Seven Years a Slave: The Wild Story of Colleen Stan (15 photos)

First of all, I would like to say right away that some very difficult and cruel things will be described here, so if you are not ready for this, then it is better to read another post. This is a terrible story of a girl who found herself in absolute emotional and physical hell for many years.





A random kidnapping victim may be so overwhelmed and intimidated that he doesn't even need to be chained to prevent him from trying to escape. The young girl spent most of her slavery in a dark box, resembling a coffin, located under the bed of her “masters.” A film was made based on these events. It didn't get many high ratings, but it does provide a visual of what happened to the captive, even though the writers and directors, for ethical reasons, did not include much of what Colleen experienced.

It’s worth starting with the main character, the so-called “author of violence.” His name is Cameron Hooker and he was born in 1953 in southwestern California. His classmates recalled that he was an ordinary boy among the rest - a cheerful, moderately active, ordinary child. His parents moved frequently and by the age of 16 Cameron had become a withdrawn young man who did not want to communicate with anyone. His family settled in Red Bluff.

He had no friends, he was a thin, awkward boy who started wearing glasses at an early age, a boy who was getting deeper and deeper into his unhealthy fantasies.



Photo of Hooker's victim taken by himself. For ethical reasons I cannot post other photographs found in the Hooker house

After graduating, Cameron began working in a sawmill. From literature, he read exclusively pornographic books and especially liked the novel “The Story of O,” a famous book among the BDSM community about a girl who became a slave in a sadomasochistic community. He liked to imagine himself as a member of this society, to imagine how he beat women in every possible way and treated them like furniture.



Janice Lashley

At 19, he met Janice Lashley, who was 15 at the time. The girl was from a dysfunctional family, domestic violence was something absolutely ordinary for her. Well... this was the perfect partner for Cameron. He vowed to always love her if Janice agreed to become his slave.

The couple married in 1975. Hooker beat her with a whip, used obscene language towards Janice, put a gas mask on her with the “eyes” painted over, and raped her. Why was she with him? The answer lies in her childhood (as is often the case with victims of violence). Janice wanted love so much, she wanted a “normal family” so much that she said to herself: “I will do everything so that he never leaves me.” But she didn’t like what Cameron did to her, she simply endured the violence, especially since after each procedure her husband was so gentle with her, so caring... However, Janice was not the O from the novel - she did not enjoy it from torture. When Cameron suggested that she kidnap a girl to make her a slave, Janice agreed because she hoped that Cameron, whom she adored, would switch all his aggression to the captive, and she would live with him as with an ordinary husband, have a child, or even more than one .



Mary Elizabeth

The first was 18-year-old Mary Elizabeth Spankake, who voted on the road. The girl got into a “safe” car with a married couple and immediately saw a knife in Hooker’s hands. He put a special wooden box on her head that did not let in any light or sounds, and they brought her to his home.

There he began to beat her by hanging her by the arms, but Spankake did not endure the bullying in silence, as was expected, but on the contrary, she screamed and became louder with each new blow. Cameron was so annoyed that the slave allowed herself to make sounds that he killed her with a shot in the stomach.

The next day, Janice and Cameron left for the mountains, where they buried Mary Elizabeth's body. Later they could not find him.

The man was very disappointed with the unsuccessful first experience, but a year later he decided to try again.



Colleen Stan was what you might call a professional hitchhiker. In the 70s, this method of transportation was quite popular and she knew how to protect herself as much as possible: never get into the first car, listen to your inner voice, no single men driving (and even more so if there are two of them).

In 1977, Collin was 20 years old andshe was heading to Northern California to surprise her friend for a non-birthday surprise. The Hookers' blue van, where the friendly and smiling couple sat, did not arouse her suspicions. The little daughter on her mother’s lap finally convinced the girl to accept their offer of a ride.



Colleen Stan before the kidnapping

Colleen, by the way, later said that when they decided to slow down at a gas station and she ran into the toilet, she was overcome by a frantic desire to jump out the window and run as far as possible. But she pulled herself together, saying that these were empty fears and fatigue. And the blue van, along with Colleen, continued on its way. Having reached a secluded place, Cameron took out his knife, intimidated the girl and repeated the same thing that he did with Mary Elizabeth - a box on her head, a gag in her mouth.

When they got to the house, Colleen was immediately hung up by her arms and beaten. After that, Cameron brought Janice into the room and had sex with her next to Colleen hanging. Yes, the kidnappers had a rule, at the instigation of Janice: a slave could exist in the house, but Cameron would never have sex with her.

Later this rule was sent to hell by Hooker.

Cameron later showed the slave her place: a wooden box resembling a coffin, located directly under the couple's bed. She often spent 23 hours a day there, and had a metal duck for her toilet.

They released the captive for an hour or two to do household chores or for torture.

It was on this bed, in 1978, while Colleen was inside, that Janice gave birth to her second daughter from Cameron.



The box that Hooker places on the head of his victims

Colleen wasn't just tortured and raped. Hooker constantly reminded her of what he had told her from the very beginning: he was a member of a very powerful organization called, in a very original way, “The Company.” She deals with slaves and controls all processes - she monitors the masters, their “wards” and the families of slaves. Exhausted, intimidated, exhausted, Colleen was simply unable to distinguish lies from truth when she was forced to sign a “contract”, where she officially signed that she would become Cameron’s slave and, after signing, they began to call her simply “K” (again echoes novel).



