Photo: Police carry out chains from the home in Philadelphia that were used to chain the victims.
The three suspects who held four mentally disabled adults chained up in a Philadelphia basement "dungeon" to steal their government checks were officially charged Sunday, police said.
The ringleader is believed to be Linda Ann Weston, who according to the Philadelphia Inquirer previously served eight years in prison for starving a 25-year-old man to death in the early 1980s.
Along with the 51-year-old is her boyfriend, Thomas Gregory, 47, and a homeless man named Eddie Wright, 49, Philadelphia police said Sunday.
The bond for the two men was set for $2.5 million each on Monday. Weston is still waiting arraignment.
The three are charged with criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, kidnapping, criminal trespass, unlawful restraint, and false imprisonment, authorities said in a statement.
More charges are likely.
"What went on was pure evil," said Lt. Ray Evers, a Philadelphia police spokesman, told the Inquirer.
The building's landlord, Turgut Gozleveli, discovered the captives - three men and one woman - shackled to a water heater on Saturday, police said. He found them locked behind a large steel door and inside an old 15-by-15 bomb shelter.
"It was terrible," he said, according to the Inquirer. "Something I never expected to see in my life."
Gozleveli told the Philadelphia Daily News, "They had bedsores, were very, very thin... Physically, they did not look in good condition. They were definitely malnourished."
Buckets of urine and feces littered the floor, along with a mattress and some bedsheets. They were hospitalized but said to be in good condition.
The suspects held the four - who ranged in age from 29 to 41 and have the mental capacity of 10-year-olds - in order to steal their disability checks, police said.
The victims are believed to be from Texas, but authorities have not confirmed that or released their names.
Police believe they moved from there to West Palm Beach, Florida, nearly a year ago before arriving in Philadelphia.
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