Crime Files

Ababy boomer born within sight of San Francisco, Phillip Garrido was convinced that fame lay in his future. As a young man, he believed that he was destined for stardom as a rock musician. As the years passed, the dream faded and was replaced by the idea of becoming a messianic figure. In the end, he did achieve fame of a kind. However, only one person would ever look up to Phillip Garrido: his wife, the woman who had helped him carry out his despicable crimes.

Phillip Craig Garrido entered the world on 5 April 1951 in Contra Costa County. His father Manuel, a forklift operator, provided a modest, yet comfortable home. Little is known about Phillip’s childhood, in part due to the fact that his father demands money in exchange for information about his son.

That said, Phillip’s early years may indeed be inconsequential. It may just be that they weren’t formative in creating the monster who would become fodder for television newscasts. No, according to some who knew Phillip, his anti-social, dangerous behaviour began with a motorcycle accident he’d suffered as a teenager. On this, even his father was willing to share an opinion. According to Manuel, before the tragic event, Phillip had been a ‘good boy’. After? Well, Phillip became uncontrollable and started to take drugs.

Despite his wild behaviour, Phillip graduated from local Liberty High School with the rest of his class. The year was 1969, a time when American counterculture was pervasive. Phillip appeared to embrace it all. He grew his hair, bought a fringed leather jacket, and played bass in a psychedelic rock group. But in reality, the young high school graduate wanted little to do with peace and love. Eighteen years old, Phillip had already committed his first act of rape, and would regularly beat his girlfriend, Christine Perreira.

When his trap was set, Phillip took four tabs of LSD and attacked the woman whom he’d been stalking for so long. Due to his drugged state, she managed to fight him off

In 1972, he was charged with the rape of a 14-year-old girl whom he had plied with barbiturates. Phillip avoided doing time in prison when the girl refused to testify. What the authorities did not realize at the time was that they might have nailed the young man on another charge – Phillip had become one of the busiest drug dealers in Contra Costa County.

Garrido’s idea of romance did not involve consent

Once clear of the rape charge, Phillip married Christine. The young couple settled 300 km (185 miles) northeast in South Lake Tahoe. In the small city, drugs were no longer Phillip’s primary source of income. Christine got a job dealing cards at Harrah’s Casino, while her husband pursued his dream of becoming a rock star.

Perverted plan

Three years passed, and vinyl glory still eluded Phillip. Each day was blanketed in a haze induced by a combination of marijuana, cocaine and LSD. He would spend hours masturbating while watching elementary school girls across the street, but the real object of his interest was a woman.

Phillip had been following her for months, during which he developed a very elaborate plan, which he set in motion by renting a warehouse in Reno, 100 km (60 miles) to the south. He then fixed up the space, hanging rugs for soundproofing. A mattress was brought in, as were satin sheets, bottles of wine and an extensive collection of pornographic magazines.

When his trap was set, Phillip took four tabs of LSD and attacked the woman whom he’d been stalking for so long. However, due to his drugged state, she managed to fight him off. Frustrated, Phillip drove to Harrah’s, where he asked one of his wife’s coworkers, Katie Calloway Hall, for a ride home.

Katie was not as lucky as the intended victim. She ended up being raped repeatedly in Phillip’s Reno warehouse. After eight hours of pain and humiliation, Katie was rescued by a police officer whose eye had been drawn to the door, which had been left ajar.

Garrido and Nancy Bocanegra were married by the prison chaplain at Fort Leavenworth and vouchsafed conjugal visits

This time, Christine did not stand by Phillip. After her husband’s arrest, she severed all ties. The divorce came through just as Phillip was beginning a 50-year prison sentence in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Carl Probyn watched in horror as his 11-year-old stepdaughter was dragged into a grey sedan. No one was able to supply the licence plate number of the car that sped away

However, for Phillip, romance was still in the air. Behind bars he began corresponding with the niece of a fellow inmate, Nancy Bocanegra, four years his junior. In 1981, the two were married in a ceremony that was conducted by the prison chaplain. Phillip was not yet one tenth of the way through his sentence. When not enjoying conjugal visits with Nancy, he would study psychology and theology. Religion, it seemed, became the focus of his life. A Catholic by birth, he converted, becoming a Jehovah’s Witness. Phillip’s extreme devotion to the denomination was cited by the prison psychologist as an indication that he would commit no further crimes.

Phillip was granted parole in 1988. With Nancy, he returned to South Lake Tahoe, where they spent nearly three uneventful years.

On 10 June 1991, Phillip’s prison psychologist would be proven wrong. That morning, a man named Carl Probyn watched in horror as his 11-year-old stepdaughter was dragged into a grey sedan. He was not alone – several of the girl’s friends had also witnessed the abduction – and yet no one was able to provide the licence plate number of the car that sped away.

