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Turpins 4: 2 Monsters, 13 Victims and Now an Interview!


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Continued from here:

 

Edited by nelliebelle1197
edited title as there is new information
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Re: The Turpins and the Rodrigues family.

I  went down the rabbit hole and learned more than I needed to know about the Rodrigues (and enjoyed some nice thread drift about ballet shoes).   I see the similarities in that both families have narcissistic, self-aggrandizing moms, but otherwise I would not say that the Turpins make me think of the Rodrigues family.

The Turpins seem to be the opposite of grifters.  They tried to portray themselves as better off than they really were.  

The Turpins isolated themselves. They did not seem interested in taking their children many places. In fact, they largely hid their family except for a few carefully staged “photo ops” at Disney or Vegas.  The Rodrigues seem to go a lot of places with their kids.

And DT seems to have brought a decent income home. Unlike the Rodrigues dad, he held a steady job.

The Rod kids are definitely exploited and neglected, but they don’t seem to be victims of deliberate cruelty.  They are not starved or forbidden to bathe.  

This isn’t to say much, of course. ;)

 

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I agree.  I think Jill R. is a horrible and narcissistic person and I deeply pity her family.  However, I think we risk trivializing the years of imprisonment, torture, abuse, and starvation that the Turpin children and young adults went through if we compare the two families lightly.

We don't know yet which Turpin parent is responsible for their conditions, and it could be a folie a deux situation, but I think comparisons to Papa Pilgrim Hale are more appropriate here.

The case still has to go to trial, and perhaps we will find out more then.

And I don't think that was a troll so much as a little wannabe Theonomist lamb that had SEVERELY lost his way.  Baa, baa, baa.

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I miss the troll...I have more aggravation to take out on someone

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Yeah, I don’t think he was a deliberate troll, just an accidental one.   He was looking for support and admiration, not a fight.  

Unfortunately, he ended up behaving like a troll. (That is, he tried to “challenge” without being willing to be challenged himself.)  I don’t think he knew what he was getting into.  I still wonder how he got here.

As for the Turpins, I like your point @Palimpsest  that notwithstanding  the parallels with some of the families followed here, the Turpin’s story is much worse and the suffering of the Turpin kids is probably beyond what most of these other narcissistic quiverfullers  inflict on their unfortunate offspring.

That being said, the  influence of patriarchal “Christianity” on the perversion of parenting that the Turpins are guilty of is worth recognizing.  

Though there is (so far) no suggestion that they justified starving their children on religious grounds, it is probable that both were familiar with with-holding food/enforced fasting as a punishment that was justified as being a way to cleanse the soul of things of “the world.”  Both Elizabeth Flores (LT’s sis) and Randy Turpin (DT’s brother) have written about spiritual cleansing through (voluntary) fasting.   

The same is true of the “spare the rod and spoil the child,” mentality that allowed and encouraged them to physically abuse their kids.  Even if the Turpins gave up their allegiance to Christian “teachings” at some point, they were shaped by that world.

The similarities we see with “our” fundies are there because a lot of the quiverful philosophy of parenting is so toxic. 

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30 minutes ago, EmCatlyn said:

 Both Elizabeth Flores (LT’s sis) and Randy Turpin (DT’s brother) have written about spiritual cleansing through (voluntary) fasting.   

Yes.  And all of this, and more, has been codified by Michael Pearl in To Train Up a Child.  The book that is commonly cited in Quiverfull and Fundamentalist families, and has even made inroads in comparatively mainstream evangelical families.

The book whose recommended methods of training have been responsible for three deaths (that we know of) so far.  Also for countless cases of child abuse and serious lasting emotional and physical harm, if not actual homicides.  

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Quote

  On 5/3/2018 at 2:35 PM, zeebaneighba said:

Quote

Bwahahaha!  I might need that one, too.

Buuuuuy iiiiiiiit. And buy me one, too. 

Excuse, me, I have TWO gift-receiving occasions coming up soon!  Your next one isn't until October!

