Is it just me?

[Esmeralda]

I don't think the level of income had anything to do with it. I think he targeted those he considered "weak".

Because in all honesty...I can't wrap my mind around 3 women held for 11 years and not once ganging up on this asshole and shoving a pencil thru his eyeball...or biting off his dick so he bled to death. Or yelled at the top of their lungs so neighbors could hear. Or when allowed out those two times, they stayed silent. Or didn't speak when cops came to the door to ask hm questions a few years ago.
Were they tied spread eagled for 11 years? Were they never on their feet or had the use of their hands? One was a midwife for the birth of the baby...there was nothing that could be used as a weapon to kill this bastard or maim him so bad they could get loose and run? He was THAT careful for 11 solid years to never give them some kind of opening to kill his ass?

I don't understand it. Then again...not everyone is the same. Some can take it and stay fearful forever...and some will die fighting tooth and nail. I am of the latter.

With all due respect, we don't know yet how he managed to control them, and none of us know how we would behave in this type of or any other hypothetical situation. We only think we know what we would do.

 

[Gracie]

True, Esmeralda. And I feel bad, with these thoughts in my head. But I have the same emotions when it comes to wife beaters and the women who stay with them. I feel bad. I know my thoughts are wrong. But I cannot watch The Burning Bed movie again.....I saw it once...and I was SO PISSED.
I am a fighter. Always have been, always will be. I told my kids when they were little and even when they were in their teens...."if someone ever points a gun at you and tells you to get in the car or they will shoot you...tell them to start shooting. DO NOT GET IN THE CAR".

So while I feel guilty about what I wrote about my thoughts concerning the 3 women..I also still have trouble envisioning how it could have gone on for 11 years.

I wish I could be the one that inserts the needle in the guys arm. I'd miss a lot. FInally, after the mind fuck of him thinking THIS time?...I'd do it. But he would suffer first.

 

[wavingrl]

I don't think the level of income had anything to do with it. I think he targeted those he considered "weak".

Because in all honesty...I can't wrap my mind around 3 women held for 11 years and not once ganging up on this asshole and shoving a pencil thru his eyeball...or biting off his dick so he bled to death. Or yelled at the top of their lungs so neighbors could hear. Or when allowed out those two times, they stayed silent. Or didn't speak when cops came to the door to ask hm questions a few years ago.
Were they tied spread eagled for 11 years? Were they never on their feet or had the use of their hands? One was a midwife for the birth of the baby...there was nothing that could be used as a weapon to kill this bastard or maim him so bad they could get loose and run? He was THAT careful for 11 solid years to never give them some kind of opening to kill his ass?

I don't understand it. Then again...not everyone is the same. Some can take it and stay fearful forever...and some will die fighting tooth and nail. I am of the latter.

With all due respect, we don't know yet how he managed to control them, and none of us know how we would behave in this type of or any other hypothetical situation. We only think we know what we would do.

I think I am pretty clear on his methods of control and don't care to detail them again.

Every time they showed an image of Elizabeth Smart's perv--I wondered how she coped without going insane every time he 'used' her.

The girls/women don't seem to have any sense of loyalty toward him. Amanda used expletives to describe him--that is good. He was said to have kept them separated and chained in the basement. I am amazed that they don't have more health issues. I wouldn't think he prepared nutritious meals and no one received medical care.

Glad I am not an interrogator. I might throw up after listening to his sordid tale.

Eventually every bit of the story will be known.

I just hope everything possible will be done to allow these young women to move forward. Gina and Amanda need to finish high school, for one thing.

 

[Esmeralda]

..I also still have trouble envisioning how it could have gone on for 11 years.

It is unimaginable. Eleven years is such a long time. But I think some sort of hostage mentality takes over. Something happens mentally to these people; something we don't understand and may never be able to, even if psychiatry explains it, unless it happens to us. I cannot find fault with these women or imagine I would be stronger, better, fight more, risk my life to escape, etc. Self preservation, the survival instinct may be the strongest natural instinct any living thing has. And I know from experience, though limited, how intensely adapable human beings are to the conditions they may find themselves in.

In the case of Anne Frank, for example, two families lived in two small rooms for over two years, without any of them ever leaving those two rooms, without going outside for two years. Without being able to move around all day long 5 days a week, or even look out the windows most of the time. It's unimaginable how they did that, but they did. I've been to that attic (it's a museum now). It is smaller than a small apartment, an area usually acceptable, in the West, for only one person. We humans are adaptable beyond anything we can imagine.

 

[wavingrl]

..I also still have trouble envisioning how it could have gone on for 11 years.

