July 4, 2025 • 39 mins
Christopher Bennett is a native of Craigsville, Virginia, who made national headlines in 2003 when, at 18, he fatally shot his stepfather, Vincent McDorman. Bennett was subsequently convicted of capital murder as well as robbery and breaking and entering, accepting a plea deal that resulted in a sentence totaling 1,800 years—equivalent to three life terms under Virginia law.
According to Bennett, he stumbled into the home after hearing his sister’s cries and confronted his stepfather as he was allegedly molesting her. The case has sparked ongoing debate, with supporters portraying Bennett as a juvenile who acted to protect his siblings from abuse.
Victoria McDorman, Bennett’s younger sister, is central to both the case and the ongoing campaign for his clemency. She has publicly recounted enduring repeated abuse at the hands of their stepfather and described her brother’s actions as brave and necessary. Victoria and other family members have participated in rallies—including one in 2020 in Craigsville—calling for Bennett’s release, highlighting the trauma they endured and advocating for a reexamination of his sentence. In recent years, their story has attracted further attention through podcasts like True Crime Broads, which features Victoria’s voice as she elaborates on those events and continues to champion her brother as a hero rather than a criminal.
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According to Bennett, he stumbled into the home after hearing his sister’s cries and confronted his stepfather as he was allegedly molesting her. The case has sparked ongoing debate, with supporters portraying Bennett as a juvenile who acted to protect his siblings from abuse.
Victoria McDorman, Bennett’s younger sister, is central to both the case and the ongoing campaign for his clemency. She has publicly recounted enduring repeated abuse at the hands of their stepfather and described her brother’s actions as brave and necessary. Victoria and other family members have participated in rallies—including one in 2020 in Craigsville—calling for Bennett’s release, highlighting the trauma they endured and advocating for a reexamination of his sentence. In recent years, their story has attracted further attention through podcasts like True Crime Broads, which features Victoria’s voice as she elaborates on those events and continues to champion her brother as a hero rather than a criminal.
https://linktr.ee/Unforbiddentruth
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/unforbidden-truth--4724561/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Welcome to Unforbidden Truth. I'm Andrew. Today I'll be speaking
with Victoria McDorman. Victoria McDorman is the youngest of three
sisters who has a child in Craigsville, Virginia, endured years
of physical and sexual abuse by her father, Vincent McDorman.
In July two thousand and three, when she was just
six years old, her older half brother, Christopher Bennett, fatally
(00:41):
shot Vincent after he allegedly caught him abus in Victoria.
Christopher was later convicted and sent this to three life
terms totally in eighteen hundred years after accepting a plea
deal to avoid the death penalty. Victoria has become an
outspoken advocate for her brother's release, calling him her hero
and best friend. Appeared on shows like Doctor Phil, organizing
rallies and petitions under the Free Christopher Bennett movement, and
(01:03):
sharing her story to help secure clemency. Here's my interview
with Victoria mcdormant.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I my name is Victoria mcdormant, and I am from
Well originally Craigsville, Virginia, and I currently live in Norfolk, Virginia.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So tell me about your brother, Christopher Bennett. As if
I've never heard about his case or himself as an individual.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Okay, Christopher Bennett is the person who will Currently he's
serving eighteen hundred years, which is three life sentences in
the Virginia doc he when I was six, he broke
(01:49):
into my biological father's house and killed him when he
found him lesting me. He has been in prison ever since,
which has been over twenty years now. He is a
very caring person, very protective obviously, and a very hopeful
(02:13):
person because over the past twenty years he's never given
up on the fact that one day he'll be able
to reduce his sentence and be able to come home.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Okay, So what was your household like growing up before
Chris went to prison, if you're even able to remember
that far back of like any memories or anything growing up.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, so my childhood was kind of hectic. I have
a lot of memories when I was younger, so I
can remember. One of the first memories I have. I'm
in a walker as a little toddler. I can't walk
with my own I'm in the kitchen with my mom
and she's talking to another person about my brother, Calvin's funeral.
(03:06):
He had just passed away before I was born, and
like some of the next memories, I have sitting in
the kitchen floor crying as I watched my brothers and
my mom leave after Vince and them had been fighting,
and you know, Vince had slammed this huge coffee table
that we had in the living room, which was there's
(03:27):
a little hallway that connected the kitchen to the living room,
and I remember just sitting there crying, watching all of
them leave, and like Chris was in the last ones
out of the door, and I remember trying to go
with him. He's like, no, you have to stay. So
it was very really hectic, I remember. You know, Vince
was very much he'd give you or do anything type
(03:52):
of parents. So like he'd build us, you know, these
insane jungle gyms out of the random stuff, or by
us go carts and let us drive them, or riding lawnmowers.
He was obsessed with riding lawnmowers and would fix them
those intractors. And there was a huge kind of lot
(04:12):
attached to the house and he would let us drive
everything over there, and you know, I remember getting thrown
off of many a go carts, getting run over a lot,
to the point that I had surgery that it was
very hectic chaotic. It wasn't always like terrible. I remember
(04:32):
like some of the have these times, was flying out
of go carts, and I remember going to the creek
down the road a lot, and EJ or Chris, which
Ej is another brother of mine, would come and get
us and you know, chase us with snakes, which is terrifying,
and catching crawled ads with us. And so I don't
(04:55):
really have memories of Vinced and my mom getting along.
I remember Vince had a girlfriend. Her name was also Elizabeth.
She was a very like she was always like sleeping
kind of person. She had a dog and a cat,
and she was kind of she was more of a
(05:16):
hands off kind of person. Like she was. You could
go and if she wanted to hang out with you
or play with you, she would play with you. And
if she did not, do like nothing to do with you.
So I remember her for most of my childhood being
there with Vince.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Okay, speaking of Vince, can you how would you describe
him to somebody who's never heard his name nor is
familiar with his case?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Vince was complicated. Vince, you have like a lot of
good childhood memories, events, and a lot of terrible childhood
memories of events like I there's always like a party
that's like oh yeah, very quickly like he is a monster,
and he is. He was a child molester, he was
(06:04):
a child abuser one hundred percent, And it's so mixed
up in the other memories of being like well, I
do remember him, you know, building us a jungle gym
and we got to do whatever or on the jungle gym,
and what kind of other kids got to ride go
carts at you know, three, four or five years old,
or go camping all the time. But there was always
(06:25):
like that twist that like Catch twenty two going on
if I got pulled out of you know, school to
go on trips. It wasn't just a trip. We were
always stopping at somebody's house and he would let other
people molest us or rather me, I can't speak for
Casey or Anna, but would like let other people molest me,
(06:47):
or invite people over to, you know, the house in
Craigsville where other people would come over. You never knew
which side of him you were gonna get. It was
always fifty to fifty. You could stand up to him
one day and be like no, I, you know, don't
want to do this, and he'd act like, oh, why
are you so afraid of me? You know, like, fine,
(07:08):
you don't have to do this, and then the next
day it's no, I don't want to do this, and
you're getting a belt against your back until you bleed,
or you know, you're watching your sister have that happen
to her, or you know. I remember standing up to
him and telling him I didn't want him touch me anymore.
And that was probably one of the worst beatings of
(07:30):
my life I ever got from him. I was in
I guess not kindergarten, but like pre k going into
kindergarten or early kindergarten. I was going to the actual
elementary school at that point. I remember that, and I
just told him no, I was almost going to tell
my teachers what was going on, and thought that would
(07:53):
like stop everything. And like, like I said, one of
the worst beatings I'd ever gotten from him. And so, yeah,
Vince is a very complicated, complicated man.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So you mentioned that he would have other people abuse you,
do you know if he was getting anything out of it?
