Marcus Wesson: Control, Incest and Murder

Illabelle Carrie Wesson

Meanwhile, he cultivated his daughters and nieces to act as his adoring geishas. They washed his dreadlocks, scratched his armpits and belly, and did his beckoning.

When the girls were 8 or 9, Wesson started molesting them. First he fondled their breasts and genitals, then taught them oral sex, until finally he was having full-on intercourse with them. He called these routine rapes "loving" and told them it was a "father's way to show affection for his daughter," Ruby Sanchez would recall in court.

While even the most primitive cultures in the world denounce incest as taboo, Marcus Wesson enthusiastically endorsed it. He justified his sickness by reading the girls Bible passages containing references to men with multiple wives.

"God wants a man to have more than one wife," he'd tell them.

Ruby Sanchez would later tell a stunned courtroom that she agreed to "marry" Wesson when he was 44 and she was 13. During a ceremony performed in a bedroom, Sanchez put her child's hand on a Bible and Wesson covered it with his own, making her recite vows that culminated in an "I do." Wesson did the same with his two daughters and another two nieces. He encouraged his child brides to compete for his affection, and they often grew jealous of the private time he spent with their siblings.