Ralph Hardy, a 13 year old from Newark, Texas confessed to ordering an extra credit card from his father's existing credit card company, and took his friends on a $30,000 spending spree, culminating in playing "Halo" on an Xbox with a couple of hookers in a Texas motel.

The credit card company involved said it was regular practice to send extra credit cards out as long as all security questions are answered.

The escort girls who were released without charge, told the arresting officers something was up when the kids said they would rather play Xbox than get down to business.

Police said they were alerted to the motel by a concerned delivery clerk, whom after delivering supplies of Dr Pepper, Fritos and Oreos had been asked by the kids where they could score some chicks and were willing to pay. They explained they had just made a big score at a "World of Warcraft" tournament and wanted to get some relaxation. On noting the boys age the delivery clerk informed the authorities.

When police arrived at the motel they found $3,000 in cash, numerous electronic gadgets, an Xbox video console with numerous games, and the two local escort girls.............READ FULL STORY http://www.money.co.uk/article/1000390-13-year-old-steals-dads-credit-card-to-buy-hookers.htm

Police in Fort Wright set up the undercover operation and said one of the suspects they arrested engaged in sex for a $100 gasoline card and other gifts.Angela Eversole, 34, of Fort Wright, was charged with prostitution and doing business without an occupational license. She pleaded not guilty .............READ FULL STORY http://www.wlwt.com/news/16768006/detail.html

Typical comments on this story have been to express surprise that a) anyone over the age of 45 is sexually active, and b) that not only are people over 45 sexually active, but that more of them seem to be sexually active with more than one partner. Quite frankly, neither of those two things cause me the least bit of astonishment.

While there are always exceptions, the myth that most people stop having sex once they reach the age of 40 is simply that - a myth. It belongs in the same category as the belief that all mother-in-laws are evil, that all teenage males are knife-carrying murderers, and that all blonde females under the age of 30 are promiscuous bimbos. They may be short-hand caricatures useful for the press and for comedians, but most of us know that they are far from the truth.

Some couples over 45 even claim greater sexual satisfaction with age - they are more relaxed, more knowledgeable about what they want and what gives pleasure to their partner. As with any creative and skilful activity, there are some benefits that can come with experience for those who are able to utilize that experience.

The fact that over 45's may now be having more than one sexual partner is equally unremarkable. In my professional work as a counsellor/therapist I have seen many shocked men in their early fifties, devastated by the fact that their wives have suddenly left them (rarely for another partner). Because people are living longer, 50 is now seen as relatively young. Because there is no longer the stigma about divorce that there used to be, more people are contemplating it. Years ago a woman may have tolerated a loveless marriage because she had little chance of financial security without her husband, because there was stigma to divorce, and because there was little point in leaving as life was short anyway. Now a 50 year old woman can expect to have another 30 years left at least, can have financial independence, and can leave without stigma. In my experience, once the children have grown up, more and more of them are saying, "I can't tolerate another 30 years of this," and are leaving in a way which they wouldn't have done even 20 years ago. There are now more singles over the age of 45 than ever before.

Not only are there more people in this age group available - all with legitimate sexual needs looking for ways of getting those needs met - but there is also much more likelihood of people actually meeting up. Technology has revolutionised contact.

First it has transformed the traditional contact groups - the lonely hearts clubs that used to advertise in the local papers. There are a plethora of dating groups enabling you to 'allegedly' meet the person of your dreams, but now offering you a world wide selection. The choice can be staggering, but statistically, if you have the stomach for the search, you are likely to eventually find at least one. There are stories of disasters out there (especially where naive people fail to take into account any likely cultural clash), but there are also some heart-warming ones too.

Secondly, the internet has also facilitated the opportunities for 'no strings' sexual contact for those looking for it. Popular sites with titles such as 'Married But Looking' and 'Mature Adult Friend Finder' speak for themselves. The internet is also credited with, or blamed for, the alleged rise in the number of people (male and female) using prostitutes. Technology has made contact much more private and much easier. Of course, such contact carries risks, and there have been murders, but for some, the risk is part of the thrill. I used to know one respectable clergyman's wife in her 50's who regularly met up with more than one stranger for the kind of sexual activity she fantasized about and was unable to get through 'more normal channels'. Whatever your views about this kind of contact, it is clearly happening on a significant scale, and I suspect the ease of contact means that it is happening more than it ever did in the past.

Thirdly, the use of texting, email, VOIP calls, webcams, and chat programs have all made contact easier. Using your computer you can now have a videocall for free with anyone in the world who has a a computer, a webcam, and an internet connection. The world is smaller. Communication is easier. And it is easier to have secret contact.

In addition to technology, there are other factors influencing the increase in sexual contact in the over 45 age group. The greater availability of cheap air travel means that it is actually easier to meet up with partners contacted on the internet. The availability of Viagra means that those men who were experiencing difficulty are now less likely to be disabled.

While I am not shocked by the fact that people over 45 have sex, and am not shocked that they are more likely than ever before to have contact with more than one sexual partner, I am surprised by the increase in sexually transmitted diseases. I am surprised that this age group, which has lived through the early discovery of AIDS, is failing to practise safe sex when playing away or with a new partner. There seems to be a naivety here more reminiscent of some teenagers. The fact that many of the women in this age group are unlikely to get pregnant means that many of the men and women think that there is no need for a condom for their sexual liaisons. Perhaps this group thought that safe sex was something that young people needed to bother about, and that it was something that didn't concern them. Now that some of them are 'back in the market place' it clearly doesn't concern them, though it ought to.

Once the sniggering has stopped about this story, one can only hope that it helps convey the message that sexual health is an issue for all ages and that over 45's are at risk too.

Reviewed by Leon Muston, Arts Editor

TO say the opening of this poetry production is in-your-face would be an understatement. The two similarly clad performers in white takkies, brown shorts, white shirts and multi-coloured pullovers stand each in a spotlight, staring at the audience and suddenly start screaming: "What the f*** are you looking at."

After a few moments of this, they get into a very aggressive poem each taking alternate lines about how they are not who you think they are and that you should not prejudge them or expect them to ever be there for you.

After a jazzy interlude in which Pebbles sings God Bless the Child and Kabomo delivers a poet about the melodies in his heart, we get to the two main dramatic scenes of this production.

Both start of with the phrase "how much is it?"

In the first, Kabomo plays a client visiting a prostitute (Pebbles). She tells him her prices, but ultimately he just wants to talk. The two end up in a slanging match, returning to the theme already raised earlier in the production of prejudging people and raising the new theme of whether all people ultimately have the same hopes and dreams.

During this scene, we also get the only genuine piece of rap, in a production which was labelled in the booking kit as a meeting of poetry and rap.

It comes as the client informs the prostitute about the breakdown in his marriage.

This sequence doesn’t really reach any conclusion, but then we’re into another scene, again starting with the words "how much is it?"

Again Kabomo is a customer, but this time the venue is a hairdressing salon. He’s a hotshot lawyer, often seen on TV defending celebrities, and he immediately looks down on the working class woman.

She rants on about him prejudging her, until he interrupts and points out she has done the same to him.

Other themes raised in the production include self-worth and belief, modern life vs tradition, family heritage and hypocrisy.

Audiences should note that the production carries an 18 age restriction, although to be honest, it’s less deserving of such a rating than some of the PG shows around the Fest.

And I will either sign a pact with the devil or embed the rest of my life in a pink cloud - depending on the outcome. I decided to do the following:

I will engage with her... my proposal will be in about 1 month.

This time it is not about sex... it is about love.

If she accepts my proposal next month she will be my fiancé (pink clouds). If she blocks it she will be my ex-girlfriend (contract with the devil).

Well let's see how this will end... it's developing almost like a story from a 3rd rate television-soap.

In the meanwhile i let my little city grow: http://saint-canard.myminicity.com/

And will make up my mind and decide how to propose to her.

I just hope she accepts =/

Bai,

CoiToS

Ciao a tutti, mi presento, sono Pippo e abito a Parco Scizzo. Condivido l'iniziativa del blog su Torre a Mare e provo anch'io a contribuire.

Vivo a Torre a Mare, lavoro in centro; come tanti ogni sera, terminate le fatiche quotidiane, torno a casa lungo la litoranea. Soprattutto nel weekend, la strada pullula di lucciole, a volte sin dal primo pomeriggio.

Provo a descrivere le mie impressioni cercando di non essere frainteso. Io non ho nulla contro queste poverine, anzi quando passo di lì il primo pensiero che mi viene in mente è che siano brutalmente costrette a questa vita, a forza di calci e pugni. Passo sempre guardando di sottecchi, nel terrore di essere scambiato per uno che le approccia.

Sono certo che anche a voi sarà capitato di fare la stessa strada, e osservare in maniera imbarazzata il solito imbecille davanti a voi che rallenta con l'auto, si sporge dal finestrino, accosta sulla destra lentamente per poi fermarsi del tutto. Ecco, per queste persone io non provo nessuna pena, anzi repulsione. Per essere più diretti, mi fanno schifo (apprezzerete la sincerità, sono certo che qualcuno di voi sta pensando la stessa cosa, ritenuta a torto inconfessabile). Il motivo è che se nessuno alimentasse questo squallido mercato, esso scomparirebbe in pochi giorni. In fondo quelle poverine sono lì perchè in Italia, nel 2008, c'è ancora qualcuno disposto a sfruttare la loro condizione. Che squallore.

Ora, poichè questa sembra al momento una specie di utopia, forse c'è qualche altro sistema per poter risolvere la situazione e liberare le lucciole dalla loro condizione. Basterebbe, per esempio, un pattugliamento più efficace, che non guasterebbe nemmeno sotto il profilo della sicurezza. So che le forze dell'ordine hanno altre priorità, ma la loro presenza, non solo il sabato notte, potrebbe servire almeno a scoraggiare i "clienti".

Scrivo perchè forse qualcuno di voi condivide, almeno sotto quest'ultimo profilo, le mie impressioni. Non sono un moralista, non mi ritengo un bacchettone, ma cerco di capire se sono l'unico a interrogarsi sulla prostituzione da strada. In fondo se abitassimo da quelle parti (zona nuovo rondò e nuovo semaforo a San Giorgio, per intenderci) sono certo che saremmo portati a vivere il problema in maniera più diretta. Detto in termini più crudi, se ciò accadesse sotto casa mia io cercherei di trovare ogni sistema - lecito - per impedirlo.

