Re: The family in the cellar

On May 14, 2:27=A0am, Sean O'Hara <seanoh...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> In the Year of the Earth Rat, the Great and Powerful Keith F. Lynch
> declared:
>
> > Sean O'Hara <seanoh...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> >> If your daughter disappears and a bunch of children, who aren't
> >> yours, start to turn up around the house, you have reason to snoop,
> >> no matter how much you respect privacy.
>
> > Not if I trusted my spouse.
>
> Trust is not a synonym for stupid.
>
> > How likely, a priori, was it that someone
> > had been kept prisoner in a secret basement room for 24 years? =A0Is
> > that really something you would have naturally suspected?
>
> Of course not. But you can think something strange is afoot without
> specifically suspecting that your husband has built a torture
> dungeon in the basement where he's repeatedly raping your daughter.
>
> The man was molesting their daughter for seven years while she lived
> openly with them -- but the wife saw nothing, heard nothing, knew
> nothing.
>
> The man built a dungeon under the house -- but the wife saw nothing,
> heard nothing, knew nothing.
>
> The man imprisoned the daughter and three children there for
> twenty-four years -- but the wife saw nothing, heard nothing, knew
> nothing.
>
> The man disappeared into the basement for hours on end with no
> explanation -- but the wife saw nothing, heard nothing, knew
> nothing, and never had reason to visit the basement of her own house.
>
> The man disposed of at least one dead baby -- but the wife saw
> nothing, heard nothing, knew nothing.
>
> The man brought three more of the children upstairs to be raised by
> his wife -- she certainly must've seen something here, but
> apparently didn't find it the least bit suspicious that there were
> three kids in the house who resembled her husband but she didn't
> give birth to.
>
> The man bought food to feed a family twice the size of the one
> living upstairs -- but the wife saw nothing, heard nothing, knew
> nothing.
>
> The Schultzian level of ignorance on her part could only result from
> mental deficiency or willful blindness.
>

Or total terror of the man.  We have accounts from his sister-in-law
that he was a "tyrant" and that the whole family were in fear of him
and his rages.  I wonder how many broken bones, how many bruises, how
many slaps, how much verbal abuse it took to reduce his wife to the
point where she would NEVER hear, see or know anything that he didn't
want her to see, hear or know?


Jette