The Story of Michelle Townsend | Victim of Sexual Sadism
“He assured me it was only a game, and that no one really gets hurt.”
The mentioned game was not an ordinary game but unfolded in five episodes- Capture, Struggle, Torture, the Final Kill, and Postmortem Rape. Michelle Townsend, the victim, and survivor of this act is constantly dreadful to the torturer.
The Story.
Michelle Townsend’s story starts in the autumn of her senior year in high school when she was just seventeen and met the thirty-five-year-old Vietnam vet, Jack. When she met him, she was already in despair, and a confused state of mind, as her older sister died in a car accident, but meeting him turned her life completely. Like, every other guy, Jack was tall, handsome, and charismatic, and attentive, which impressed Michelle very much. But as the four days passed, Jack proposed to her, and Michelle was not in love with him as her state of mind and lesser time to know each other didn’t allow her. But she knew inside that falling in love with him could really cure her mental state, which was struck to her demise sister. So, approximately six weeks later and a day after her eighteenth birthday, she married Jack by a justice of the peace.
“He was a real attentive at first. I was like on a pedestal. I was his showpiece. he picked out and brought my clothes. He had me change my hair to blond, and grow it out. He had me start wearing makeup. He put me in mostly high heels and boots. He said I was like a new book, and he was going to write all the pages.”
Michelle said these words, which says about her powerful relationship with her husband.
As she lived in an old farmhouse for the first three months of her marriage, everything was fine until one day, she discovered something.
The Discovery That Shook Michelle’s World.
One day Michelle decided on cleaning and straightening Jack’s war room, where she saw the walls covered with certificates, maps, guns, ammunition belts, knives, and photographs of Vietnamese soldiers. But this was not creepy. As Michelle cleaned the room, she came across a ratty old red dish pink suitcase in a closet, on which she found sadomasochistic pornography, most of the women being sexually brutalized, ace-bandage rolls, broken arrows, and scalpels. As Jack walked into the room, he exploded in rage and immediately asked for divorce for the violation of his privacy. Michelle, who had no idea of the hints of this sexual sadist man, pleaded for the innocent mistake and begged Jack for her mistake.
And moments after Jack says that she could only redeem herself by letting him use every single object to fulfill his fantasies. Michelle says,
“I was told that what I’d discovered was practiced by all married couples, only not talked about. He told me that all normal people do these things, and he wanted to teach me all about it. He said it was a need of his that must be fulfilled every once in a while so that he could control his temper.”
And as she agreed, not wanting her marriage to be broken, he explained to her his first fantasy game, folded into five episodes- Capture, Struggle, Torture, the Final Kill, and Postmortem Rape.
The first part of the game, Capture, required Michelle to dress in loose clothing, such as an old dress, that Jack could easily tear off. Her next task was to assume some sort of preoccupied pose, such as combing her hair or dancing by herself. From behind, Jack would violently grab Michelle, one hand over her mouth, the other around her neck, pulling her face to one side as he crept up behind her.
Then came the horrific, Struggle. Michelle was to respond to this terror with the fright of her eyes, before falling into unconsciousness. And the worst part was they rehearsed this act again and again as if it was a movie, a dedicated gig. Jack would have Michelle smoke a joint to relax, and all they did was watch slasher movies to replay the act with the same dreadful approach. And amid this struggle, Jack could lift and drop her arms and legs, rolling her from side to side to make her more lifeless. And she has to beg for her life again and again. Jack would throttle her as she was to feign asphyxiation and fall unconscious.
Jack then begins Torture by inserting the broken arrow, in such a way that it looks as if it has been brutally jammed into the anus. He would sometimes use a child’s sword and modify it like a coat hanger, making Michelle appear like she had been hit by an actual weapon, while at other times, he would place a hunting knife between her legs and instruct her to grasp the blade closely with her buttocks. As Jack remove it carefully, he ran it across her body, urging her to jerk as he did so. And that was not it.
In the Final Kill and Postmortem Rape, he would just pretend to stab or strangle her to death and hang her nude from pullies over their bed. Michelle thought this game would be occasional, but it only got constant. The only time, when it interrupted for a while was when she conceived Sarah. But this period wasn’t still easy for Michelle as Jack quit his job to deal with drugs, and he introduced her to group sex with other women.
“We’d find them in bars, truck stops, and once in a restaurant, most of them were young girls. He used to try to talk me into picking up a female hitchhiker and having our way with her. He explained that when we were done, we would dispose of her body along the roadway. I always refused.”
But this never ended her. It would eventually take Jack to beat Michelle like an animal. One time, when she suffered it, she went to the police, who advised her to return to marriage as he was a Vietnam vet like Jack. Eventually, even after asking for help, she didn’t find anything to do. She had Sarah to take care of, but all she suffered was the brutal beatings. He whipped her, beat her, kicked her, pulled her hair, and threw her around the room. And it was six years since she went through this, but never gathered enough courage to stand up.
The First and Final Run.
Michelle coped with the physical abuse by dissociating and pushing her mind elsewhere, but when she saw Jack punch and slap Michelle as Sarah, she feared for her little sweet baby, who was just three. And just then, Michelle found herself pointing his loaded shotgun under the back of his head, but she couldn’t pull the trigger. Her motherhood provoked her to escape from this condition for the sake of her child. And so one night, she left with Sarah and a few clothes. With the help of wives of other Vietnam vets, she fled, but she spent weeks on the run, moving from house to house and shelter to shelter, till she reached her parent’s home.
Under such terrific conditions, there seems no point to live, but Michelle chose the step to leave, instead of ending with this sexual sadist. She says,
“I am learning how to live all over again. I attempting to take control of my life, one step at a time. With determination in my heart, I know I will make it.”
Bibliography.
The Evil That Men Do Lib/E: FBI Profiler Roy Hazelwood’s Journey Into the Minds of Sexual Predators by Stephen G. Michaud (Author) Roy Hazelwood (Author) Joe Barrett (Read by).