And I only asked because I recently interviewed a gentleman
on death row who claims that his mother would let
him get not only molested, but you know, raped and
so on and so forth, and she would get paid
money for it. So do you know if he was
getting anything out of it, like financially or if it
was just like sick pleasure, or like what was he
(08:29):
getting out of that? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I don't know. I know he was very good friends
with the people. I know. One of the guys specifically,
was always at the house in Craigsville hanging out with him.
They would work on the attractors together and stuff. So
you kind of never knew if he was there, or
at least I never knew if he was there, you know,
for which reason to be with Vince or to like
(08:54):
take you away, you know what I mean, or to
like go to your room and stuff. So it was
more like a just hide situation. But I have no
clue if Vince got anything out of it.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Okay, Uh, So do you have any memory from the
day that Christopher killed Vince after witnessing you being abused.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yes, So the way that day goes in my mind
because I do have like the blank spot where I
don't have any memory of Chris is I remember that night.
I was really upset. I didn't think it was my
night to be in Vincent's bed. I remember crying a lot.
I remember crying at him and told him, like everything hurt.
(09:35):
I didn't want him touching me anymore that you know,
I like just I didn't want to be tied to
make him and I don't have any memories. The next
(09:59):
memory I have is Anna waking me up out of
Vincent's bed and she was like, come on, come on,
you have to get up, and like, I was really confused,
and she's grabbing a shirt for me. She's like, come on,
put your arms up. You have to get dressed. You
have to get dressed. Vincent's head exploded and I was
like what, and she was like, his head exploded. And
so I thought at the time that I had made
(10:20):
him so mad that his head exploded. Like nobody thought
anything about there being a killer in the house or
Vince was killed. I remember crying and freaking out and
she's like putting this shirt over me and she's like
pulling me into So the way it was was this
is like Vincent's bedroom, this was the living room. They
(10:42):
were connected. Vince was in the living room. There's the
little doorway right here, and a doorway right here that
went into like the back portion, and there's a bathroom
like diagonally that connected them. Casey was already in the
bathroom when Anna shoved me in there, and she was
crying and I'm freaking out, and I remember leaving the
(11:03):
bathroom and watching Anna like monkey crawl onto the couches
and like there's brain matter everywhere. Vinces on the floor.
She's going for the phone because she's going to call
the ambulance because this head exploded. And then I don't
(11:24):
remember her talking to them. I just remember crying a
lot and like freaking out in the house. And then
at some point either I don't know if she figured
it out or they explained it to her, but I
remember everything switched from Vincent's head exploded to there was
a killer And we were all huddled in the corner
in the living room with the body like laid out
(11:45):
in front of us, and we hear knocking on the
door and for some reason we think it's the killer.
And now it's like, well, what if it's the killer
coming back? Like we can't, we can't go there. Anna's
freaking out She's like, don't say anything. Everybody be quiet,
you know, And the rescue squad personnel started yelling at
us by name, and I don't remember who they are.
(12:06):
I just remember around them all the time. I don't
remember their names though, and they're like, come to the door,
come on, like, come come on, and we jump over
Vincent's legs to leave out into the little hallway to
the kitchen and out the front door, and they take
us across the street and then I remember them praising us,
(12:27):
I mean, like who knew to call on one one
who did? So Goad gave us toys and told us to,
you know, lay down on the couches over there, and
then from there I remember them like debating who to call,
like if it was our mom or our grandmother. Vince
worked with them, but my mom had worked with them too,
(12:48):
so they kind of didn't know. But they ended up
calling Vincent's mom my grandmother to come get us, and
I remember talking to the police and just being really
scared and confused. I don't remember too much about what
was said. I know he was a state policeman or
I think he was, because it like I remember he
(13:08):
had a huge hat and so I don't think I've
seen anybody else, but then where those since I've grown up?
And then I remember my grandmother taking us away, and
I remember not like I didn't feel anything like I
didn't feel like dread. I wasn't, you know, like, oh
(13:29):
my god, what's next. I was just so at peace
because I knew Vince was dead. There was nothing he
could do to us anymore, you know, like I wasn't
like a yay moment, but it was also more like
very calming and being like, we never have to come
back here again.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Right right? Uh? Do you remember? I know, I know
you were so young, but do you remember like when
Chris was either arrested or charged or convicted or sentenced
for that matter.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yes, So I was with my grandmother, she I guess
had temporary custody at the time, would eventually get full
custody at us. And we're all in her van and
my we're going to my aunt face anteach store and
she's telling my sister Anna. She was like, you know
(14:20):
it was Chris right, like you like you're sitting here
Because my sister Anna was way way older than me.
She was like ten at the time. She's like four
years older than me. She she was like ten at
the time, and I remember my grandmother getting on to
her and like that's when I found out it was
Chris who had done it. I don't remember watching his trial.
(14:41):
I remember it being one of those things that like,
once it came on the TV, if I was in
the room, you know, they'd turn it off really quick.
And one time specifically, I remember like they we had
a bunch of like my aunts and stuff over at
my grandmother's house and it came up on the TV
about them talking about how they were searching the rever
for guns, and they showed his face and they showed
(15:03):
Chris's face and stuff, and I remember her like grabbing
me up and hugging me and being like, oh, it's okay,
You're allowed to cry. But I had it cried. I
wasn't I wasn't sad, and I didn't understand why everybody
else was mad being that Chris had done this, because
this was stuff that like we were very much a
you go to church family. They like would constantly take
(15:25):
us to church, whether you know, it wasn't an option,
and like if you needed something fixed, you prayed to God.
That's what they would tell us so like it didn't
make sense to me, and it just it never made sense. Yeah,
(15:53):
so I remember a lot of that in her. It
was really weird because she was holding me and she
was crying, and I remember feeling weird because one of
her tears ended up in my ear. And then I
got in trouble for like telling her like pushing her
away and telling her to let me go and stuff.
She was very much like Vince on the fact of
(16:13):
if you needed corrected, you needed physical correction, so like
would hit you with rulers and yard sticks and then
if you like I got to the point where like
I learned like, oh, well you can fight back. Like
she was a lot less scary than Vince, and a
lot could not handle me. She was a little old lady.
She was my grandmother, so she'd start calling my uncle
over to handle me because you know, she couldn't. So then, yeah,
(16:41):
she had gotten really mad, and I remember thinking, like
there was one point where she still wanted us to
go to church, and that's when I stopped because I
was like, it doesn't make sense how this is Chris's fault.
If anything, it's my fault, because that's that's what I
prayed for and this is what happened because I prayed
for her, for us to be taken away from Vincent,
(17:03):
for this to stop. And I don't remember him ever.
I don't ever remember being told he had eighteen hundred
years until well after my mom got visitation right back.
(17:25):
I remember my grandmother talking about having him put to death,
and she would constantly tell my sister Anna a lot,
I could have had him on the death sentence and
I didn't do that, be thankful, And she would argue
with my sister Anna a lot about Chris and about
how Anna must have known what was going to happen,
and how like all of Chris's friends were involved and
(17:48):
it was this whole thing. So yeah, I did not.
