Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email 
 
 House of Horrors parents David and Louise Turpin planned to have MORE children in the twisted hope of landing a money-making reality TV show. 
 
 The cruel couple, whose sadistic treatment of their 13 children has sent a wave of revulsion around the world, hoped to add at least a 14th child to their tragic brood this year. 
 
 The Bible-thumping pair dreamed of being bigger than US reality show Kate Plus 8, which made a star of Kate Gosselin and her eight children. 
 
 In an exclusive interview with the Sunday People, Louise’s brother Billy Lambert said: “Only last month Louise told me her and David were planning to have another child. 
 
 (Image: Andy Johnstone for The Sunday Mirror) 
 
 (Image: Getty) 
 
 (Image: Getty) 
 
 “She used to say how they would be perfect for TV and would often ­mention they would be bigger than the reality show Kate Plus 8. 
 
 “She thought the world would be fascinated by their lives. 
 
 “I asked her why on earth they wanted more children and she said about wanting a reality TV show. 
 
 “It is the reason they moved to California to be nearer to Hollywood. 
 
 “They thought it would make them millions and household names. 
 
 “They didn’t care about the kids – it was all about them.” 
 
 Former aerospace engineer Turpin, 57, and Louise, 49, were in jail tonight awaiting trial. 
 
 They are charged with 12 counts of torture, 12 counts of false ­imprisonment, seven counts of abuse of a dependent adult and six counts of child abuse. 
 
 David Turpin is also charged with sexually abusing a child. 
 
 The pair, who have 13 children aged two to 29, have pleaded not guilty to all the charges. 
 
 The horrific life of their starved and chained brood was revealed a week ago when their 17-year-old daughter, who was so emaciated she looked only 10, escaped and called the emergency services in Perris, California. 
 
 Louise’s brother Billy said: “It is abhorrent what has emerged. I hope they never taste freedom again. The pair are animals. 
 
 “If they were both given the death penalty I wouldn’t object. 
 
 “What they did to the children is unforgivable. Seeing my sister laughing in court when they were charged made me ashamed to be her brother. 
 
 “I’ll never speak to her again. She is dead to me.” 
 
 Billy last spoke to his sister on January 10. Up until their arrest he, like the rest of his family, thought David and Louise lived the perfect life. 
 
 (Image: RadarOnline.com/Coleman-Rayner) 
 
 Now Billy and his sisters Teresa Robinette and Elizabeth fear David, who faces a charge of lewd acts with a minor, may have more sinister secrets. 
 
 He said: “They ran off together when Louise was 16 and David was 23. The police forced them to come back. But when you think about it, what kind of grown man runs off with a 16-year-old girl? It makes you ­question 
 
 his mind. 
 
 “It’s sick. Girls at that age have not fully developed, they are still girls, so it leaves you asking why? 
 
 “He clearly lusted after schoolgirls. It may be that he still does. It’s just perverse. He is perverse.” 
 
 (Image: AFP) 
 
 Billy, a mobile home renovater, said his brother-in-law would watch his eldest sister Elizabeth in the shower when she briefly lived with the couple in Texas. 
 
 “Whenever Elizabeth got in the shower he would go in and watch her,” he explained. 
 
 “She was only 18 or 19 at the time. 
 
 “Elizabeth was so scared she kept it to herself, but now we are piecing things together. It is wrong on every level. 
 
 “David is clearly very sick. He ­controlled everything and my sister Louise just sat back and went along with it. 
 
 “They are equally to blame for what has happened.” 
 
 Billy recalled how his family were duped into believing the Turpins and their children lived the American dream. 
 
 He said: “They didn’t want for ­nothing. David had a good job in the aeroplane industry in Texas and was well-paid. When I was a kid he used to take me to his plant in the Fort Worth area where they lived. 
 
 “He worked on Air Force One when Bill Clinton was president.” 
 
 For 10 years as a ­youngster, Billy would visit his nieces and nephews in Texas. 
 
 “When I look back their upbringing was very odd, it was military-like,” he said. “At the time I thought nothing f it but knowing what I doo now it wasn’t right. 
 
 “Everything was so regimental. The children were not allowed to mix with others and everything they did had its own routine. 
 
 “Even getting back on in their ­minibus would see them all line up in single file and stand to attention before they were allowed on. It appeared to be discipline but now we know the children were scared stiff. 
 
 “Any sign of dissent and they would be punished.” 
 
 Billy said 2002 was the last time he was allowed to see the children. 
 
 “Every time I tried to visit them Louise had an excuse as to why I couldn’t,” he said. 
 
 “It is now clear why. When you hear how they were forced to stay awake at night and sleep through the day so as not to raise suspicion it makes you want to be sick. 
 
 “What kind of life is that for anyone? They will be scarred for life. 
 
