Haywood County, N.C. ? The man at the center of an investigation into castrations at a Haywood County sadomasochistic “dungeon” spent 23 years working at a Veterans Affairs medical center in Kansas, according to federal officials.

Richard Sciara, 61, worked as a physician’s assistant at the Colmery-O’Neil VA Medical Center in Topeka, Kan., from February 1976 to June 1999. He did not have a medical license, officials told the Asheville Citizen-Times, because one was not required at the time he started working for the VA.

Investigators believe Sciara and two other men castrated at least six men at a home in rural southern Haywood County. The men are charged with castration without malice, conspiracy and with practicing medicine without a license.

Investigators have said they believe Sciara and the other two men – Michael Mendez, 60, and Danny Carroll Reeves, 49 – were lovers involved in master-slave relationships; at the time of their arrest last week, Sciara was advertising on the Web for more men to add to his “stable of slaves.”