Qualche idea su cosa fare, concretamente ?

Ciao a tutti, buona giornata.

p.

Sydney - As Sydney prepares for a visit by Pope Benedict XVI and hundreds of thousands of Catholics, the city's brothels are readying themselves for an expected surge in demand for sex.

Yes folks, Catholics like sex just as much as the rest of the planet, contrary to what they say of course.

So it is off to hear the pope speak,  praying and then getting someone else to do something else on their knees... or back.

Then off to ask the Virgin Mary for.... ermm lets not go down that road.

"Obviously we're not promoting it at your traditional Catholic community and it's unlikely we will get priests through. But there'll be lots of tourists in town and there'll be lots of people in town."

O come on, that is discrimination, traditional Catholics have needs too. But yes, they are right that there won't be priests, the perception is that their tastes are slightly more.... should we say Michael Jackson. Apologies to those few priests who genuinely love appreciate women humans only, and my sincere apologies to those priests who actually live their beliefs.

"The World Council of Churches, when they had their congress in Canberra back in the 1990s, that was the best business period ever.

Aahh someone is taking Jesus' interactions with prostitutes to the next level..... No folks he did not tell the prostitutes "How much for a blowjob", no matter which way you try and interpret it... And yes you could try converting them over a cup of coffee instead, they don't absorb the message so well while on their backs and getting impaled by the holy sceptre.

Visitors need not worry about breaking the law as brothels are legal, and they could be made to feel at home by sex workers speaking a range of languages including Spanish, Greek, Mandarin, French, Thai, Arabic, Korean, Nepalese and Italian.

Brilliant now you can be a hypocrite in 10 different languages!

And the bottomline cannot be expressed better than this:

"We know the kind of people who visit prostitutes and adult shops, many of them do it because of their own personal repression," Eros spokesperson Robbie Swan said.

"And often it's because of religion."

"Our industry is the forbidden fruit industry."

Technorati Tags: Sex, Australia, Catholic, Christian, Church, Pope, Prostitute, Hypocrisy, Virgin Mary, Brothels, Sydney, Jesus

Ruslana Korshunove, who would have been 21 on July 2, was known for her long, chestnut locks and "fairytale" face that often graced the covers of Russian Vogue and French Elle magazines. She fell to her death after plunging nine stories from her New York City balcony early Saturday morning.

Investigators initially suspected foul play after finding a bottle of "Uncle Jeb's Fingerprint Removal Spray" on a coffee table in Korshunove's apartment. The cleaning product is popular with Mafia hit men and agents from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), who often use it to clean up after contract murders and political assassinations.

"There are indications that a government official was having an affair with Miss Korshunove," NYPD spokesman Walter Randolph had said on Saturday. "So we have asked the FBI to look into the case."

When asked if the government official held an elected office, Randolph said yes.

Although murder and suicide investigations are handled at a local or state level, in cases where interns, celebrities, fashion models or professional prostitutes die after getting sexually involved with government officials, the FBI is often called in to help. Such was the case when Deborah Jeane Palfrey -- better known as the "DC Madam" who provided call girls to government officials -- was found hanged in Florida on May 1. Local authorities eventually ruled the hanging a suicide after consulting with the FBI, which offered the opinion that two sets of apparent fingerprints on Palfrey's body were probably the result of skin rashes. Brandy Britton, a call girl who had worked for Palfrey, had similar skin rashes on her body when she committed suicide.

This morning, Randolph announced that the FBI had found no evidence that any government official was involved. Consequently, he said Korshunove's death would be ruled a suicide.

"The FBI could find no link to the government official in question," he said. "So we have concluded that Miss Korshunove committed suicide. She was probably distraught over her good looks, promising career and bright future."

(Photo credit: "Donut", Wikipedia) 

"OK, this is going to hurt--hold on," said Rahul and gripped her toe to pull it straight.  I couldn't watch.

Serena and CHT and I were in a car and driving fast down a road in late evening. The government was getting ready to test a nuclear bomb, and we had to get away. I pressed the button to change the air to "recirculate" instead of "fresh air," hoping this would save us from fallout. We could feel a weird tingling in the air, the electric feeling before a thunderstorm, something you could feel aching in your fillings.

Rahul told me that in college, before he met me, he had purchased the services of a prostitute. I was very surprised and wondered why he'd never told me before, why he'd lied about his experiences to me.

Jeremy Northam is in the middle of divorcing some ugly whore from Toronto that he married while on one of his binges.  Yes, you read that right.  Prostitute.  A woman who takes money in exchange for sex.  A hooker.  Streetwalker.  Lady of the evening.

Her name is Elizabeth Louise Moro and few in Toronto like her.

Her friends and relatives are busy on his IMDb board harassing Jeremy's more clever fans, the ones who figured it out.  That would be us.  WanderingChew, VooDoo, Maddy, Tiptoe and CricketQueen.

Her brother, Andrew Moro, even posted here and advised us to kill ourselves.

He later said, "Oh, I don't have a sister named Elizabeth" even though he looks exactly like her and his Facebook profile shows him to be in Burlington, Ontario, their hometown.

Nice try.   Next time be more clever and keep your mouth shut.

Here's another present for you.  Liz and her brother Andrew get busy:

After Viktor Mokhov's arrest, Skopin residents broke all the windows of his home. His mother, Alisa Valentinovna, boarded them up and locked herself in the darkness, just as her son had done to the girls from Ryzansk. Mokhov received 17 years in prison for his crimes.

"They give you less for murder!" Mokhov writes in his letters. Instead of compensating for the damage caused to his former sex slaves, Mokhov lovingly sends his monthly pension checks to his mother. He asks her to write to the president and sends her ready made texts: "Honorable president! I sincerely request your help in re-examining my son's case. His sentence is illegal. The accusations are built on the victims' testimonies without any evidence. My son was always involved in socially useful work and has a 37-year work history."

"Nonsense!" Valentinovna said. "He doesn't really think I'll write that, does he?" she asked. Valentinovna can't explain what happened to her son shortly before retirement. He had once been such a quiet, modest boy who didn't drink or smoke. There seems to be only one explanation, as banal as it may seem. Mokhov got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

It's a complicated story. Mokhov had a girlfriend named Inka, who was sent to prison for killing her lover. He waited for her faithfully. But when Inka was released from prison, she left Mokhov for her lesbian girlfriend Lena. It was Lena who helped Mokhov poison the two girls and lure them into his vault as a form of compensation. Lena was later sentenced to 5 years for her crimes. She'll be released soon. Sadly, no one will meet her. Last month Inka got drunk and drowned in a cesspool. So it seems life isn't boring in Skopin. I guess that's why the cafe menus often start with the price of broken dishes and seats.

"Man is an animal by nature. Dissatisfaction is the foundation of his behavior," said Dmitriy Plotkin, former special affairs investigator at the Ryazansk Regional Prosecutor's Office, who took part in the case. "When the beard starts to gray, some people see they lived their entire lives with little to no sexual development. So Mokhov went out and dug a hole three years just to sleep with a woman! One wise quote like we found at Mokhov's place is enough to trigger the crime: 'If an elderly creature reproduces with a young one, then the former will grow younger.'"

Only two questions remain. How many men have a similar dream? And how many bunkers are already filled with prisoners?

They and It

Freud referred to the animal that controls a man's decisions and forces him to hunt for prey as the "It." Modern society takes this issue all too lightly. And this is unfortunate. Many scholars attribute the gruesome path taken by Hitler's Third Reich to his sexual problems.

Most "wardens" of home prisons, including Fritzl, Komin, the Belgian rapist and killer Dyutru and the French Furnire, have served time for rape. What they did later — digging bunkers and forcing girls inside — is a repeat manifestation of this "It."

Many parents lose their children because no one keeps an eye on sexual offenders after they are released from prison. Although Fritzl served time in 1967 for raping a nurse, Austrian archives only store information on sex offenders for 5 years. Thus, he faced little difficulty in becoming the father and grandfather to his daughter's children. No one was regularly checking up on him. After Fritzl was released from prison, he had three children in his official family and 7 kids in his unofficial one.

Police have put together psychological portraits of potential rapists who are prone to keeping sex slaves. But hundreds of thousands of men fall into the category — 40 and older, technical education, sexual problems, authoritarian mother, fights in childhood, greed and exceptional professional characteristics.

Who can help weed out the perpetrators?

If rapists can't be castrated, then we need to look for the bunkers that they've built. What advice should be given to those searching for these bunkers? I headed back to Ryzan to talk with Katya, who escaped four years ago. She once offered her advice to people in similar situations in KP (March 2004). I thought that she may have some insight.

Witnesses must have suspected something was going in in the cases of Mokhov, Fritzl, Komin and Priklopil. So who can the police rely on for reliable information? I asked Katya.

The neighbors? Katya says that this is unlikely.

Mokhov's neighbors must have seen him climbing into his vault from his garage. But they kept silent.

Komin's neighbors once asked him what he was digging. But they were satisfied with the answer: "Growing cucumbers."

Maybe family members? That's doubtful.

All Skopin residents are sure that Mokhov's mother knew what was going on. And Valentinovna herself doesn't hide this fact.

"Who's in there?" Valentinovna once asked her son. "Just a refugee," he answered and she calmed down.

Theoretically, Rosemary should have suspected her husband was up to something. She would have found the basement lair if she had checked the water or electric meter just once in 24 years. But her husband insisted that he would look after the electricity and heating as is customary in many small towns. So she never asked any questions.

How about local shop owners? Probably not.

Fritzl drove hundreds of kilometers to large supermarkets to avoid suspicion when purchasing children's underwear and women's hygienic goods.

How about the police then? That's also not a fail-safe option.

Kampush's lawyer said that the police conducted the most wide-scale searches in Austria's history.

Russian police also searched for Lena and Katya in the Rzyansk region, but for some reason skipped over Skopin entirely.

The police did not react at all to Elizabeth's disappearance in 1984. Instead they took Fritzl's word that she had run off and joined a sect.

Tatyana Melnikova was held captive by a maniac in Vyatskie Polyany. She died in poverty before receiving any assistance from the state.

