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weren’t thrilled about Jan getting married at such a young age, but they thought the world of Cameron, so at sixteen, Janice was given permission to wed. Instead of a big ceremony, she was given five hundred dollars for a wedding present. (In the back of her mind, Jan said later, she wondered why the rules should be different for her and her sister, and she suspected that maybe her parents just wanted to get rid of her.)
    Cameron and Janice were wed on January 18, 1975, in Reno, Nevada. The young bride and groom said their vows, seemingly full of love and hope for the future — yet it was hardly a promising union, founded, as it was, on deceit.
    And in fact, the two didn’t have much of a future to look forward to. Janice, not quite seventeen, dropped out of high school.
    And though Cameron had noted for his senior class yearbook that he desired a career in construction, that would remain but a hobby. He continued to work as a laborer at the local mill.
    They didn’t have much money, but then Cameron and Jan didn’t have high expectations. They made do, moving into a cheap row of duplexes — boxy structures with little character and a shared cement alley for a front yard.
    Outwardly, Cameron and Janice Hooker were just another hopeful young couple starting a new life together. No one knew what went on behind closed doors: The sadistic experiments continued, becoming even more severe. Sometimes, Cameron choked Jan until she passed out. Not long into their marriage, when Janice and Cameron had a fight, he got so mad he put a knife to her throat and asked her if she wanted to die. Another time, Cameron showed her a scene in one of his underground newspapers, a horrific crucifixion, and told her that if he ever killed her, that’s how he would do it. It was becoming harder for Janice to ignore the possibility that her husband might actually kill her.
    The first couple of years of marriage, she tried to fulfill her husband’s strange fantasies by being ever more submissive to his demands. But when Cameron produced an Army surplus gas mask, its eyes and airholes taped over, she balked. The gas mask terrified her, and Cameron had to gag her to keep her from screaming when he fitted it over her head.
    Cameron’s experiments seemed to be getting more violent, more bizarre. Though she was afraid to actually stand up to him and refuse, Jan was no longer so keen on participating. It was too painful.
    Perhaps Janice’s fearfulness made her a less exciting partner, or maybe Cameron was simply growing bored with her. More likely, one person was no longer enough to satisfy his cravings.
    In any case, Cameron began discussing a fantasy that he’d had for a long time: He wanted to bring a third person into the home, another woman who would submit to his sadomasochistic experiments, “a girl who couldn’t say no.”
    He told her that this third person would take part in his more demanding practices. It would be easier on Janice, he said, if she would just go along.
    And, finally, she had.
    The underground papers Cameron read always had lots of listings in the back; maybe they could run an ad. Of course, most of the ads were from people in the San Francisco Bay Area. And it might be expensive — running an ad, bringing someone up. The woman might want to be paid. That was a problem. And it would only be temporary.
    While Cameron fussed about the logistics of finding and keeping another woman, Janice worried that this third person would be a threat to their marriage. Despite his darker habits, Jan still felt that she loved Cameron; she’d grown so dependent on him, she could hardly imagine being without him. So, while she was relieved by the idea of Cameron focusing the more painful acts — especially the hangings — on someone else, she was insistent that there should be no sexual intercourse between her husband and this other woman. They were man and wife, and as she saw it, true intimacy should be reserved solely to