here's another "what is WRONG with people" news article from www.fox5dc.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A retired handyman who admitted keeping five women as sex slaves in an underground bunker in his backyard was sentenced Tuesday to 18 years to life in prison.

Onondaga County Judge Anthony Aloi ignored a plea for leniency from John Jamelske's (search) lawyer, who asked for a penalty of 15 years to life.

"You are a sick coward. You are an evil man. You are a kidnapper and rapist, a master manipulator of people and the truth, but your reign of terror is over," Aloi told Jamelske.

Jamelske cried in court and apologized: "I'm sorry for what I did and how it affected everyone."

Jamelske, 68, of DeWitt, pleaded guilty last month to kidnapping five women and girls and holding them as sex slaves between 1988 and 2003 in a concrete bunker he built 3 feet under the backyard of his suburban Syracuse (search) home.

Aloi said Jamelske "should die in prison for what you have done to these five women."

Each count carried a maximum penalty of 25 years to life in prison, which meant Jamelske could have served up to 125 years behind bars if convicted at trial and the sentences were combined.

Jamelske told authorities he began seeking out girls and women in 1988 after his wife became bedridden and was unable to satisfy his sexual urges. She died in 1999, apparently unaware that her husband was a sexual predator (search).

Jamelske was arrested in April when his most recent victim, a 16-year-old girl, was able to sneak a phone call to her sister when Jamelske took her out on errands after six months of captivity.

After Jamelske's arrest, police identified four other women who said they were abducted and raped by him dating back to 1988. The victims ranged in age from 13 to 53 and were held captive anywhere from two months to three years in the bunker.

The bunker was linked to Jamelske's home by a steel door, hidden behind tens of thousands of empty bottles and cans, that led to a series of crawl spaces and doors.

A 4-foot ladder leads down to the first chamber, which was furnished with refrigerator, a small tub, a portable hospital toilet chair and a bucket.

The second chamber had a microwave oven and a piece of dirty foam that was placed on top of plastic bread crates to serve as a bed. There was one chair. Its bare concrete walls in the second chamber were covered with graffiti -- some from the victims.

During a search of the house, deputies said they found photographs of women chained to a wall. They also say they found diaries Jamelske forced his victims to keep, recording details such as when they had been raped, when they showered and when they brushed their teeth.