"We would have found these criminals more quickly back in the Soviet days," said a retired Ryzansk police officer who I bumped into in Rzyansk. In the Soviet days, he said, someone would have told the police that Mokhov kept a prostitute in his cellar for one week and let her go long before he captured Katya and Lena.

Desensitized from the horror

The Russian and Austrian stories are similar. But they have different endings. Austrian citizens donated so much money to the Natasha Kampush Fund that she began sharing the money with other victims. She could even buy an apartment with all the money she received for interviews. The situation is more complicated for Fritzl's family, but Austria certainly won't leave them impoverished either. At the moment they are receiving state-sponsored medical treatment.

What about Russia?

In spring 2004, KP published Lena's and Katya's bank details and wrote: "Readers! We need your help! These girls have returned home to see the light of day, but not life itself. They need time and money to heal. Please help them forget the awful nightmare they were forced to live through."

Four years later, I called them to find out if they had received much money as a result of the ad. Only 1,000 rubles a piece.

"So many horrible things are happening in Russia that people have become desensitized," Lena said laughingly.

But money isn't the only important thing. Everything turned out just fine for Katya and Lena. They both rehabilitated and got married. Of course, instead of receiving help from the state, they ended up having to prolong their torment by undergoing medical examinations and driving up to 150 kilometers a day to attend 18 court proceedings shortly after their escape.

Eventually Lena received a diploma as a guide and translator without attending any courses. She studied English while imprisoned to keep from going mad. Katya became a wonderful artist during her 3.5 years of captivity. Unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to enroll at the professional art school as they required her to attend paid courses. So Katya stopped drawing and writing poetry.

After publishing one of her poems four years ago, KP was sure publishing houses would be knocking at her door. Strange. How could they have passed up such a story? A young girl who wrote 321 poems as a sex slave in captivity?!

Today, Katya is trying to write again. But this time she's writing prose. READ MORE

After Viktor Mokhov's arrest, Skopin residents broke all the windows of his home. His mother, Alisa Valentinovna, boarded them up and locked herself in the darkness, just as her son had done to the girls from Ryzansk. Mokhov received 17 years in prison for his crimes.

"They give you less for murder!" Mokhov writes in his letters. Instead of compensating for the damage caused to his former sex slaves, Mokhov lovingly sends his monthly pension checks to his mother. He asks her to write to the president and sends her ready made texts: "Honorable president! I sincerely request your help in re-examining my son's case. His sentence is illegal. The accusations are built on the victims' testimonies without any evidence. My son was always involved in socially useful work and has a 37-year work history."

"Nonsense!" Valentinovna said. "He doesn't really think I'll write that, does he?" she asked. Valentinovna can't explain what happened to her son shortly before retirement. He had once been such a quiet, modest boy who didn't drink or smoke. There seems to be only one explanation, as banal as it may seem. Mokhov got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

It's a complicated story. Mokhov had a girlfriend named Inka, who was sent to prison for killing her lover. He waited for her faithfully. But when Inka was released from prison, she left Mokhov for her lesbian girlfriend Lena. It was Lena who helped Mokhov poison the two girls and lure them into his vault as a form of compensation. Lena was later sentenced to 5 years for her crimes. She'll be released soon. Sadly, no one will meet her. Last month Inka got drunk and drowned in a cesspool. So it seems life isn't boring in Skopin. I guess that's why the cafe menus often start with the price of broken dishes and seats.

"Man is an animal by nature. Dissatisfaction is the foundation of his behavior," said Dmitriy Plotkin, former special affairs investigator at the Ryazansk Regional Prosecutor's Office, who took part in the case. "When the beard starts to gray, some people see they lived their entire lives with little to no sexual development. So Mokhov went out and dug a hole three years just to sleep with a woman! One wise quote like we found at Mokhov's place is enough to trigger the crime: 'If an elderly creature reproduces with a young one, then the former will grow younger.'"

Only two questions remain. How many men have a similar dream? And how many bunkers are already filled with prisoners?

They and It

Freud referred to the animal that controls a man's decisions and forces him to hunt for prey as the "It." Modern society takes this issue all too lightly. And this is unfortunate. Many scholars attribute the gruesome path taken by Hitler's Third Reich to his sexual problems.

Most "wardens" of home prisons, including Fritzl, Komin, the Belgian rapist and killer Dyutru and the French Furnire, have served time for rape. What they did later — digging bunkers and forcing girls inside — is a repeat manifestation of this "It."

Many parents lose their children because no one keeps an eye on sexual offenders after they are released from prison. Although Fritzl served time in 1967 for raping a nurse, Austrian archives only store information on sex offenders for 5 years. Thus, he faced little difficulty in becoming the father and grandfather to his daughter's children. No one was regularly checking up on him. After Fritzl was released from prison, he had three children in his official family and 7 kids in his unofficial one.

Police have put together psychological portraits of potential rapists who are prone to keeping sex slaves. But hundreds of thousands of men fall into the category — 40 and older, technical education, sexual problems, authoritarian mother, fights in childhood, greed and exceptional professional characteristics.

Who can help weed out the perpetrators?

If rapists can't be castrated, then we need to look for the bunkers that they've built. What advice should be given to those searching for these bunkers? I headed back to Ryzan to talk with Katya, who escaped four years ago. She once offered her advice to people in similar situations in KP (March 2004). I thought that she may have some insight.

Witnesses must have suspected something was going in in the cases of Mokhov, Fritzl, Komin and Priklopil. So who can the police rely on for reliable information? I asked Katya.

The neighbors? Katya says that this is unlikely.

Mokhov's neighbors must have seen him climbing into his vault from his garage. But they kept silent.

Komin's neighbors once asked him what he was digging. But they were satisfied with the answer: "Growing cucumbers."

Maybe family members? That's doubtful.

All Skopin residents are sure that Mokhov's mother knew what was going on. And Valentinovna herself doesn't hide this fact.

"Who's in there?" Valentinovna once asked her son. "Just a refugee," he answered and she calmed down.

Theoretically, Rosemary should have suspected her husband was up to something. She would have found the basement lair if she had checked the water or electric meter just once in 24 years. But her husband insisted that he would look after the electricity and heating as is customary in many small towns. So she never asked any questions.

How about local shop owners? Probably not.

Fritzl drove hundreds of kilometers to large supermarkets to avoid suspicion when purchasing children's underwear and women's hygienic goods.

How about the police then? That's also not a fail-safe option.

Kampush's lawyer said that the police conducted the most wide-scale searches in Austria's history.

Russian police also searched for Lena and Katya in the Rzyansk region, but for some reason skipped over Skopin entirely.

The police did not react at all to Elizabeth's disappearance in 1984. Instead they took Fritzl's word that she had run off and joined a sect.

Tatyana Melnikova was held captive by a maniac in Vyatskie Polyany. She died in poverty before receiving any assistance from the state.

"We would have found these criminals more quickly back in the Soviet days," said a retired Ryzansk police officer who I bumped into in Rzyansk. In the Soviet days, he said, someone would have told the police that Mokhov kept a prostitute in his cellar for one week and let her go long before he captured Katya and Lena.

Desensitized from the horror

The Russian and Austrian stories are similar. But they have different endings. Austrian citizens donated so much money to the Natasha Kampush Fund that she began sharing the money with other victims. She could even buy an apartment with all the money she received for interviews. The situation is more complicated for Fritzl's family, but Austria certainly won't leave them impoverished either. At the moment they are receiving state-sponsored medical treatment.

What about Russia?

In spring 2004, KP published Lena's and Katya's bank details and wrote: "Readers! We need your help! These girls have returned home to see the light of day, but not life itself. They need time and money to heal. Please help them forget the awful nightmare they were forced to live through."

Four years later, I called them to find out if they had received much money as a result of the ad. Only 1,000 rubles a piece.

"So many horrible things are happening in Russia that people have become desensitized," Lena said laughingly.

But money isn't the only important thing. Everything turned out just fine for Katya and Lena. They both rehabilitated and got married. Of course, instead of receiving help from the state, they ended up having to prolong their torment by undergoing medical examinations and driving up to 150 kilometers a day to attend 18 court proceedings shortly after their escape.

Eventually Lena received a diploma as a guide and translator without attending any courses. She studied English while imprisoned to keep from going mad. Katya became a wonderful artist during her 3.5 years of captivity. Unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to enroll at the professional art school as they required her to attend paid courses. So Katya stopped drawing and writing poetry.

After publishing one of her poems four years ago, KP was sure publishing houses would be knocking at her door. Strange. How could they have passed up such a story? A young girl who wrote 321 poems as a sex slave in captivity?!

Today, Katya is trying to write again. But this time she's writing prose. READ MORE

After Viktor Mokhov's arrest, Skopin residents broke all the windows of his home. His mother, Alisa Valentinovna, boarded them up and locked herself in the darkness, just as her son had done to the girls from Ryzansk. Mokhov received 17 years in prison for his crimes.

"They give you less for murder!" Mokhov writes in his letters. Instead of compensating for the damage caused to his former sex slaves, Mokhov lovingly sends his monthly pension checks to his mother. He asks her to write to the president and sends her ready made texts: "Honorable president! I sincerely request your help in re-examining my son's case. His sentence is illegal. The accusations are built on the victims' testimonies without any evidence. My son was always involved in socially useful work and has a 37-year work history."

"Nonsense!" Valentinovna said. "He doesn't really think I'll write that, does he?" she asked. Valentinovna can't explain what happened to her son shortly before retirement. He had once been such a quiet, modest boy who didn't drink or smoke. There seems to be only one explanation, as banal as it may seem. Mokhov got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

It's a complicated story. Mokhov had a girlfriend named Inka, who was sent to prison for killing her lover. He waited for her faithfully. But when Inka was released from prison, she left Mokhov for her lesbian girlfriend Lena. It was Lena who helped Mokhov poison the two girls and lure them into his vault as a form of compensation. Lena was later sentenced to 5 years for her crimes. She'll be released soon. Sadly, no one will meet her. Last month Inka got drunk and drowned in a cesspool. So it seems life isn't boring in Skopin. I guess that's why the cafe menus often start with the price of broken dishes and seats.

