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UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
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Alleged Ohio serial killer rare among mass killers
By JOHN SEEWER and ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS, Associated Press Writers John Seewer And Andrew Welsh-huggins, Associated Press Writers – Sat Nov 7, 9:16 pm ET
CLEVELAND – Authorities say Anthony Sowell lured women into his home in a busy neighborhood, killed them — most by strangulation — and scattered their remains throughout the inside and buried some in the backyard.
Such brazenness defies logic, but experts identify a narrow subcategory of serial killers, including the 1893 Chicago Fair killer, Dr. H.H. Holmes, and Milwaukee cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, who hunt from home.
"These types are so rare that you can't make a summary estimation as to why or what went wrong or anything," said Robert Keppel, a national serial-killer expert who investigated serial killer Ted Bundy in Washington state in the 1970s.
"There's just not a whole lot of these folks running around the world," he said.
Sowell had the perfect lair.
His home and backyard — a burial site for five victims — were shielded by an empty home to the left and the windowless brick wall of a sausage company on the right.
Anytime the stench of decaying bodies blew over the street, neighbors blamed the meat processing next door.
His house stood out only because it was one of the nicest on a block dotted by homes with peeling paint and broken windows, some of them vacant.
It looked safe.
Sowell often sat on the front steps, sipping beer out of a bottle and greeting residents passing by on their way to the corner store that was just steps away for alcohol, snacks and cigarettes.
Neighbors say he'd offer a few the chance to get high.
Sowell's alleged approach reflects an obvious point, said forensic psychologist N.G. Berrill: the potential role of mental illness in such unusual behavior.
"The fact that they would dirty their own nest, as it were, is peculiar to me and suggests a level of mental illness or sickness," said Berrill, director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science.
Tanja Doss told The Associated Press that when she went up to Sowell's third-floor bedroom for a drink last April, he attacked her. "I'm sitting on the corner of the bed and he just leaped up and came over and started choking me," she said.
She said she escaped the next morning when he left for the store.
When people think of serial killers, they imagine predators like Bundy, who stalked women and killed women in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Colorado and finally Florida.
Or Gary Ridgway, dubbed the Green River killer, who pleaded guilty to the deaths of 48 women, many of them found in or near Washington State's Green River.
But some of history's most notorious serial killers literally worked close to home.
Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett, built a "World's Fair Hotel" he used to lure women to their death during the 1893 World's Fair, a series of crimes recounted in the 2004 best-seller, "Devil in the White City."
While Holmes confessed at one point to killing 27 people, the true number of victims is unknown; some authorities placed it as high as 200.
In Houston, Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks killed 27 boys and young men in a torture-murder ring in Houston from 1969 to 1971. Police found a plywood "torture board" in Corll's home used to torment many of his victims before they were killed.
In Illinois, John Wayne Gacy, a building contractor and amateur clown, was convicted of luring 33 young men and boys to his Chicago area home for sex and strangling them between 1972 and 1978. Most were buried in a crawl space under the home; four others were dumped in rivers. Gacy was executed in 1994.
In Milwaukee, Dahmer, a former candy factory worker, confessed to killing and dismembering 17 people since 1978, some of whom he mutilated and cannibalized. His victims included 11 males whose remains were found in his apartment.
Dahmer was serving a series of life sentences when he was killed by another inmate at a Wisconsin prison in 1994.
The crimes that Sowell is accused of put him in the same category as Gacy and Dahmer, said Jack Levin, a Northeastern University criminologist.
At the same time, the Cleveland murders resemble the more general portrait of a serial killer who doesn't stray far from his comfort zone.
"They never leave town. They never travel to another state. They stay close to home, where they're familiar with the victims and escape routes and dump sites," Levin said.
Hunting from home may have been easier because of the marginal lives led by Sowell's alleged victims. All four of the Cleveland women identified until now battled addiction in their lives.
It wasn't unusual for some of them to disappear for a week or two and then return.
