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Charge: Father, Daughter Married (Is it Okay With Sandra Day O'Connor?)
Mobile Register ^ | 07/25/03 | KAREN TOLKKINEN

Posted on 07/25/2003 10:39:04 AM PDT by 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.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Alabama; US: Arkansas
KEYWORDS: constitution; incest; lawrencevtexas; mobilehome; mobility; oconnor; privacy; supremecourt
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To: nickcarraway
Good going, Sandy. /s
61 posted on 07/25/2003 11:09:59 AM PDT by Libertina
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Comment #62 Removed by Moderator

To: nickcarraway
"Incestuous marriages are forbidden in all states, in part due to fears about genetic mutation and child abuse."

My guess is that the Supremes would hide behind the fact that all 50 states have banned it and claim that there is a "substantial state interest" in banning such marriages.

For the life of me, I can't see where the states didn't have a "substantial state interest" in banning homosexual activity. Especially in light of the known spread of disease and the high incidence of homosexual pedophilia and other perversions.

"Substantial State Interest" basically allows the court to draw the line anywhere they want it instead of allowing the legislature to determine what is in their own state's interests.

63 posted on 07/25/2003 11:11:46 AM PDT by DannyTN (Note left on my door by a pack of neighborhood dogs.)
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Comment #64 Removed by Moderator

To: Naspino
A real blood-blood incest case would be better.

Story says:

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.
65 posted on 07/25/2003 11:12:15 AM PDT by Xenalyte (I may not agree with your bumper sticker, but I'll defend to the death your right to stick it)
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To: gcruse
LMAO.

Yes, the warnings have been all too obvious. Where is this all going to end? At what point do we say, "Enough is enuff"?

Exactly where do we draw the line and say, "This far, but no further!!?" ;-)

66 posted on 07/25/2003 11:14:27 AM PDT by Scenic Sounds (Summertime!)
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To: FeliciaCat
The Kiss: A Memoir

From the Publisher

In this extraordinary memoir, one of the best young writers in America today transforms into a work of art the darkest passage imaginable in a young woman's life: an obsessive love affair between father and daughter that began when Kathryn Harrison, twenty years old, was reunited with the father whose absence had haunted her youth. Exquisitely and hypnotically written, like a bold and terrifying dream, The Kiss is breathtaking in its honesty and in the power and beauty of its creation. A story both of taboo and of family complicity in breaking taboo, The Kiss is also about love - about the most primal of love triangles, the one that ensnares a child between mother and father.

67 posted on 07/25/2003 11:14:39 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: JennysCool
(applause)

That's the funniest thing I've seen in awhile!
68 posted on 07/25/2003 11:15:39 AM PDT by Blzbba
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To: JennysCool
A picture of the happy family...


69 posted on 07/25/2003 11:16:01 AM PDT by KantianBurke (The Federal govt should be protecting us from terrorists, not handing out goodies)
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To: Naspino
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.

Almost identical to the Woody Allen case... Not biologically related, but married to the child he helped raise.

Mark

70 posted on 07/25/2003 11:16:24 AM PDT by MarkL (OK, I'm going to crawl back under my rock now!)
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To: sonserae
Mutations can occur in anyone. They do not necessarily occur in close familial offspring. Genealogy is my hobby and I've been amazed that the bias I grew up concerned marriage between cousins is just not necessarily true. My parents are not related, but three out of four of my father's grandparents were cousins. I am descended through four of the children of the primary progenitor who I research. This family is healthier and longer lived than my mother's family which was not inter-married.
71 posted on 07/25/2003 11:16:27 AM PDT by twigs
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To: Flurry
Incestuous marriage has been all but practically eradicated in our contemporary culture. If a freak situation causes father and daughter, or brother and sister who have not lived together for many years, and do not even recognize each others as blood related, it should be up to these individuals to keep the marriage if they chose to; and not the business of the government to call it a crime.
72 posted on 07/25/2003 11:17:00 AM PDT by philosofy123
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To: Naspino
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.

And this is about the same on the weirdness scale as the Bill Wyman (of Rolling Stones fame) situation...

Bill Wyman's son was dating a much older woman. And Bill was dating that woman's daughter! I don't know if they ever married. And I really don't want to know.

Mark

73 posted on 07/25/2003 11:18:23 AM PDT by MarkL (OK, I'm going to crawl back under my rock now!)
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To: nickcarraway
yes, thats the one. I cant even begin to imagine how horrible that woman's life was.
74 posted on 07/25/2003 11:20:13 AM PDT by FeliciaCat
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To: philosofy123
Should marijuana be legalized?
75 posted on 07/25/2003 11:20:27 AM PDT by Conspiracy Guy (!!!!!!! sdrawkcab si enilgat ym ,em pleh esaelP)
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To: dubyaismypresident
I'd love to hear how the Supremes can uphold this (anti-incest)law in light of the reasoning in Lawrence v. Texas.

Here's my guess at what the reasoning would be... "Homosexual sex is a Constitutionally protected human right, but incest isn't... Because it's "icky!" And because I say so, `cause I'm a judge!

Mark

76 posted on 07/25/2003 11:21:03 AM PDT by MarkL (OK, I'm going to crawl back under my rock now!)
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To: bourbon
This is sad, but it is the strange fruit of the Lawrence v. Texas ruling.

Senator Rick Santorum made sure that it was NOT the unexpected fruit of the ruling.

And he was left twisting in the wind, even by most Republicans just for being right.
77 posted on 07/25/2003 11:23:49 AM PDT by VOA
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To: nickcarraway
Arrested before they had a chance to be on Jerry Springer?
Isn't that unconstitutional infringement on the right to be publicly imbecilic?

So9

78 posted on 07/25/2003 11:24:29 AM PDT by Servant of the Nine (A Goldwater Republican)
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To: Naspino
Saaaad....but true.
79 posted on 07/25/2003 11:25:21 AM PDT by John Doe
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To: Blzbba
Thank Homer and Jethro!
80 posted on 07/25/2003 11:25:24 AM PDT by JennysCool
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