Ariel Castro Deliberately Left Doors Unlocked, Lawyer Claims, Hoped Women Would Escape

FILE - In this May 7, 2013 file photo, members of the FBI evidence response team carry out the front screen door from the Cleveland home of Ariel Castro, where three women escaped after 10 years of captivity. Amanda Berry broke through the screen door to freedom last May. Upstairs, officers found Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight. They had been snatched off the streets separately between 2002 and 2004 and locked inside Castros house where he chained and raped them, investigators later said. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)

On the one-year anniversary of the end of the ordeal of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight at the hands of Ariel Castro, one of the lawyers for the kidnapper and sexual predator has shared some of the conversations he had with the “Monster of Cleveland.”

In an interview with Cleveland NBC affiliate, WKYC, which was posted by USA Today, attorney Craig Weintraub revealed that Castro, who hanged himself while in prison, had been leaving the door to the house where he kept the women captive deliberately unlocked for months preceding their rescue.

"It wasn't going well any longer. His daughter [with Amanda Berry] was at an age that she should not be in the house anymore. She needed to be in school and be in a normal environment, and she needed friends," Weintraub said.

According to the lawyer, Castro told him that he had become increasingly attached to the little girl and that, because of that, killing the women was not an option for Castro.

"He intentionally became much more negligent in the house about locking the door and keeping them inside," Weintraub said.

Weintraub said that home videos now in possession of the FBI show images of all five celebrating Easter and Christmas, “like it was a normal family."

The lawyer, who openly referred to his former client as a sociopath, shared that Castro had an odd sense of humor and often toyed with him. According to USA Today, Weintraub said Castro would often be naked inside his jail cell when they spoke. During the captivity, the lawyer said, Castro would joke with his prisoners about the books they'd be able to write once the kidnapping ended.

Castro kidnapped the women in separate incidents between 2002 and 2004. Berry was 14 years old when he captured her, DeJesus was 16 and Knight 20. They were rescued from Castro's run-down house on May 6, 2013, after Berry broke through a screen door with the help of a neighbor, Charles Ramsey.

Berry and DeJesus in fact are collaborating with two Washington Post reporters on a book due out next year. Ramsey also has written a book.

The 53-year-old Castro pleaded guilty to hundreds of charges last August and killed himself only a month later.