The Tacony Dungeon: Inside Linda Weston's Slavery Conspiracy

In October 2011, Philadelphia police raided an apartment at 4724 Longshore Avenue in Northeast Philadelphia's Tacony neighborhood following a neighbor's report. What they discovered would become one of the most disturbing cases of modern enslavement in American criminal history.

Four adult victims—Tamara Breeden, Derwin McLemire, Herbert Knowles, and Edwin Sanabria, all in their late 20s to early 40s—were found imprisoned in filthy conditions. One victim was chained to a furnace. Others lay under blankets and rags without access to food or water. Police also discovered starved children locked upstairs. Some victims had been held captive for years; Tamara Breeden had been confined for approximately a decade.

At the center of this conspiracy was Linda Weston, then 55 years old. Court records reveal that Weston had orchestrated an elaborate racketeering operation targeting mentally disabled adults who were estranged from their families. Beginning around 2001 and continuing until her arrest in October 2011, Weston and her accomplices—including her daughter Jean McIntosh and co-defendant Eddie Wright—systematically imprisoned victims in homes and apartments across Philadelphia, Killeen, Texas; Norfolk, Virginia; and West Palm Beach, Florida.

The scheme's financial motive was explicit: Weston became the representative payee for her victims' federal and state disability benefits, collecting their payments while keeping them alive on subsistence diets. Victims were confined in locked rooms, basements, closets, and attics. Many were sedated with drugs mixed into their food and drink. Those who resisted or attempted escape faced severe physical punishment—slapping, punching, kicking, stabbing, burning, and beatings with belts, sticks, bats, hammers, and pistol butts.