Red Bird Phoenix
Based on a True Story
AARON and BETTY RUSSELL are pure evil with one goal in mind — to control, specifically their daughter KITTY. They break her spirit. They own her. Carnage is their game. Starvation and torture are their tools. Kitty is a marketable sex product. And blood flows in the Russell household.
After witnessing the murders committed by her parents, escape is a dream. She is conflicted by hate of the abusers, but bound by a God-love thread stronger than any green rope for her siblings. There is water in Kitty’s eyes and a wooden switch laid on her back as she is forced to do backbreaking labor.
Kitty, with the fire of God in her bones, determines not to give in. Faith is her armor and her sister, Ruth, is her heart. Her survival mission is to expose her parent and find justice. She represents the everywhere child with nowhere to run. She is a daughter, a sister and a caretaker. Seeking freedom, her unshakeable faith manifests as a Red Bird giving direction, hope and guidance.
Thanks to her grandparents, Lillie and John Russell, Kitty is given love in the barren landscape of her life. The brutality of sexual abuse by her parents and brother, Samson, won’t stop her from escaping with Ruth and Ezra.
With nothing to lose, Kitty faces the monsters and risks all to escape captivity. With evidence of what is hidden beneath the earth, she stands against her parents, exploding triumphantly with vengeance and courage. It is enough to open the eyes and deaf ears of Madison County burnished by fire! Her parent’s reality is living hell.
Based on the life of Cae Cordell
Aaron and Betty Russell
The parents of Cae Cordell. Their cruelty and brutality of sexual abuse knew no bounds.
Paul Russell
The brother of Arron Russell and yet another contributor to the abuse including physical, sexual, incestual, torture, and starvation.
Riley and Lillie Russell
The grandparents of Cae Cordell provided love in the barren landscape of her life.
The Home
The location where Cae was raised.
From the Ashes
I would like to introduce you to my life story. I am Cae Cordell, a retired minister and college instructor, a survivor of incest and marital sexual violence. Violence to one's physical being can be healed, but violence to the soul brings about the spiritual murder. It is permanent.
Red Bird Phoenix is a meandering collection of childhood memories woven into a very troubling autobiography. My soul was confronted daily with unrelenting physical and sexual abuse, torture and starvation and there was no escape.
My story begins as a battered child and follows me until age eighteen. Red Bird Phoenix sweeps up the ashes in minute detail, of my constant abuse and gives my soul wings like the mythical Phoenix.
Red Bird Phoenix is not light-hearted reading. It on takes three sentences to sum up my life:
"I was just a small child, but I was mountain bred and grown, ageless in my wisdom. I was wixe in the ways of trouble and pain. I was an old woman before I ever was a child."
I invite you to visit this old woman; you will never be the same.
3 Months Old
A deceptive photo of a normal American family. Cae as a baby is seen here with brother Samson and parents Aaron and Betty
16 Years Old
The violence of Cae's life begins to be evident
1st Grade
Cae endured abuse at home from an early age
Now
Cae has taken her past experiences to help children and other victims of abuse
Justice is Hand-Held Faith
Though Aaron Russell was never arrested for the evil he committed at home, he was arrested on January 2, 1943 for objecting to a World War II draft.
Aaron Russell (seen here in the early 2000's in front of what remains of Cae's childhood home) lived on into old age without facing the legal ramifications of the abuse he subjected his daughter to.
Cae Cordell has taken her experiences and traumas to help others rise from the ashes of their own tragic lives. She is the author of several books that contribute to finding justice for the abused and changing lives for the better.
Her fight continues.