Google-fu might be lacking on this one. Pretty much all I’ve found is repeated anecdotes that a) he was quickly ruled out as a suspect, and b) he didn’t know where Jaycee was living at the time of the abduction. Any story on him???
Eh. . . just in case anyone cares.
A lack of interest in this thread suggests branching out would be in order?..if so, I find this interesting:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/04/us/04abduct.html?hp
In spite of a total lack of formal schooling, the kids seem not only pretty well-educated for their age, but well-adjusted. Heavens to backyard asylum! Could it be that the abductors were benevolent rogues and not evil monsters?
Not that I’m condoning their actions in the slightest, but just sayin’…
“For a man may smile, and smile, and still be a villain.” (That’s from Hamlet, isn’t it?)
Why yes it is, my literate friend.
“Benevolent rogue” is a hell of a desription for two people who abducted an 11-year-old and held her captive in the backyard for 18 years!
Jaycee Dugard is 29 and has a 15-year-old daughter, which means Phillip Garrido was having sex with Dugard by the time she was 14. And that’s aside from Phillip Garrido’s previous conviction for kidnapping and rape. In the last week or so, he’s also been named as the suspect in another rape and it’s starting to look like he murdered several prostitutes.
“Benevolent” my eye.
I expected to open up a can of worms. You and I may think the worst thing about slavery/captivity is that you are a slave or a captive and that overrides all other considerations. But there are those who don’t feel that is so important and look at the advantages the captives/slaves have.
:rolleyes: I know, I know, but sometimes knee-jerk reactions get in the way of rational analysis. Or would you prefer “benevolent ass-hat rogue”?
Am I being whooshed? What advantages, exactly, were enjoyed by a preteen who was being raped by her abductor and forced to bear his two children?
It’s possible Jaycee Dugard and her daughters weren’t as cloistered from the world as the first stories about this case suggested, yes. If you think they had any advantages, I’d like to know what they are. The story says the girls can read and write. They are 11 and 15, and that’s not “pretty well educated” for 11 and 15, it’s the bare minimum for, I don’t know, maybe age eight. None of this implies benevolence on behalf of the couple that kidnapped Jaycee Dugard and held her prisoner for most of her life.
I think my analysis was more rational than yours. For starters it included some facts and not just a “Hey, what if?”
I’ve posted this before, but when I first read about the case, I got flashbacks to the John Fowles book the Collector. The guy in that book talks about how his motives aren’t sexual, he just wants to hang out with the woman he kidnaps (Miranda) and is thinking how much of a betrayal it is when she runs off, because he’s being so nice to her (giving her so many books, and all kinds of food, clothing, anything she asks for but the one thing she wants, and needs, the most–her freedom). I remember thinking that was insane but not too realistic, when I first read it. Yeah, I guess they are people like that now.
And the fact that there’s someone who could positively describe that as “benevolent.” What advantages? All the things–education, luxuries, objects–are just material. It all pales in light of the fact that your life is half-lived. You’re deprived of liberty, your friends, your family. The fact that anyone could describe that as benevolent is a little nauseating.
Adding: Oh, and they also held the two young girls captive for their entire lives and wouldn’t let them go to school or go to the doctor. Let’s make with the benevolence already.
I can just imagine what her parents would say to that “benevolent” crap. Every single night they had to go to sleep wondering what hell their daughter was in, if she was alive, if she was suffering, and now they realize she was alive, but that she was being held by some cretin who was raping her. I can’t imagine the rage they’d feel at being told that their daughter was at least being well cared for.
“Benevolent” in this case = somewhat better than Josef Fritzl
I’m quite prepared to accept that as an (as yet unproven) possibility, but y’know, that’s not an awfully high bar to jump.