(The following tale is a dramatic one. It first came to my notice many years ago but at that time I was unable to verify the details from any other source. I have tried on and off over the years to check it out but without success. However, if we assume the story is true it surely belongs in this collection. There are elements in the tale that ring true but there are other elements that leave one uncertain. However, we must bear in mind that truth is so often even stranger than fiction. In the history of crime there have been some quite amazing cases so perhaps we should retain an open mind as we read this account. It certainly makes for a good read!)

VIRGINIA PAYS FOR HER SINS
Many years ago a young American woman, Virginia (which is not her real name; this having been suppressed by authorities to protect her - for reasons that will be apparent as you read the story) became the unwitting centre of an alarming case of deprivation of liberty. Virginia, just 18 when the tale began unfolding, was not to escape from her oppressors for another 18 years, by which time she was reduced to what can only be described as a mental wreck.

When she was 18 Virginia, a typical fun-loving American teenager, fell in love with a young man studying to be a doctor and they became engaged. Virginia was fatherless and lived with her mother and brother who both appeared to think well of her fiancé. But perhaps appearances were deceptive.

For then something happened - Virginia had sex with her lover in his car. No big deal, you say, but Virginia's mother and brother had other ideas when they got to hear what had happened. They may not have known had not Virginia, until then a virgin, become a bit excited over this event and rushed off to tell someone - her mother.

How many young women had done likewise? It was a natural reaction but Virginia had no idea that her mother - and, as it became obvious in time, her brother also, had some very twisted ideas about sex. The urge to tell proved to be a mistake with terrible consequences for the future life of the young and happy girl.

Not that she was immediately castigated for her 'mistake'. No, her prudish mother, although inwardly incensed and seething, played out a cruel drama with great calmness and with cunning. She said nothing immediately to her daughter; instead, convinced in her twisted mind that what Virginia had done was 'evil', she quietly planned an amazing punishment. It was the very stuff of a horror movie.

One night Virginia went to her room as usual and as she slept, her mother and brother crept in. They quietly removed every possession in the room, every piece of clothing, every trinket and ornament. Virginia was left with only the panties in which she slept. Then, working stealthily, the brother carefully bricked up the bedroom windows and secured two strong bolts to the outside of the bedroom door, all without waking his unsuspecting sister. She as a good sleeper and they had several hours in which to work out their evil plan.

A DARK AND FRIGHTENING SPACE.
The next morning Virginia discovered that her room was unusually dark. Of course she had electric lighting which, after stumbling around in the darkness, she managed to switch on. Imagine the utter horror that greeted her blinking eyes - the walled-up window spaces and a room devoid of anything that was a familiar possession. Virginia rushed to the door but it was unyielding. What had happened? What terrible thing had been done? Like someone who has been knocked out, only to await and find herself tied down of a bed, Virginia soon realized she was a prisoner in her own home, in her own bedroom. Why had this happened? Who had done this terrible thing?
It was a terrifying situation. Virginia was soon informed that she was indeed a prisoner. 'For her own good' she was locked up. For days, even weeks, she cried, prayed, pleaded and screamed but to no avail. Food was brought to her but she refused to eat. It mattered not to her jailers. Nothing would move them to release her or even to give back some of her possessions. She must remain alone in the room with no comforts - no clothes to cover her near-naked body, no books to read, no radio. Only a bucket to use as a bedpan. It was in effect a terrible form of solitary confinement. To be in one's own home but cut off from the whole world like this was enough to send someone mad - and in the end it nearly did.

In the meantime they had contrived to send a fake letter to her lover saying she didn't really love him and was moving interstate. In effect she was finished with any idea of marrying him. The bitterly disappointed man accepted her disappointing news and was never heard from again.

Virginia meanwhile sulked and continued to starve herself. This went on for some weeks until finally, worried she might become seriously ill, she was force-fed by her two jailers and, calming down a little and thinking things over, she then decided that if she co-operated her imprisonment might soon come to an end. How wrong this proved to be! She was not then to know that eighteen years of captivity stretched ahead of her, by the end of which time she would be reduced to a pathetic emaciated state and would chatter away like a small child. But at first she was mercifully shielded from such knowledge and continued to hope through the weary weeks and months.

MODESTY WINS OVER CAPTIVITY.
One day after a very long time of being shut away Virginia's bedroom door was accidentally left unlocked. It was, at last, an opportunity to escape. Virginia dashed from her prison and quickly raced through the house towards the front door but suddenly, in an unthinking moment, modesty stopped her.

