CLEVELAND – One of three women held for a decade in a Cleveland home says kidnapper Ariel Castro took the “coward’s way out” when he died in prison in what was ruled as a suicide.
Michelle Knight, the oldest of the three captives, also said she was “the most hated person” in Castro’s house of horrors and often took the punishment when the other two captives did something that angered Castro.
“’I’m the one you hate. Hit me. Leave her out of it,” Knight said she would tell Castro in a taped interview that aired Wednesday on the “Dr. Phil” show.
Knight (shown at Castro’s sentencing hearing above) spoke of being beaten, chained and sexually and emotionally abused after being kidnapped in 2002, when she was 20. She says Castro repeatedly told her that he could abuse her and nobody would care.
Knight cried at times during the interview and spoke about having five miscarriages in captivity. She says Castro (left) punched and kicked her in the stomach.
Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus escaped in May.
Castro was convicted. He was found hanging in prison about a month into his sentence.