In the early years,
you experienced
Joe as somewhat loving and comforting, correct?
Right.
Then,
by age six,
he had started to molest you, correct?
Yes, yes.
And I'm not, I don't want to ask you questions
to embarrass you or to be graphic in any way,
so you answer at the level that you're comfortable with,
but please, I'm not trying to be inappropriate
or be graphic with you here.
But he forced you to perform sex acts on him, correct?
Right.
And this began at age, six? About six.
And this was a daily thing?
This every time he was told to take me and beat me.
He would either do that and I wouldn't get a beating,
or he would do the beating and then that.
Uh-huh.
Did Evangeline know about this?
Not in, well, the first time he put my hand on him,
yes, she walked in and saw that.
Uh-huh, and what was her response?
She started yelling at him,
and he said that he didn't feel it 'cause he had jeans on.
So then I was beat for putting my hand there.
So you were the bad actor? Yes.
You were the one that had done something wrong.
Yes.
And you said by age 10,
Evangeline made you lay on a bed naked,
and would burn you in what way?
With a curling iron, with her curling iron.
I have four on each side,
and the doctor said if she had
just gone a little bit closer,
she'd have electrocuted both of us.
She gets a piece of glass and just cuts your arm open.
Right.
And you said she would then pick at the wound
and keep it open so it wouldn't heal up.
No, no.
She, it was almost like, healed,
and she took it like this and just ripped it back open.
(audience gasps)
Uh-huh.
And it was deep, I had veins and tissue.
I mean, she almost couldn't get it to stop bleeding,
except she shoved paper towels in it and taped it.
Okay, you were beat with electric cords,
both of them beat you with an aluminum bat.
Joe beat you with a rope and wrapped it around your neck,
and then pulled you over his back?
Yes.
Well, he hung me.
Were you having trouble breathing?
Oh yeah, he did it a lot,
so he would do it until I passed out,
and then I'd wake up shaking on the floor.
And they broke wooden sticks and brooms over your head.
Yes.
And you said that Joe had you stand
in the gym naked,
while he beat you with various things.
Why did he do that?
Why did he say he was doing that?
Because, either a lot of them in Tennessee
was because I fell asleep in church,
and I tried so hard not to.
That would cause a bad beating.
When you were standing naked in the gym,
they would beat you with hoses, electric cords, thick ropes,
swing set chains, metal ropes, hammers, and bats,
and they would do this until they were just tired?
Yes.
And you were 18 at this point?
Yes.
Your mother knocked out your two front teeth.
How did she do that?
She was picking me up by my hair,
and I remember like, throwing me, literally throwing me.
By the second or third time that I hit the floor,
I hit it face first, and it knocked my two front teeth out.
And what did she tell you to do with the teeth?
She told me put 'em back in my mouth,
and she supervised like trying to put it back
in the holes where they went,
and then told me to bite down on 'em for a few days.