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Defendants in Tacony imprisonment case face more charges

Three of four defendants jailed on charges of kidnapping four mentally handicapped adults and locking them in a Tacony basement now face additional charges of abusing the alleged ringleader's niece.

Linda Ann Weston (Photo: Philadelphia Police Department)
Linda Ann Weston (Photo: Philadelphia Police Department)Read more

Three of four defendants jailed on charges of kidnapping four mentally handicapped adults and locking them in a Tacony basement now face additional charges of abusing the alleged ringleader's niece.

Linda Ann Weston was charged late Thursday with torturing her niece to such an extent that Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said he was surprised she survived.

Also charged were her daughter, Jean McIntosh, and Eddie Wright, a convicted thief and self-styled street preacher who are codefendants in the Tacony case.

The District Attorney's Office did not identify the victim in a statement, but the details of her ordeal match those of Beatrice Weston, 19.

Linda Weston, McIntosh, and Wright were charged with additional counts of aggravated assault, kidnapping, conspiracy, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, and simple assault, the District Attorney's Office said.

Bail was set at $2 million for Weston and Wright and $1 million for McIntosh on the latest charges.

Gregory Thomas, Linda Weston's boyfriend, was also charged in connection with the original four victims. He, along with the others, allegedly imprisoned mentally handicapped adults in four states, and police are now investigating the deaths of two women at the time they lived with Weston - one in Norfolk, Va., and one in Philadelphia.

Thomas was not charged in relation to Beatrice Weston.

Officials have said Beatrice Weston was locked in a bathroom closet for at least two weeks in Philadelphia, allowed out twice a day to eat and occasionally to use the bathroom.

When police found her, she was suffering from injuries that included hand fractures, a healing tibia fracture, bruising to her left eye, and scars across her body. Police said scars indicated she had been shot in the legs repeatedly with a pellet gun.

Beatrice Weston was rescued after police found three men and a woman held captive in a Tacony basement.

A court had placed her in Linda Ann Weston's custody in 2002. Police have alleged Weston imprisoned the victims in a scheme to collect their Social Security and welfare benefits.

Mayor Nutter said on Friday that he would conduct a thorough investigation to find out what role the city's Department of Human Services played in dependency court hearings at the time, which preceded his administration.

"The one thing we know about this is we don't know everything we need to know about this. You're talking about a sociopath who evaded detection from six states, multiple jurisdictions and systems," Nutter said. "We'll try to figure out what was going on in 2002. . . . All of this, I would take it, will end up in somebody's grand jury, which is where it belongs."