"Man is an animal by nature. Dissatisfaction is the foundation of his behavior," said Dmitriy Plotkin, former special affairs investigator at the Ryazansk Regional Prosecutor's Office, who took part in the case. "When the beard starts to gray, some people see they lived their entire lives with little to no sexual development. So Mokhov went out and dug a hole three years just to sleep with a woman! One wise quote like we found at Mokhov's place is enough to trigger the crime: 'If an elderly creature reproduces with a young one, then the former will grow younger.'"

Only two questions remain. How many men have a similar dream? And how many bunkers are already filled with prisoners?

They and It

Freud referred to the animal that controls a man's decisions and forces him to hunt for prey as the "It." Modern society takes this issue all too lightly. And this is unfortunate. Many scholars attribute the gruesome path taken by Hitler's Third Reich to his sexual problems.

Most "wardens" of home prisons, including Fritzl, Komin, the Belgian rapist and killer Dyutru and the French Furnire, have served time for rape. What they did later — digging bunkers and forcing girls inside — is a repeat manifestation of this "It."

Many parents lose their children because no one keeps an eye on sexual offenders after they are released from prison. Although Fritzl served time in 1967 for raping a nurse, Austrian archives only store information on sex offenders for 5 years. Thus, he faced little difficulty in becoming the father and grandfather to his daughter's children. No one was regularly checking up on him. After Fritzl was released from prison, he had three children in his official family and 7 kids in his unofficial one.

Police have put together psychological portraits of potential rapists who are prone to keeping sex slaves. But hundreds of thousands of men fall into the category — 40 and older, technical education, sexual problems, authoritarian mother, fights in childhood, greed and exceptional professional characteristics.

Who can help weed out the perpetrators?

If rapists can't be castrated, then we need to look for the bunkers that they've built. What advice should be given to those searching for these bunkers? I headed back to Ryzan to talk with Katya, who escaped four years ago. She once offered her advice to people in similar situations in KP (March 2004). I thought that she may have some insight.

Witnesses must have suspected something was going in in the cases of Mokhov, Fritzl, Komin and Priklopil. So who can the police rely on for reliable information? I asked Katya.

The neighbors? Katya says that this is unlikely.

Mokhov's neighbors must have seen him climbing into his vault from his garage. But they kept silent.

Komin's neighbors once asked him what he was digging. But they were satisfied with the answer: "Growing cucumbers."

Maybe family members? That's doubtful.

All Skopin residents are sure that Mokhov's mother knew what was going on. And Valentinovna herself doesn't hide this fact.

"Who's in there?" Valentinovna once asked her son. "Just a refugee," he answered and she calmed down.

Theoretically, Rosemary should have suspected her husband was up to something. She would have found the basement lair if she had checked the water or electric meter just once in 24 years. But her husband insisted that he would look after the electricity and heating as is customary in many small towns. So she never asked any questions.

How about local shop owners? Probably not.

Fritzl drove hundreds of kilometers to large supermarkets to avoid suspicion when purchasing children's underwear and women's hygienic goods.

How about the police then? That's also not a fail-safe option.

Kampush's lawyer said that the police conducted the most wide-scale searches in Austria's history.

Russian police also searched for Lena and Katya in the Rzyansk region, but for some reason skipped over Skopin entirely.

The police did not react at all to Elizabeth's disappearance in 1984. Instead they took Fritzl's word that she had run off and joined a sect.

Tatyana Melnikova was held captive by a maniac in Vyatskie Polyany. She died in poverty before receiving any assistance from the state.

"We would have found these criminals more quickly back in the Soviet days," said a retired Ryzansk police officer who I bumped into in Rzyansk. In the Soviet days, he said, someone would have told the police that Mokhov kept a prostitute in his cellar for one week and let her go long before he captured Katya and Lena.

Desensitized from the horror

The Russian and Austrian stories are similar. But they have different endings. Austrian citizens donated so much money to the Natasha Kampush Fund that she began sharing the money with other victims. She could even buy an apartment with all the money she received for interviews. The situation is more complicated for Fritzl's family, but Austria certainly won't leave them impoverished either. At the moment they are receiving state-sponsored medical treatment.

What about Russia?

In spring 2004, KP published Lena's and Katya's bank details and wrote: "Readers! We need your help! These girls have returned home to see the light of day, but not life itself. They need time and money to heal. Please help them forget the awful nightmare they were forced to live through."

Four years later, I called them to find out if they had received much money as a result of the ad. Only 1,000 rubles a piece.

"So many horrible things are happening in Russia that people have become desensitized," Lena said laughingly.

But money isn't the only important thing. Everything turned out just fine for Katya and Lena. They both rehabilitated and got married. Of course, instead of receiving help from the state, they ended up having to prolong their torment by undergoing medical examinations and driving up to 150 kilometers a day to attend 18 court proceedings shortly after their escape.

Eventually Lena received a diploma as a guide and translator without attending any courses. She studied English while imprisoned to keep from going mad. Katya became a wonderful artist during her 3.5 years of captivity. Unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to enroll at the professional art school as they required her to attend paid courses. So Katya stopped drawing and writing poetry.

After publishing one of her poems four years ago, KP was sure publishing houses would be knocking at her door. Strange. How could they have passed up such a story? A young girl who wrote 321 poems as a sex slave in captivity?!

Today, Katya is trying to write again. But this time she's writing prose. READ MORE

After Viktor Mokhov's arrest, Skopin residents broke all the windows of his home. His mother, Alisa Valentinovna, boarded them up and locked herself in the darkness, just as her son had done to the girls from Ryzansk. Mokhov received 17 years in prison for his crimes.

"They give you less for murder!" Mokhov writes in his letters. Instead of compensating for the damage caused to his former sex slaves, Mokhov lovingly sends his monthly pension checks to his mother. He asks her to write to the president and sends her ready made texts: "Honorable president! I sincerely request your help in re-examining my son's case. His sentence is illegal. The accusations are built on the victims' testimonies without any evidence. My son was always involved in socially useful work and has a 37-year work history."

"Nonsense!" Valentinovna said. "He doesn't really think I'll write that, does he?" she asked. Valentinovna can't explain what happened to her son shortly before retirement. He had once been such a quiet, modest boy who didn't drink or smoke. There seems to be only one explanation, as banal as it may seem. Mokhov got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

It's a complicated story. Mokhov had a girlfriend named Inka, who was sent to prison for killing her lover. He waited for her faithfully. But when Inka was released from prison, she left Mokhov for her lesbian girlfriend Lena. It was Lena who helped Mokhov poison the two girls and lure them into his vault as a form of compensation. Lena was later sentenced to 5 years for her crimes. She'll be released soon. Sadly, no one will meet her. Last month Inka got drunk and drowned in a cesspool. So it seems life isn't boring in Skopin. I guess that's why the cafe menus often start with the price of broken dishes and seats.

"Man is an animal by nature. Dissatisfaction is the foundation of his behavior," said Dmitriy Plotkin, former special affairs investigator at the Ryazansk Regional Prosecutor's Office, who took part in the case. "When the beard starts to gray, some people see they lived their entire lives with little to no sexual development. So Mokhov went out and dug a hole three years just to sleep with a woman! One wise quote like we found at Mokhov's place is enough to trigger the crime: 'If an elderly creature reproduces with a young one, then the former will grow younger.'"

Only two questions remain. How many men have a similar dream? And how many bunkers are already filled with prisoners?

They and It

Freud referred to the animal that controls a man's decisions and forces him to hunt for prey as the "It." Modern society takes this issue all too lightly. And this is unfortunate. Many scholars attribute the gruesome path taken by Hitler's Third Reich to his sexual problems.

Most "wardens" of home prisons, including Fritzl, Komin, the Belgian rapist and killer Dyutru and the French Furnire, have served time for rape. What they did later — digging bunkers and forcing girls inside — is a repeat manifestation of this "It."

Many parents lose their children because no one keeps an eye on sexual offenders after they are released from prison. Although Fritzl served time in 1967 for raping a nurse, Austrian archives only store information on sex offenders for 5 years. Thus, he faced little difficulty in becoming the father and grandfather to his daughter's children. No one was regularly checking up on him. After Fritzl was released from prison, he had three children in his official family and 7 kids in his unofficial one.

Police have put together psychological portraits of potential rapists who are prone to keeping sex slaves. But hundreds of thousands of men fall into the category — 40 and older, technical education, sexual problems, authoritarian mother, fights in childhood, greed and exceptional professional characteristics.

Who can help weed out the perpetrators?

If rapists can't be castrated, then we need to look for the bunkers that they've built. What advice should be given to those searching for these bunkers? I headed back to Ryzan to talk with Katya, who escaped four years ago. She once offered her advice to people in similar situations in KP (March 2004). I thought that she may have some insight.

Witnesses must have suspected something was going in in the cases of Mokhov, Fritzl, Komin and Priklopil. So who can the police rely on for reliable information? I asked Katya.

The neighbors? Katya says that this is unlikely.

Mokhov's neighbors must have seen him climbing into his vault from his garage. But they kept silent.

Komin's neighbors once asked him what he was digging. But they were satisfied with the answer: "Growing cucumbers."

Maybe family members? That's doubtful.

All Skopin residents are sure that Mokhov's mother knew what was going on. And Valentinovna herself doesn't hide this fact.

"Who's in there?" Valentinovna once asked her son. "Just a refugee," he answered and she calmed down.

Theoretically, Rosemary should have suspected her husband was up to something. She would have found the basement lair if she had checked the water or electric meter just once in 24 years. But her husband insisted that he would look after the electricity and heating as is customary in many small towns. So she never asked any questions.

How about local shop owners? Probably not.

Fritzl drove hundreds of kilometers to large supermarkets to avoid suspicion when purchasing children's underwear and women's hygienic goods.

How about the police then? That's also not a fail-safe option.

Kampush's lawyer said that the police conducted the most wide-scale searches in Austria's history.

Russian police also searched for Lena and Katya in the Rzyansk region, but for some reason skipped over Skopin entirely.

The police did not react at all to Elizabeth's disappearance in 1984. Instead they took Fritzl's word that she had run off and joined a sect.

Tatyana Melnikova was held captive by a maniac in Vyatskie Polyany. She died in poverty before receiving any assistance from the state.