The girl, Jaycee Dugard, soon found herself living in sheds, tents and under tarpaulins in the backyard of a house in Contra Costa County. The property belonged to Phillip’s mother, who was then suffering from dementia. Eventually, the old woman would be shipped off to a chronic care hospital. Jaycee, of course, remained on the property, where she would be subjected to 18 years of sexual abuse at Phillip’s hands.

She bore her captor two children, both daughters, born in August of 1994 and November of 1997. Both would come to describe Jaycee as an older sister. It is unknown whether or not they knew the truth.

The girl’s nightmare could have ended earlier. Phillip fell under the watchful eyes of his neighbours when it was discovered that he was a registered sex offender.

In 2006, one of the watchful called police to report that Phillip, a ‘psychotic sex addict’, had a woman and several children living under tents in his backyard. A sheriff’s deputy dispatched to investigate interviewed Phillip on his front porch; he did not bother to look at the backyard, nor did he run a background check.

Victim Jaycee Dugard revealed that her kidnappers had told her she had been abducted ‘as help for Garrido’s sex problem’

Two years later, police were again on Phillip’s property, accompanied by firefighters who had been called in to put out a blaze.

Weird and frightening

The actions of law enforcement officers might be considered lazy or negligent, but they paled beside the ineptitude displayed by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. As a convicted sex offender, Phillip was visited regularly by department employees. All the visits, both scheduled and unscheduled, took place while Jaycee was in the backyard. In nearly two decades, not one department agent would bother investigating Phillip’s collection of tents, tarpaulins and sheds.

The authorities might not have thought Phillip was a suspicious character, but those who saw him on a daily basis found him weird and just a little frightening. Neighbourhood parents told their children to keep away from his house. He ran a print shop, Printing for Less, but his behaviour ensured that he had few repeat customers. Those who gave him business would often find themselves subjected to bizarre ramblings. Phillip, the self-proclaimed ‘Man Who Spoke with his Mind’, would speak of how he could control sound with his mind. Some customers were privileged enough to be shown a machine, through which the printer claimed he could communicate with God. Others might be treated to recordings of songs that Phillip had written about his attraction to underage girls.

Phillip kept a blog, titled ‘Voices Revealed’, through which he attempted to convince others of his special relationship with God. The outlet seemed to encourage further writing. In August of 2009, he walked into the San Francisco offices of the FBI to hand-deliver two weighty tomes he had written: ‘The Origin of Schizophrenia Revealed’ and ‘Stepping into the Light’. The latter was a personal story in which Phillip detailed how it was that he had come to triumph over his violent sexual urges. Intent on helping others to do the same, he approached Lisa Campbell, a special events coordinator at the University of California, Berkeley, with the idea of a lecture. Phillip was not alone when he made his proposal. Both his daughters sat in on the meeting, listening intently as their father spoke about his deviant past and the rapes he had committed.

Those who gave Garrido business would be subjected to bizarre ramblings. Some customers were privileged to be shown a machine, through which he claimed he could communicate with God. Others might be treated to recordings of songs he had written about his attraction to underage girls…

It was Campbell’s report of the strange behaviour to Phillip’s parole officer that at long last brought an end to Jaycee’s nightmare.

Moment of truth

When confronted, on 26 August 2009, Phillip admitted to kidnapping Jaycee, adding that he was the father of her children. Both he and Nancy were taken into custody.

On 28 April 2011, Phillip pleaded guilty to Jaycee’s kidnapping, as well as 13 counts of sexual assault. Sitting next to her husband, Nancy pleaded guilty to the kidnapping, and one charge of aiding and abetting a sexual assault. In court, both Phillip’s and Nancy’s lawyers portrayed their respective clients as good souls. After 1997, the year in which they both found God, the couple had dedicated themselves to Jaycee and the children – or so the claim went.

Nancy Garrido pleaded guilty to kidnapping as well as to aiding and abetting a sexual assault.

Phillip hoped that his confession would win Nancy a lighter sentence. Whether or not he was successful is a matter of debate. What is certain, however, is that Nancy’s sentence was not nearly as harsh as that of her husband. Where Phillip received a term amounting to 431 years, Nancy was sentenced to 36 years in prison. Should she live a long life, Nancy Garrido will be 90 when she leaves prison.

Breakthrough: Bizarre behaviour at the University of California, Berkeley

Behaviour in court: Quiet

Plea for the defence: ‘It’s a disgusting thing that took place with me at the beginning, but I turned my life completely around.’

Victim’s statement: ‘Phillip Garrido, you are wrong. I could never say that to you before, but I have the freedom now. Everything you have ever done to me has been wrong and some day I hope you can see that.’

Sentence: 431 years