(Sorry for resurrecting the drift. folks)

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Charges of perjury against David Turpin were filed this week.  Apparently he perjured himself on documents claiming that the kids were getting an education (classes and assessments).

 

Turpin Case in Court

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Having  just watched the SVU episode Inspired by the Turpin case, I have to say that they did a crummy job.  It overlooked the key point about the kids’ isolation and general familial dysfunction, focusing instead on a father with guns and an apocalyptic vision.  There was some weird suggestion that the kiddults were incestous (wasn’t followed up) and some contrived opportunities to repeat ( without the right context) stuff about the disgusting house and the kids marching at night (also not explained).  And did I mention guns?

They shouldn’t have rushed to get the episode out this season.  They could have done better. (I liked the Duggar inspired one a few years back much better.)

 

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41 minutes ago, EmCatlyn said:

Having  just watched the SVU episode Inspired by the Turpin case, I have to say that they did a crummy job.  It overlooked the key point about the kids’ isolation and general familial dysfunction, focusing instead on a father with guns and an apocalyptic vision.  There was some weird suggestion that the kiddults were incestous (wasn’t followed up) and some contrived opportunities to repeat ( without the right context) stuff about the disgusting house and the kids marching at night (also not explained).  And did I mention guns?

They shouldn’t have rushed to get the episode out this season.  They could have done better. (I liked the Duggar inspired one a few years back much better.)

 

SVU doesn’t usually stick perfectly to the real life case. 

Edited by JermajestyDuggar
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3 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

SVU doesn’t usually stick perfectly to the real like case. 

They always change it well enough away from the real case, it's usually more that you can tell that the producers got an idea for an episode from a real life case but then they change pretty much all the details. 

Even in the "Duggar inspired" episode, it turns out in the episode that while the parents thought it was their son who had molested his sisters and tried to cover it up, it was actually the Pastor of the family who had been abusing the girls and impregnated two of them. That's not what happened with the Duggars at all but you can tell they got an idea from it being revealed that Josh Duggar molested his sisters.

In the case of the Turpins, we don't really know that much about what happened yet. We have family members theorizing about motives or whatever and we have the state the kids were found in but we don't know that much. It would be bad form to make the case in the episode to close to what we know about the Turpins in case they get it too right or too wrong (both would have repercussions). 

They even mention the Turpins as another case in the episode, like, "Is this another case like the Turpins?" And it turns out it is not just like that case.

 

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I want to say that SVU (the entire L&O franchise, really) makes adjustments to the story so they don't get sued. If a story is *kind of* like the Turpins but different enough to protect any victims' privacy and safety, I'm okay with it.

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10 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

SVU doesn’t usually stick perfectly to the real life case. 

Of course not.  But they are generally more “graceful” in their adaptation.  At least, in my opinion.

It is not that they didn’t follow the “real” case.  It is that they took a couple of ideas from the news and tied them together with a plot that had nothing new and a few loose ends.  

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10 hours ago, Aine said:

They always change it well enough away from the real case, it's usually more that you can tell that the producers got an idea for an episode from a real life case but then they change pretty much all the details. 

Even in the "Duggar inspired" episode, it turns out in the episode that while the parents thought it was their son who had molested his sisters and tried to cover it up, it was actually the Pastor of the family who had been abusing the girls and impregnated two of them. That's not what happened with the Duggars at all but you can tell they got an idea from it being revealed that Josh Duggar molested his sisters.

In the case of the Turpins, we don't really know that much about what happened yet. We have family members theorizing about motives or whatever and we have the state the kids were found in but we don't know that much. It would be bad form to make the case in the episode to close to what we know about the Turpins in case they get it too right or too wrong (both would have repercussions). 

They even mention the Turpins as another case in the episode, like, "Is this another case like the Turpins?" And it turns out it is not just like that case.