Naticia Duncan, who lives a few houses away from Sowell, fears that her friend, Kimberly Sharp, may be one of the victims. Sharp would often stay at Duncan's house, do her laundry and then leave when she met a new man.
"I'd see her a month later, then she'd do it again," Duncan said. "Then I never saw her again."
Police remain at Sowell's house for now but investigators say they have no immediate plans to search for more remains.
Sowell, 50, remained in jail Saturday on a $5 million bond on charges of rape and aggravated murder.
Across the street Saturday, the number of fliers on a makeshift memorial wall with pictures of missing women continued to grow.
Police released the identities of three more victims Saturday, bringing the total to seven. Four others are still unknown. The latest are Amelda Hunter, 47, Crystal Dozier, 38 and Michelle Mason, 45, all of Cleveland.
Earlier in the day, Dale Hunter taped a piece of paper with two photographs of his sister on the missing person's board.
Hunter said she used to stay with friends in the area and knew that she drank beer with Sowell in his house. He said he was fearing the worst.
Like most of the victims, she battled drug and alcohol addictions, he said.
"She was real comfortable in this neighborhood," said Hunter. "I dropped her off here a few times."
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CLEVELAND – Authorities say Anthony Sowell lured women into his home in a busy neighborhood, killed them — most by strangulation — and scattered their remains throughout the inside and buried some in the backyard.
Such brazenness defies logic, but experts identify a narrow subcategory of serial killers, including the 1893 Chicago Fair killer, Dr. H.H. Holmes, and Milwaukee cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, who hunt from home.
"These types are so rare that you can't make a summary estimation as to why or what went wrong or anything," said Robert Keppel, a national serial-killer expert who investigated serial killer Ted Bundy in Washington state in the 1970s.
"There's just not a whole lot of these folks running around the world," he said.
Sowell had the perfect lair.
His home and backyard — a burial site for five victims — were shielded by an empty home to the left and the windowless brick wall of a sausage company on the right.
Anytime the stench of decaying bodies blew over the street, neighbors blamed the meat processing next door.
His house stood out only because it was one of the nicest on a block dotted by homes with peeling paint and broken windows, some of them vacant.
It looked safe.
Sowell often sat on the front steps, sipping beer out of a bottle and greeting residents passing by on their way to the corner store that was just steps away for alcohol, snacks and cigarettes.
Neighbors say he'd offer a few the chance to get high.
Sowell's alleged approach reflects an obvious point, said forensic psychologist N.G. Berrill: the potential role of mental illness in such unusual behavior.
"The fact that they would dirty their own nest, as it were, is peculiar to me and suggests a level of mental illness or sickness," said Berrill, director of the New York Center for Neuropsychology and Forensic Behavioral Science.
Tanja Doss told The Associated Press that when she went up to Sowell's third-floor bedroom for a drink last April, he attacked her. "I'm sitting on the corner of the bed and he just leaped up and came over and started choking me," she said.
She said she escaped the next morning when he left for the store.
When people think of serial killers, they imagine predators like Bundy, who stalked women and killed women in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Idaho, Colorado and finally Florida.
Or Gary Ridgway, dubbed the Green River killer, who pleaded guilty to the deaths of 48 women, many of them found in or near Washington State's Green River.
But some of history's most notorious serial killers literally worked close to home.
Holmes, born Herman Webster Mudgett, built a "World's Fair Hotel" he used to lure women to their death during the 1893 World's Fair, a series of crimes recounted in the 2004 best-seller, "Devil in the White City."
While Holmes confessed at one point to killing 27 people, the true number of victims is unknown; some authorities placed it as high as 200.
In Houston, Dean Corll, Elmer Wayne Henley and David Owen Brooks killed 27 boys and young men in a torture-murder ring in Houston from 1969 to 1971. Police found a plywood "torture board" in Corll's home used to torment many of his victims before they were killed.
