Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/19/sicko-parents-who-tortured-the.html
…
2 Likes
Those poor kids (and some were already adults there). I hope they all find some peace in their lives now that they’ve been freed from what was most certainly hell on earth.
26 Likes
It would be like a Lynch film if the whole time I wasn’t thinking about each of those kids going back home and being hog-tied, chained up in a room, starved, and left alone. In that way it’s much scarier.
14 Likes
I would like to think so too, but honestly even for those who ostensibly “do better” nothing really fixes early abuse and nothing reverses the changes in the brain and body. You can mourn it, accept it, but you really can’t ever ask yourself the question what if because that’s the question that will kill you if you think about it too much. I’ll add though that if they find themselves in a position to ask “what if” that alone is very lucky.
15 Likes
I know, right… if this was just some weird family, without the violence and torture, I’d be totally into the weird campiness of it, with the Elvis and the haircuts, etc. But that reality is just so sickening that I can’t find any Lynchian weirdness to it.
18 Likes
Yeah, they can never be made whole of course and don’t expect that. But maybe they can at least find some way to accept it and move through the rest of their lives in a much healthier way. If nothing else, they have each other.
14 Likes
JFC well thanks for brightening my Friday BB
6 Likes
Yeah, I read that story last week. In hindsight, someone who moved into one of their old houses found scratch marks etc.
Fucked up.
And the dudes hair cut.
Really, you hear about two people abusing kids, some times a boy friend raping a kid with the mom being a willing accomplice. You wonder how two fucked up people found each other like that. What are the odds?
I know those kid will never be “right”, but I hope they can find some peace to function “normally”.
11 Likes
It’s important to note that these creeps were adherents of the Quiverfull movement, a Xtianist sect with white supremacist overtones that you may remember from the oh-so-healthy-and-pious Duggar clan of reality TV fame (not so cute now, TLC). The basic idea for these fundie nutbars is to win America’s culture wars by out-breeding the bad guys (feminists, secular humanists, Muslims, etc.).
How they decided that kids* so malnourished that the cops thought they were a decade younger than their actual ages would be effective white Christian warriors against the Mooslems and Libruls is a delusion that can only be chalked up to religious fundamentalism.
A proper diet, sunlight, exercise and standard abuse therapy are just the beginning of what these children will need to have a chance at having decent lives; in addition to all that cult deprogramming will also have to be on the menu.
[* the oldest of whom was 29]
35 Likes
It’s not even creepy - it’s just crushingly sad. I don’t think the kids looked like they were “forced to watch and then dance on stage in mock joy.” I think they probably have a pretty fucked-up view of their parents due to the amount of psychological abuse going on, and were happy to see their parents “love”. They’re all smiling as they come on stage. Also they were probably thrilled ANY time they got to clean, groom, and go out of the house 
10 Likes
I thought I could watch this, like, how bad can it be?
And then ten seconds in, a child wimpers off stage and faux Elvis points at the whole family and sings “never let them gooo”. And I had to turn off my computer and go into another room for a while.
8 Likes
By the way, in case anyone is wondering who shot the video:
[don’t click if you want to avoid Lynchian nightmare fuel]
3 Likes
If this video is from 2015, then several of those children were in their 20s …and I see none who look that old. The police said they all appeared very much younger than they are due to malnourishment, but seeing it in video is heartbreaking.
6 Likes
Once, my old roommate disappeared for a few days. We found out that he went to Vegas with his girlfriend and got married by an Elvis impersonator. I had to watch the tape of that ceremony so many damn times. It’s not just this post, all Elvis impersonator wedding tapes are fucking creepy. My roommates tape was one of the most uncomfortable viewing experiences. It just felt so tense, every time I watched it I was convinced that this viewing would be the one where someone busted in with a gun and started shooting. Everything about the way it was framed, the lighting, the way everyone looked, seemed to mimic a horror movie. It’s just so awkward to have to watch two people, watch one person do a shitty shtick and pretend like they are enjoying themselves.
1 Like
I don’t think i have the mental fortitude to watch that video, regardless how innocuous it might be. The whole situation is really upsetting, those poor kids.
8 Likes
Bad Elvis + high-quality video + the innocent young victims of this pair of doozies + the story we all know now = enough Internet for the day.
…and a very strong wish to go for a long peaceful hike in the snow with my grandkids.
This deserves a special place on the “Christian Nightmares” blog. (Sayeth this Christian who considers himself slightly more progressive and conscious than the whack-job cult that spawned this horror-show.)
6 Likes
At some level, I would argue that this is showing footage of child victims of abuse. As such, I think that it is below the standards that BoingBoing should set for itself. Their future chance of any kind of normal life is not improved by having their faces shown.
19 Likes
Well then, I promise I won’t show you the video from my Vegas wedding with Elvis impersonator.
1 Like
I really wish I could un-see this.
2 Likes
Grey_Devil, I thought I had the mental fortitude to watch it.
I was wrong.
5 Likes
