Doug Thorburn, addiction expert, addiction contrarian and author of the recently released Alcoholism: Myths and Realities: Removing the Stigma of Society's Most Destructive Disease, has devoted his Top Story of the Month to the case of Phillip Garrido and his wife, who kidnapped, imprisoned, brain-washed and sexually abuse 14-year old Jaycee Lee Dugard. For 18 years Jaycee Lee was raped repeatedly, gave birth to two children (in the house), never saw doctors or went to school and was subjected to the type of brainwashing that, as revealed on October 5, that, while willing to testify against them in court, she "still loves both of them so much that I wish I could be with them."

Here is the Top Story of the October 2009 Thorburn Addiction Report:

http://www.preventragedy.com

Read Doug Thorburun's Top Story of the Month about the notorious Phillip Garrido, who will undoubtedly spend the rest of his days behind bars. 

There's an addict behind almost every crime, especially heinous ones. Phillip Garrido, who kidnapped and raped 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard, is no different from the rest. The only question is whether he was a dry or active drunk.

Phillip Craig Garrido, 58, a registered sex offender and parolee, was recently arrested for having abducted 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991 and holding her in captivity ever since. While their Antioch, California neighbors knew something was "off" about him, they saw only an overgrown backyard filled with sheds and tents and never detected the wailing or screaming one might expect of an abductee. Instead, they occasionally heard children, who "sounded normal."

The neighbors had no idea that Dugard gave birth to these children while in captivity and that Garrido, who raped her repeatedly, was the father. Incredibly, the parole officers who regularly visited Garrido never searched anywhere other than inside the house. When a neighbor called 911 in 2006 reporting that people were living in the backyard and Garrido was "psychotic and had a sexual addiction," the responding deputy, who was never told that Garrido was on parole, didn't even enter the house. When members of a multi-agency task force paid a surprise visit to Garrido's home in 2008 as part of a sex offender compliance check, they searched every room, but didn't step foot in the "vast, tree-cloaked" backyard.

The Garrido case is all the more remarkable considering he was on parole for kidnapping in 1976, for which he served only 11 years of a combined 50-year sentence for kidnapping and five years-to-life for sexual assault. But we enter the world of the truly bizarre with his wife, Nancy Garrido, 54, whom he met and married while in prison over two decades ago. She is accused of pulling the young screaming Dugard into their Ford Granada 18 years ago; she was with him while parole officers paid visits to their home; she was married to him while he sexually assaulted Dugard and fathered her children and helped "raise" them (if one can call it that).

At his 1977 federal trial, Garrido testified he took four hits of LSD after seizing a 25-year-old woman from a South Lake Tahoe parking lot, after which he repeatedly raped her in a Reno, Nevada storage unit in November, 1976, which was described by a Reno police detective as a "sex palace," with a bed, various sex aids, stage lights and wine. Garrido admitted to "copious" use of LSD, along with cocaine, marijuana, hashish and "other drugs" from as early as 1968.

I've long suspected that addiction triggers all sorts of what appear to be personality disorders, which usually dissipate quickly in early sobriety. A study cited in "Drunks, Drugs & Debits: How to Recognize Addicts and Avoid Financial Abuse" found that 70% of addicts in recovery who had been diagnosed with personality disorders could not be so diagnosed after two or three months of sobriety. On the other hand, methamphetamine can trigger schizophrenia, from which the afflicted sometimes never recover. Garrido was known to neighborhood kids as "Creepy Phil," and was reported to ramble nonsensically, which can be a symptom of schizophrenia. Unfortunately, he was dismissed as "kind of nutty," but no longer dangerous.

After being behind bars only a short time after his earlier arrest, he wrote a letter to the judge in which he blamed drugs for his "downfall". There are unconfirmed reports of recent heroin use. It would be shocking to find that the Garridos were not on something. On the other hand, his early addiction may simply have triggered one or more personality disorders from which he never recovered. If he was not recently using drugs, he obviously never went through the 12-step program, every step of which is designed to deflate the ego, which tells the addict "I am God." He still thought he was God, whether using or not.

Nancy reportedly has a history of drug addiction as well. She was fired from one job after failing a random drug test. One co-worker said she heard from "mutual friends she took a lot of pills, smoked weed and used heroin." If she used, he probably did as well.

Addiction can often be found where not even suspected by observing relatively innocuous misbehaviors, such as the belittling of others. Since the Garridos' behaviors are beyond monstrous, addiction is highly probable even if we don't get the satisfaction of absolute proof.

TO COMMENT to the author, send your email via the website, http://www.preventragedy.com or write to Doug Thorburn, P.O. Box 7777, Northridge, CA 91327-7777

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