CLEVELAND -- It was a blind date that brought Ariel Castro and Lillian Roldan together.
"She thought he was very suave," said author John Glatt, who tells of the relationship in his book "The Lost Girls," to be released later this month.
From 2000 to 2003, Roldan would date the man she says was "always a gentleman."
That's part of the timeline when Castro was also kidnapping Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus and holding them captive in his basement on Seymour Avenue.
Roldan says Castro had a "messy house," but she had no idea what was going on in the basement.
When she asked Castro why the door was padlocked, Glatt says she told him, "He said he kept money there and he didn't trust his children so he didn't want anyone going down there."
The dapper dresser, 16 years her senior, Roldan said, "swept her off her feet," so she agreed to matching tattoos of her favorite flower on both of their legs.
Castro, Glatt told Channel 3, was a fan favorite with Roldan's family as well.
"They really really liked Ariel. They thought he was Marriage material."
At the same time the girls were bound in his basement, Castro slipped a ruby ring onto Roldan's finger during a romantic stroll over the Detroit-Superior bridge.
Reading from his book Glatt quoted Roldan, "So he put it on and I never took it off. I really thought we were going to get married one day."
Glatt continues to read from the book when he says Castro, her macho musician who was in a salsa band, even told the crowd one night, "That he wants to sing 'La Bamb' for me. It was so romantic and I was charmed. It was such a special night and he really did show me love."
Glatt, reflecting on his interview with Roldan, told Channel 3's Dawn Kendrick, "He has like really two faces. Obviously, I know what a monster he was and I was amazed to see Lillian genuinely cared for him. She really loved him."
Castro was sentenced to life in prison, plus 1,000 years.
About a month after his sentencing, Castro took his own life in prison.