They did not have a good My sister and her
did not have a good relationship obviously after that.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So do you do you remember the first time, uh,
you were able to visit Christ prison if you have
visited him in prison yet?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yes, So my mom had just gotten custody of us,
and we wove to the prison. And remember I was
so stressed out. I was so excited to get to
see him. I talked to him on phones, I wrote
him letters, you know, but I was gonna actually get
to see him, and I wore a Camo shirt, which
(18:32):
is very much against Virginia Doc policy. So then I
started crying and breaking out because they were't gonna let
me in and my my dad, well my stepdad, but
I call him my dad. Claude. He's like, we knew
this was gonna happen. We brought more clothes, is they're
running to be outside to change me and stuff. So
we finally get back in there and we're buying Chris,
(18:53):
like you this is before they took out vending machines,
because Virginia Doc removed all vending machines and everything from visitation.
Now we're buying him a bunch of coffee, and they
have like these heat up hamburgers and meals and sodas
and stuff, stuff that he can't get back for commentsary
and stuff. So we're buying all of it because they
were not as strict at the time. I think the
(19:16):
prison we went to was Keen Mountain, which is the
one that he just left. He was at Keen Mountain
for a long time, a long time, and he got
a Milky Way because he wanted a bunch of chocolate.
He was super hyped up. We had each brought twenty
dollars with the quarters with us, which is not the policy.
Policy is one bag of twenty dollars now, but back
(19:37):
then they were not as strict about it. They were
getting our money, so why did they care? And he
ate and drank so much coffee and candy and stuff that,
like to the point where he had just a stash
in front of him and was like talking with us
and pointing like snickers and milky anyways at us. And
when we left, he couldn't take all the stuff with him,
so we had to take with us. And I remember
(19:57):
like it was so much fun, Like we laughed and
the whole time, like I got to hug him. Sorry,
and we left, and I got bad at Casey because
she was like, oh, yeah, I'm hungry. I'm gonna eat
the Smoky Way and I was like, you can't, it'scre
and I was like in my like I was like
(20:17):
twelve eleven, I was like, oh yeah, Like that's when
it hit like there's a chance, there's a real possibility
he'll never go home, because like that's when Mom really
had like explain that to me, because I was like,
(20:41):
oh no, we can just save it for him for
when he comes home. Because I had other brothers. I
have five brothers, so had other brothers in prison who
got to come home. And so that's when it was
really explained to me, like, oh, yeah, this is how
(21:02):
you will always get to see him, like you will
probably never get to see him home. Of course, we'll
do everything we can do bring him home. But yeah,
and so I've wanted to visit him, probably not as
much as I would want to ever, but I've gotten
to visit him throughout the years and then schedule, you know,
(21:24):
video visits with him. Now thankfully they have video visits
and yeah, and then I go up every chance I get.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
That's good, all right, Oh no, it's okay. I totally understand.
So I know you spoke a lot about it. But
what are your overall thoughts on the case and what
happened to not only Evince but Chris, like his sentence
and everything, Like what are your overall thoughts? Like you
think he should have been like charge with maybe like
(21:55):
manslaughter or charges should have been dropped, Like what do
you think should have happened? Like if it was up
to you, would your family what do you think you
guys would have chose, you know, when it came to
Chris's fate.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
So I have a lot of feelings about the case,
one of which was a I know that they do
this to protect young kids, but I know like there
was a bar that was set that, you know, they
were not allowed to if this did go to trial,
they were not allowed to talk to the US girls
because we were so young, and I think that was
(22:29):
a crucial point in the case. I think that public
defenders are overworked. They have a trillion cases, and that's
what Chris had. A public defender that was overworked, that
wanted a case close the fastest and the easiest way
he could think to close it, and who ultimately didn't
do his job correctly because of that. I think there
was a lot of evidence left out, like his psyche valuation.
(22:54):
I feel like that plays a key role into it,
to have an outside party come in and say this
man talking about Christopher was sexually abused by Vincent. This
was a trauma response. This was part of his raising
my mom. I've read the psyche evaluation specifically, which is
(23:14):
how my mom was so venomous against Vince that that
kind of altered the way Chris saw the situation. He
didn't see it as doing anything wrong anymore, because that's
all he'd heard was how terrible Vince was and how
he deserved, you know, not to be around anymore because
of what he had done to the boys, and you know,
(23:35):
what he was doing to the girls, and how there
was no to like Chris was not in his right mind.
That is such a key factor. Chris ne did mental
health help and help to get his future right. He
didn't need to go to prison for the rest of
his life. And the fact that you know, in Virginia
(23:55):
even now, a life sentence isn't six hundred years anymore.
Do you still have Chris and hundreds of other offenders
who were having this old time law held against them
that says it had to have been six hundred years
or it could have been anything six hundred and up.
I think if it would have been me, if I
could have chosen my way, I've worked a lot in
(24:17):
mental health and I would have done or looked for
a not guilty for a reason of insanity, just like
his you know, psychologists suggested he wasn't in his right mind.
He needed mental health help. He definitely needed help out
of a terrible situation, and he did the only thing
he could think of to stop it. You know, Social
(24:39):
services were involved a lot. I didn't know it at
the time, really. I just remember these ladies constantly coming
over and talking to us. The state knew what was
going on. There were other there was another child involved,
and he had his family had, you know, went through
Social Service about what Vince had done to him. So
(25:01):
like search services should have stepped in. It should have
never been left up to Chris to kind of stop
what was going on and then him handling it the
way he did. You took a person who was abused
himself and he threw him away as trying to be
like a hard on prime punishment thing because it was
a small town, and he did this atrocity without considering
(25:26):
the fact that he saved three little girls. He might
have ended one man when he saved three little girls.
I definitely would have rather seen him do not guilty
for reason of insanity or have a lesser sentence that
saw him coming home. For sure.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, I think I think it's pretty ridiculous that he
got eighteen hundred years when in similar situations, I mean,
people have killed their abusers and either got off or
like Centoya Brown in Tennessee, like she killed her rapist
and got life, I believe. But now she's out of prison,
you know, because I think Kim Kardashian and a few
other rallying behind her. But I think it's time to, uh,
(26:11):
you know, not be so hard on people that, you know,
I feel like they either have to kill themselves or
kill their abusers to get out of the situation. And
obviously it's it's not their fault, so you know, killing
their abuser, it's it's probably not the best thing to do.
But if if they feel like they can't escape from that,
you know, then then somebody's dropped the ball, you know,
(26:34):
when they're when they're trying to reach for help, you know,
Like it's just like a lot of high profile prisoners
tell me like mental health, you know issues, Like I was,
I was having so many mental health issues on the streets,
nobody would talk to me. Then I I go out
and kill five, six seven people, and now I have
the best mental health treatment you know in the United
States in prison. But I'm never going to get out,
you know type of thing.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Yeah, And that's a huge thing is like especially I
can't speak whether this is better now or not, but
I can say like I see it all the time.
Like I've worked as a resident support person for people
who are coming out of mental health hospitals, you know,
and transitioning back back into the world, and I've seen
(27:15):
it even with them, like they were people who were
on the street and had no access to any type
of help until they got committed to a hospital because
they did something you know, like they wouldn't have normally
done if they had mental health help. And I feel
like that's that's a really big thing. If the things
(27:36):
we put in place, like social services local csbs, you know,
mental health help like getting medical care when you need it,
stuff like that, if it's utilized, if it is done properly,
it can be very helpful for people and save people
from having to, you know, could be committed for multiple
(27:58):
years of their life or in prison for multiple years
ago their life just to get the help they need.