 

I guess I didn’t explain myself well.  When they did the Duggar-inspired episode, they had a real sense of how “fundies” think and might behave. The purity ball stuff, the way the daughters interacted, etc. was very well handled. I can think of a couple of other “real life inspired” cases where they have done equally well.  The problem with the “Turpin inspired” episode is (in my opinion) that the plot was not well-developed or credible.

Why would an apocalyptic maniac chain his kids? The motive has to be more than just “discipline.”  How likely is it that sons who have been taught to shoot guns are going to let themselves be starved and chained? There is no follow up on the mention of sibling incest. There is no good explanation for the “marching”— usually SVU does a better job.

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On 5/6/2018 at 4:13 PM, Walking Cat Bed said:

I want to say that SVU (the entire L&O franchise, really) makes adjustments to the story so they don't get sued. If a story is *kind of* like the Turpins but different enough to protect any victims' privacy and safety, I'm okay with it.

This is it exactly.  There were issues with a story line years ago.

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  • 1 month later...

I read about the 911 call.  Sigh.

I cannot imagine being one of the people who arrived on the scene.  I just cannot.

 

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I have had very strong feelings about this case from the beginning. My husband and I took in a child who was willingly signed over to us by her bio mom. She had a shitty and abusive past but led a privileged life compared to these poor Turpin children. 

As I've been reading, I've been snuggling our newest rescue dog (well, it's been a year–she's ours now). Her previous owners apparently didn't want her and dumped her and her sister off on a busy street in our nearest city. I still can't help but feel that those people actually had more compassion for this dog that these Turpin monsters did for their children. At least they dumped this dog in a place where people would find her and give her food and care. I don't understand the mindset behind people (some fundies, some not) where they just have kid after kid after kid only just to abuse/neglect/ignore them. 

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The hearing will conclude today.  More details here:

https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/06/20/turpin-case-hushed-courtroom-audience-hears-a-cry-for-help-on-911-call/

Except, my bolding:

Quote

 

While many of the accusations, such as assault, shackling of the children to their beds and extreme malnourishment were made immediately after the Turpins’ arrests, testimony from investigators who interviewed the Turpin children described the alleged crimes in more specific detail.

Photos taken by the 17-year-old of two sisters bound by chains on their wrists, and photos shot by investigators of three of the children’s’ soiled clothes, including underwear, were made public for the first time.

And testimony suggested that Louise Turpin was in charge of meting out punishment for misbehavior, which included what one child described as “stealing” food from the kitchen because the child was hungry or using social media to watch a Justin Bieber video.

Violations could get a child struck in the head, hair pulled, thrown down a flight of stairs or paddled — with progressively harsher punishment for subsequent infractions. Those included being placed in a locked 7-foot by 5-foot “cage,” and, after a couple of the children escaped, a smaller, locked kennel-style container.

“I don’t know much about my mom. She doesn’t like us,” the girl said in the 911 call.

During the call, the girl struggles with the Perris address. Apparently reading off a letter sent to her mother, the girl reads off the address as 925705574 — the ZIP-plus-four code for her home at 160 Muir Woods Road. She also has trouble spelling the family name.

“I’ve never been out. I don’t go out much,”  she told the operator. She said she was 17 but had only a first-grade level education.

Investigators testified that several of the children told them that they rarely attended the private school set up by David Turpin, who listed himself as principal. The perjury charges are related to the documents he filed with the state Department of Education that claim he was running a full-time school.

The Turpins sat stoically throughout most of the testimony. David, his previously long hair cut to above the ears, used a pencil to take notes on a legal pad.

Years of rope, chain restraint

The adult son later told an investigator he had been either restrained with ropes or chains at Turpin homes in Murrieta, then Perris, “off and on” for 6 ½ years, a detective testified. Other children told investigators that they were chained weeks at a time, released only to eat, use the bathroom or brush their teeth.

One of the children told an investigator that after thefts of food and other items, David wanted to chain all the children to end the stealing. But Louise talked him into chaining only the perpetrators and others of her choice.

 

I wonder whether these monster parents are going to try to throw each other under the bus.