"We would have found these criminals more quickly back in the Soviet days," said a retired Ryzansk police officer who I bumped into in Rzyansk. In the Soviet days, he said, someone would have told the police that Mokhov kept a prostitute in his cellar for one week and let her go long before he captured Katya and Lena.

Desensitized from the horror

The Russian and Austrian stories are similar. But they have different endings. Austrian citizens donated so much money to the Natasha Kampush Fund that she began sharing the money with other victims. She could even buy an apartment with all the money she received for interviews. The situation is more complicated for Fritzl's family, but Austria certainly won't leave them impoverished either. At the moment they are receiving state-sponsored medical treatment.

What about Russia?

In spring 2004, KP published Lena's and Katya's bank details and wrote: "Readers! We need your help! These girls have returned home to see the light of day, but not life itself. They need time and money to heal. Please help them forget the awful nightmare they were forced to live through."

Four years later, I called them to find out if they had received much money as a result of the ad. Only 1,000 rubles a piece.

"So many horrible things are happening in Russia that people have become desensitized," Lena said laughingly.

But money isn't the only important thing. Everything turned out just fine for Katya and Lena. They both rehabilitated and got married. Of course, instead of receiving help from the state, they ended up having to prolong their torment by undergoing medical examinations and driving up to 150 kilometers a day to attend 18 court proceedings shortly after their escape.

Eventually Lena received a diploma as a guide and translator without attending any courses. She studied English while imprisoned to keep from going mad. Katya became a wonderful artist during her 3.5 years of captivity. Unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to enroll at the professional art school as they required her to attend paid courses. So Katya stopped drawing and writing poetry.

After publishing one of her poems four years ago, KP was sure publishing houses would be knocking at her door. Strange. How could they have passed up such a story? A young girl who wrote 321 poems as a sex slave in captivity?!

Today, Katya is trying to write again. But this time she's writing prose. READ MORE

After Viktor Mokhov's arrest, Skopin residents broke all the windows of his home. His mother, Alisa Valentinovna, boarded them up and locked herself in the darkness, just as her son had done to the girls from Ryzansk. Mokhov received 17 years in prison for his crimes.

"They give you less for murder!" Mokhov writes in his letters. Instead of compensating for the damage caused to his former sex slaves, Mokhov lovingly sends his monthly pension checks to his mother. He asks her to write to the president and sends her ready made texts: "Honorable president! I sincerely request your help in re-examining my son's case. His sentence is illegal. The accusations are built on the victims' testimonies without any evidence. My son was always involved in socially useful work and has a 37-year work history."

"Nonsense!" Valentinovna said. "He doesn't really think I'll write that, does he?" she asked. Valentinovna can't explain what happened to her son shortly before retirement. He had once been such a quiet, modest boy who didn't drink or smoke. There seems to be only one explanation, as banal as it may seem. Mokhov got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

It's a complicated story. Mokhov had a girlfriend named Inka, who was sent to prison for killing her lover. He waited for her faithfully. But when Inka was released from prison, she left Mokhov for her lesbian girlfriend Lena. It was Lena who helped Mokhov poison the two girls and lure them into his vault as a form of compensation. Lena was later sentenced to 5 years for her crimes. She'll be released soon. Sadly, no one will meet her. Last month Inka got drunk and drowned in a cesspool. So it seems life isn't boring in Skopin. I guess that's why the cafe menus often start with the price of broken dishes and seats.

"Man is an animal by nature. Dissatisfaction is the foundation of his behavior," said Dmitriy Plotkin, former special affairs investigator at the Ryazansk Regional Prosecutor's Office, who took part in the case. "When the beard starts to gray, some people see they lived their entire lives with little to no sexual development. So Mokhov went out and dug a hole three years just to sleep with a woman! One wise quote like we found at Mokhov's place is enough to trigger the crime: 'If an elderly creature reproduces with a young one, then the former will grow younger.'"

Only two questions remain. How many men have a similar dream? And how many bunkers are already filled with prisoners?

They and It

Freud referred to the animal that controls a man's decisions and forces him to hunt for prey as the "It." Modern society takes this issue all too lightly. And this is unfortunate. Many scholars attribute the gruesome path taken by Hitler's Third Reich to his sexual problems.

Most "wardens" of home prisons, including Fritzl, Komin, the Belgian rapist and killer Dyutru and the French Furnire, have served time for rape. What they did later — digging bunkers and forcing girls inside — is a repeat manifestation of this "It."

Many parents lose their children because no one keeps an eye on sexual offenders after they are released from prison. Although Fritzl served time in 1967 for raping a nurse, Austrian archives only store information on sex offenders for 5 years. Thus, he faced little difficulty in becoming the father and grandfather to his daughter's children. No one was regularly checking up on him. After Fritzl was released from prison, he had three children in his official family and 7 kids in his unofficial one.

Police have put together psychological portraits of potential rapists who are prone to keeping sex slaves. But hundreds of thousands of men fall into the category — 40 and older, technical education, sexual problems, authoritarian mother, fights in childhood, greed and exceptional professional characteristics.

Who can help weed out the perpetrators?

If rapists can't be castrated, then we need to look for the bunkers that they've built. What advice should be given to those searching for these bunkers? I headed back to Ryzan to talk with Katya, who escaped four years ago. She once offered her advice to people in similar situations in KP (March 2004). I thought that she may have some insight.

Witnesses must have suspected something was going in in the cases of Mokhov, Fritzl, Komin and Priklopil. So who can the police rely on for reliable information? I asked Katya.

The neighbors? Katya says that this is unlikely.

Mokhov's neighbors must have seen him climbing into his vault from his garage. But they kept silent.

Komin's neighbors once asked him what he was digging. But they were satisfied with the answer: "Growing cucumbers."

Maybe family members? That's doubtful.

All Skopin residents are sure that Mokhov's mother knew what was going on. And Valentinovna herself doesn't hide this fact.

"Who's in there?" Valentinovna once asked her son. "Just a refugee," he answered and she calmed down.

Theoretically, Rosemary should have suspected her husband was up to something. She would have found the basement lair if she had checked the water or electric meter just once in 24 years. But her husband insisted that he would look after the electricity and heating as is customary in many small towns. So she never asked any questions.

How about local shop owners? Probably not.

Fritzl drove hundreds of kilometers to large supermarkets to avoid suspicion when purchasing children's underwear and women's hygienic goods.

How about the police then? That's also not a fail-safe option.

Kampush's lawyer said that the police conducted the most wide-scale searches in Austria's history.

Russian police also searched for Lena and Katya in the Rzyansk region, but for some reason skipped over Skopin entirely.

The police did not react at all to Elizabeth's disappearance in 1984. Instead they took Fritzl's word that she had run off and joined a sect.

Tatyana Melnikova was held captive by a maniac in Vyatskie Polyany. She died in poverty before receiving any assistance from the state.

"We would have found these criminals more quickly back in the Soviet days," said a retired Ryzansk police officer who I bumped into in Rzyansk. In the Soviet days, he said, someone would have told the police that Mokhov kept a prostitute in his cellar for one week and let her go long before he captured Katya and Lena.

Desensitized from the horror

The Russian and Austrian stories are similar. But they have different endings. Austrian citizens donated so much money to the Natasha Kampush Fund that she began sharing the money with other victims. She could even buy an apartment with all the money she received for interviews. The situation is more complicated for Fritzl's family, but Austria certainly won't leave them impoverished either. At the moment they are receiving state-sponsored medical treatment.

What about Russia?

In spring 2004, KP published Lena's and Katya's bank details and wrote: "Readers! We need your help! These girls have returned home to see the light of day, but not life itself. They need time and money to heal. Please help them forget the awful nightmare they were forced to live through."

Four years later, I called them to find out if they had received much money as a result of the ad. Only 1,000 rubles a piece.

"So many horrible things are happening in Russia that people have become desensitized," Lena said laughingly.

But money isn't the only important thing. Everything turned out just fine for Katya and Lena. They both rehabilitated and got married. Of course, instead of receiving help from the state, they ended up having to prolong their torment by undergoing medical examinations and driving up to 150 kilometers a day to attend 18 court proceedings shortly after their escape.

Eventually Lena received a diploma as a guide and translator without attending any courses. She studied English while imprisoned to keep from going mad. Katya became a wonderful artist during her 3.5 years of captivity. Unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to enroll at the professional art school as they required her to attend paid courses. So Katya stopped drawing and writing poetry.

After publishing one of her poems four years ago, KP was sure publishing houses would be knocking at her door. Strange. How could they have passed up such a story? A young girl who wrote 321 poems as a sex slave in captivity?!

Today, Katya is trying to write again. But this time she's writing prose. READ MORE

After Viktor Mokhov's arrest, Skopin residents broke all the windows of his home. His mother, Alisa Valentinovna, boarded them up and locked herself in the darkness, just as her son had done to the girls from Ryzansk. Mokhov received 17 years in prison for his crimes.

"They give you less for murder!" Mokhov writes in his letters. Instead of compensating for the damage caused to his former sex slaves, Mokhov lovingly sends his monthly pension checks to his mother. He asks her to write to the president and sends her ready made texts: "Honorable president! I sincerely request your help in re-examining my son's case. His sentence is illegal. The accusations are built on the victims' testimonies without any evidence. My son was always involved in socially useful work and has a 37-year work history."

"Nonsense!" Valentinovna said. "He doesn't really think I'll write that, does he?" she asked. Valentinovna can't explain what happened to her son shortly before retirement. He had once been such a quiet, modest boy who didn't drink or smoke. There seems to be only one explanation, as banal as it may seem. Mokhov got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

It's a complicated story. Mokhov had a girlfriend named Inka, who was sent to prison for killing her lover. He waited for her faithfully. But when Inka was released from prison, she left Mokhov for her lesbian girlfriend Lena. It was Lena who helped Mokhov poison the two girls and lure them into his vault as a form of compensation. Lena was later sentenced to 5 years for her crimes. She'll be released soon. Sadly, no one will meet her. Last month Inka got drunk and drowned in a cesspool. So it seems life isn't boring in Skopin. I guess that's why the cafe menus often start with the price of broken dishes and seats.