In Illinois, John Wayne Gacy, a building contractor and amateur clown, was convicted of luring 33 young men and boys to his Chicago area home for sex and strangling them between 1972 and 1978. Most were buried in a crawl space under the home; four others were dumped in rivers. Gacy was executed in 1994.
In Milwaukee, Dahmer, a former candy factory worker, confessed to killing and dismembering 17 people since 1978, some of whom he mutilated and cannibalized. His victims included 11 males whose remains were found in his apartment.
Dahmer was serving a series of life sentences when he was killed by another inmate at a Wisconsin prison in 1994.
The crimes that Sowell is accused of put him in the same category as Gacy and Dahmer, said Jack Levin, a Northeastern University criminologist.
At the same time, the Cleveland murders resemble the more general portrait of a serial killer who doesn't stray far from his comfort zone.
"They never leave town. They never travel to another state. They stay close to home, where they're familiar with the victims and escape routes and dump sites," Levin said.
Hunting from home may have been easier because of the marginal lives led by Sowell's alleged victims. All four of the Cleveland women identified until now battled addiction in their lives.
It wasn't unusual for some of them to disappear for a week or two and then return.
Naticia Duncan, who lives a few houses away from Sowell, fears that her friend, Kimberly Sharp, may be one of the victims. Sharp would often stay at Duncan's house, do her laundry and then leave when she met a new man.
"I'd see her a month later, then she'd do it again," Duncan said. "Then I never saw her again."
Police remain at Sowell's house for now but investigators say they have no immediate plans to search for more remains.
Sowell, 50, remained in jail Saturday on a $5 million bond on charges of rape and aggravated murder.
Across the street Saturday, the number of fliers on a makeshift memorial wall with pictures of missing women continued to grow.
Police released the identities of three more victims Saturday, bringing the total to seven. Four others are still unknown. The latest are Amelda Hunter, 47, Crystal Dozier, 38 and Michelle Mason, 45, all of Cleveland.
Earlier in the day, Dale Hunter taped a piece of paper with two photographs of his sister on the missing person's board.
Hunter said she used to stay with friends in the area and knew that she drank beer with Sowell in his house. He said he was fearing the worst.
Like most of the victims, she battled drug and alcohol addictions, he said.
"She was real comfortable in this neighborhood," said Hunter. "I dropped her off here a few times."
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Anthony Sowell timeline
Anthony Sowell in 1990
Anthony Sowell is in City Jail awaiting trial on charges of aggravated murder after police found the bodies of 11 women at his home on Imperial Avenue. Below are key dates in his life, his dealings with the criminal justice system and the various investigations into Sowell:
Aug. 19, 1959: Sowell is born. He is raised in East Cleveland.
Jan. 24, 1978: Sowell enlists in the Marine Corps. He serves eight years, in North Carolina, California and Okinawa.
Jan. 18, 1985: Sowell is discharged from the Marines and returns to East Cleveland.
May 27, 1988: Rosalind Garner is found strangled in her home on Hayden Avenue in East Cleveland. The case has not been solved.
Feb. 27, 1989: Carmella Prater is found dead in an abandoned building on First Avenue in East Cleveland. Prater lived on Page Avenue, the same street as Sowell. She had been beaten but the coroner was unable to pinpoint how she was killed. The case has not been solved.
March, 28, 1989: Mary Thomas is found strangled near an abandoned building on First Avenue, the same street where Prater was found. The case has not been solved.
July 28, 1989: A woman tells police that Sowell took her into his home on Page Avenue, bound and gagged her and raped her.
June 24, 1990: A Cleveland woman tells police that Sowell choked and raped her inside her home on East 71st Street. Police arrest him but no charges were filed because, police said, they were unable to get the woman to testify.
Sept. 12, 1990: Sowell is sentenced to five to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape for the 1989 assault in his home on Page Avenue.
June 20, 2005: Sowell, after repeatedly being denied parole, is released from prison. He moves in with his father and stepmother at 12205 Imperial Avenue. He registers with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office as a sex offender and is required to check in with them once a year.