Everybody waits till something I feel like it's an extreme
before they step in, and I feel like that's especially
true in small towns because they feel like they can
handle it or it's you know, that's just crazy, Joe. Oh,
that's just how Vince is, you know, That's just people
(28:19):
are quick to make excuses for how people are in
so just being like, you know what, that's not right,
you need help. I remember a huge thing even when
we did, you know, the Doctor Phil Show, I had
people who were my age reaching out to me on
Facebook from craigsnot being like, well, my dad worked with
Vince and he said that that's a lie because Vince
(28:40):
is a veteran, so he would never do that. Look,
that doesn't negate what Vince did. It doesn't at all.
He can be a veteran and still be a monster
who abused his children. And it's not something Casey or
Anna or me and even Chris talk about. That's something
(29:02):
we leave very much alone because we handle our trauma differently,
and that that's one of them. One of the first
times I've ever heard Chris's side of things was on
The Doctor Phil Show, and I never knew how bad
it was for him, and I would ever, probably ever
talk to my sisters about it. So if we're not
(29:23):
even talking to each other about it, what makes you
think that, you know, adults in the situation were, you know,
talking about it? That way, you know, or being honest
with people about what was going on, right.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Right, Yeah, I mean like you said, I mean somebody
can could have could had like a good pass and
still be a bad person. Like look at metk Dennis Rader.
He was binding, torturing and killing families, but he was
also a family man at the same time. I mean
he just they live double lives, like sociopaths and psychopaths
are are like better actors than Hollywood actors. You know,
(30:01):
like they can go out and rape and kill then
come home and like love you love their wife and
kids like you know, they like nothing happened. You know,
it's it's.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Crazy, it is, and when you're unable to do it,
Like Vincent's mom, my grandmother, she knew something was going on,
Like I remember trying to talk to her multiple times
about it after Vince was dead, and I remember, like
us finding you know, pictures, and I remember one time
she sold everything in the Craigsville house, everything that she could.
(30:35):
She kept a few of his shirts and had you know,
teddy bears made out of them. It was like, Oh,
keep them in this bag so they'll still smell like him,
and they are his work. Shirts and stuff, and like
outside of that that she got rid of everything, and
this including Vincent's camp quarters. Vince loved to record everything,
and the first part of the camp, like the recording
(30:56):
seems so normal, Like she gave it to me. She's like, here,
it's a great recording the view and your dad and
it's me playing weatherwoman with Casey outside, showing off the
box turtle we captured and had in a tote outside
and stuff like that. But I knew it was coming. Next,
it was a sex video of him and Elizabeth that
he had shown me multiple times, and I remember like
(31:18):
taking it to her being like, no, look, I told
you this stuff happened. I can tell you everything that
happens on this video after this, and it's like him
zooming in on Elizabeth's vagina and all this other stuff
that no kids should ever be able to tell you about.
And I remember taking it and like she broke a yardstick,
(31:39):
hitting me so hard with it, and it was like,
we're never gonna talk about this again, Like I never
saw that video again. We found like naked pictures of
us and like she burned them. She would have us
write letters to Vince. Every couple of months, every month,
and we'd have to burn them so that he can
get them and read them in heaven. It was really
really strange, and she burnt the pictures. So in my
(32:01):
head that was always like, well, if you if you
think these letters are going to heaven and you're burning
those pictures, and then why would you want him to
have naked pictures of us? Why would you ever be
okay with that? So in my head that always made
her complacent in the matter for sure, or at least
accepting of it, because she really did like everything she
could to keep us or at least keep me from
(32:24):
talking about it, and like denying it ever happened and
being like, that's just crazy, that's all on your head,
you know. And people like that enable people like Vince
to continue doing stuff behind everybody's back and continue that
perpetual oh no, he's a good guy, you know, routine
instead of just listening to the people who are speaking.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Up about it, right right, Yeah, I agree. So has
this case brought you and Chris closer throughout time or
has it done the complete opposite?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I think that's a double edged sword. So we don't
talk about the case much. Me and Chris are very close.
He's I've all almost all my brothers. He is one
of my only living remaining brothers. I think it does
bring us close to the fact that, you know, it's
made me very much active in the prison reform world,
(33:23):
and that's stuff that we can talk about and not
get really emotional with or I won't get overly emotional.
I think on that point, it brings us together. And
I know, like you know, doing interviews, doing the TikTok's,
doing you know, everything that I've done over the years.
Like sometimes it's put a strain on us and me
being like, hang on, I gotta take a step back
(33:45):
because now this is getting too much for me. And
he's always like, okay, don't do it because he doesn't
want that for me. But at the same time, like
I went him home, and who who better to speak
when it if not one of the victims you saved.
If my other sisters can't do it for their reasons,
you know that it's kind of like a I have
(34:05):
to so like it's kind of like a that gets
iffy sometimes, But it's definitely made us closer. He he's
my everything. I tell him everything, all the crazy work
stories and stuff and It's had very much the opposite
effect on me and my sisters. Me and my sisters
do not speak. If we can avoid it and we
(34:27):
live through the stuff together, we do not speak about it.
We do not speak to each other very much. It's
very much like if you need me, you can reach out,
but if we're together for too long, we're fighting and arguing.
And like, we all handled our traumas differently, and I
(34:47):
think we all kind of like get mad at the
other for how they handled their trauma.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
So so, is there anything that you'd like the public
to know about yourself, your brother, or this faith for
that matter, I'd like.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Them to understand that, you know, a lot of people
feel like they can't do anything to help with this case.
And what people can do is you know, voting, voting
for the right governor. The only person who can help
Chris come home is the governor himself. You know a
lot of people we always get, you know, reach out
to President Trump. This is a state case. So even
(35:25):
if we like, even if Trump wanted to, legally he's
not allowed to have anything to do with this case,
you could throw a support behind it. So like being
educated and what you're voting for understand that you know,
there are a lot of people like Chris in the
prison system, and the best way to help all of
them is prison reform and putting people in power who
want them to come home. Virginia is very much a
(35:49):
lock them up and throw away the key state. There's
a lot of things that happened to Chris and prisoners
like Chris that are terrible in Virginia. And the best
way to stay up to date on his case is
by following his Facebook and the best way to help
is reaching out to the governor. He does have a
(36:09):
team of lawyers and he's currently working with another set
of lawyers on a different matter to try to attack
this in a public way in the courts, and that
hopefully works as well. But at the end of the day,
the best way to bring him home is the governor
releasing him, and he is the only one who can.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
So, before we conclude this interview, is there anything that
you'd like to talk about that we haven't covered yet?
Speaker 2 (36:43):
No, I think I think we covered everything. I can't
think of anything off the top of my head.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Okay, well, I appreciate you doing this with me today.
I know it's probably not easy to talk about it.
But I'm sure the more you do, the better it gets.
And I'm glad that Chris has you know, you in
his corner, and I'm glad that over one hundred and
fifty thousand people know that this sentence was wrong and
they're you know, signing the petition and trying to you know,
(37:10):
get it to the governor in front of the governor's eyes.
I think, I think eventually he's going to have to
do something or or whoever you know, takes his place
if he doesn't win reelection, because like I said, you know,
there's been so many victims that have killed their abusers
that have either got life in prison and have been
released or have been acquitted of the charges, you know,
And I feel like, I mean, honestly, I feel like
(37:32):
if if my sister was being abused by somebody in
that situation, I can't blame Chris. And I think anybody
would do the same thing, you know, as long as
they had a heart and they you know, we're i
mean sick and discussed it by the act. I mean,
I can't think of anybody that wouldn't do the same
if they had a you know, weapon on them.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
No of course, I think that's the basis consensus. And
thank you so much for doing this. Because people like
you reach out who get into Chris's case, who want
to learn more about it. That's why we have the
followers we have, That's why we have so much support.
