Great Balls of Fire

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

1

In the wildest story to come out of Western North Carolina in quite awhile, WLOSers were all over the castration cult in Haywood County on Friday. Diva Darcel called the story “disturbing,” “shocking” and beyond description. But luckily, Sheraldo and Michelle Boudin were there to give us all the gory details.

You know the story – three men were arrested Friday and charged with castration without malice and performing a surgery without the proper medical credentials. It’s unclear exactly what they were doing, but here’s what Sheraldo told us on the news.

Police started investigating these men months ago. One guy was known as “Master Rick,” and he had a partner. A third man living with the first two was a “slave.” These men lived in a house and referred to a room, or a basement, as the “dungeon.”

Other men would could to visit this trio and at least five men, according to police, willingly had their balls cut off. Haywood County Sheriff Tom Alexander told the news that police found syringes and bandages and other medical supplies. They also found a plastic container that one of the men told them contained testicles. Police also claim they recovered a severed penis from the home.

In what police described as a “sadomasochistic dungeon,” they said they also found electric paddles and a bunch of CDs and DVDs, a camera and a tripod. These guys were apparently filming their operations.

The cops said the men who came to have their balls cut off found out about the local guys through a Web site. It’s unclear if these guys were performing sex change operations, or if there was something else at work.

Needless to say, there’s much more to learn about this case.

Sheraldo talked to neighbors who were predictably shocked. Hopefully we’ll have more details at 11.

Here’s the AP wire report:

Three Men Charged in ‘Dungeon’ Castration
The Associated Press
Friday, March 31, 2006; 8:40 PM

Three men accused of running a sadomasochistic “dungeon” in rural Haywood County were in custody Friday, charged with performing illegal castrations.

Investigators from the office of Sheriff Tom Alexander said the men admitted performing at least eight surgeries on six consenting clients over the past year, including castrations and testicle replacements.

None of the men _ identified as Richard Sciara, 61, Danny Reeves, 49, and Michael Mendez, 60 _ is licensed to practice medicine, officials said.

“It’s extremely bizarre,” District Attorney Michael Bonfoey said in a telephone interview Friday. “It’s incredible the amount of ways that people can find to run afoul of the law, that’s for sure.”

The men were each being held on $150,000 bond at the Haywood County Jail in Waynesville, Bonfoey said. If they remain in jail over the weekend, he said, they will make a first court appearance Monday.

According to Alexander’s office, detectives who searched the home Wednesday found medical supplies that included scalpels, sutures, bandages, local anesthetic and artificial replacement testicles known as “neuticles.”

Also seized were videotaping equipment, videotapes, compact discs and DVDs that the sheriff’s office said had recordings of the surgeries.

Two plastic containers holding what appeared to be frozen testes were sent to a forensics lab for testing.

The suspects were arrested Thursday without incident. Each man faces 18 charges _ five counts of felonious castration without malice, five counts of felonious conspiracy to commit castration without malice and eight counts of misdemeanor performing medical acts without a license.

“This right here beats anything I have ever seen,” Alexander told the Asheville Citizen-Times, which reported that victims may have come from as far away as South America.

Photographs and videos made at the “dungeon” south of Hazelwood were apparently featured on a locally produced sadomasochistic Web site, officials said. Alexander’s office first investigated the house in 2004, but concluded there was nothing illegal going on because all the participants were over 18 and apparently willing.

Bonfoey said he urged the sheriff to take another look at the home after a recent conversation with a citizen who made “strange statements” about the place. The renewed scrutiny helped lead to the new charges, Bonfoey said.

Bonfoey said the law distinguishes between malicious and non-malicious castration, but that the consent of the castrated makes no difference.

“Assuming that the victims consented to this _ and we don’t know that for sure yet _ that doesn’t make it a defense,” he said. “We can’t have people who are not medical doctors lopping off limbs and other body parts.”

Investigators said other surgeries performed at the home included urethra rerouting and penis removal.

Each of the felony charges carries a maximum sentence of three years, three months, Bonfoey said.