# California couple charged with torture after police rescue 13 children. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 16, 2018, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724 "2018-01-16T01:08:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/101 "2018-01-22T17:23:49Z")
It is difficult to make any sense out of people with mental illness and the irrational acts they commit. The kid’s journals will give insights into that family. I doubt much of that information will be released to the media. The children’s journals may be a clue to any kids that may not have survived. Investigators might see references to Sally in the earlier journals and then nothing written later. Finding out what happened to Sally would be a priority. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/102 "2018-01-22T17:38:47Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > I hope the police use cadaver dogs… ♬ _Cadaver dogs Doot doo doo-doo do Cadaver dogs Doot doo-doo doo Cadaver dogs Doot doo doo-doo doo Doo-doo doo Doo-doo doo Doo-doo doo-doo doo doot doot doo-doo doo_ ♬ ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/103 "2018-01-22T17:53:54Z")
A psychology teacher in college told me, “Some people are just crazy”. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/104 "2018-01-22T19:57:40Z")
WTF??? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/105 "2018-01-22T20:05:32Z")
> [@Enola\_Gay](#): > > WTF??? Are you WTFing me or the dog song? ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/106 "2018-01-22T20:10:30Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Are you WTFing me or the dog song? The dog song 😉 ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/107 "2018-01-22T20:13:18Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > A psychology teacher in college told me, “Some people are just crazy”. What sort of boggles the mind that crazy often finds other crazy and hook up. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/108 "2018-01-22T20:34:56Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > What sort of boggles the mind that crazy often finds other crazy and hook up. It is relatively common, unfortunately, for people to seek out and find relationships with people who somehow mirror the dysfunction they were exposed to growing up. This is a particularly egregious example, but people abused as children are more likely to seek out partners who abuse their own children. This is something I will never understand, how one person can perpetuate the cycle of abuse and the next person, in the next generation, can make the choice to break it. What is the difference between the perpetuators and the cycle breakers? I don’t know, but the question haunts me. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/109 "2018-01-22T20:48:08Z")
> [@Enola\_Gay](#): > > The dog song 😉 [For reference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N_tupPBtWQ&t=0m12s). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![StraightTalk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straighttalk/32/9982_2.png) [@StraightTalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StraightTalk)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/110 "2018-01-22T21:02:56Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > Non cult people are strangely oblivious sometimes. Asking ‘why’ the parents encouraged the kids to write when it created a record of their crimes. > > They let them write because they don’t think they have done anything wrong. I’m willing to bet actual money that they STILL don’t think they’ve done anything wrong and they’re just being persecuted for their faith. > > Those poor damn kids. Bingo! I think they don’t believe they’ve done anything wrong. ---
**Author:** ![StraightTalk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/straighttalk/32/9982_2.png) [@StraightTalk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StraightTalk)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/111 "2018-01-22T21:10:00Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Also, bath water can be reused. Saving substantially on the water bill. Imagine what 15 showers a day would cost. 😉 > > That was very, very common in rural households when water was hauled to the house in buckets and heated on a wood store. Wood you had to chop and split. > > Several family members used that tub of hot bath water because they had too. It took a lot of work to prepare that tub of water. I remember older relatives reminiscing about Sat night baths and the work required. \*\*sidenote And this is the origin of the phrase “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” They bathed from Dad, Mom, oldest to youngest. By the time you got to baby, you couldn’t see the baby in the bath water. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/112 "2018-01-22T22:36:48Z")
> [@StraightTalk](#): > > By the time you got to baby, you couldn’t see the baby in the bath water. Maybe the dust bowl, Oklahoma and the environs. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/113 "2018-01-22T22:37:57Z")
> [@Enola\_Gay](#): > > The dog song 😉 Ah. Sign me up, too. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/114 "2018-01-22T22:40:15Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [For reference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N_tupPBtWQ&t=0m12s). 😉 They look sort of like the aliens in TOS _Cat’s paw_. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/115 "2018-01-23T03:07:48Z")
Now, a sister of the wife is saying that they were abused by an older male relative when they were children: > **[Sister of Calif. House of Horrors Mom Alleges They Were Sexually Abused as Girls](https://people.com/crime/house-of-horrors-mom-sister-alleges-was-abused-as-girl/)** > > Teresa Robinette, sister of Louise Turpin, is eager to meet the nieces and nephews she's never had the chance to know The sister also says in the same article that the couple stopped attending church around 10 years ago, started going to bars and arranging threesomes :eek::eek: So, if their motive for keeping the kids chained up was religious, why didn’t they let them loose when they stopped going to church? Or maybe it’s easier to go to the bar or travel across the country for a threesome when your kids are chained to their beds? ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/116 "2018-01-23T03:46:06Z")
We grapple to make sense of things like these, but I don’t think there is sense to be made. I know that nobody in this thread has attempted to excuse this behavior but I can see people like these monsters justifying their behavior with some sob stories. I won’t abide it. Other people suffer enormous abuse and still choose not to do harm to children. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but damn. I’m tired of people making excuses for terrible parenting. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/117 "2018-01-23T04:22:14Z")
I hope the parents spend time in whatever hell they believe in. But I also hope there is a more practical, and secular, punishment for them. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/118 "2018-01-23T04:24:25Z")
The mother’s brother says that she wanted to get a reality tv show, just like Kate Plus 8. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/119 "2018-01-23T05:03:02Z")
You’re not really photogenic if you are dirty and starved with a bowl hair cut. I don’t think TLC would be returning the call. I am willing to bet it is fund/religious in nature. Makes me ill. ABC said the oldest boy was attending college classes, Mom in tow. And had a perfect GPA. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2018, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724/120 "2018-01-23T14:48:27Z")
This sounds like a classic case of [Folie a deux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folie_%C3%A0_deux)–two similarly crazy people getting together and sharing the same craziness. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/california-couple-charged-with-torture-after-police-rescue-13-children/806724.md?page=7)