So thank you very much for doing this and for
(38:17):
taking the time to listen to both of us.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah, most definitely, And I'm I'm you know, I'm gonna
keep in touch with Chris. I hope I hope that,
you know, he'll stay in touch with me, and we
can you know, do follow ups and so on and
so forth, and hopefully when he's released, you know, we
can we can do more after that and you know,
maybe maybe get him like speaking publicly or or something,
or helping other survivors of TV or you know, sexual abuse.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
You know, Yeah, definitely, I know. That's one thing me
and him have talked a lot about is what he
wants to do when he comes home, and like all
the stuff he wants to do, especially for you know,
people who've been hurt and then the people who are
still in prison that are just like him.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
So that was my interview with Victoria McDormand if you
like the show. Feel free to leave a review. Head
on over to Unforbidden truth dot org to pick up
some merch to support the show, like a coffee mug,
tank top, T shirt, and more. Thank you for listening,
See you on the next one.
Welcome to Unforbidden Truth. I'm Andrew. Today I'll be speaking
with Victoria McDorman. Victoria McDorman is the youngest of three
sisters who has a child in Craigsville, Virginia, endured years
of physical and sexual abuse by her father, Vincent McDorman.
In July two thousand and three, when she was just
six years old, her older half brother, Christopher Bennett, fatally
(00:41):
shot Vincent after he allegedly caught him abus in Victoria.
Christopher was later convicted and sent this to three life
terms totally in eighteen hundred years after accepting a plea
deal to avoid the death penalty. Victoria has become an
outspoken advocate for her brother's release, calling him her hero
and best friend. Appeared on shows like Doctor Phil, organizing
rallies and petitions under the Free Christopher Bennett movement, and
(01:03):
sharing her story to help secure clemency. Here's my interview
with Victoria mcdormant.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I my name is Victoria mcdormant, and I am from
Well originally Craigsville, Virginia, and I currently live in Norfolk, Virginia.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
So tell me about your brother, Christopher Bennett. As if
I've never heard about his case or himself as an individual.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Okay, Christopher Bennett is the person who will Currently he's
serving eighteen hundred years, which is three life sentences in
the Virginia doc he when I was six, he broke
(01:49):
into my biological father's house and killed him when he
found him lesting me. He has been in prison ever since,
which has been over twenty years now. He is a
very caring person, very protective obviously, and a very hopeful
(02:13):
person because over the past twenty years he's never given
up on the fact that one day he'll be able
to reduce his sentence and be able to come home.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Okay, So what was your household like growing up before
Chris went to prison, if you're even able to remember
that far back of like any memories or anything growing up.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Yeah, so my childhood was kind of hectic. I have
a lot of memories when I was younger, so I
can remember. One of the first memories I have. I'm
in a walker as a little toddler. I can't walk
with my own I'm in the kitchen with my mom
and she's talking to another person about my brother, Calvin's funeral.
(03:06):
He had just passed away before I was born, and
like some of the next memories, I have sitting in
the kitchen floor crying as I watched my brothers and
my mom leave after Vince and them had been fighting,
and you know, Vince had slammed this huge coffee table
that we had in the living room, which was there's
(03:27):
a little hallway that connected the kitchen to the living room,
and I remember just sitting there crying, watching all of
them leave, and like Chris was in the last ones
out of the door, and I remember trying to go
with him. He's like, no, you have to stay. So
it was very really hectic, I remember. You know, Vince
was very much he'd give you or do anything type
(03:52):
of parents. So like he'd build us, you know, these
insane jungle gyms out of the random stuff, or by
us go carts and let us drive them, or riding lawnmowers.
He was obsessed with riding lawnmowers and would fix them
those intractors. And there was a huge kind of lot
(04:12):
attached to the house and he would let us drive
everything over there, and you know, I remember getting thrown
off of many a go carts, getting run over a lot,
to the point that I had surgery that it was
very hectic chaotic. It wasn't always like terrible. I remember
(04:32):
like some of the have these times, was flying out
of go carts, and I remember going to the creek
down the road a lot, and EJ or Chris, which
Ej is another brother of mine, would come and get
us and you know, chase us with snakes, which is terrifying,
and catching crawled ads with us. And so I don't
(04:55):
really have memories of Vinced and my mom getting along.
I remember Vince had a girlfriend. Her name was also Elizabeth.
She was a very like she was always like sleeping
kind of person. She had a dog and a cat,
and she was kind of she was more of a
(05:16):
hands off kind of person. Like she was. You could
go and if she wanted to hang out with you
or play with you, she would play with you. And
if she did not, do like nothing to do with you.
So I remember her for most of my childhood being
there with Vince.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Okay, speaking of Vince, can you how would you describe
him to somebody who's never heard his name nor is
familiar with his case?
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Vince was complicated. Vince, you have like a lot of
good childhood memories, events, and a lot of terrible childhood
memories of events like I there's always like a party
that's like oh yeah, very quickly like he is a monster,
and he is. He was a child molester, he was
(06:04):
a child abuser one hundred percent, And it's so mixed
up in the other memories of being like well, I
do remember him, you know, building us a jungle gym
and we got to do whatever or on the jungle gym,
and what kind of other kids got to ride go
carts at you know, three, four or five years old,
or go camping all the time. But there was always
(06:25):
like that twist that like Catch twenty two going on
if I got pulled out of you know, school to
go on trips. It wasn't just a trip. We were
always stopping at somebody's house and he would let other
people molest us or rather me, I can't speak for
Casey or Anna, but would like let other people molest me,
(06:47):
or invite people over to, you know, the house in
Craigsville where other people would come over. You never knew
which side of him you were gonna get. It was
always fifty to fifty. You could stand up to him
one day and be like no, I, you know, don't
want to do this, and he'd act like, oh, why
are you so afraid of me? You know, like, fine,
(07:08):
you don't have to do this, and then the next
day it's no, I don't want to do this, and
you're getting a belt against your back until you bleed,
or you know, you're watching your sister have that happen
to her, or you know. I remember standing up to
him and telling him I didn't want him touch me anymore.
And that was probably one of the worst beatings of
(07:30):
my life I ever got from him. I was in
I guess not kindergarten, but like pre k going into
kindergarten or early kindergarten. I was going to the actual
elementary school at that point. I remember that, and I
just told him no, I was almost going to tell
my teachers what was going on, and thought that would
(07:53):
like stop everything. And like, like I said, one of
the worst beatings I'd ever gotten from him. And so, yeah,
Vince is a very complicated, complicated man.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
So you mentioned that he would have other people abuse you,
do you know if he was getting anything out of it?
And I only asked because I recently interviewed a gentleman
on death row who claims that his mother would let
him get not only molested, but you know, raped and
so on and so forth, and she would get paid
money for it. So do you know if he was
getting anything out of it, like financially or if it
was just like sick pleasure, or like what was he
(08:29):
getting out of that? Do you know?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
I don't know. I know he was very good friends
with the people. I know. One of the guys specifically,
was always at the house in Craigsville hanging out with him.
They would work on the attractors together and stuff. So
you kind of never knew if he was there, or
at least I never knew if he was there, you know,
for which reason to be with Vince or to like
(08:54):
take you away, you know what I mean, or to
like go to your room and stuff. So it was
more like a just hide situation. But I have no
clue if Vince got anything out of it.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
Okay, Uh, So do you have any memory from the
day that Christopher killed Vince after witnessing you being abused.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yes, So the way that day goes in my mind
because I do have like the blank spot where I
don't have any memory of Chris is I remember that night.
