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Philadelphia (CNN) -- At first, a Philadelphia landlord said, he thought one of his tenants was attempting to conceal a dog after finding a dog dish in the basement of his apartment building.But on a return trip to the basement Saturday, Turgut Gozleveli found something much more sinister: four mentally disabled people held captive, including one man chained to a radiator.
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Three charged after four are found chained in Philadelphia
By Mike Newall
Inquirer Staff Writer
Three people - including a woman who served eight years in prison for starving to death a man held in the closet of her North Philadelphia apartment in 1981 - were charged Sunday with holding four mentally challenged adults chained in the cellar of a Tacony apartment house for weeks in an alleged scheme to steal their Social Security checks.
The alleged ringleader, Linda Ann Weston, 51, served eight years in the starvation death of Bernardo Ramos, 25, after he refused to support her sister's unborn child.
Also arrested was Weston's boyfriend, Thomas Gregory, 47, of North Philadelphia, and Eddie Wright, 49, a homeless man who neighbors said called himself a reverend.
All three were charged with criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and related charges. But investigators said Sunday they expected more charges to be filed in a criminal scheme that stretched back at least a year and reached to Florida and Texas.
All three were awaiting a bail hearing Sunday night.
The alleged victims - three men and a woman ranging in age from 29 to 41 - were treated for malnutrition and put in the care of mental-health officials. Police said they were being interviewed with the help of mental-health experts.
"What went on was pure evil," said Lt. Ray Evers, a Philadelphia police spokesman.
Police said they were alerted to the basement by Turgut Gozleveli, landlord of the apartment house at 4724 Longshore Ave.
On Sunday, Gozleveli said he had checked the basement three times last week after a neighbor complained of suspicious people coming and going.
He said that on Thursday, he noticed some furniture in the dank cellar had been moved. On Friday, he found a dog dish. On Saturday, the ceiling lights wouldn't turn on because the bulbs were missing.
He followed the sound of a barking dog down three steps to an old coal room, where he unwrapped a rusted chain from around the door handle and shined his flashlight into the tiny dirt-floor space.
"There were two little dogs and blankets," Gozleveli said. "And from the blankets, people's faces just started coming up."
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/201110...cmpid=125219969
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Three charged after four are found chained in Philadelphia
By Mike Newall
Inquirer Staff Writer
Three people - including a woman who served eight years in prison for starving to death a man held in the closet of her North Philadelphia apartment in 1981 - were charged Sunday with holding four mentally challenged adults chained in the cellar of a Tacony apartment house for weeks in an alleged scheme to steal their Social Security checks.
The alleged ringleader, Linda Ann Weston, 51, served eight years in the starvation death of Bernardo Ramos, 25, after he refused to support her sister's unborn child.
Also arrested was Weston's boyfriend, Thomas Gregory, 47, of North Philadelphia, and Eddie Wright, 49, a homeless man who neighbors said called himself a reverend.
All three were charged with criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, kidnapping, and related charges. But investigators said Sunday they expected more charges to be filed in a criminal scheme that stretched back at least a year and reached to Florida and Texas.
All three were awaiting a bail hearing Sunday night.
The alleged victims - three men and a woman ranging in age from 29 to 41 - were treated for malnutrition and put in the care of mental-health officials. Police said they were being interviewed with the help of mental-health experts.
"What went on was pure evil," said Lt. Ray Evers, a Philadelphia police spokesman.
Police said they were alerted to the basement by Turgut Gozleveli, landlord of the apartment house at 4724 Longshore Ave.
On Sunday, Gozleveli said he had checked the basement three times last week after a neighbor complained of suspicious people coming and going.
He said that on Thursday, he noticed some furniture in the dank cellar had been moved. On Friday, he found a dog dish. On Saturday, the ceiling lights wouldn't turn on because the bulbs were missing.
He followed the sound of a barking dog down three steps to an old coal room, where he unwrapped a rusted chain from around the door handle and shined his flashlight into the tiny dirt-floor space.
"There were two little dogs and blankets," Gozleveli said. "And from the blankets, people's faces just started coming up."
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/201110...cmpid=125219969
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