Relatives of the Cleveland man who allegedly held three women captive for nearly a decade recounted claims of his unnerving paranoia and violent outbursts as DNA testing confirmed he is the father of a 6-year-old girl who also escaped from the house.
Ariel Castro, charged with rape and kidnapping, remained jailed yesterday under a suicide watch on USD 8 million bond while prosecutors weighed more charges, including some that might carry the death penalty.
Public defender Kathleen Demetz, who said she is acting as Castro's adviser while he awaits a full-time attorney, said yesterday she can't speak to his guilt or innocence and said only that she advised him not to talk to reporters.
But those who know the 52-year-old Castro are speaking up, saying he was often angry, paranoid and prone to violent outbursts against the now-dead mother of his adult children.
He frequently beat her, played bizarre psychological games and locked her indoors, they said.
The stories, repeated in separate interviews with The Associated Press by members of Castro's extended family, have surprised people who knew him as a musician who played bass in several bands around Cleveland the last two decades.
Miguel Quinones, manager of a group Castro played with twice as a backup bass player about five years ago, said he had nothing bad to say about Castro based on his own experiences.
But in the interviews, some of Castro's ex-relatives said he frequently flashed his compulsions for secrecy and terrifying rage that often led him to beat his common-law wife.
Two of the women freed from Castro's home, including the one who gave birth to the girl, returned to relatives' houses earlier this week. The third woman was released from a hospital yesterday with a request that her privacy be respected.