I was really upset. I didn't think it was my
night to be in Vincent's bed. I remember crying a lot.
I remember crying at him and told him, like everything hurt.
(09:35):
I didn't want him touching me anymore that you know,
I like just I didn't want to be tied to
make him and I don't have any memories. The next
(09:59):
memory I have is Anna waking me up out of
Vincent's bed and she was like, come on, come on,
you have to get up, and like, I was really confused,
and she's grabbing a shirt for me. She's like, come on,
put your arms up. You have to get dressed. You
have to get dressed. Vincent's head exploded and I was
like what, and she was like, his head exploded. And
so I thought at the time that I had made
(10:20):
him so mad that his head exploded. Like nobody thought
anything about there being a killer in the house or
Vince was killed. I remember crying and freaking out and
she's like putting this shirt over me and she's like
pulling me into So the way it was was this
is like Vincent's bedroom, this was the living room. They
(10:42):
were connected. Vince was in the living room. There's the
little doorway right here, and a doorway right here that
went into like the back portion, and there's a bathroom
like diagonally that connected them. Casey was already in the
bathroom when Anna shoved me in there, and she was
crying and I'm freaking out, and I remember leaving the
(11:03):
bathroom and watching Anna like monkey crawl onto the couches
and like there's brain matter everywhere. Vinces on the floor.
She's going for the phone because she's going to call
the ambulance because this head exploded. And then I don't
(11:24):
remember her talking to them. I just remember crying a
lot and like freaking out in the house. And then
at some point either I don't know if she figured
it out or they explained it to her, but I
remember everything switched from Vincent's head exploded to there was
a killer And we were all huddled in the corner
in the living room with the body like laid out
(11:45):
in front of us, and we hear knocking on the
door and for some reason we think it's the killer.
And now it's like, well, what if it's the killer
coming back? Like we can't, we can't go there. Anna's
freaking out She's like, don't say anything. Everybody be quiet,
you know, And the rescue squad personnel started yelling at
us by name, and I don't remember who they are.
(12:06):
I just remember around them all the time. I don't
remember their names though, and they're like, come to the door,
come on, like, come come on, and we jump over
Vincent's legs to leave out into the little hallway to
the kitchen and out the front door, and they take
us across the street and then I remember them praising us,
(12:27):
I mean, like who knew to call on one one
who did? So Goad gave us toys and told us to,
you know, lay down on the couches over there, and
then from there I remember them like debating who to call,
like if it was our mom or our grandmother. Vince
worked with them, but my mom had worked with them too,
(12:48):
so they kind of didn't know. But they ended up
calling Vincent's mom my grandmother to come get us, and
I remember talking to the police and just being really
scared and confused. I don't remember too much about what
was said. I know he was a state policeman or
I think he was, because it like I remember he
(13:08):
had a huge hat and so I don't think I've
seen anybody else, but then where those since I've grown up?
And then I remember my grandmother taking us away, and
I remember not like I didn't feel anything like I
didn't feel like dread. I wasn't, you know, like, oh
(13:29):
my god, what's next. I was just so at peace
because I knew Vince was dead. There was nothing he
could do to us anymore, you know, like I wasn't
like a yay moment, but it was also more like
very calming and being like, we never have to come
back here again.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Right right? Uh? Do you remember? I know, I know
you were so young, but do you remember like when
Chris was either arrested or charged or convicted or sentenced
for that matter.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Yes, So I was with my grandmother, she I guess
had temporary custody at the time, would eventually get full
custody at us. And we're all in her van and
my we're going to my aunt face anteach store and
she's telling my sister Anna. She was like, you know
(14:20):
it was Chris right, like you like you're sitting here
Because my sister Anna was way way older than me.
She was like ten at the time. She's like four
years older than me. She she was like ten at
the time, and I remember my grandmother getting on to
her and like that's when I found out it was
Chris who had done it. I don't remember watching his trial.
(14:41):
I remember it being one of those things that like,
once it came on the TV, if I was in
the room, you know, they'd turn it off really quick.
And one time specifically, I remember like they we had
a bunch of like my aunts and stuff over at
my grandmother's house and it came up on the TV
about them talking about how they were searching the rever
for guns, and they showed his face and they showed
(15:03):
Chris's face and stuff, and I remember her like grabbing
me up and hugging me and being like, oh, it's okay,
You're allowed to cry. But I had it cried. I
wasn't I wasn't sad, and I didn't understand why everybody
else was mad being that Chris had done this, because
this was stuff that like we were very much a
you go to church family. They like would constantly take
(15:25):
us to church, whether you know, it wasn't an option,
and like if you needed something fixed, you prayed to God.
That's what they would tell us so like it didn't
make sense to me, and it just it never made sense. Yeah,
(15:53):
so I remember a lot of that in her. It
was really weird because she was holding me and she
was crying, and I remember feeling weird because one of
her tears ended up in my ear. And then I
got in trouble for like telling her like pushing her
away and telling her to let me go and stuff.
She was very much like Vince on the fact of
(16:13):
if you needed corrected, you needed physical correction, so like
would hit you with rulers and yard sticks and then
if you like I got to the point where like
I learned like, oh, well you can fight back. Like
she was a lot less scary than Vince, and a
lot could not handle me. She was a little old lady.
She was my grandmother, so she'd start calling my uncle
over to handle me because you know, she couldn't. So then, yeah,
(16:41):
she had gotten really mad, and I remember thinking, like
there was one point where she still wanted us to
go to church, and that's when I stopped because I
was like, it doesn't make sense how this is Chris's fault.
If anything, it's my fault, because that's that's what I
prayed for and this is what happened because I prayed
for her, for us to be taken away from Vincent,
(17:03):
for this to stop. And I don't remember him ever.
I don't ever remember being told he had eighteen hundred
years until well after my mom got visitation right back.
(17:25):
I remember my grandmother talking about having him put to death,
and she would constantly tell my sister Anna a lot,
I could have had him on the death sentence and
I didn't do that, be thankful, And she would argue
with my sister Anna a lot about Chris and about
how Anna must have known what was going to happen,
and how like all of Chris's friends were involved and
(17:48):
it was this whole thing. So yeah, I did not.
They did not have a good My sister and her
did not have a good relationship obviously after that.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
So do you do you remember the first time, uh,
you were able to visit Christ prison if you have
visited him in prison yet?
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yes, So my mom had just gotten custody of us,
and we wove to the prison. And remember I was
so stressed out. I was so excited to get to
see him. I talked to him on phones, I wrote
him letters, you know, but I was gonna actually get
to see him, and I wore a Camo shirt, which
(18:32):
is very much against Virginia Doc policy. So then I
started crying and breaking out because they were't gonna let
me in and my my dad, well my stepdad, but
I call him my dad. Claude. He's like, we knew
this was gonna happen. We brought more clothes, is they're
running to be outside to change me and stuff. So
we finally get back in there and we're buying Chris,
(18:53):
like you this is before they took out vending machines,
because Virginia Doc removed all vending machines and everything from visitation.
Now we're buying him a bunch of coffee, and they
have like these heat up hamburgers and meals and sodas
and stuff, stuff that he can't get back for commentsary
and stuff. So we're buying all of it because they
were not as strict at the time. I think the
(19:16):
prison we went to was Keen Mountain, which is the
one that he just left. He was at Keen Mountain
for a long time, a long time, and he got
a Milky Way because he wanted a bunch of chocolate.
He was super hyped up. We had each brought twenty
dollars with the quarters with us, which is not the policy.
