by John Glatt
He then produced his black box affidavit for her to sign anyway, becoming angry when she refused.
“I didn’t want to sign one,” said Christenson. “He was mad at me because he wanted to bring that box, so I could hear the voice. And I just said no.”
Several months later, Christenson took her children Erika, twenty-six, and Cary, fourteen, with her to collect a print order at Phillip Garrido’s house. When there was no answer at the front door, they walked over to the side, peeking over the fence into the backyard.
“We were on the fence when he came out,” Maria recalled. “And he got very upset and told us to get back in the car, because he had a vicious dog.”
While they waited in the car for Garrido to bring them the order, Erika begged her mother to leave immediately, saying it was just too creepy and weird.
“I just told them,” recalled Christenson, “ ‘That guy’s a Jesus freak. He’s harmless.’ ”
Around that time, David Bocanegra called to see how his sister Nancy was doing. She now hardly ever spoke to her family, and on the rare occasions she did, Phillip was always there hovering in the background.
During their conversation, Nancy seemed very excited as she told her brother that Phillip had invented a black box that allowed him to talk to God.
“It was just really off the wall,” said David. “I couldn’t believe my sister was with this guy that was just nuts.”
On August 22, Phillip Garrido brought eight signed Declarations of Affirmation to a notary public to be officially witnessed. Later most of his clients would deny ever signing them.
In an attached affidavit, Garrido swore under oath that each client had signed and dated it under their own free will.
“I state that each individual,” read his affidavit, “clearly witnessed myself demonstrate the freedom to control and produce a set of voices unearthly in nature.
“I willingly assume full legal responsibility under the laws of perjury in the state of California that protect all humans from deliberately providing false or misleading testimony.”
In late November, Damon Robinson and his girlfriend, Erika Pratt, rented Jack Medeiros’s house, which Garrido had been taking care of. When Robinson moved in he was surprised to find all the locks had been turned around, preventing the doors being opened from the inside. Although the property was supposed to have been vacant for the last three years, it was obvious somebody had been living there, as there was a mattress and other old furniture in the living room.
On November 30, Erika Pratt was showing a girlfriend around their new home, when they looked over the fence into the Garridos’ backyard. And to their surprise they saw two little blonde-haired girls, who were obviously living in a tatty collection of sheds and tents. They also saw several pit bulls roaming around.
“He had little girls and women living in that backyard,” Pratt, twenty-five, later told the San Francisco Chronicle, “and they all looked kind of the same. They never talked and they kept to themselves.”
“Freaked out” by what she had seen, Pratt called her boyfriend, who told her to call the police.
She then called 911, reporting her neighbor Phillip Garrido was a “religious psychotic with a sex addiction,” with young children living in tents in his backyard.
A deputy from the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department was duly dispatched to 1554 Walnut Avenue to investigate. He questioned Garrido in his front yard, never asking to enter the backyard, as he did not consider there was any reason to do so.
But before leaving, he did warn Garrido about possible code violations if he had people living outside in a residential neighborhood.
Then the deputy, who had no idea that Phillip Garrido was a registered sex offender on parole for rape and kidnapping, got in his squad car and drove off.
Later, Pratt contacted the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department to find out what had happened.
“[They] told me they couldn’t go inside because they didn’t have a warrant,” she said. “So they just told him they’d keep an eye on him.”
After such a close call with law enforcement, Phillip Garrido was badly shaken up. He now became convinced that it was only a matter of time before the truth came out about his kidnapping Jaycee Lee Dugard, fifteen years earlier.
In hindsight, Tim Allen believes that the November 30 visit from law enforcement changed everything.
“My opinion is that Phil felt they was onto them,” said Allen. “And I think that also coincides with some other things.”
Now approaching sixty, Garrido’s libido was waning, accounting for his more civilized attitudes toward women.
“He had two young daughters that he loved dearly,” said Allen. “I could see that in his eyes. So I think his whole attitude and outlook on life changed, as he realized he had done some terrible, terrible things that he could not hide or get away with.”
And as Starlit turned ten and Angel thirteen, he knew it was only a matter of time before they wanted to break away and live their own lives away from his backyard.
“He really loved those girls,” said Allen. “That was something that was starting to happen that he couldn’t stop.”
As Angel and Starlit did not even officially exist, with no birth certificates or Social Security numbers, they could never go to school, get medical attention or get a driver’s license.
With his ailing mother now confined to bed with dementia and declining, Garrido knew that when she died, his and Nancy’s world would come crashing down. The deeds of 1554 Walnut Avenue were in Pat Franzen’s name, and as a convicted felon, if he ever tried to transfer the property over to himself, there would be too many probing questions, exposing his secret family.
An appraiser would examine every inch of the house and the backyard, and many years of tax returns would have to be shown. It would soon become obvious that he had never claimed for these three females living with him, who did not exist bureaucratically.
“So his back is up against the wall,” said Allen. “So I think he’s planning his retirement. So he does schizophrenia and acts really weird around a bunch of people. He starts talking to God in a box. Starts a church. He’s got the whole mental defense going that he’s crazy.”
