Garrido's father, Manuel, blames the transformation in his son on a 1968 motorcycle accident that resulted in a serious head injury. And Phillip Garrido, in a letter seeking a sentence reduction in the Nevada case, said copious amounts of marijuana, LSD, cocaine and prescription drugs were to blame for his sexual misbehavior.
Gregory Sheppard owned a liquor store Garrido frequented during his time in Reno. Sheppard testified at Garrido's rape trial that the two aspiring musicians would often jam together and take drugs. Sheppard testified that Garrido ingested a lot of different drugs.
"I have seen him taking LSD," Sheppard said, "pot, cocaine, downers, uppers."
Medical experts found his problems were too complex to explain so simply. A neurological test ordered before his 1977 rape showed his brain activity to be normal. Every court-authorized mental evaluation concluded Garrido knew right from wrong, though a psychiatrist hired by Garrido's public defender told the jury that Garrido suffered from deep-rooted sexual obsessions.
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At least it wasn't a Grand Canyon divorce:
A man took his girlfriend hiking Sunday afternoon on the gorgeous -- albeit rocky and rough -- Billy Goat Trail, on national parkland near Great Falls. At some point, he popped the question. She said yes.
As they continued their walk, the woman apparently slipped, fell down a rock face and was injured. With no way to reach her easily, emergency responders used a U.S. Park Police helicopter to pluck her off the path.
In case you don't know what I mean about "Grand Canyon divorce," read the case of the infamous black widower, Robert Spangler.
Details about his third wife's death:
When he saw her broken body lying motionless beneath him, he scrambled down, found her dead, washed the blood from her face with his handkerchief, covered her with a tarp, grabbed her pack and headed back up to report the tragedy.
The rangers snickered about "Divorce by Grand Canyon," but there was no evidence of foul play, despite the fact that the place she fell was probably the only place on their hiking route that would have resulted in a fatal fall. And the fact that he never heard her cry out when she went over was an odd detail they couldn't quite forget.
When he got home, the distraught Spangler called John Mackley, his boss at the radio station, and told him that Donna had fallen in the Grand Canyon and died, and that Spangler wouldn't be in to work.
He had her cremated right away.
Donna left behind five grieving children and five grandchildren.
Mackley and his wife, along with all the Spanglers' friends and coworkers attended the memorial service Bob designed, at which he eulogized her at length. One friend called the service "tearless and weird."
Spangler even went back to the Grand Canyon to scatter wildflower seeds at "Donna's Point," the place at which she died. The grieving husband also went on local talk shows, discussing the dangers of hiking in the canyon. He was quoted in USA Today and on NPR.
Spangler was a twisted bastard.
He died of cancer in prison in around 2001 rather than tossed off a cliff like he should have been.
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