She was still only wearing the pair of panties and was otherwise quite nude. The brief cotton panties her captors had left her were her only covering. She hesitated as she faced running into the street in a near-nude state. The moment of hesitation was all the mother and brother needed. She was quickly recaptured and marched back to her room. This time they would make certain she didn't ever escape again. Now even her skimpy panties were taken, and she was left stark naked. Then all the bedclothes were removed. She would be allowed nothing at all with which to cover herself. Further, to emphasize her helpless enslavement, Virginia was tied down on the bare mattress, naked, her wrists bound to the bedposts.

From now on she was only freed to eat and go to the bathroom, then re-tied, still naked, to be left to spend many miserable hours with nothing to occupy her mind. For two more years the pattern was followed and she continued to be kept without clothing, except for being allowed to wear panties during her periods. In summer she was left stretched naked on the bed, in winter a small concession was made and she would be allowed one sheet and one blanket - barely adequate to provide warmth.

Many monotonous months, then years, passed and, unbelievable as it may seem, the girl was kept captive. Her twisted captors seemed oblivious of the terrible nature of what they were doing to the girl. And for her part, by now Virginia had lapsed into a state of utter hopelessness. She knew, or believed, there was no possibility of escape whatever. She was too carefully guarded and kept locked up. She had suffered perpetual humiliation, being displayed nude not only in front of her mother but her brother, and the further humiliation of being virtually fed and tended to like a small child.

Then a major event occurred - her mother died. Virginia did not know when this actually occurred, only that her brother now came to her room alone. At first he treated her well and it seemed life was beginning to improve, although she was still a helpless captive. The brother now even allowed her some clothing and books, but still he refused to free her. Then he began drinking heavily and she was sometimes left for days on end without food. She was not usually left tied down now but was still locked in a room from which escape was impossible. Her clothing deteriorated and was not cleaned or replaced so in summer she took to moving around her room naked anyway; she was after all by now quite used to being kept without clothing.

Then one day, as she slept, in the early hours of the morning, her drunken brother came into the room and while she was still half-asleep, raped her, hurting her dry vagina in the process. It was only the second sexual experience in her whole lifetime and it was terrible. The next morning her brother wept tears of repentance beside her bed. This was her chance, she thought, and, taking his head in her arms, she talked sweetly to him and asked him to free her. But instead of being moved to act the brother flew into a rage and beat her unmercifully, throwing her back onto the bed and raping her again. She lapsed into unconsciousness.

The brother continued his attacks upon her for some time after this but eventually Virginia gave indications of pregnancy. One day he brought a 'doctor' to the room and Virginia was treated in this manner: she was again tied naked to the bedposts, her public hair was shaved, and she was raped by both men anally and vaginally, then the 'doctor' inserted a coathanger deep into her womb and the pregnancy was terminated. She bled for days. After the bleeding stopped, she never had another period again. And still her imprisonment continued and more years passed and she gradually lost weight and her hair and teeth began to fall out.

COWERING IN A CORNER
Eighteen long years after the girl's ordeal began, the neighbourhood experienced an emergency, with a gas leak, and people were evacuated. A fireman heard sobbing from inside a house and discovered Virginia cowering in the corner of a room. She was in terror at the sight of the fireman in his protective outfit as she sat on a filthy mattress on a floor covered with rotting food and human excrement. The sunlight badly affected her eyes and after she was removed from the house she had to be kept in a darkened room in the hospital and fed intravenously. A year later she had put on weight but was being treated in a mental hospital. The brother was arrested by police and had a complete breakdown. He, too, was confined in an institution where, because of his violent outbursts he has had to be kept restrained. Undoubtedly in this case suppressed sexual impulses provided the real motivation for both the mother's and the brother's actions. We cannot know the true details but the fact that the brother was still living at home and that, when the mother's restraining influence was removed, he attacked his own sister, indicates a home with warped sexual impulses.

It is true to say that the sexual element is always present to some degree in the cases involving captive adults. With children, nuisance-value and straight-out uncaring neglect may be the predominant motivating factors, although many cases involving children are sexually-based, but it is hard to locate a single case where adults have been imprisoned where sex is not the chief ingredient, and sometimes very deviant sex at that, as is clearly seen in the classic deprivation of liberty case, that of Colleen Stan.

 

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