A few weeks after the deputy’s visit, Phillip Garrido asked Marc Lister to manage his music career, giving him three CDs with about twenty of his songs.
“When he gave them to me,” said Lister, “he said, ‘What makes these so valuable, Marc, is that I recorded these while I was in prison.’ I looked at him and I said, ‘Come on, Phil.’ And he said, ‘Other than Johnny Cash, I’m the only other person who recorded music in prison.’ ”
Lister declined the offer, saying he was too busy with his own business.
“He told me to hang onto them,” Lister recalled, “as some day they are going to be worth a lot of money. I just threw them in my storage room and forgot about them.”
Phillip Garrido also shared his music with Deepal Karunaratne, this time claiming he had recorded it in his backyard studio.
“He comes here to bring my stuff,” said Karunaratne, “he has earphones and his little Walkman. So I asked what he was listening to.”
Garrido replied that it was his own music, and put his headphones on Karunaratne so he could listen.
“He’s a very good singer,” said Karunaratne. “I asked, ‘Where do you record this?’ He said, ‘I have a soundproof recording studio in my backyard.’ ”
33
THE MAN WHO SPOKE WITH HIS MIND
On February 7, 2007, Phillip Garrido took his black box public, registering four sites with Blogger.com. Over the next eighteen months “The Man Who Spoke With His Mind”—as he now called himself—would regularly write about his religious beliefs on his main blog, “Voices Revealed.” But he also registered other blog domains, with names like “Charging The Angels With Error,” “The Truth Will Set You Free” and “Exposed.”
“The Creator has given me the ability t
o speak in the tongues of Angels,” he proudly announced on Voicesrevealed.blogspot.com, “in order to provide a wake-up call that will in time include the salvation of the entire world.”
And at the same time, he mailed out a comprehensive media package to newspapers and television stations around the Bay Area. His kit included press releases, his photo and his eight client affidavits, complete with a notarized jurat certificate.
Under the headline, “Origin of Schizophrenia Revealed: Voices Are Real,” Garrido declared that he had made “one of the most powerful discoveries of this century.”
But he stipulated that media outlets could only reprint his six-page media pack in its entirety, without any rewrites.
In a cover letter to editors, Garrido wrote: “This is the beginning of a powerful discloser that concerns the entire inhabited Earth. It will address the stigma’s [sic] surrounding the phenomenon and controversy afflicted with hearing voices.”
He offered to arrange black box demonstrations for the “news media,” urging reporters to “approach this with an open mind,” and witness his great discovery themselves.
And to make it easier, he even wrote a news story, complete with a twenty-year-old photograph of himself, inviting reporters to contact him via e-mail at [email protected].
A Bay Area man has made a major discovery concerning the phenomenon of voices. He has documented the discovery with signed and notarized affidavits. The declarations are from established business owners in the greater bay area [sic]. They should not be taken lightly as this is a very serious matter that concerns the lives of human beings all over the globe who may be at this very moment under pressure and moving towards harming themselves and/or others. Any attempt to express concern is welcome but be advised the statements concerning the facts of the affidavits are true and require serious responses that would pertain solely to proving quality interactions by qualified educators that are prepared to provide answers for the millions who suffer from these disorders usually characterized by withdrawal from reality.
In the interests of public disclosure, Phillip also informed the media that he had been under the care of a psychiatrist for the past fifteen years for Attention Deficit Disorder.
But when his press package failed to generate a single story, he went back to the drawing board.
Over the next few months, Phillip Garrido became a religious fanatic, preaching his increasingly bizarre message to whoever would listen. He started standing outside his front gate, preaching to neighbors and holding religious revivalist meetings under a blue tarpaulin in his garden.
According to neighbors, small groups of followers began showing up at the Garrido house, where they were met by Nancy. They were then taken to a makeshift church, where Alyssa, Starlit and Angel would be waiting. Then Phillip Garrido would stroll in with his guitar, and start reading the Bible and singing religious songs.
He tried to convert his printing clients to his self-styled religion, warning it was their only salvation as there was “a huge mind-blowing change” about to happen.
“He started talking about a huge event that was about to happen,” said Tim Allen. “He really never talked about specifics, like Christianity or God. He talked in vague terms, in big terms about religion and made broad, sweeping statements.”
Allen and his employees would humor him, before sending him on his way.
“What can you say?” Allen explained. “We let him talk about whatever he wanted and listened, and then we thanked him for bringing in our business cards and paid him.”
Whenever Deepal Karunaratne arrived at 1554 Walnut Avenue for a business meeting with Alyssa, Phillip Garrido would come out and start talking “strange stuff” about angels.
“He was always trying to preach to me,” recalled Karunaratne. “Sometimes I go there in a hurry. [Alyssa] brings my stuff. As I’m trying to leave he jumps in my car and sits down with the Bible. And he’s preaching to me and I can’t get away. I say, ‘Phillip, I have to go. I need to get back to work.’ ”
One morning Karunaratne was over at the Walnut Avenue house when Phillip Garrido walked in with Angel and Starlit. Then he asked why the girls were not at school.