"Man is an animal by nature. Dissatisfaction is the foundation of his behavior," said Dmitriy Plotkin, former special affairs investigator at the Ryazansk Regional Prosecutor's Office, who took part in the case. "When the beard starts to gray, some people see they lived their entire lives with little to no sexual development. So Mokhov went out and dug a hole three years just to sleep with a woman! One wise quote like we found at Mokhov's place is enough to trigger the crime: 'If an elderly creature reproduces with a young one, then the former will grow younger.'"

Only two questions remain. How many men have a similar dream? And how many bunkers are already filled with prisoners?

They and It

Freud referred to the animal that controls a man's decisions and forces him to hunt for prey as the "It." Modern society takes this issue all too lightly. And this is unfortunate. Many scholars attribute the gruesome path taken by Hitler's Third Reich to his sexual problems.

Most "wardens" of home prisons, including Fritzl, Komin, the Belgian rapist and killer Dyutru and the French Furnire, have served time for rape. What they did later — digging bunkers and forcing girls inside — is a repeat manifestation of this "It."

Many parents lose their children because no one keeps an eye on sexual offenders after they are released from prison. Although Fritzl served time in 1967 for raping a nurse, Austrian archives only store information on sex offenders for 5 years. Thus, he faced little difficulty in becoming the father and grandfather to his daughter's children. No one was regularly checking up on him. After Fritzl was released from prison, he had three children in his official family and 7 kids in his unofficial one.

Police have put together psychological portraits of potential rapists who are prone to keeping sex slaves. But hundreds of thousands of men fall into the category — 40 and older, technical education, sexual problems, authoritarian mother, fights in childhood, greed and exceptional professional characteristics.

Who can help weed out the perpetrators?

If rapists can't be castrated, then we need to look for the bunkers that they've built. What advice should be given to those searching for these bunkers? I headed back to Ryzan to talk with Katya, who escaped four years ago. She once offered her advice to people in similar situations in KP (March 2004). I thought that she may have some insight.

Witnesses must have suspected something was going in in the cases of Mokhov, Fritzl, Komin and Priklopil. So who can the police rely on for reliable information? I asked Katya.

The neighbors? Katya says that this is unlikely.

Mokhov's neighbors must have seen him climbing into his vault from his garage. But they kept silent.

Komin's neighbors once asked him what he was digging. But they were satisfied with the answer: "Growing cucumbers."

Maybe family members? That's doubtful.

All Skopin residents are sure that Mokhov's mother knew what was going on. And Valentinovna herself doesn't hide this fact.

"Who's in there?" Valentinovna once asked her son. "Just a refugee," he answered and she calmed down.

Theoretically, Rosemary should have suspected her husband was up to something. She would have found the basement lair if she had checked the water or electric meter just once in 24 years. But her husband insisted that he would look after the electricity and heating as is customary in many small towns. So she never asked any questions.

How about local shop owners? Probably not.

Fritzl drove hundreds of kilometers to large supermarkets to avoid suspicion when purchasing children's underwear and women's hygienic goods.

How about the police then? That's also not a fail-safe option.

Kampush's lawyer said that the police conducted the most wide-scale searches in Austria's history.

Russian police also searched for Lena and Katya in the Rzyansk region, but for some reason skipped over Skopin entirely.

The police did not react at all to Elizabeth's disappearance in 1984. Instead they took Fritzl's word that she had run off and joined a sect.

Tatyana Melnikova was held captive by a maniac in Vyatskie Polyany. She died in poverty before receiving any assistance from the state.

"We would have found these criminals more quickly back in the Soviet days," said a retired Ryzansk police officer who I bumped into in Rzyansk. In the Soviet days, he said, someone would have told the police that Mokhov kept a prostitute in his cellar for one week and let her go long before he captured Katya and Lena.

Desensitized from the horror

The Russian and Austrian stories are similar. But they have different endings. Austrian citizens donated so much money to the Natasha Kampush Fund that she began sharing the money with other victims. She could even buy an apartment with all the money she received for interviews. The situation is more complicated for Fritzl's family, but Austria certainly won't leave them impoverished either. At the moment they are receiving state-sponsored medical treatment.

What about Russia?

In spring 2004, KP published Lena's and Katya's bank details and wrote: "Readers! We need your help! These girls have returned home to see the light of day, but not life itself. They need time and money to heal. Please help them forget the awful nightmare they were forced to live through."

Four years later, I called them to find out if they had received much money as a result of the ad. Only 1,000 rubles a piece.

"So many horrible things are happening in Russia that people have become desensitized," Lena said laughingly.

But money isn't the only important thing. Everything turned out just fine for Katya and Lena. They both rehabilitated and got married. Of course, instead of receiving help from the state, they ended up having to prolong their torment by undergoing medical examinations and driving up to 150 kilometers a day to attend 18 court proceedings shortly after their escape.

Eventually Lena received a diploma as a guide and translator without attending any courses. She studied English while imprisoned to keep from going mad. Katya became a wonderful artist during her 3.5 years of captivity. Unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to enroll at the professional art school as they required her to attend paid courses. So Katya stopped drawing and writing poetry.

After publishing one of her poems four years ago, KP was sure publishing houses would be knocking at her door. Strange. How could they have passed up such a story? A young girl who wrote 321 poems as a sex slave in captivity?!

Today, Katya is trying to write again. But this time she's writing prose. READ MORE

After Viktor Mokhov's arrest, Skopin residents broke all the windows of his home. His mother, Alisa Valentinovna, boarded them up and locked herself in the darkness, just as her son had done to the girls from Ryzansk. Mokhov received 17 years in prison for his crimes.

"They give you less for murder!" Mokhov writes in his letters. Instead of compensating for the damage caused to his former sex slaves, Mokhov lovingly sends his monthly pension checks to his mother. He asks her to write to the president and sends her ready made texts: "Honorable president! I sincerely request your help in re-examining my son's case. His sentence is illegal. The accusations are built on the victims' testimonies without any evidence. My son was always involved in socially useful work and has a 37-year work history."

"Nonsense!" Valentinovna said. "He doesn't really think I'll write that, does he?" she asked. Valentinovna can't explain what happened to her son shortly before retirement. He had once been such a quiet, modest boy who didn't drink or smoke. There seems to be only one explanation, as banal as it may seem. Mokhov got mixed up with the wrong crowd.

It's a complicated story. Mokhov had a girlfriend named Inka, who was sent to prison for killing her lover. He waited for her faithfully. But when Inka was released from prison, she left Mokhov for her lesbian girlfriend Lena. It was Lena who helped Mokhov poison the two girls and lure them into his vault as a form of compensation. Lena was later sentenced to 5 years for her crimes. She'll be released soon. Sadly, no one will meet her. Last month Inka got drunk and drowned in a cesspool. So it seems life isn't boring in Skopin. I guess that's why the cafe menus often start with the price of broken dishes and seats.

"Man is an animal by nature. Dissatisfaction is the foundation of his behavior," said Dmitriy Plotkin, former special affairs investigator at the Ryazansk Regional Prosecutor's Office, who took part in the case. "When the beard starts to gray, some people see they lived their entire lives with little to no sexual development. So Mokhov went out and dug a hole three years just to sleep with a woman! One wise quote like we found at Mokhov's place is enough to trigger the crime: 'If an elderly creature reproduces with a young one, then the former will grow younger.'"

Only two questions remain. How many men have a similar dream? And how many bunkers are already filled with prisoners?

They and It

Freud referred to the animal that controls a man's decisions and forces him to hunt for prey as the "It." Modern society takes this issue all too lightly. And this is unfortunate. Many scholars attribute the gruesome path taken by Hitler's Third Reich to his sexual problems.

Most "wardens" of home prisons, including Fritzl, Komin, the Belgian rapist and killer Dyutru and the French Furnire, have served time for rape. What they did later — digging bunkers and forcing girls inside — is a repeat manifestation of this "It."

Many parents lose their children because no one keeps an eye on sexual offenders after they are released from prison. Although Fritzl served time in 1967 for raping a nurse, Austrian archives only store information on sex offenders for 5 years. Thus, he faced little difficulty in becoming the father and grandfather to his daughter's children. No one was regularly checking up on him. After Fritzl was released from prison, he had three children in his official family and 7 kids in his unofficial one.

Police have put together psychological portraits of potential rapists who are prone to keeping sex slaves. But hundreds of thousands of men fall into the category — 40 and older, technical education, sexual problems, authoritarian mother, fights in childhood, greed and exceptional professional characteristics.

Who can help weed out the perpetrators?

If rapists can't be castrated, then we need to look for the bunkers that they've built. What advice should be given to those searching for these bunkers? I headed back to Ryzan to talk with Katya, who escaped four years ago. She once offered her advice to people in similar situations in KP (March 2004). I thought that she may have some insight.

Witnesses must have suspected something was going in in the cases of Mokhov, Fritzl, Komin and Priklopil. So who can the police rely on for reliable information? I asked Katya.

The neighbors? Katya says that this is unlikely.

Mokhov's neighbors must have seen him climbing into his vault from his garage. But they kept silent.

Komin's neighbors once asked him what he was digging. But they were satisfied with the answer: "Growing cucumbers."

Maybe family members? That's doubtful.

All Skopin residents are sure that Mokhov's mother knew what was going on. And Valentinovna herself doesn't hide this fact.

"Who's in there?" Valentinovna once asked her son. "Just a refugee," he answered and she calmed down.

Theoretically, Rosemary should have suspected her husband was up to something. She would have found the basement lair if she had checked the water or electric meter just once in 24 years. But her husband insisted that he would look after the electricity and heating as is customary in many small towns. So she never asked any questions.

How about local shop owners? Probably not.

Fritzl drove hundreds of kilometers to large supermarkets to avoid suspicion when purchasing children's underwear and women's hygienic goods.

How about the police then? That's also not a fail-safe option.

Kampush's lawyer said that the police conducted the most wide-scale searches in Austria's history.

Russian police also searched for Lena and Katya in the Rzyansk region, but for some reason skipped over Skopin entirely.

The police did not react at all to Elizabeth's disappearance in 1984. Instead they took Fritzl's word that she had run off and joined a sect.

Tatyana Melnikova was held captive by a maniac in Vyatskie Polyany. She died in poverty before receiving any assistance from the state.

"We would have found these criminals more quickly back in the Soviet days," said a retired Ryzansk police officer who I bumped into in Rzyansk. In the Soviet days, he said, someone would have told the police that Mokhov kept a prostitute in his cellar for one week and let her go long before he captured Katya and Lena.

