American Gothic: a man and three young women meet a parole officer. It turns out that the eldest woman was kidnapped by the man, eighteen years ago. Phillip Garrido imprisoned Jaycee Dugard on his land for nearly two decades, raping her, fathering two children upon her (hence the other two young women), and building a religious vision throughout the process.
The story unfolds like a Gothic novel, on many levels:
- The years of imprisonment, rape, child-bearing and -rearing. Eighteen years. It's a Gothic nightmare family tale, built on power imbalances, secrecy, violence, sexual horror. Overseas accounts use the phrase "sex slave."
- Two children were born, and grew up in this small world, over more than a decade.
- The strange stories from this week, like Garrido's account of himself, from whence the opening quote comes. Or the mysterious documents he turned over to arresting offices, as yet unrevealed to the public, because, as the author says, "What you will have in your hands will take [sic] world news immediately." The documents, after all, "would 'explain something that humans have not understood well'". And, even better:
..."The federal government will end up being involved."
"Just read the documents."
- Speaking of mysterious documentary sources, Garrida apparently heard the voice of god speaking from a box. In fact, Garrida is something of a religious visionary. And is there a touch of therapy or recovery-speak in his statement?
- The role of Nancy Garrido, Phillip's wife. Imagine what her role was, what states of mind occurred over the nearly 20 years of this - accomplice, helper? Participant? Did she see Phillip's activities in a religious light? Did she participate or withdraw, building a mental wall between her house and the backyard? A novel could cover this one aspect.
- The space of terror: not a haunted house, but a series of outbuildings, tents, and structures. A compound.
- The withdrawal from time's passage: Jaycee doesn't look 29, but more like her original tween self.
- The classic American crime story detail of many people being connected to this event, seeing the participants over the years, but not acting to stop it. Garrido was a registered sex offender (see public link). He had been arrested and did time for kidnap, rape, and torture. One neighbor, a boy, spoke to young Jaycee, and she told him her name (Garrido then built a wall to stop that from happening again). Cops visited, but never found anything.
- And yet, at the same time, there was separation from civilization, a la Sawney Beane:
There's a digital layer to the story, too, perhaps shading into fearsome internet territory. For example, we can drill down through Google Maps to see Garrido's property, complete with victim-hiding tarps:
And Garrido, under the name "themanwhospokewithhismind," kept a blog:
How long until Maureen Dowd notes that blogs are primarily for kidnappers, rapists, and religious maniacs?
EDITED to correct typos.
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