Policy is one bag of twenty dollars now, but back
(19:37):
then they were not as strict about it. They were
getting our money, so why did they care? And he
ate and drank so much coffee and candy and stuff that,
like to the point where he had just a stash
in front of him and was like talking with us
and pointing like snickers and milky anyways at us. And
when we left, he couldn't take all the stuff with him,
so we had to take with us. And I remember
(19:57):
like it was so much fun, Like we laughed and
the whole time, like I got to hug him. Sorry,
and we left, and I got bad at Casey because
she was like, oh, yeah, I'm hungry. I'm gonna eat
the Smoky Way and I was like, you can't, it'scre
and I was like in my like I was like
(20:17):
twelve eleven, I was like, oh yeah, Like that's when
it hit like there's a chance, there's a real possibility
he'll never go home, because like that's when Mom really
had like explain that to me, because I was like,
(20:41):
oh no, we can just save it for him for
when he comes home. Because I had other brothers. I
have five brothers, so had other brothers in prison who
got to come home. And so that's when it was
really explained to me, like, oh, yeah, this is how
(21:02):
you will always get to see him, like you will
probably never get to see him home. Of course, we'll
do everything we can do bring him home. But yeah,
and so I've wanted to visit him, probably not as
much as I would want to ever, but I've gotten
to visit him throughout the years and then schedule, you know,
(21:24):
video visits with him. Now thankfully they have video visits
and yeah, and then I go up every chance I get.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
That's good, all right, Oh no, it's okay. I totally understand.
So I know you spoke a lot about it. But
what are your overall thoughts on the case and what
happened to not only Evince but Chris, like his sentence
and everything, Like what are your overall thoughts? Like you
think he should have been like charge with maybe like
(21:55):
manslaughter or charges should have been dropped, Like what do
you think should have happened? Like if it was up
to you, would your family what do you think you
guys would have chose, you know, when it came to
Chris's fate.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
So I have a lot of feelings about the case,
one of which was a I know that they do
this to protect young kids, but I know like there
was a bar that was set that, you know, they
were not allowed to if this did go to trial,
they were not allowed to talk to the US girls
because we were so young, and I think that was
(22:29):
a crucial point in the case. I think that public
defenders are overworked. They have a trillion cases, and that's
what Chris had. A public defender that was overworked, that
wanted a case close the fastest and the easiest way
he could think to close it, and who ultimately didn't
do his job correctly because of that. I think there
was a lot of evidence left out, like his psyche valuation.
(22:54):
I feel like that plays a key role into it,
to have an outside party come in and say this
man talking about Christopher was sexually abused by Vincent. This
was a trauma response. This was part of his raising
my mom. I've read the psyche evaluation specifically, which is
(23:14):
how my mom was so venomous against Vince that that
kind of altered the way Chris saw the situation. He
didn't see it as doing anything wrong anymore, because that's
all he'd heard was how terrible Vince was and how
he deserved, you know, not to be around anymore because
of what he had done to the boys, and you know,
(23:35):
what he was doing to the girls, and how there
was no to like Chris was not in his right mind.
That is such a key factor. Chris ne did mental
health help and help to get his future right. He
didn't need to go to prison for the rest of
his life. And the fact that you know, in Virginia
(23:55):
even now, a life sentence isn't six hundred years anymore.
Do you still have Chris and hundreds of other offenders
who were having this old time law held against them
that says it had to have been six hundred years
or it could have been anything six hundred and up.
I think if it would have been me, if I
could have chosen my way, I've worked a lot in
(24:17):
mental health and I would have done or looked for
a not guilty for a reason of insanity, just like
his you know, psychologists suggested he wasn't in his right mind.
He needed mental health help. He definitely needed help out
of a terrible situation, and he did the only thing
he could think of to stop it. You know, Social
(24:39):
services were involved a lot. I didn't know it at
the time, really. I just remember these ladies constantly coming
over and talking to us. The state knew what was
going on. There were other there was another child involved,
and he had his family had, you know, went through
Social Service about what Vince had done to him. So
(25:01):
like search services should have stepped in. It should have
never been left up to Chris to kind of stop
what was going on and then him handling it the
way he did. You took a person who was abused
himself and he threw him away as trying to be
like a hard on prime punishment thing because it was
a small town, and he did this atrocity without considering
(25:26):
the fact that he saved three little girls. He might
have ended one man when he saved three little girls.
I definitely would have rather seen him do not guilty
for reason of insanity or have a lesser sentence that
saw him coming home. For sure.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, I think I think it's pretty ridiculous that he
got eighteen hundred years when in similar situations, I mean,
people have killed their abusers and either got off or
like Centoya Brown in Tennessee, like she killed her rapist
and got life, I believe. But now she's out of prison,
you know, because I think Kim Kardashian and a few
other rallying behind her. But I think it's time to, uh,
(26:11):
you know, not be so hard on people that, you know,
I feel like they either have to kill themselves or
kill their abusers to get out of the situation. And
obviously it's it's not their fault, so you know, killing
their abuser, it's it's probably not the best thing to do.
But if if they feel like they can't escape from that,
you know, then then somebody's dropped the ball, you know,
(26:34):
when they're when they're trying to reach for help, you know,
Like it's just like a lot of high profile prisoners
tell me like mental health, you know issues, Like I was,
I was having so many mental health issues on the streets,
nobody would talk to me. Then I I go out
and kill five, six seven people, and now I have
the best mental health treatment you know in the United
States in prison. But I'm never going to get out,
you know type of thing.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
Yeah, And that's a huge thing is like especially I
can't speak whether this is better now or not, but
I can say like I see it all the time.
Like I've worked as a resident support person for people
who are coming out of mental health hospitals, you know,
and transitioning back back into the world, and I've seen
(27:15):
it even with them, like they were people who were
on the street and had no access to any type
of help until they got committed to a hospital because
they did something you know, like they wouldn't have normally
done if they had mental health help. And I feel
like that's that's a really big thing. If the things
(27:36):
we put in place, like social services local csbs, you know,
mental health help like getting medical care when you need it,
stuff like that, if it's utilized, if it is done properly,
it can be very helpful for people and save people
from having to, you know, could be committed for multiple
(27:58):
years of their life or in prison for multiple years
ago their life just to get the help they need.
Everybody waits till something I feel like it's an extreme
before they step in, and I feel like that's especially
true in small towns because they feel like they can
handle it or it's you know, that's just crazy, Joe. Oh,
that's just how Vince is, you know, That's just people
(28:19):
are quick to make excuses for how people are in
so just being like, you know what, that's not right,
you need help. I remember a huge thing even when
we did, you know, the Doctor Phil Show, I had
people who were my age reaching out to me on
Facebook from craigsnot being like, well, my dad worked with
Vince and he said that that's a lie because Vince
(28:40):
is a veteran, so he would never do that. Look,
that doesn't negate what Vince did. It doesn't at all.
He can be a veteran and still be a monster
who abused his children. And it's not something Casey or
Anna or me and even Chris talk about. That's something
(29:02):
we leave very much alone because we handle our trauma differently,
and that that's one of them. One of the first
times I've ever heard Chris's side of things was on
The Doctor Phil Show, and I never knew how bad
it was for him, and I would ever, probably ever
talk to my sisters about it. So if we're not
(29:23):
even talking to each other about it, what makes you
think that, you know, adults in the situation were, you know,
talking about it? That way, you know, or being honest
with people about what was going on, right.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Right, Yeah, I mean like you said, I mean somebody
can could have could had like a good pass and
still be a bad person. Like look at metk Dennis Rader.