 “I just thought it was because of logistics that they would never travel to see us in Tennessee. 
 
 (Image: Sunday Mirror) 
 
 “Louise used to say ­taking all the children on a plane was too expensive but the reality was they were being abused even back then. As ­technology grew I asked more and more to speak the children on things like Skype but Louise always had an excuse. She’d say, ‘Oh the computer is broke’ or ‘the camera isn’t working’ but what she was doing was stopping us from seeing inside their warped and twisted world. 
 
 “Two days before Christmas she called me up as we are involved in ­trying to get a relative’s estate settled. 
 
 “She asked me if anything had ­happened and said she would set up the Facebook webcam soon so I could see the children but it was all a lie. 
 
 “She called to see if the estate had been sorted so she would get some money. 
 
 “For the last seven years, they carried on the pretence that David was working but it was all a sham. 
 
 (Image: Andy Johnstone for The Sunday Mirror) 
 
 “They were bankrupt not only financially but morally too. 
 
 “They said they moved to California because of David’s job but that was just a lie, he didn’t have one. 
 
 “Louise would often talk about how great their lives were and how great the children were being raised. She said they lived in a massive seven- 
 
 bedroomed three-storey house but in reality, the kids were crammed into to a single-storey home. 
 
 I was shocked when I saw the house they lived in. 
 
 (Image: REUTERS) 
 
 “They had made the bedrooms look like dormitories with bunk beds filling what space they had. The kids must have lived on top of each other. 
 
 “My niece who escaped has a reading age of a seven-year-old. 
 
 “I fear, we all fear, the children will never recover from their ordeal. Words cannot describe the anger all my family feel towards Louise and David. 
 
 “The fact that their two dogs were treated better than the kids I will never forgive. It is them who are animals.” 
 
 Tonight the 13 children were being looked after in hospital by a special medical team. 
 
 Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now 
 
 One 12-year-old boy is so malnourished his weight was that of an average seven-year-old, and the 29-year-old daughter weighs just under six stones. 
 
 Prosecutors say the parents would buy apple or pumpkin pies and leave them in sight of the kids but would refuse to let them eat. 
 
 If the children misbehaved they would be tied to their beds as ­punishment — first with ropes, until one child was able to wriggle free. 
 
 Then the parents began using chains and padlocks, officials said. 
 
 They would not be released to use the toilet and were allowed to bathe just once a year, prosecutors said. 
 
 Billy, who has a one-year-old ­daughter and a nine-month-old son, said: “I would like to apply to adopt the three youngest children. 
 
 “My sister Teresa has said she will take some in too. 
 
 “These kids are flesh and blood to us and although those sick bastards let them down, we won’t.” ||||| CLOSE District Attorney Michael Hestrin speaks on charges against David and Louise Turpin, who are accused of abusing 13 children. 
 
 Louise Anna Turpin and David Allen Turpin (Photo: Riverside County Sheriff's Department) 
 
 PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — A Perris couple who have been accused of starving and torturing their 13 children dreamed of becoming household names through a reality show that focused on a large, picturesque family, according to a relative who says he spoke with the couple as recently as a month ago. 
 
 But, instead of finding the fame they craved, David and Louise Turpin, 56 and 49, are now infamous, facing accusations of committing sadistic crimes. The couple was arrested last week after authorities found their malnourished, abused children captive in their filthy home. Some of the children were chained to beds when police arrived. The Turpins have also been accused of taunting the children with food as they starved. 
 
 Both parents are now facing life in prison. 
 
 The family’s reality TV aspirations were revealed this week by Louise Turpin’s brother, Billy Lambert, who gave interviews to Inside Edition and The Mirror, a United Kingdom tabloid. In those interviews, Lambert said his sister was obsessed with Kate Plus 8, a reality show about a couple with eight children, and dreamed of having a similar show about her family. 
 
 More: Parents chained 13 malnourished kids to furniture, taunted them with food 
 
 More: Hundreds of journals found in home with 13 captive children 
 
 Court documents show that the Turpins had also given all of their children names that begin with the letter J, just like the large family featured in another reality show, 19 Kids and Counting. 
 
 “I believe that my sister wanted a reality show because the very last conversation that I had with her before all this happened — she did actually say that she feels that they would be perfect for TV at one point," Lambert said, according to Inside Edition. 
 
 In this Oct. 29, 2011, image made from a video provided by A Elvis Chapel, David Allen Turpin, left, and his wife, Louise Anna Turpin, right, celebrate a renewal of their wedding vows with Elvis impersonator Kent Ripley in Las Vegas. (Photo: AP) 
 
 The draw of reality TV may have also been what brought the family to California in the first place. In his interview with The Mirror, Lambert said the Turpins moved from Texas to California “to be nearer to Hollywood.” The family moved to Murrieta in 2010, then relocated to Perris in 2011. 
 