It is unimaginable. Eleven years is such a long time. But I think some sort of hostage mentality takes over. Something happens mentally to these people; something we don't understand and may never be able to, even if psychiatry explains it, unless it happens to us. I cannot find fault with these women or imagine I would be stronger, better, fight more, risk my life to escape, etc. Self preservation, the survival instinct may be the strongest natural instinct any living thing has. And I know from experience, though limited, how intensely adapable human beings are to the conditions they may find themselves in.

In the case of Anne Frank, for example, two families lived in two small rooms for over two years, without any of them ever leaving those two rooms, without going outside for two years. Without being able to move around all day long 5 days a week, or even look out the windows most of the time. It's unimaginable how they did that, but they did. I've been to that attic (it's a museum now). It is smaller than a small apartment, an area usually acceptable, in the West, for only one person. We humans are adaptable beyond anything we can imagine.

As bad as it was for the Frank family/friends they were a 'group' with a common enemy. That might have been the first disturbing story I ever read. It really had an impact on me.

Dr. Drew has resorted to calling him 'The monster'. That about covers it. He frightened these girls suffice it to say. I suspect he has all sorts of issues with power and whatever else.

Some sort of 'switch' must just click on or off in such minds. It would seem that after a night spent torturing and making sure your prisoners were secure that you wouldn't be able to function well at your job--school bus driver.

 

[Gracie]

Wasn't this Monster a school bus driver at one time or do I have my perps mixed up? And the question begs to be asked that if he was indeed a school bus driver...why was he, if it is on record he beat his ex wife???

So many have dropped the ball on this one.

 

[Gracie]

torturing and making sure your prisoners were secure that you wouldn't be able to function well at your job--school bus driver.

Ah. So he DID drive a school bus. How the hell did he get such a job to begin with? No wonder they got in the car with him. They saw him around the neighborhood...he drove the bus...he was "one of them" in their section of the world.

The school that hired him should be looked in to heavily, along with the police department that never once walked IN that house even after being called with reports.

The brothers...they had to have known. Or suspected.

 

[Esmeralda]

Wasn't this Monster a school bus driver at one time or do I have my perps mixed up? And the question begs to be asked that if he was indeed a school bus driver...why was he, if it is on record he beat his ex wife???

So many have dropped the ball on this one.

Yes, it's interesting. They do finger print checks on school employees, as far as I know, to check for criminal records. Probably because the charges were dropped, and he was neither prosecuted nor convicted, they would be able to hire him. At least he isn't a pedophile. It's amazing how these psychopaths are able to hide behind their masks. I don't understand about his brothers though. The police must still be questioning them. Didn't they know something about what was going on in his house?

 

[wavingrl]

Wasn't this Monster a school bus driver at one time or do I have my perps mixed up? And the question begs to be asked that if he was indeed a school bus driver...why was he, if it is on record he beat his ex wife???

So many have dropped the ball on this one.

Yes, it's interesting. They do finger print checks on school employees, as far as I know, to check for criminal records. Probably because the charges were dropped, and he was neither prosecuted nor convicted, they would be able to hire him. At least he isn't a pedophile. It's amazing how these psychopaths are able to hide behind their masks. I don't understand about his brothers though. The police must still be questioning them. Didn't they know something about what was going on in his house?

He was employed as a school bus driver before the dv incident and then, of course, never had a conviction on his record.

I get the impression that much more needs to be done in Cleveland or that area of Cleveland when it comes to enforcing laws and protecting and defending.

One of his brothers is severely alcoholic, so said Castro's son. Can barely function beyond watching TV and sitting around his mother's house. So, conceivably that brother wouldn't have been bothered by much. The other brother sounded similar. One his daughters and his son said they rarely saw each other and from time to time wondered about why he kept his house locked up but didn't seem to be involved enough to question him.

I heard his house was in foreclosure. After losing the job I guess there was a financial strain.

Things would have had to change at some point. If he was capable of feeling anxiety I'll bet that was a concern for him. I'd like to know how he slipped up and left a door unlocked so that Amanda saw a chance and took it. Must have been losing his mind.

 

[Gracie]

He was and is a pedophile. Those girls were still in school.
Maybe Monster wanted to be caught..hence not taking the precautions he used to do for 11 years.

 

[Roudy]

Wasn't this Monster a school bus driver at one time or do I have my perps mixed up? And the question begs to be asked that if he was indeed a school bus driver...why was he, if it is on record he beat his ex wife???

So many have dropped the ball on this one.

Yes I agree, you always hear about how superb the law enforcement officials carried out their duties. In this case I think it was the opposite. I mean you had people report nude girls in chains on all fours, in an area that had girls missing, and the law enforcement didn't bother going inside to check it out?

At least do a background check to realize he had no young girls living there with him, or interview the neighbors who reported the behavior once more?

 

[gallantwarrior]

I don't think the level of income had anything to do with it. I think he targeted those he considered "weak".