Desensitized from the horror

The Russian and Austrian stories are similar. But they have different endings. Austrian citizens donated so much money to the Natasha Kampush Fund that she began sharing the money with other victims. She could even buy an apartment with all the money she received for interviews. The situation is more complicated for Fritzl's family, but Austria certainly won't leave them impoverished either. At the moment they are receiving state-sponsored medical treatment.

What about Russia?

In spring 2004, KP published Lena's and Katya's bank details and wrote: "Readers! We need your help! These girls have returned home to see the light of day, but not life itself. They need time and money to heal. Please help them forget the awful nightmare they were forced to live through."

Four years later, I called them to find out if they had received much money as a result of the ad. Only 1,000 rubles a piece.

"So many horrible things are happening in Russia that people have become desensitized," Lena said laughingly.

But money isn't the only important thing. Everything turned out just fine for Katya and Lena. They both rehabilitated and got married. Of course, instead of receiving help from the state, they ended up having to prolong their torment by undergoing medical examinations and driving up to 150 kilometers a day to attend 18 court proceedings shortly after their escape.

Eventually Lena received a diploma as a guide and translator without attending any courses. She studied English while imprisoned to keep from going mad. Katya became a wonderful artist during her 3.5 years of captivity. Unfortunately, she wasn't allowed to enroll at the professional art school as they required her to attend paid courses. So Katya stopped drawing and writing poetry.

After publishing one of her poems four years ago, KP was sure publishing houses would be knocking at her door. Strange. How could they have passed up such a story? A young girl who wrote 321 poems as a sex slave in captivity?!

Today, Katya is trying to write again. But this time she's writing prose. READ MORE

One cannot help but wonder how the drama went unnoticed for so long.

Just imagine the small town of Amstetten, Austria. On a quiet road rests a light blue home with ornate paintings decorating the rooms inside. Here lived Joseph Fritzl, 73 years old, his wife Rosemary and their many children.

But beneath the property's loving facade lies a concrete labyrinth that once housed Fritzl's numerous victims.

Newspapers worldwide recently reported how Fritzl held his daughter Elizabeth captive in his basement for 24 years. Each year she bore him more children. Fritzl brought the three loudest infants upstairs. He told his wife that their daughter had joined a religious sect and left the newborns on their doorstep in the night. In the evenings, Fritzl went downstairs via a secret passage in the garage to see the other children. One died in infancy and Fritzl burned the child's body in the same gas furnace where Rosemary baked biscuits on holidays.

Given the recent trend in such crimes, the main shock factor of Fritzl's story is how long Elizabeth was held captive. Austria witnessed a similar crime only several years ago. Natasha Kampush, who was then 18, ran away from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil after 8 years of confinement. Russia wasn't shocked at the crime itself either. In 2004, Lena and Katya, two girls from Rzyansk, were freed from a vault beneath a garage owned by Viktor Mokhov, a factory worker in Skopin. Back then, their story was beyond comprehension. But today, they seem lucky. Three and a half years of abuse is insignificant compared to Elizabeth's quarter-century of captivity.

Despite several differences, the horrible tales of captivity are nearly identical. The Austrian bunker was in fact much more comfortable than its Russian analogue at 55 square meters with two rooms, a kitchen, a tiled shower and a washing machine. (The Russian bunker was primitive — a 5-square-meter hovel with an electric oven and bucket instead of a toilet.) But Amstetten and Skopin both have a population of 25,000 and seem peaceful rural towns to outsiders. What else ties together the fate of Mokhov, an unmarried Russian who lived with his mother and had no personal life, and Fritzl, an Austrian family man and father to numerous children living near the Alps?

"He did what many people think about doing..."

It would be wrong to say that Skopin and Amstetten are backwards in some way. News reports about similar incidents in France, Belgium, Hungary and Italy have hit kiosks in recent weeks. What unites these criminals who imprison and sexually abuse their victims?

Psychologists say that they crave absolute power. This forces them to build a world that they alone can rule. With one press of a button, Mokhov was able to cut off the ventilation in the small bunker if his victims refused to fulfill his sexual fantasies. Meanwhile, psychologists called Fritzl an egoist after stating that he liked to feel like God. But such an illness falls outside the realm of psychiatric pathologies. Fritzl is more a victim of psychological licentiousness than anything else.

"Fritzl did what many people think about doing," Director of the Sigmund Freud Fund Inga Shultz-Strasser told KP.

But thinking is not doing. Fortunately, few people manifest their sexual fetishes by oppressing others.

Mokhov learned how to build bunkers while watching a documentary film about the criminal Aleksandr Komin. Ten years ago, Komin built a vault where he forcibly kept two slaves. He tattooed the word "SLAVE" on their foreheads and made them stitch robes for his makeshift enterprise. After Mokhov was captured, he confessed that he plagiarized Komin. When Mokhov saw him describing how he built the cell on television, he said to himself: "I can do better than that!"

Nightmare on Fritzl's Street

"We just live far too well. And we're all going mad from the fat," said the salesgirl at the flower shop near Fritzl's home when I asked her if Amstetten was to blame for what happened.

No journalist would have ever stepped foot in the tranquil Amstetten if it wasn't for Fritzl. The town is boring and clean, and the people are beaming and bursting at the seams like overfed tomatoes. Many are willing to give their two cents about the incidents.

"I won't tell you if Fritzl was my client," said a hairdresser in the neighboring building. "Because that would be unethical. And also because my uncle raped me when I was 13 years old."

"When I rented an apartment from Fritzl, I often heard strange sounds coming from the cellar," Elizabeth's schoolmate Alfred Dubanovskiy told journalists.

But it isn't easy to get an inside look into how the investigation is unfolding. The police monitor Fritzl's home 24/7. When people get too close to the property, the police run over and say that they can't proceed any further and have been told not to comment on the incident. Trying to interrogate the neighbors to get details is also pointless. Austrians don't like poking their noses in others' affairs.

Interestingly, it seems that no one knew anything about Fritzl's crime during Elizabeth's captivity. This includes the whole Fritzl family (6 children besides Elizabeth) and all the tenants living in their home. One reason why is that they used the front door of the premises to enter and leave the house. Fritzl, however, pulled his vehicle into the covered garage where he had access to a secret, locked entrance to the basement. As a result, no one saw him taking the washing machine downstairs or regularly bringing up garbage.

Viktor Mokhov wasn't at all concerned with the design. His prisoners had to decorate the walls themselves with gouache.

But there are doubts about the involvement of Fritzl's wife. Did Rosemary really not know what was going on all that time? Oddly enough the entire street says, "No."

"She's such a kind, generous woman!" they say. "She takes her kids to study music and play sports. And her husband is a fop. So spic and span... He acted more like a minister than an electrician!"

Fritzl's neighbors Ingrid and Gertruda, two elderly women, defended Rosemary on camera.

"He was such a tyrant!" they said. "But Rosemary is a good woman who got married at 17!"

The question about what to do with the unfortunate home weighs heavy on the minds of Amstetten residents. The basement can be turned into a museum of horrors, or the past can simply be laid to rest.

"You'll see. Soon something worse will happen and they'll forget all about us!" a pharmacist told us near Fritzl's home.

"This is private property," said Hermann Hruber, an employee at the local mayor's office. "The home has an owner. That individual needs to decide what will happen to the property." So it seems that Fritzl will keep control of the situation even in prison. In Austria, breaching rights to personal property is just as severe an offense as infringing someone's personal freedom. READ MORE

One cannot help but wonder how the drama went unnoticed for so long.

Just imagine the small town of Amstetten, Austria. On a quiet road rests a light blue home with ornate paintings decorating the rooms inside. Here lived Joseph Fritzl, 73 years old, his wife Rosemary and their many children.

But beneath the property's loving facade lies a concrete labyrinth that once housed Fritzl's numerous victims.

Newspapers worldwide recently reported how Fritzl held his daughter Elizabeth captive in his basement for 24 years. Each year she bore him more children. Fritzl brought the three loudest infants upstairs. He told his wife that their daughter had joined a religious sect and left the newborns on their doorstep in the night. In the evenings, Fritzl went downstairs via a secret passage in the garage to see the other children. One died in infancy and Fritzl burned the child's body in the same gas furnace where Rosemary baked biscuits on holidays.

Given the recent trend in such crimes, the main shock factor of Fritzl's story is how long Elizabeth was held captive. Austria witnessed a similar crime only several years ago. Natasha Kampush, who was then 18, ran away from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil after 8 years of confinement. Russia wasn't shocked at the crime itself either. In 2004, Lena and Katya, two girls from Rzyansk, were freed from a vault beneath a garage owned by Viktor Mokhov, a factory worker in Skopin. Back then, their story was beyond comprehension. But today, they seem lucky. Three and a half years of abuse is insignificant compared to Elizabeth's quarter-century of captivity.

Despite several differences, the horrible tales of captivity are nearly identical. The Austrian bunker was in fact much more comfortable than its Russian analogue at 55 square meters with two rooms, a kitchen, a tiled shower and a washing machine. (The Russian bunker was primitive — a 5-square-meter hovel with an electric oven and bucket instead of a toilet.) But Amstetten and Skopin both have a population of 25,000 and seem peaceful rural towns to outsiders. What else ties together the fate of Mokhov, an unmarried Russian who lived with his mother and had no personal life, and Fritzl, an Austrian family man and father to numerous children living near the Alps?

"He did what many people think about doing..."

It would be wrong to say that Skopin and Amstetten are backwards in some way. News reports about similar incidents in France, Belgium, Hungary and Italy have hit kiosks in recent weeks. What unites these criminals who imprison and sexually abuse their victims?

Psychologists say that they crave absolute power. This forces them to build a world that they alone can rule. With one press of a button, Mokhov was able to cut off the ventilation in the small bunker if his victims refused to fulfill his sexual fantasies. Meanwhile, psychologists called Fritzl an egoist after stating that he liked to feel like God. But such an illness falls outside the realm of psychiatric pathologies. Fritzl is more a victim of psychological licentiousness than anything else.

"Fritzl did what many people think about doing," Director of the Sigmund Freud Fund Inga Shultz-Strasser told KP.