June 29, 2007: A woman who lives across the street from Sowell calls City Hall to complain about a foul odor in the neighborhood, which she said smells like a dead person or animal.
January 2008: The Adam Walsh Act passes and Sowell is now required to report to the Sheriff's Office every 90 days.
Nov. 10, 2008: Barbara Carmichael sees her daughter Tonia, 52, for what would be the last time. Tonia Carmichael's car is found near East 115th Street and Kinsman Road a few days later, but there is no sign of her.
Dec. 2, 2008: Barbara Carmichael files a missing-persons report in Warrensville Heights. She tells police her daughter had a drug problem and sometimes disappeared between three and five days, but in this case she has not seen her daughter in three weeks and is worried something bad had happened.
Dec. 8, 2008: A bleeding woman runs up to a police car at East 116th Street and Kinsman. She tells police that Anthony Sowell asked her if she wanted to drink beer with him. When she said no, he punched her, choked her and tried to rip off her clothes. Police went to Sowell's home, went to the third floor and arrested him. Police later said no charges were filed because the woman did not want to talk to detectives.
Feb. 10, 2009: Warrensville Heights police check several houses between East 116th Street and East 120th Street near Kinsman Road and Oakfield Avenue, looking for Carmichael. No one recognizes photos of her, as was the case when they made other checks. They also check at bars and motels in Cleveland and East Cleveland, but no one has information on Carmichael.
Sept. 2, 2009: Sowell checks in at the Sheriff's Office, as he is required to do as a sex offender.
Sept. 22, 2009: Sheriff's deputies pay a surprise visit to Sowell's home to verify that he lives at the address he had given them. He answers the door and, as is standard, deputies do not enter.
Several hours later, Sowell persuades a woman to come to his house and drink malt liquor with him. She later tells police he got angry, choked her with an extension cord and raped her until she passed out.
She was able to get away after promising Sowell she would bring him $50 and not tell police about the incident, according to a police report. She went to police.
Sept. 24, 2009: The case is assigned to a sex-crimes detective, who has difficulty reaching the victim. The woman's mother tells police she is difficult to contact.
Oct. 11, 2009: The victim in that case does not show up for an interview with detectives.
Oct. 20, 2009: An ambulance is sent to Sowell's house after neighbors call 9-1-1 to report a naked woman falling or being thrown from a second-floor window. Sowell tells rescue workers he and the woman had been doing drugs all day and that she accidentally fell out the window. EMS takes the woman to MetroHealth Medical Center and calls police, who go to Sowell's home but don't find anyone there. Police then go to Metro, where the woman refuses to talk to investigators.
Oct. 27, 2009: The woman from the Sept. 22. attack meets with sex-crimes detectives, who one day later get an arrest warrant for Sowell and a search warrant for his home.
Oct. 29, 2009: Police go to arrest Sowell but he is not home. They enter the house and find two decomposing bodies.
Oct. 30, 2009: Police find three more bodies -- two in a crawl space in the house and one buried in the basement's dirt floor.
Oct. 31, 2009: Sowell is arrested walking down Mount Auburn Avenue, about one mile from his home.
Nov. 3, 2009: Prosecutors charge Sowell with five counts of aggravated murder. Police find six more bodies at his home, most of them buried in the back yard.
Nov. 4, 2009: The Cuyahoga County coroner announces that all 11 victims are black women. At least eight of them were strangled, the coroner says. He makes the first identification of a victim: Tonia Carmichael.
Nov. 5, 2009: Police identify a second and third victim: Telacia Fortson and Tishana Culver. Both would have been 31 and both struggled with drug addictions, their families say. Fortson was last seen in June. Culver lived four houses down from Sowell and was last seen in 2008. Members of her family say they assumed she was in jail or living with a boyfriend in Akron.