“Phil said, ‘We don’t trust our public school system,’ ” said Karunaratne. “ ‘We teach them at home.’ ”
As Phillip Garrido devoted more and more time to his new church, Alyssa ran Printing For Less, assisted by her daughters. She now personally dealt with all the customers and was the consummate professional. But unfortunately her e-mails and letters were full of spelling mistakes, as if they’d been written by a child.
On May 7, 2007, Ben Daughdrill had just got off the phone to Alyssa after a business conversation, when she sent him this confirmation e-mail.
“i will take a look at the price sheet and send you over a copy of the revised brochure tomorrow. as to the pictures sorry . . . but we don’t have a digital camera . . . hopefully you can find a way to get me those pictures you want so i can add them to them [sic] brochure. i can get the brochures to you pretty fast within the week of final approval of the brochures. How many are you going to order and do you want them on glossy or matte paper, thick or thin?”
A few months later, she e-mailed Daughdrill again.
“here’s the business cards in jpeg format,” she wrote, “let me know if you need anything else thank you.”
But all the clients liked working with Alyssa, and made allowances as she always got the job done.
“She was always good at getting us what we wanted,” said Daughdrill. “You got the feeling she was doing all the work.”
Marc Lister said during his many visits to Walnut Avenue over the years, he formed the impression Alyssa enjoyed her work.
“She never had anything bad to say about Phil,” he observed.
Cheyvonne Molino of J & M Enterprises said Alyssa did all the designing, worked the computer and e-mailed people.
“In the early days it was fax,” recalled Cheyvonne. “Then all of a sudden it was e-mail. She did the work and he delivered.”
Maria Christenson often wondered about the charmingly childish designs now popping up on her receipts, envelopes and business card orders.
“She started putting all this little kid’s stuff on my stationery,” she recalled. “I asked Phil about it and he said, ‘Oh Alyssa, one of my kids did it.’ But I’ve never seen her. He didn’t let me in the house or let me deal with her at all. He always came to me.”
At 9:24 A.M. on May 15, 2007, The Man Who Spoke With His Mind posted an important message on his blog in capital letters. Under the title “Disclaimer,” Phillip Garrido told the world of his “ABILITY . . . TO OPEN DOORS THAT WILL HONOR THE CREATOR AND HIS ETERNAL PURPOSE FOR MANKIND.”
And he outlined his mission to gain the attention of “SCIENTISTS, PHYSICISTS AND EDUCATORS” for a “MAJOR WAKE UP CALL.”
He then quoted Jeremiah 9:24. “LET HIM THAT BOASTS BOAST ABOUT THIS . . . THAT I AM THE LORD, WHO EXERCISES KINDNESS, JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS ON EARTH, FOR IN THESE I DELIGHT.”
A few weeks later, he brought his two daughters along with him when he visited an aunt in Brentwood, California. When asked who they were, he replied he was babysitting the little blonde girls for a neighbor. But his aunt was suspicious, later calling his brother, Ron.
“My aunt told me,” Ron recalled, “ ‘I swear that oldest girl is his daughter. She’s got his eyes.’ ”
That fall, Dilbert Medeiros gave Phillip Garrido almost $18,000 of his life savings to get his church started. Later the sick eighty-one-year-old pensioner, whom Phillip and Nancy had befriended and taken on outings to the zoo, claimed it was only a loan.
A few months later, after he moved into residential care, Medeiros complained that Garrido refused to repay the loan. The police were called, but after a lengthy investigation, Contra County prosecutors found insufficient grounds to charge him.
Later Phillip Garrido would be accused of looting the senile old man’
s bank account for years, getting him to write out numerous checks.
On October 10, Phillip Garrido’s parole officer visited his house, informing him that as a registered sex offender, he must undergo a mental health evaluation under the newly passed Jessica’s Law. Named in memory of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was abducted and murdered in Florida in 2005, “Jessica’s Law” was championed by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and passed by voters as Proposition 83 on November 7, 2006.
The new law prohibited sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and parks, and over the next few years a large proportion of offenders would descend on unincorporated Antioch, which provided a perfect cover. Jessica’s Law also allowed twenty-four-hour Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) monitoring of parolees for life, which Phillip Garrido would get the following year.
The parole officer duly referred Garrido to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Outpatient Clinic. It would be the first time the parolee had ever received any mental health treatment from the California parole department, although his original conditions of parole nineteen years earlier included mental health counseling.
With all the new attention he was now receiving from the authorities, Phillip Garrido was becoming increasingly paranoid. One afternoon, a camera-equipped Google mapping car slowly drove past 1554 Walnut Avenue when something strange happened. Soon after it went by the house, photographing the street, an old beat-up van came out of the Garrido driveway and followed it.
The Google camera photographed the van for several blocks, before it suddenly turned down a side street and disappeared.
34
CLOSING IN
On January 29, 2008, Nancy Garrido took over management of her husband’s music career, launching her own blog called “Talent Revealed.” On it she appealed for financial backers, offering them “a unique music investment opportunity.”
“As you know it takes money to produce and promote music,” she wrote. “I’m looking for an investor to invest in my husbands [sic] music. The profits from your investment will double, that’s how confident I am about his music. He has so much music to share with the world. I’m looking forward to meeting you. Please. If you are an investor please send email to: [email protected].”