 And, most alarming of all, Lambert said his sister told him she wanted another child — her fourteenth. 
 
 “I asked her why on earth they wanted more children and she said about wanting a reality TV show,” Lambert told The Mirror. “They didn’t care about the kids — it was all about them.” 
 
 The husband and wife also were wannabe swingers, a relative claimed Monday. 
 
 Louise Turpin speaks to her counsel Jeff Moore during her arraignment at the Robert Presley Hall of Justice in Riverside County, Calif., Jan. 18, 2018. (Photo: Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise, Pool) 
 
 Louise Turpin went through a spiritual and sexual awakening around the time of her 40th birthday, and she was all too eager to share it with her sister Teresa Robinette, the sibling revealed on NBC’s Megyn Kelly Today. 
 
 In one particularly bizarre call between 2008 and 2010, Louise claimed she and husband David met a strange man online and arranged a hotel rendezvous with him in Huntsville, Ala., Robinette said. 
 
 David allegedly dropped her off for the tryst. 
 
 “What makes it even worse and even weirder is that exactly one year to the date of the anniversary that she did that, she called me and thought it was funny that David was taking her back to the exact same hotel room, the exact same bed she slept with this man in, so David could sleep with her in the same bed,” the sister said. 
 
 David Turpin listens to the judge as he and wife Louise Turpin are arraigned at the Robert Presley Hall of Justice in Riverside County on Jan. 18, 2018. The Turpin couple are being charged with child endangerment and torturing their children. (Photo: Terry Pierson/The Press-Enterprise, Pool) 
 
 The Turpins' captive children were discovered Jan. 14 after a 17-year-old girl escaped the Perris house through a window and called for help. Police rushed to the house, rescuing 12 other siblings — ages 2 to 29. 
 
 Except for the youngest, all of the captives were severely malnourished, said District Attorney Mike Hestrin. One victim, age 12, had the weight of an average 7-year-old. The 29-year-old daughter weighs just 82 pounds, Hestrin said. 
 
 Hestrin also said the children had been beaten and strangled, and severe physical abuse had left them with cognitive impairment and nerve damage. The children were supposedly home schooled, but some lacked “basic knowledge of life,” including awareness of what a police officer or medication was. 
 
 The children were allowed to shower only once a year, Hestrin said. 
 
 More: 'Not one person called us' about odd behavior in captive-children case, official says 
 
 More: Police: Teen's 'courage' led officers to tortured, starved children 
 
 Sometimes they were chained up for weeks or months at a time as punishment, he added. 
 
 "I will tell you as a prosecutor, there are cases that stick with you, they haunt you," Hestrin said. "Sometimes in this business we are faced with human depravity. That is what we are looking at here." 
 
 More than $106,000 has been donated to help the 13 victims quantifying how the horrific crime has led others to a desire to help. 
 
 Donations are being collected by the Riverside University Health System Foundation, which says all funds will be put in a trust to help the victims' long term needs. As of Monday morning, the foundation had received 1,314 gifts totaling $106,574, said spokeswoman Kim Trone. 
 
 Donations can be made at the Perris Sibling Support Fund website. Authorities have stressed that this is the only official fund collecting donations for the Perris children, so donors should be wary of impostors. 
 
 Contributing: The Associated Press. Follow Brett Kelman on Twitter: @TDSbrettkelman 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2F6HgIi ||||| The heartless husband and wife accused of starving and shackling their kids were also wannabe swingers, a relative claimed Monday. 
 
 Monster mom Louise Turpin, 49, went through a spiritual and sexual awakening around the time of her 40th birthday, and she was all too eager to share it with her sister Teresa Robinette, the sibling revealed on NBC's "Megyn Kelly Today." 
 
 In one particularly bizarre call between 2008 and 2010, Louise claimed she and husband David Turpin met a strange man online and arranged a kinky hotel rendezvous with him in Huntsville, Ala., Robinette said. 
 
 David allegedly dropped her off for the tryst. 
 
 Woman who tortured 13 kids allegedly wanted one more 
 
 "What makes it even worse and even weirder is that exactly one year to the date of the anniversary that she did that, she called me and thought it was funny that David was taking her back to the exact same hotel room, the exact same bed she slept with this man in, so David could sleep with her in the same bed," the sister said. 
 
 Robinette said it all happened around 2009, when the couple was living in Texas with their already large brood. 
 
 In a series of phone calls, Louise seemed eager to share her escapades with Robinette, who was the "wild child" in the family growing up, the sister said. 
 
 "She had never smoked a cigarette or drank a drink of alcohol or anything, and close to her 40th birthday or around that time period, she called me and she thought it was cool that they had, you know, quit going to church, and they didn't trust the church anymore. They were experimenting with different religions," Robinette said. 
 