Colleen's whole life was subject to strict rules and the slightest violation was met with severe punishment. When Hooker realized that he had finally broken the captive, he began to allow her to spend more time outside the box under the bed - she cleaned the house, looked after the children and... helped him build a basement where he planned to house even more slaves. Colleen could leave the house, could make a phone call, but she was terrified that “The Company” would kill her family.



The box where Colleen spent long, agonizing hours

Colleen was already completely at Cameron’s mercy, and he had long since overstepped Janice’s ban and regularly raped the girl.

And in 1981, Hooker even brought Stan to her parents! Yes, he told his captive that he had been discussing this issue with the “Company” for a very long time and they finally allowed him to please the slave. Before getting out of the car, he reminded Stan that the organization was already here and was monitoring the house.

The family, of course, was happy, because before that they had only received rare letters from their daughter (written on orders, of course). They secretly thought that Colleen was in some kind of cult, since she did not have money or normal clothes, but they were afraid to put pressure on their daughter so that she would not stop communicating with them. Hooker introduced himself as her boyfriend, smiled sweetly, and the parents even took a photo of him and Colleen, where the couple was smiling. Looking at this photo, knowing how everything really happened, is truly creepy.



Colleen and Cameron at Stan's parents

As soon as they returned from Stan's parents, Cameron was afraid that the slave had received too much good and tightened her existence - she again lay almost all the time in her box under the bed, which in the summer could heat up to +38. The girl was suffocating in her “coffin”, afraid that she would die right here, in this terrible dungeon. The children, for whom “K” was just a nanny, did not quite understand where she had gone, because she spent a lot of time with them, to which Janice simply said: “Our K has gone home.”



Inside the box were naruchicks, a duck and, as a reminder, a photograph of Mary Elizabeth, so that Colleen will once again think about whether she should run away or “behave badly”

In 1983, Cameron “let go of the reins,” so much so that he introduced Colleen to his neighbors and sent her to work as a maid in a hotel, because the Hookers were a very poor family and lived in a real hut. At the same time, Hooker set out to make the captive his wife, convincing his very religious wife that polygamy was not forbidden in the Bible.



Photo of Janice and Colleen with the Hooker children by Cameron

Janice, who was already constantly irritated by the fact that her husband violated the agreement and slept with his slave, completely went mad. It was dangerous to be angry quietly, of course, because Cameron could easily beat her up for it.

For a whole year she endured constant talk about her second wife, but in the end, seizing the moment, she told Colleen the whole truth. Yes, just like that, she dumped it on her that her husband was not a member of the “Company”, that the “Company” itself did not exist and that Stan should immediately run away and not be afraid that something was threatening her family. But she literally begged her not to report to the police, assuring her that she could correct her husband “with love.”

Colleen was completely emotionally dependent on her "master." She lived with him and for him for 7 years, not daring to say anything or move again. Therefore, from the bus stop, she still called him and told him that she was leaving. In response, muffled sobs were heard in the receiver.



The house where Colleen Stan was imprisoned for 7 years

And Colleen didn't actually call the police. This is what Stockholm syndrome looks like, this is what a completely broken person looks like.

Three months later, Janice called the police. As expected, Hooker did not want to be treated with love and began to mock his own wife again. The straw that broke the camel's back was Hooker's long and strange glances at his own daughters. Janice could no longer bear this and went to the police.

There she told everything: she started with the murder of Mary Elizabeth Spankake, then continued with the story of Colleen Stan's seven years in prison and everything that her husband did to her, to Janice and Mary Elizabeth. A deal was made with the woman: she testifies against her husband, and in return receives absolute immunity, as one of his victims.



At the trial, Cameron never once uttered words of remorse or regret for what he did to Colleen. Hooker's defense tried to convince the jury that the girl was not a slave, but was in the Hookers' house by voluntary consent and was simply living with them.

Proof that there was no voluntary consent, in addition to witness testimony, were photographs of Colleen Stan being tortured. Hooker was brazen in court, laughing at stories of his exploits and declaring "Thank the judge for me" when he heard he was sentenced to 104 years in prison.



Colleen Stan is now forever doomed to suffer from shoulder and back pain. Not a single documentary, and after it a feature film, could fully depict the hell in which she lived.

She had to work with a psychotherapist for a long time, but she managed, received an education as an accountant and became a member of an organization that helps women who have suffered from violence.

Her personal life was not so successful: marriages ended in divorce, her son ended up in prison, and Colleen’s only joy was her grandson.

Janice took back her maiden name, took a job as a social worker, and never spoke to Colleen Stan again. I just can’t come to an exact conclusion about her. Everything is clear with Hooker, but Janice, who did not receive any punishment for her complicity... But it’s probably not worth blaming the victim, who is completely suppressed by her “master,” given the fact that she hasn’t seen anything good since childhood.

Hooker applied for parole, but was unsuccessful. This year he is already 70 and Stan reacted to his possible release with restrained anger: “It seems to me that his rights are considered so important that everyone has forgotten about my safety.”