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1 hour ago, Palimpsest said:

The hearing will conclude today.  More details here:

https://www.dailybreeze.com/2018/06/20/turpin-case-hushed-courtroom-audience-hears-a-cry-for-help-on-911-call/

Except, my bolding:

I wonder whether these monster parents are going to try to throw each other under the bus.

 I would say yes, but these people are beyond comprehension. Anything is possible. 

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It seems like they are turning on each other.  The People article had different quotes and details about their schedule.  But David's lawyers are pointing the finger at Louise since she was in charge while he was at work/working.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/house-of-horrors-6-harrowing-revelations-as-investigators-describe-alleged-abuse/ar-AAyV1Jr?ocid=ientp

Quote

The teenage daughter spent “about 20 hours a day” in her room, Campos said. She slept for 15 hours or more and would play with her Barbie dolls and write songs and stories, he said. Four older siblings, all of whom were at least 20 years old, were allowed to leave their rooms and spend time together in the house, according to Campos.

Campos said that the 17-year-old said the siblings did not eat breakfast and that, eventually, they were served one meal a day “because of their schedule.” “They weren’t awake long enough to separate the meals” between lunch and dinner, the girl explained, according to Campos.

Once the food was ready, the oldest daughter would tell Louise and the other kids “would come out one at a time and eat and then return to the bedroom.” Hestrin, the prosecutor, told reporters in January that the Turpin family appeared to adhere to a bizarre schedule of sleeping all day and being awake at night. According to Campos’ testimony, the teenage Turpin daughter said she would wake up at 11 p.m. and go to sleep again around 3 a.m. She said she slept so much because “that was part of their schedule.” According to Campos’ testimony, the 17-year-old said that, at her mother’s decision, her father “was on a day shift and whatever his schedule was they would make it their sleeping schedule.”

 

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1 hour ago, SuperSluth said:

It seems like they are turning on each other.  The People article had different quotes and details about their schedule.  But David's lawyers are pointing the finger at Louise since she was in charge while he was at work/working.

Yes.  That is quite reminiscent of the Williams case.  Blame Mom.

Quote

“I take care of myself and mother finds food for us, but we never talk.” Instead, both the 17-year-old and other siblings described their mom as a volatile and violent figure — a picture of her that David’s defense attorney seemed to seize on during Wednesday’s hearing, implying she was the driving force in the alleged abuse.

Goodness knows, but David stood by and allowed it so he is also culpable.  And AFAWK, David does not have a history of abuse.  Louise does have a history of abuse.  Apparently.

That is not an excuse but it is a mitigating factor, IMO.  She should still go to prison and never have contact with her children again.

On one level I hope this goes to trial.  On another, I hope the Turpins plead guilty.  The siblings are not going to have to testify at this hearing.  They will probably have to testify if it goes to trial.

 

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‘Yes, you do. You want to die’: More disturbing details revealed in California child-abuse case - The Washington Post https://apple.news/AN1yI0oDWQxyGlnH-RTJj-w

Another article with evidence of Louise as primary physical abuser, though David was clearly negligent. The article also mentions that a great deal of the kids’ journals have been recovered (surprised they were allowed to write honestly). 

The quote in the headline is in reference to what Louise said to a teenage daughter after the daughter was caught watching a Justin Bieber music video and Louise threatened her with wanting to go to Hell and die.

absolutely crazy deplorable shit 

Edited by neurogirl
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Louise smirking the way she did at the first court appearance gave me a horrible feeling about her, I believe she was the one driving the abuse but David let her and joined in. They both deserve to spend a long time behind bars and should not be allowed near any of the kids again. 

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There is no way he should be able to get away with claiming he didn't know anything about all this abuse, or that it was nothing to do with him - no way the fact the kids were caged and chained and starved could possibly be hidden like that from someone living in the house.

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  • nelliebelle1197 changed the title to Turpins 4: 2 Monsters, 13 Victims and Now an Interview!

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