly all of the interviewees objected to having their pictures taken. Instead, I have sketches of their faces put together from memory after each interview was concluded. When asked if they minded that would I draw portraits of them afterward, most of them reluctantly agreed, although I declined to mention that I once worked as a caricature artist on the streets of Vienna.
Though there are numerous false names, rough portraits and other unfortunate but
unavoidable comprises in order to protect the identities of those introduced in the text, I can assure you that everything presented in this book is true.
As I will state at the end of the book, whether or not the Johan incident is over, and
what the meaning of this new storybook is, are both left up to the reader to decide.

INTRODUCTION
The suburb of Nonburg in Salzburg, Austria was a quiet neighborhood south of Hohensalzburg Fortress, with little connection to the more famous tourist attractions of the area, such as the birthplace of Mozart and the setting of The Sound of Music. After Tuesday
November 14th, 2000, it became the spotlight of all of Austria.
That night, the St. Ursula Emergency Clinic, located on the north side of Market Square in the center of town, was receiving no emergency calls or incoming patients, and so on-duty doctor Ernst Lerner, intern Paul Hosch and nurse Rosemarie Berg were relaxing in the staff break room, drinking coffee and enjoying a discussion about their favorite soccer players.
They heard receptionist Hanna Ruplechter's scream at 1:05 AM. Rushing to the lobby
of the clinic, Hosch saw a large man wearing glasses and an expressionless face, covered in blood. Hosch's initial reaction was that an injured man had come directly to the hospital for help, but when he saw Ruplechter's blood-splattered body lying on the floor, he instantly realized what had happened.
The man was holding a bloody axe in his right hand.
Hosch moved to run back to the break room and call for help, but before he could fully react, the man had knocked him over and continued to walk down the hallway and into the break room. Hosch struggled to stand up and called out the names of his co-workers.
The next thing he saw was Nurse Berg burst out of the room and collapse, bleeding profusely from the head.
At this point, Hosch's memories become unclear. It is thought that he then ran out
of the hospital and to a nearby public phone across the street, to alert the police.
After the Salzburg Police received the call, Senior Patrol Officer Benjamin Graber and
Officer Herman Maier arrived at the hospital at 1:54 AM. The officers walked into the hospital alongside Hosch, who had been hiding in the darkness. Later, both officers would describe what they saw the bodies of two women, the floor slick with blood - as an unbelievably horrific sight.
Graber and Maier left Hosch in the lobby and advanced to the break room. They heard voices. In the room they witnessed the body of Dr. Lerner, his head not quite severed from his body, and a towering, bloody man, standing still with an axe in his hand.
For some reason, he smiled at the officers. After muttering a strange message, he
pushed the axe against his neck, severing the carotid artery, and died.
"One, two, three... My mission is complete," the man said, according to Officer
Graber.
The mystery killer's identity was soon discovered: Gustav Kottmann, age 29. He was
already wanted as a serial killer for murdering seven men and women over Vienna, chiefly couples inside their cars, over the last five years.
Kottmann had apparently hitchhiked his way to the western border of Austria. He had not made any murders and thus successfully evaded the police for an entire year, a surprising length of time for the average serial killer. This enabled him to make his way to the little town on the German border.
The Salzburg police hold the position that this was a recurrence of his (particular brand of) serial killing. Despite his other murders being exclusively sexual crimes targeting couples, there was no hint of sexual nature to this incident. The police attributed this to rising, uncontrollable urges. He happened to see the lights on in this particular hospital, so he grabbed an axe and entered
With Kottmann's suicide, the St. Ursula Clinic murders marked the grisly end to a
string of axe murders.
But is this really true?
At the time, I was working freelance - on my first assignment for the newspaper Idee — and was given this case. I reported on the rough details of the incident in the way that it was just presented to you, as did the rest of the media. But during my work I began to feel doubts in my mind that lead me to entertain a theory. As I dove back into the case with this new theory in mind, I began to see new truths emerge that differed from what was reported in the media. I even began to have doubts about the killer - Kottmann and his undeniable actions themselves.
"One, two, three... My mission is complete," Kottmann's last words on this earth.
What was this mission, and who did he receive it from? And why didn't he commit any murders for the year up to this point? Where was he hiding while the police labeled him a
"wanted" suspect? I delved into Gustav Kottmann's life, seeking the answers to these three
Kottmann was born the eldest of four children in Kaiserin, a North Austrian town close to the Czech border. His father Hans owned a farm, which went out of business when Gustav was five years old.
After that, he repaired bicycles and such for friends and nearby
farmers, but constantly had trouble seeing eye-to-eye with his hirers and spent most of his time unemployed and soaked in alcohol.
Gustav's mother Marlen was considered to have
even worse alcoholism than her husband, with an unchecked temper that frequently raged out of control.