Page 6 - John Jamelske News Today

>> at first glance, the dancing, singing and role-playing seem to be consensual, but, remember, this girl, like jennifer and the 16-year-old african-american girl, was a prisoner locked underground and totally relied on jamelske for food and water. as far as she knew, her very life depended upon playing along. >> what do you guys want to see? there aint nothing to do down here. its too boring. >> several times the girl looks right into the camera and appeals directly to jamelskes bosses, the men...

Workings of a clock, jamelske says he simply wanted her for sex and decided to keep her chained close by in this shed on his mothers property. >> and you think thats okay? >> thats why i built the dungeon. she said, this is kind of small. >> so you build the dungeon so you have more space? >> she said, this is small, i want more room. >> can you blame her? >> hell, no. thats why i turned earth upside down to get this place bigger. >> if it all sounds like the twisted logic of a madman, listen to...

Master is about to tell his side of the story in a dramatic jailhouse interview. is he really the monster he seems to be? here again is rob stafford. >> im in dewitt, where investigators are searching for clues into those young women held in an underground bunker. >> within days of john jamelskes arrest, the nation knew that a gaunt, gray dungeon master had been living in central new york, kidnapping local girls and keeping them as sex slaves. >> im a pretty nice guy. >> in a network television ...

>> guilty. >> after 15 years of subjecting others to mental torture and sexual slavery, the syracuse dungeon master had quickly tired of the public spotlight. >> you are a sick coward. youre an evil man. youre a kidnapper and a rapist. your reign of terror is over. >> for once jamelske seemed uncharacteristically contrite. when his time came to speak, he was brief and emotional. >> im just truly sorry for what i did. ive had a lot of time to think about it. and im just very sorry for what i did ...

But in jamelskes world none of that makes him a criminal. so how do you think youd feel if you were 15 years old and you were locked at your house in that room for a year? >> i would not mind living down there in that dungeon. >> come on. >> it was absolutely beautiful. there was a bed. there was water. >> youre saying everything a girl could want in that dungeon? >> anything that they wanted except leaving at certain times was there. >> well, in any state ive been thats called kidnapping. >> th...

>> as they were driving into the police station, he started telling them about the fact that he was with this girl who was a friend of his, and theyd had a relationship. >> and hes 67 and shes how old? >> 18. >> according to him? >> according to him. shes, in fact, 16. >> so he is talking without the lawyer? >> hes talking. >> a misunderstood may/december romance is all there was to it, the old man said. >> that he didnt plan on making it a permanent thing, it was just kind of a fling for the pr...

Emotional. >> very, very much. >> even before his house became snared in a tangle of yellow police tape, jamelske was well-known in his suburban syracuse hometown of dewitt but not exactly beloved. his upscale neighbors put up a fence to prevent his junk-strewn yard from spoiling their view. though many knew that jamelske, a retired grocer, collected returnable bottles for the deposits, few could have guessed the eccentric old man was actually a self-made millionaire, thanks to some shrewd real ...

Nerve-racking when you think you have about 3, 3 1/2 feet of soil above us. >> investigators were dumbfounded. not only was the 16-year-old apparently telling the truth, but police say she might never have been victimized at all if jennifer had given them more to go on two years earlier. >> had we believed everything she had to say, we still couldnt have found him. >> the one fact she did have is she remembered that car. >> thoroughly investigated the car, but unfortunately we had the wrong year...

But for 15 years police say john jamelske had another identity as a sexual slave master in a makeshift underground dungeon he had built himself to abuse and imprison a string of young women. now hes heading to trial, accused of kidnapping and rape, and there would be a drama in the courtroom. once more, heres rob stafford. >> in early summer 2003 john jamelske entered a syracuse courtroom for the first time. after two months of saturation coverage, the place was packed with people who wanted to ...

Empty beer bottles, shelf after shelf meticulously organized by brand, some of them stacked alphabetically. but it was at the back of this room that police discovered what they were looking for, the entrance to the dungeon. it was secured by four heavy steel doors. this ten-foot tunnel separates the dungeon from the rest of the house. you have to get on your hands and knees to get there. its cold, dark and damp down here. police say this was the path to john jamelskes other collection. the under...