 Calif. couple who held their 13 children captive formally charged 
 
 Louise Turpin (left) appears in court for her arraignment in Riverside, Calif., on Jan. 18. (POOL/REUTERS) 
 
 Louise allegedly reported her older kids were helping to take care of the younger children, so she and David were free to make up for lost time and sow their "wild oats," Robinette said. 
 
 "They had called me the first time they ever went to a bar," the sister said. "She called me the very first night she was drunk. She was very giggly." 
 
 Then Louise dropped the bomb that she was meeting the man for sex in Huntsville with David's encouragement. 
 
 "It was a very weird thing to me that I would never do," Robinette said. "I told her I thought it was a mistake." 
 
 Tortured siblings showered twice a year, ate once a day 
 
 Robinette broke down crying during the TV interview as she described how a male relative sexually abused her and several members of her family, including Louise and their mom. 
 
 "It was always a dark family secret that he did this," she said. 
 
 "A very, very close family member that we should have…loved and trusted, he abused my mother and — sexually abused my mother — and then me and Louise, Elizabeth and a few of our cousins in the family,” said Robinette, choking up. 
 
 David and Louise Turpin, pictured here with their 13 children in 2015, are accused of starving and shackling their children in their California home. (Elvis Chapel via Facebook) 
 
 Elizabeth Flores is another sister who also has spoken out in the wake of Louise's arrest last week. 
 
 Dad who abused 13 kids also spied on showering sister-in-law 
 
 "That was a situation that was ongoing for me and my sisters only because my mother had so much abuse in her life," Robinette told Kelly. 
 
 "I think that her mind was, she was still going through it as an adult. And my mother still took us around this person, a lot, including Louise." 
 
 Louise and David Turpin, 57, were arrested Jan. 14 after their 17-year-old daughter jumped out a window of their southern California house and called 911 with a deactivated cell phone. 
 
 Investigators rushed to the house in Perris, about 60 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and found 12 more Turpin siblings living in a foul-smelling dungeon where kids were regularly starved, beaten and locked up with chains and padlocks, authorities said. 
 
 Ex-neighbor recalls odd behavior by kids allegedly held captive 
 
 Three were in shackles when officers arrived. 
 
 Cops said the 13 siblings all appeared to be minors at first. They later learned seven were adults ranging in age from 18 to 29. 
 
 David Turpin listens during his court arraignment in Riverside, Calif., on Jan. 18. (TERRY PIERSON/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 Years of starvation and abuse had stunted the kids' growth and even caused cognitive impairment and nerve damage, authorities said. 
 
 The 29-year-old daughter weighed just 82 pounds when she was rescued, Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said. 
 
 Aunt of kids held captive says their dad made her 'uncomfortable' 
 
 One of the children at age 12 was the weight of an average 7 year old, he said. 
 
 The couple has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of torture, abuse and false imprisonment. 
 
 David was also charged with one count of a lewd act on a child 14 or younger. 
 
 "We are alleging David Turpin touched one of the victims in a lewd way by using force or fear," Hestrin said. 
 
 Parents of 13 kids ran private school that was never inspected 
 
 If convicted as charged, the parents each face 94 years to life in prison. 
 
 Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing!
– More disturbing details on the California couple accused of abusing and torturing their 13 children, now from the sister of the children's mother. Teresa Robinette, sister of 49-year-old Louise Turpin, appeared on Megyn Kelly Today on Monday and said she received a few odd phone calls between 2008 and 2010 in which her formerly straight-laced sister revealed she and husband David Turpin had been "experimenting with different religions," getting loaded at bars, and going through what the New York Daily News calls a "spiritual and sexual awakening." Robinette recalls one call in which her sister said her husband dropped her at a hotel so she could have sex with a stranger; a year later, Louise Turpin called her back to say David Turpin had taken her back "to the exact same hotel room, the exact same bed she slept with this man in, so David could sleep with her in the same bed," says Robinette. Robinette isn't the only relative speaking up. Louise Turpin's brother, Billy Lambert, has also been making the tabloid rounds, revealing his sister was obsessed with the reality-TV show Kate Plus 8, which featured Kate Gosselin and her eight children, and that Turpin aspired to be a reality star herself, per the Desert Sun. In interviews with Inside Edition and the Mirror, Lambert says the Turpins moved from Texas to California to be closer to Hollywood and renewed their vows at the Elvis Chapel in Las Vegas, with the children (faces blurred) by their sides as part of the stunt; the Daily News has video. Per the Desert Sun, court records show all 13 children had names starting with "J," like the Duggars of the former TLC show 19 Kids and Counting. Lambert says the Turpins were even planning for a 14th child. "They didn't care about the kids—it was all about them," he notes.