He was binding, torturing and killing families, but he was
also a family man at the same time. I mean
he just they live double lives, like sociopaths and psychopaths
are are like better actors than Hollywood actors. You know,
(30:01):
like they can go out and rape and kill then
come home and like love you love their wife and
kids like you know, they like nothing happened. You know,
it's it's.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Crazy, it is, and when you're unable to do it,
Like Vincent's mom, my grandmother, she knew something was going on,
Like I remember trying to talk to her multiple times
about it after Vince was dead, and I remember, like
us finding you know, pictures, and I remember one time
she sold everything in the Craigsville house, everything that she could.
(30:35):
She kept a few of his shirts and had you know,
teddy bears made out of them. It was like, Oh,
keep them in this bag so they'll still smell like him,
and they are his work. Shirts and stuff, and like
outside of that that she got rid of everything, and
this including Vincent's camp quarters. Vince loved to record everything,
and the first part of the camp, like the recording
(30:56):
seems so normal, Like she gave it to me. She's like, here,
it's a great recording the view and your dad and
it's me playing weatherwoman with Casey outside, showing off the
box turtle we captured and had in a tote outside
and stuff like that. But I knew it was coming. Next,
it was a sex video of him and Elizabeth that
he had shown me multiple times, and I remember like
(31:18):
taking it to her being like, no, look, I told
you this stuff happened. I can tell you everything that
happens on this video after this, and it's like him
zooming in on Elizabeth's vagina and all this other stuff
that no kids should ever be able to tell you about.
And I remember taking it and like she broke a yardstick,
(31:39):
hitting me so hard with it, and it was like,
we're never gonna talk about this again, Like I never
saw that video again. We found like naked pictures of
us and like she burned them. She would have us
write letters to Vince. Every couple of months, every month,
and we'd have to burn them so that he can
get them and read them in heaven. It was really
really strange, and she burnt the pictures. So in my
(32:01):
head that was always like, well, if you if you
think these letters are going to heaven and you're burning
those pictures, and then why would you want him to
have naked pictures of us? Why would you ever be
okay with that? So in my head that always made
her complacent in the matter for sure, or at least
accepting of it, because she really did like everything she
could to keep us or at least keep me from
(32:24):
talking about it, and like denying it ever happened and
being like, that's just crazy, that's all on your head,
you know. And people like that enable people like Vince
to continue doing stuff behind everybody's back and continue that
perpetual oh no, he's a good guy, you know, routine
instead of just listening to the people who are speaking.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Up about it, right right, Yeah, I agree. So has
this case brought you and Chris closer throughout time or
has it done the complete opposite?
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I think that's a double edged sword. So we don't
talk about the case much. Me and Chris are very close.
He's I've all almost all my brothers. He is one
of my only living remaining brothers. I think it does
bring us close to the fact that, you know, it's
made me very much active in the prison reform world,
(33:23):
and that's stuff that we can talk about and not
get really emotional with or I won't get overly emotional.
I think on that point, it brings us together. And
I know, like you know, doing interviews, doing the TikTok's,
doing you know, everything that I've done over the years.
Like sometimes it's put a strain on us and me
being like, hang on, I gotta take a step back
(33:45):
because now this is getting too much for me. And
he's always like, okay, don't do it because he doesn't
want that for me. But at the same time, like
I went him home, and who who better to speak
when it if not one of the victims you saved.
If my other sisters can't do it for their reasons,
you know that it's kind of like a I have
(34:05):
to so like it's kind of like a that gets
iffy sometimes, But it's definitely made us closer. He he's
my everything. I tell him everything, all the crazy work
stories and stuff and It's had very much the opposite
effect on me and my sisters. Me and my sisters
do not speak. If we can avoid it and we
(34:27):
live through the stuff together, we do not speak about it.
We do not speak to each other very much. It's
very much like if you need me, you can reach out,
but if we're together for too long, we're fighting and arguing.
And like, we all handled our traumas differently, and I
(34:47):
think we all kind of like get mad at the
other for how they handled their trauma.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
So so, is there anything that you'd like the public
to know about yourself, your brother, or this faith for
that matter, I'd like.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Them to understand that, you know, a lot of people
feel like they can't do anything to help with this case.
And what people can do is you know, voting, voting
for the right governor. The only person who can help
Chris come home is the governor himself. You know a
lot of people we always get, you know, reach out
to President Trump. This is a state case. So even
(35:25):
if we like, even if Trump wanted to, legally he's
not allowed to have anything to do with this case,
you could throw a support behind it. So like being
educated and what you're voting for understand that you know,
there are a lot of people like Chris in the
prison system, and the best way to help all of
them is prison reform and putting people in power who
want them to come home. Virginia is very much a
(35:49):
lock them up and throw away the key state. There's
a lot of things that happened to Chris and prisoners
like Chris that are terrible in Virginia. And the best
way to stay up to date on his case is
by following his Facebook and the best way to help
is reaching out to the governor. He does have a
(36:09):
team of lawyers and he's currently working with another set
of lawyers on a different matter to try to attack
this in a public way in the courts, and that
hopefully works as well. But at the end of the day,
the best way to bring him home is the governor
releasing him, and he is the only one who can.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
So, before we conclude this interview, is there anything that
you'd like to talk about that we haven't covered yet?
Speaker 2 (36:43):
No, I think I think we covered everything. I can't
think of anything off the top of my head.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Okay, well, I appreciate you doing this with me today.
I know it's probably not easy to talk about it.
But I'm sure the more you do, the better it gets.
And I'm glad that Chris has you know, you in
his corner, and I'm glad that over one hundred and
fifty thousand people know that this sentence was wrong and
they're you know, signing the petition and trying to you know,
(37:10):
get it to the governor in front of the governor's eyes.
I think, I think eventually he's going to have to
do something or or whoever you know, takes his place
if he doesn't win reelection, because like I said, you know,
there's been so many victims that have killed their abusers
that have either got life in prison and have been
released or have been acquitted of the charges, you know,
And I feel like, I mean, honestly, I feel like
(37:32):
if if my sister was being abused by somebody in
that situation, I can't blame Chris. And I think anybody
would do the same thing, you know, as long as
they had a heart and they you know, we're i
mean sick and discussed it by the act. I mean,
I can't think of anybody that wouldn't do the same
if they had a you know, weapon on them.
Speaker 2 (37:55):
No of course, I think that's the basis consensus. And
thank you so much for doing this. Because people like
you reach out who get into Chris's case, who want
to learn more about it. That's why we have the
followers we have, That's why we have so much support.
So thank you very much for doing this and for
(38:17):
taking the time to listen to both of us.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah, most definitely, And I'm I'm you know, I'm gonna
keep in touch with Chris. I hope I hope that,
you know, he'll stay in touch with me, and we
can you know, do follow ups and so on and
so forth, and hopefully when he's released, you know, we
can we can do more after that and you know,
maybe maybe get him like speaking publicly or or something,
or helping other survivors of TV or you know, sexual abuse.
Speaker 2 (38:42):
You know, Yeah, definitely, I know. That's one thing me
and him have talked a lot about is what he
wants to do when he comes home, and like all
the stuff he wants to do, especially for you know,
people who've been hurt and then the people who are
still in prison that are just like him.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
So that was my interview with Victoria McDormand if you
like the show. Feel free to leave a review. Head
on over to Unforbidden truth dot org to pick up
some merch to support the show, like a coffee mug,
tank top, T shirt, and more. Thank you for listening,
See you on the next one.
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