Phillip Garrido was, according to those who knew him, always a strange man, at times even frightening - known locally as "creepy Phil".
As he and his wife, Nancy, are charged with the kidnap, rape and 18-year imprisonment of Jaycee Lee Dugard - charges that both deny - a picture is emerging of a controlling man, obsessed with religion, who told the FBI he could control minds.
At the same time, he has been described by psychologists as "very coherent" and guarded against people seeking information from him.
Mr Garrido first became known to police when, at the age of 25, he abducted and raped Katie Callaway Hall in Reno, Nevada.
Ms Hall told CNN he had seemed "perfectly normal" when he stopped her car on 22 November 1976 and asked for a lift.
But after handcuffing and gagging her, he took her to a well-prepared storeroom, where Ms Hall later said she thought she was going to die.
Her eight-hour ordeal changed her "in an instant", she said. Mr Garrido told her it was her own fault she had been abducted - because she was attractive.
At his trial, according to court documents, Mr Garrido said he had been overcome by sexual urges.
"I had this fantasy that was driving me to do this, inside of me; something that was making me want to do it without - no way to stop it," he said.
He testified to being a regular user of cocaine and LSD, and to masturbating in public places.
Street sermons
Mr Garrido was sentenced to 50 years in prison, but released on parole after less than 11 and added to the sex offenders list.
Christine Murphy says she was Mr Garrido's wife until the assault took place.
She told TV news show Inside Edition he was "a monster" who sought to control her, beating her and once pushing a pin into her face when he saw her talking to another man.
Mr Garrido met and married his second wife, Nancy, while he was still in prison.
Less has been said of Mrs Garrido - who is facing the same charges as her husband - but she was described as "caring" by one local.
In 1991, not long after his release, the Garridos allegedly abducted Ms Dugard and took her to their home in Antioch.
She spent the next 18 years living in a ramshackle arrangement of shacks and tents behind their house. She gave birth to two children allegedly fathered by Mr Garrido, the first when she was 14 years old.
The situation seems to have passed largely unnoticed, but neighbours have since spoken of a strange and at times frightening man, prone to giving impromptu sermons on the street.
Monica Adams told the Associated Press news agency she knew he was a sex offender and had children at home, but assumed he was being monitored. She once asked Mr Garrido to leave a party in her garden because he was acting strangely and staring at women.
Tim Allen, a customer of Mr Garrido's printing shop, told AP he had a box through which he claimed God spoke.
"You never thought anything bad about the guy. He was just kind of nutty," said Mr Allen.
Several people recall seeing Ms Dugard working in the shop, going by the name of Allissa and passed off as Mr Garrido's daughter. Ms Dugard's daughters were also seen.
FBI files
Shortly before his deception unravelled, Mr Garrido's behaviour appears to have become even more erratic and bizarre. A blog registered in his name was updated with rambling messages about government mind control and his own abilities.
"The Creator has given me the ability to speak in the tongues of angels," it read. "You too can witness what the world believes is impossible to reproduce."
It has also emerged that he gave a pile of documents to the FBI - one discussing how he overcame his sexual urges and could control minds with sounds, reports CNN.
"Certain behaviours cause a great deal of pain in myself and those who are victimised by those behaviours, especially our family and my wife," he wrote.
He said he had found "one of the most powerful freedoms imaginable" in overcoming his urges, and now had knowledge which "will begin to open a new pathway for us all".
Mr Garrido was finally detained at a parole hearing he was ordered to attend. He had aroused suspicion by handing out religious material on a college campus accompanied by two young girls, described by police as appearing pale and "robotic".
Police said he appeared controlling, saying how proud he was of the girls, aged 11 and 15.
"They don't know any curse words. We raised them right. They don't know anything bad about the world," AP quoted him as saying.
Later, he gave a rambling interview from prison to the KCRA television channel in California, claiming his was a "powerful, heart-warming story, one that you're going to be really impressed by".
He said thousands would testify in his defence and there would be powerful witnesses. He had turned his life around, he said.
Criminal psychologist Dr David Holmes said the interview revealed someone who was "very, very coherent", using his claim of being divinely saved as a reason he should be immune from prosecution and not giving in to the interviewers questioning.
"A lot of people with personality disorders defend themselves in this way and don't allow other views to be in their social proximity, which is probably what he's done in his household. It's a form of brainwashing," he said Dr Holmes.
Police are now searching the Garrido's home and surrounding area. They suspect he may be behind the murders of several women working as prostitutes in the area in the 1990s.
But his father, Manuel, has little doubt. "He was a sex addict - that was his problem," he told the New York Post newspaper.
"I believe my son killed the prostitutes."
Both Mr and Mrs Garrido have denied all 29 charges.