Because in all honesty...I can't wrap my mind around 3 women held for 11 years and not once ganging up on this asshole and shoving a pencil thru his eyeball...or biting off his dick so he bled to death. Or yelled at the top of their lungs so neighbors could hear. Or when allowed out those two times, they stayed silent. Or didn't speak when cops came to the door to ask hm questions a few years ago.
Were they tied spread eagled for 11 years? Were they never on their feet or had the use of their hands? One was a midwife for the birth of the baby...there was nothing that could be used as a weapon to kill this bastard or maim him so bad they could get loose and run? He was THAT careful for 11 solid years to never give them some kind of opening to kill his ass?

I don't understand it. Then again...not everyone is the same. Some can take it and stay fearful forever...and some will die fighting tooth and nail. I am of the latter.

Without having lived through the hell these women lived through, not one of us can claim to be able to comprehend their action or inaction. We can never, ever know what they have been through and how it affected their psyches or shaped their actions. Ever.

 

[gallantwarrior]

..I also still have trouble envisioning how it could have gone on for 11 years.

It is unimaginable. Eleven years is such a long time. But I think some sort of hostage mentality takes over. Something happens mentally to these people; something we don't understand and may never be able to, even if psychiatry explains it, unless it happens to us. I cannot find fault with these women or imagine I would be stronger, better, fight more, risk my life to escape, etc. Self preservation, the survival instinct may be the strongest natural instinct any living thing has. And I know from experience, though limited, how intensely adapable human beings are to the conditions they may find themselves in.

In the case of Anne Frank, for example, two families lived in two small rooms for over two years, without any of them ever leaving those two rooms, without going outside for two years. Without being able to move around all day long 5 days a week, or even look out the windows most of the time. It's unimaginable how they did that, but they did. I've been to that attic (it's a museum now). It is smaller than a small apartment, an area usually acceptable, in the West, for only one person. We humans are adaptable beyond anything we can imagine.

The instinct to preserve one's life can be pretty compelling, I imagine.

 

[wavingrl]

Wasn't this Monster a school bus driver at one time or do I have my perps mixed up? And the question begs to be asked that if he was indeed a school bus driver...why was he, if it is on record he beat his ex wife???

So many have dropped the ball on this one.

Yes I agree, you always hear about how superb the law enforcement officials carried out their duties. In this case I think it was the opposite. I mean you had people report nude girls in chains on all fours, in an area that had girls missing, and the law enforcement didn't bother going inside to check it out?

At least do a background check to realize he had no young girls living there with him, or interview the neighbors who reported the behavior once more?

Today I heard that the girls, themselves, said they only went out twice--to the garage so the report of nude girls might be incorrect.

It sounds like the house on one side of his was abandoned--if not for the entire time, it is currently.

He brought them cake to celebrate the date that he abducted them.

 

[Granny]

It's a sad, sad story. Unfortunately, it's happening all too often. How many times do we hear of school bus drivers, and worse yet, teachers using inappropriate behavior where juveniles are concerned? Even worse than that, the preachers who practice the same behavior? In all cases, these people are authority figures. People, particularly children, tend to trust these adults. Why wouldn't they trust this creep if by any chance he may have been the person who delivered them to school and back home every day?

The psychological ramifications are truly hard to understand for people who have not been in the same or similar situations. It's going to take a long, long time for these girls/women to work their way through all of this. I must agree wholeheartedly that if the Knight girl has no desire to see her family, there's probably a very good reason.

As this case unfolds we're likely to be almost numbed by what we hear in the future and at trial, too.

 

[koshergrl]

Was this guy an authority figure? He was a relative stranger who used simple ruses to get them into his car I thought.

Which is why we teach our children...NEVER GET IN THE CAR WITH ANYONE EXCEPT YOUR PARENTS unless you've arranged something ahead of time.

When I was a girl, 7 years old, I turned down a ride home from the bus stop by our elderly neighbor. He literally lived across the street, I don't think he had a nefarious plan. He was being nice when it was pouring. But my mom had told me no rides and I took it seriously.

He went to my mom and told her how impressed he was (which was nice)...the point though is that these girls didn't know that you don't take rides from men. Ever.

 

[Esmeralda]

He was and is a pedophile. Those girls were still in school.
Maybe Monster wanted to be caught..hence not taking the precautions he used to do for 11 years.

In all honesty, I don't think a menstruating female is, strictly speaking, a child, not physically. However, I do not think it is right for an adult, over 18, to have sexual contact with a young woman under 17-18 because of the female's emotional maturity. I was thinking of younger children and the fact he was a school bus driver with access to them.

I don't think you can label a man who targets physically mature young women as a pedophile, not technically, even if she is only 14.

 

[koshergrl]

I thought one of them was 13 when she was taken.

And some girls start menstruating at 10. They are still children. But in this case, i think you're right...I don't think he targeted these girls because he's a pedophile but rather because they were young and naive.