commentary by Patrick H. Moore
When the Ariel Castro case broke last year in early May, I – right along with the rest of the world – was incensed and horrified. His inhuman treatment of his three victims struck me as so utterly reprehensible that I was completely disgusted. And then his whining, meandering “oh poor pitiful abused me” act at his sentencing hearing did nothing to change my opinion of him.
I was amused in a dark way, however, by his self-inflicted death by hanging, especially if it was a case of auto-erotic asphyxiation gone wrong. No doubt, this does not speak well of me but I am an honest man.
Now at the one year anniversary of his victims’ escape, we have new and genuinely surprising news concerning Castro and his peculiar mindset. This comes to us from Tom Meyer of WKYC-TV3:
Channel 3 News has learned of new and surprising details in the Cleveland kidnapping case that captured the world’s attention.
Craig Weintraub, one of two attorneys representing Ariel Castro, said in an exclusive interview with the Investigator Tom Meyer that Castro deliberately left doors to his house unlocked for months preceding the day Amanda, Gina and Michelle escaped after being held hostage for a decade.
“He intentionally became much more negligent in the house about locking the door and keeping them inside,” Weintraub said.
Attorney Weintraub, apparently assuming that attorney-client privilege is irrelevant when dealing with nationally-known sex criminals and deviant kidnappers, stated Castro told him that things were evolving inside his house of horrors during the year prior to that fateful day when Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight escaped. Castro told Weintraub that he told Amanda Berry that he knew the end was near.
“It wasn’t going well any longer. His daughter was at an age that she should not be in the house anymore. She needed to be in school and be in a normal environment, and she needed friends,” Weintraub said.
Now here’s the surprising and perhaps controversial part that informs the title of this post. Castro explained to Weintraub that he had become attached to his daughter Jecelyn that he had with Amanda Berry. According to Weintraub, Castro claimed that he had abandoned any thoughts of killing the three women because of his relationship with the child.
“He didn’t have the courage to go to the Police Department and surrender, and the only way this was going to happen is if he was negligent and allowed them to leave the house and be able to find a way out while he was gone a few hours.”
Somewhat remarkably, Castro made home videos of the group celebrating Easter and Christmas. The videos, which Weintraub has viewed, are now in the possession of the FBI who apparently has no plans to release them.
“What was startling to me was watching the videos of the Easter celebrations in the house, searching for Easter eggs, hunting for Easter eggs, as well as the Christmas celebration like it was a normal family.”
Nonetheless, Weintraub called Castro a sociopath who lived in a kind of fantasy world with his pretend family.
Castro even told Weintraub that he and the women would joke about the books they’d be able to write once everything ended.
Castro liked to toy with Weintraub. He preferred to talk to him naked inside his jail cell and generally avoided tough questions about evidence.
According to Weintraub, Castro was very aware that he would spend the rest of his life in prison. Weintraub also said that he wasn’t at all surprised when Castro killed himself because Castro had demonstrated suicidal tendencies both in the Cuyahoga County Jail and after he was transferred to the Lorain Correctional facility.
In what could be viewed as an oddly officious stance on the part of the local cemeteries, Weintraub stated that there weren’t any cemeteries that would accept Castro’s remains because they feared vandalism if they did.
People are strange. Weintraub and his co-counsel, Jay Schlachet, who it must be admitted were only doing their jobs, were the subject of death threats during the pendency of the case. Nonetheless, Weintraub said that they have no regrets about taking on the case.
In what is definitely rather alarming, and suggests that Castro was not the only sick one in the peanut gallery, Weintraub said that a number of Castro’s family members have been verbally abused and harassed during the past year. The harassment was such that Castro’s son, Anthony, took the somewhat drastic step of changing his name after his home was ransacked and profanity was scrawled on his front door.
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In her new memoir, Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, a Life Reclaimed, Michelle Knight relates in harrowing detail the beatings, rapes and torture she endured at the hands of Ariel Castro, and her need to forgive him to move on from the ordeal. It should be kept in mind that the abuse Ms. Knight and Ms. DeJesus suffered was apparently considerably worse than what Amanda Berry endured, and Ms. Knight reportedly had it the worst of all. Thus, for this courageous woman, who has changed her name to Lillian Rose Lee, to inform the world that she forgives her tormentor is a huge step for her.
In her book, Knight talks about growing up a neglected and abused child, living as a homeless teen, becoming a single mother and then her abduction by Castro in 2002.
“If I don’t forgive him, then it’ll be like he imprisoned me twice,” Michelle Knight said on the last page of her book which was released on Tuesday to coincide with the anniversary of their escape.
“Forgiveness is the only way I can truly reclaim my life.”
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Forgiveness. The state of forgiving. Oh holy Knight!