Nov. 6, 2009: East Cleveland police announce they are reopening the investigations into the strangulations of Garner and Thomas and the killing of Prater. Cleveland police identify a fourth woman found at Sowell's home as Nancy Cobbs, 43.
Nov. 7, 2009: Police identified three more victims: Michelle Mason, Crystal Dozier and Amelda Hunter.
Anthony Sowell is in City Jail awaiting trial on charges of aggravated murder after police found the bodies of 11 women at his home on Imperial Avenue. Below are key dates in his life, his dealings with the criminal justice system and the various investigations into Sowell:
Aug. 19, 1959: Sowell is born. He is raised in East Cleveland.
Jan. 24, 1978: Sowell enlists in the Marine Corps. He serves eight years, in North Carolina, California and Okinawa.
Jan. 18, 1985: Sowell is discharged from the Marines and returns to East Cleveland.
May 27, 1988: Rosalind Garner is found strangled in her home on Hayden Avenue in East Cleveland. The case has not been solved.
Feb. 27, 1989: Carmella Prater is found dead in an abandoned building on First Avenue in East Cleveland. Prater lived on Page Avenue, the same street as Sowell. She had been beaten but the coroner was unable to pinpoint how she was killed. The case has not been solved.
March, 28, 1989: Mary Thomas is found strangled near an abandoned building on First Avenue, the same street where Prater was found. The case has not been solved.
July 28, 1989: A woman tells police that Sowell took her into his home on Page Avenue, bound and gagged her and raped her.
June 24, 1990: A Cleveland woman tells police that Sowell choked and raped her inside her home on East 71st Street. Police arrest him but no charges were filed because, police said, they were unable to get the woman to testify.
Sept. 12, 1990: Sowell is sentenced to five to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape for the 1989 assault in his home on Page Avenue.
June 20, 2005: Sowell, after repeatedly being denied parole, is released from prison. He moves in with his father and stepmother at 12205 Imperial Avenue. He registers with the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office as a sex offender and is required to check in with them once a year.
June 29, 2007: A woman who lives across the street from Sowell calls City Hall to complain about a foul odor in the neighborhood, which she said smells like a dead person or animal.
January 2008: The Adam Walsh Act passes and Sowell is now required to report to the Sheriff's Office every 90 days.
Nov. 10, 2008: Barbara Carmichael sees her daughter Tonia, 52, for what would be the last time. Tonia Carmichael's car is found near East 115th Street and Kinsman Road a few days later, but there is no sign of her.
Dec. 2, 2008: Barbara Carmichael files a missing-persons report in Warrensville Heights. She tells police her daughter had a drug problem and sometimes disappeared between three and five days, but in this case she has not seen her daughter in three weeks and is worried something bad had happened.
Dec. 8, 2008: A bleeding woman runs up to a police car at East 116th Street and Kinsman. She tells police that Anthony Sowell asked her if she wanted to drink beer with him. When she said no, he punched her, choked her and tried to rip off her clothes. Police went to Sowell's home, went to the third floor and arrested him. Police later said no charges were filed because the woman did not want to talk to detectives.
Feb. 10, 2009: Warrensville Heights police check several houses between East 116th Street and East 120th Street near Kinsman Road and Oakfield Avenue, looking for Carmichael. No one recognizes photos of her, as was the case when they made other checks. They also check at bars and motels in Cleveland and East Cleveland, but no one has information on Carmichael.
Sept. 2, 2009: Sowell checks in at the Sheriff's Office, as he is required to do as a sex offender.
Sept. 22, 2009: Sheriff's deputies pay a surprise visit to Sowell's home to verify that he lives at the address he had given them. He answers the door and, as is standard, deputies do not enter.
Several hours later, Sowell persuades a woman to come to his house and drink malt liquor with him. She later tells police he got angry, choked her with an extension cord and raped her until she passed out.
She was able to get away after promising Sowell she would bring him $50 and not tell police about the incident, according to a police report. She went to police.
Sept. 24, 2009: The case is assigned to a sex-crimes detective, who has difficulty reaching the victim. The woman's mother tells police she is difficult to contact.