But thinking is not doing. Fortunately, few people manifest their sexual fetishes by oppressing others.

Mokhov learned how to build bunkers while watching a documentary film about the criminal Aleksandr Komin. Ten years ago, Komin built a vault where he forcibly kept two slaves. He tattooed the word "SLAVE" on their foreheads and made them stitch robes for his makeshift enterprise. After Mokhov was captured, he confessed that he plagiarized Komin. When Mokhov saw him describing how he built the cell on television, he said to himself: "I can do better than that!"

Nightmare on Fritzl's Street

"We just live far too well. And we're all going mad from the fat," said the salesgirl at the flower shop near Fritzl's home when I asked her if Amstetten was to blame for what happened.

No journalist would have ever stepped foot in the tranquil Amstetten if it wasn't for Fritzl. The town is boring and clean, and the people are beaming and bursting at the seams like overfed tomatoes. Many are willing to give their two cents about the incidents.

"I won't tell you if Fritzl was my client," said a hairdresser in the neighboring building. "Because that would be unethical. And also because my uncle raped me when I was 13 years old."

"When I rented an apartment from Fritzl, I often heard strange sounds coming from the cellar," Elizabeth's schoolmate Alfred Dubanovskiy told journalists.

But it isn't easy to get an inside look into how the investigation is unfolding. The police monitor Fritzl's home 24/7. When people get too close to the property, the police run over and say that they can't proceed any further and have been told not to comment on the incident. Trying to interrogate the neighbors to get details is also pointless. Austrians don't like poking their noses in others' affairs.

Interestingly, it seems that no one knew anything about Fritzl's crime during Elizabeth's captivity. This includes the whole Fritzl family (6 children besides Elizabeth) and all the tenants living in their home. One reason why is that they used the front door of the premises to enter and leave the house. Fritzl, however, pulled his vehicle into the covered garage where he had access to a secret, locked entrance to the basement. As a result, no one saw him taking the washing machine downstairs or regularly bringing up garbage.

Viktor Mokhov wasn't at all concerned with the design. His prisoners had to decorate the walls themselves with gouache.

But there are doubts about the involvement of Fritzl's wife. Did Rosemary really not know what was going on all that time? Oddly enough the entire street says, "No."

"She's such a kind, generous woman!" they say. "She takes her kids to study music and play sports. And her husband is a fop. So spic and span... He acted more like a minister than an electrician!"

Fritzl's neighbors Ingrid and Gertruda, two elderly women, defended Rosemary on camera.

"He was such a tyrant!" they said. "But Rosemary is a good woman who got married at 17!"

The question about what to do with the unfortunate home weighs heavy on the minds of Amstetten residents. The basement can be turned into a museum of horrors, or the past can simply be laid to rest.

"You'll see. Soon something worse will happen and they'll forget all about us!" a pharmacist told us near Fritzl's home.

"This is private property," said Hermann Hruber, an employee at the local mayor's office. "The home has an owner. That individual needs to decide what will happen to the property." So it seems that Fritzl will keep control of the situation even in prison. In Austria, breaching rights to personal property is just as severe an offense as infringing someone's personal freedom. READ MORE

One cannot help but wonder how the drama went unnoticed for so long.

Just imagine the small town of Amstetten, Austria. On a quiet road rests a light blue home with ornate paintings decorating the rooms inside. Here lived Joseph Fritzl, 73 years old, his wife Rosemary and their many children.

But beneath the property's loving facade lies a concrete labyrinth that once housed Fritzl's numerous victims.

Newspapers worldwide recently reported how Fritzl held his daughter Elizabeth captive in his basement for 24 years. Each year she bore him more children. Fritzl brought the three loudest infants upstairs. He told his wife that their daughter had joined a religious sect and left the newborns on their doorstep in the night. In the evenings, Fritzl went downstairs via a secret passage in the garage to see the other children. One died in infancy and Fritzl burned the child's body in the same gas furnace where Rosemary baked biscuits on holidays.

Given the recent trend in such crimes, the main shock factor of Fritzl's story is how long Elizabeth was held captive. Austria witnessed a similar crime only several years ago. Natasha Kampush, who was then 18, ran away from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil after 8 years of confinement. Russia wasn't shocked at the crime itself either. In 2004, Lena and Katya, two girls from Rzyansk, were freed from a vault beneath a garage owned by Viktor Mokhov, a factory worker in Skopin. Back then, their story was beyond comprehension. But today, they seem lucky. Three and a half years of abuse is insignificant compared to Elizabeth's quarter-century of captivity.

Despite several differences, the horrible tales of captivity are nearly identical. The Austrian bunker was in fact much more comfortable than its Russian analogue at 55 square meters with two rooms, a kitchen, a tiled shower and a washing machine. (The Russian bunker was primitive — a 5-square-meter hovel with an electric oven and bucket instead of a toilet.) But Amstetten and Skopin both have a population of 25,000 and seem peaceful rural towns to outsiders. What else ties together the fate of Mokhov, an unmarried Russian who lived with his mother and had no personal life, and Fritzl, an Austrian family man and father to numerous children living near the Alps?

"He did what many people think about doing..."

It would be wrong to say that Skopin and Amstetten are backwards in some way. News reports about similar incidents in France, Belgium, Hungary and Italy have hit kiosks in recent weeks. What unites these criminals who imprison and sexually abuse their victims?

Psychologists say that they crave absolute power. This forces them to build a world that they alone can rule. With one press of a button, Mokhov was able to cut off the ventilation in the small bunker if his victims refused to fulfill his sexual fantasies. Meanwhile, psychologists called Fritzl an egoist after stating that he liked to feel like God. But such an illness falls outside the realm of psychiatric pathologies. Fritzl is more a victim of psychological licentiousness than anything else.

"Fritzl did what many people think about doing," Director of the Sigmund Freud Fund Inga Shultz-Strasser told KP.

But thinking is not doing. Fortunately, few people manifest their sexual fetishes by oppressing others.

Mokhov learned how to build bunkers while watching a documentary film about the criminal Aleksandr Komin. Ten years ago, Komin built a vault where he forcibly kept two slaves. He tattooed the word "SLAVE" on their foreheads and made them stitch robes for his makeshift enterprise. After Mokhov was captured, he confessed that he plagiarized Komin. When Mokhov saw him describing how he built the cell on television, he said to himself: "I can do better than that!"

Nightmare on Fritzl's Street

"We just live far too well. And we're all going mad from the fat," said the salesgirl at the flower shop near Fritzl's home when I asked her if Amstetten was to blame for what happened.

No journalist would have ever stepped foot in the tranquil Amstetten if it wasn't for Fritzl. The town is boring and clean, and the people are beaming and bursting at the seams like overfed tomatoes. Many are willing to give their two cents about the incidents.

"I won't tell you if Fritzl was my client," said a hairdresser in the neighboring building. "Because that would be unethical. And also because my uncle raped me when I was 13 years old."

"When I rented an apartment from Fritzl, I often heard strange sounds coming from the cellar," Elizabeth's schoolmate Alfred Dubanovskiy told journalists.

But it isn't easy to get an inside look into how the investigation is unfolding. The police monitor Fritzl's home 24/7. When people get too close to the property, the police run over and say that they can't proceed any further and have been told not to comment on the incident. Trying to interrogate the neighbors to get details is also pointless. Austrians don't like poking their noses in others' affairs.

Interestingly, it seems that no one knew anything about Fritzl's crime during Elizabeth's captivity. This includes the whole Fritzl family (6 children besides Elizabeth) and all the tenants living in their home. One reason why is that they used the front door of the premises to enter and leave the house. Fritzl, however, pulled his vehicle into the covered garage where he had access to a secret, locked entrance to the basement. As a result, no one saw him taking the washing machine downstairs or regularly bringing up garbage.

Viktor Mokhov wasn't at all concerned with the design. His prisoners had to decorate the walls themselves with gouache.

But there are doubts about the involvement of Fritzl's wife. Did Rosemary really not know what was going on all that time? Oddly enough the entire street says, "No."

"She's such a kind, generous woman!" they say. "She takes her kids to study music and play sports. And her husband is a fop. So spic and span... He acted more like a minister than an electrician!"

Fritzl's neighbors Ingrid and Gertruda, two elderly women, defended Rosemary on camera.

"He was such a tyrant!" they said. "But Rosemary is a good woman who got married at 17!"

The question about what to do with the unfortunate home weighs heavy on the minds of Amstetten residents. The basement can be turned into a museum of horrors, or the past can simply be laid to rest.

"You'll see. Soon something worse will happen and they'll forget all about us!" a pharmacist told us near Fritzl's home.

"This is private property," said Hermann Hruber, an employee at the local mayor's office. "The home has an owner. That individual needs to decide what will happen to the property." So it seems that Fritzl will keep control of the situation even in prison. In Austria, breaching rights to personal property is just as severe an offense as infringing someone's personal freedom. READ MORE

One cannot help but wonder how the drama went unnoticed for so long.

Just imagine the small town of Amstetten, Austria. On a quiet road rests a light blue home with ornate paintings decorating the rooms inside. Here lived Joseph Fritzl, 73 years old, his wife Rosemary and their many children.

But beneath the property's loving facade lies a concrete labyrinth that once housed Fritzl's numerous victims.

Newspapers worldwide recently reported how Fritzl held his daughter Elizabeth captive in his basement for 24 years. Each year she bore him more children. Fritzl brought the three loudest infants upstairs. He told his wife that their daughter had joined a religious sect and left the newborns on their doorstep in the night. In the evenings, Fritzl went downstairs via a secret passage in the garage to see the other children. One died in infancy and Fritzl burned the child's body in the same gas furnace where Rosemary baked biscuits on holidays.

Given the recent trend in such crimes, the main shock factor of Fritzl's story is how long Elizabeth was held captive. Austria witnessed a similar crime only several years ago. Natasha Kampush, who was then 18, ran away from her captor Wolfgang Priklopil after 8 years of confinement. Russia wasn't shocked at the crime itself either. In 2004, Lena and Katya, two girls from Rzyansk, were freed from a vault beneath a garage owned by Viktor Mokhov, a factory worker in Skopin. Back then, their story was beyond comprehension. But today, they seem lucky. Three and a half years of abuse i