Charge: Father, Daughter Married (Is it Okay With Sandra Day O'Connor?)

Mobile Register ^ | 07/25/03 | KAREN TOLKKINEN

[nickcarraway]

Authorities accuse couple of illegal incestuous union

A Mobile County grand jury has said that a Theodore husband and wife may really be father and daughter and ought to be tried for incest.

Carrol Eugene Ferdinandsen, 53, and Alice Faye Ferdinandsen, 30, were arrested Thursday and charged with incest and fraud in connection with their May 2 marriage in a civil ceremony in Mobile County. They were indicted in June.

According to Mobile County court records, Alice was the third child of Carrol and Shirley Faye Ferdinandsen, and her mother filed for divorce when Alice was only 4 months old. Her mother said Thursday that she later met and married Charles Stewart, who Alice listed as her father on her marriage license application.

Up to that point, Alice had used "Ferdinandsen" as her last name, according to court records.

Incestuous marriages are forbidden in all states, in part due to fears about genetic mutation and child abuse. They still occur, though rarely, according to a survey of news articles from around the country.

The Ferdinandsens could not be reached for comment Thursday. They were still being held in the Mobile County Metro Jail, with bond set at $8,500 for each, officials said.

Family members said they had heard about the marriage and disapproved of the relationship.

"My father is completely convinced that she's not his daughter, no blood relation at all," David Ferdinandsen, who said he is Carrol's son and Alice's older brother. He's tried to discourage his father from the relationship, he said, but his father won't listen.

Alice's mother, whose last name is now Crayne, said Carrol is definitely Alice's father. She didn't meet Charles Stewart until Alice was 3 or 4 years old, she said.

"I told her she was stupid for marrying her own daddy," Shirley Crayne said. "I told him he was crazy and stupid. I told her I didn't ever want to hear from her again."

Crayne started crying during an interview Thursday. It hurts so bad, she said, because Alice is her youngest child and she worked hard taking care of the children when they were young.

After the divorce, the couple's three children were placed in foster care, David Ferdinandsen said. They were there for five years, he said. They went to live with their mother, and later moved in with their father, he said.

Crayne said Alice sometimes called Carrol "Daddy" and sometimes just "Carrol."

Crayne said she would scold her daughter when she used her father's first name.

During the 1980s, Carrol and Alice went to Illinois, staying for months, David Ferdinandsen said. When they returned, Alice went back to school, he said.

According to Mobile County Circuit Court records, Carrol pleaded guilty to second-degree rape in 1989. The records do not identify the victim and prosecutors could not be reached for comment Thursday. He spent a year in jail.

Alice moved to Texas, where she got a boyfriend and a job at a hamburger stand, her mother said. But in the mid-1990s, Carrol came looking for her and she ended up moving back with him to Theodore, according to her mother and brother. They've been together ever since, relatives said.

Crayne said she never heard that Carrol claimed that Alice wasn't his daughter until just a few years ago. Now Alice believes it, too, she said.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Oh, come on. I mean, the right to privacy and all. <\sarcasm>

[bedolido]

sickening... I hate the death of virtue (not the book... the reality)

[keithtoo]

This should be a good test case if someon wants to pick it up.

[laweeks]

Buggery is legal, so what's the problem? I'm sure it's somewhere there in the constitution along with abortion, penumbra, privacy, diversity, and sodomy. The door's open, pal.

[from occupied ga]

There ought to be some way to work in an Auburn joke here.

[Hank Rearden]

Alabama, huh? I'm shocked. Shocked, I am.

[wideawake]

Today, repulsive degeneracy.

Tomorrow, a constitutionally protected right.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

"I told her she was stupid for marrying her own daddy,"

Well that's the understatement of the DECADE!!

[Naspino]

Actually this one might not make it to the supreme court; not sure I want it to. A real blood-blood incest case would be better. Incest laws are meant to discourage weakening of the gene pool and deforming babies.

Since they are just legally father/daughter then this doesn't seem to meet those objections. Its still disgusting though given the emotional manipulation that most likely took place.

[bedolido]

Today, repulsive degeneracy. Tomorrow, a constitutionally protected right.

So well said... that should be your tag-line.

[Loyalist]

And further down the slippery slope we slide.

[JennysCool]

Many, many years ago, when I was twenty three,
I got married to a widow who was pretty as could be
This widow had a grown- up daughter
Who had beautiful hair of red.
My father fell in love with her,
and soon the two were wed
This made my dad my son-in-law
and changed my very life.
My daughter was my mother
for she was my father's wife.
To complicate matters worse,
although it brought me joy,
I soon became the father
of a bouncing baby boy.
My little baby then became
a brother-in-law to dad.
And so became my uncle,
though it made me very sad.
For if he was my uncle, then
that also made him brother
To the widow's grown-up daughter
Who, of course, was my step-mother.
Father's wife then had a son,
who kept them on the run.
And he became my grandson,
for he was my daughter's son.
My wife is now my mother's mother
and it makes me all too blue,
Because, although, she is my wife,
she's my grandmother too.
If my wife is my grandmother,
Then I am her grandchild.
And, every time I try to think of it,
It simply drives me wild.
For, now I have become the strangest
case you ever saw.
As the husband of my grandmother,
I am also my own grandpa!

[NeoCaveman]

Looks like Santorum was right.

I'd love to hear how the Supremes can uphold this (anti-incest)law in light of the reasoning in Lawrence v. Texas.

[FeliciaCat]

There was a book a while back (The Kiss?) The author wrote about her own willing incestous relationship with her father.

I cant even begin to imagine how messed up you have to be to marry your own father...yuck.

[dead]

A Theodore husband and wife may really be father and daughter…Alice sometimes called Carrol "Daddy" and sometimes just "Carrol."

Well, we’ve got Carrol and Alice from Ted.

Where's Bob?

[ravingnutter]

I know the article was a little confusing but...

According to Mobile County court records, Alice was the third child of Carrol and Shirley Faye Ferdinandsen, and her mother filed for divorce when Alice was only 4 months old.

She IS his biological daughter.

[ErnBatavia]

I know a guy (Jewish from Noo Joisey - stereotype buster!) who's married to his first cousin. He loves to introduce her as "my wife, my cousin".

Needless to say, he's a tad bit on the kooky side.

[Scenic Sounds]

"I told her she was stupid for marrying her own daddy," Shirley Crayne said. "I told him he was crazy and stupid. I told her I didn't ever want to hear from her again."

Now, just look what you've done, Gary. ROFL.

;-)

[mattdono]

Ala-BAMA!