Free Republic

ALTON, Ill. - Banished to the basement, the 29-year-old mother with a childlike mind and another baby on the way had little more than a thin rug and a mattress to call her own on the chilly concrete floor, police say. Dixon ate what she could forage from the refrigerator upstairs, where housemates used her for target practice with BBs, burned her with a glue gun, and doused her with scalding liquid that peeled away her skin. They torched what few clothes she had, so she walked around naked. They often pummeled her with an aluminum bat or metal handle....

Police: Oaklander arrested in chase after blood of fatally beaten woman found in home -- OAKLAND — By all appearances, it was an ordinary looking house. But police said Wednesday that its resident, roofer Earl Stefanson, 41, turned the basement into a torture chamber reminiscent of the movie thriller "Silence of the Lambs," where he killed at least one woman and beat others. In announcing Stefanson's arrest, homicide Sgt. Tony Jones said when he combed the dark and dank basement of the house on the 3400 block of Coolidge Avenue with four other officers, "it was frightening even to us."...

OAKLAND -- Murder charges were filed today against Earl Stefanson, the Oakland man who was arrested this week on suspicion of torturing and murdering his girlfriend. Alameda County Assistant District Attorney Tom Rogers filed the murder charges against Stefanson in connection with the death of Leslie Lamb, 36, of San Leandro. Stefanson also is charged with being an ex-felon in possession of a gun in connection with a revolver police found at his home. Stefanson has a felony drug conviction in Yolo County from 1995. Neighbors said today that the Oakland man had a long history of angry confrontations with...