Discovery of 4 disabled people in Philly basement exposes alleged benefit-theft scheme

[The Northerner]

PHILADELPHIA — A woman convicted in the starvation death of a man nearly 30 years ago is facing charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment for allegedly preying on four mentally disabled adults, locking them in a basement and wresting control of their Social Security disability checks.

Linda Ann Weston was charged on Monday with kidnapping, false imprisonment and other offenses, with bail set at $2.5 million after her landlord stumbled upon the four adults, all weak and malnourished, in a dank, foul-smelling boiler room on Saturday.

Also charged were Eddie "the Rev. Ed" Wright, 50, whom Weston described as her boyfriend, and Gregory Thomas, 47.

Detectives found dozens of ID cards, power-of-attorney forms and other documents in the apartment, suggesting the alleged theft scheme involved more than just the four captives.

Read more: http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/d272df2f32074a28b75aa91d1618696c/US--Locked-In-Basement/

[Odin2005]

1. Evil, just evil!

:grr:

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. yeah, I'm glad they were rescued.

[stuntcat]

2. horrifying

.

[appleannie1]

3. As the mother of a mentally challenged adult, this story sickened me. Predators of the worst sort

take advantage of those that cannot defend themselves.

[emilyg]

4. Never let these disgusting people

out of jail.

[Honeycombe8]

5. The woman had previously been imprisoned for 8 yrs for starving a man to death.

Why the hell she was out of prison, I don't know. But apparently went right back to her regular way of getting money...tying up the mentally and/or physically disabled and stealing their government disability checks.

SO GLAD that an observant person noticed something weird and reported it to the landlord. AND that the landlord cared enough to investigate more than once (he didn't find the people until his SECOND investigation down there).

PEOPLE WHO CARE! Eyes and ears. We should all be ready to report something we think looks weird.