Oct. 11, 2009: The victim in that case does not show up for an interview with detectives.
Oct. 20, 2009: An ambulance is sent to Sowell's house after neighbors call 9-1-1 to report a naked woman falling or being thrown from a second-floor window. Sowell tells rescue workers he and the woman had been doing drugs all day and that she accidentally fell out the window. EMS takes the woman to MetroHealth Medical Center and calls police, who go to Sowell's home but don't find anyone there. Police then go to Metro, where the woman refuses to talk to investigators.
Oct. 27, 2009: The woman from the Sept. 22. attack meets with sex-crimes detectives, who one day later get an arrest warrant for Sowell and a search warrant for his home.
Oct. 29, 2009: Police go to arrest Sowell but he is not home. They enter the house and find two decomposing bodies.
Oct. 30, 2009: Police find three more bodies -- two in a crawl space in the house and one buried in the basement's dirt floor.
Oct. 31, 2009: Sowell is arrested walking down Mount Auburn Avenue, about one mile from his home.
Nov. 3, 2009: Prosecutors charge Sowell with five counts of aggravated murder. Police find six more bodies at his home, most of them buried in the back yard.
Nov. 4, 2009: The Cuyahoga County coroner announces that all 11 victims are black women. At least eight of them were strangled, the coroner says. He makes the first identification of a victim: Tonia Carmichael.
Nov. 5, 2009: Police identify a second and third victim: Telacia Fortson and Tishana Culver. Both would have been 31 and both struggled with drug addictions, their families say. Fortson was last seen in June. Culver lived four houses down from Sowell and was last seen in 2008. Members of her family say they assumed she was in jail or living with a boyfriend in Akron.
Nov. 6, 2009: East Cleveland police announce they are reopening the investigations into the strangulations of Garner and Thomas and the killing of Prater. Cleveland police identify a fourth woman found at Sowell's home as Nancy Cobbs, 43.
Nov. 7, 2009: Police identified three more victims: Michelle Mason, Crystal Dozier and Amelda Hunter.
Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Cleveland mayor’s niece lived with Anthony Sowell, suspected 'Cleveland Strangler'
The accused serial killer dubbed the “Cleveland Strangler” lived for years with the niece of the city’s mayor in the stinking house where police have found 11 corpses.
The revelation raised new questions about why police took so long to catch the former US Marine, a convicted rapist whose home reeked of rotting bodies.
Lori Frazier, a niece of Mayor Frank Jackson, said that she still considered herself the girlfriend of Anthony Sowell, who was released from a 15-year prison sentence in 2005.
“He came out from the penitentiary June 23. Me and him hooked up July 7 and I have been with him ever since,” she told Action19 News in Cleveland, Ohio.
“I want to know why, why would he do this,” she said. “He took care of me. Good care of me.”
Ms Frazier, a known drug-user, said that Mr Sowell explained away the pungent smell of decaying bodies by blaming his stepmother downstairs and, when she moved out, the sausage factory next door.
She said that the pair did drugs together until she moved out last year to kick the habit.
Ms Frazier’s relationship with Mr Sowell added to pressure on the mayor, her uncle. Zach Reed, a local councillor who filed a complaint about the odour two years ago, has called for a federal investigation into the police response.
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The revelation raised new questions about why police took so long to catch the former US Marine, a convicted rapist whose home reeked of rotting bodies.
Lori Frazier, a niece of Mayor Frank Jackson, said that she still considered herself the girlfriend of Anthony Sowell, who was released from a 15-year prison sentence in 2005.
“He came out from the penitentiary June 23. Me and him hooked up July 7 and I have been with him ever since,” she told Action19 News in Cleveland, Ohio.
“I want to know why, why would he do this,” she said. “He took care of me. Good care of me.”
Ms Frazier, a known drug-user, said that Mr Sowell explained away the pungent smell of decaying bodies by blaming his stepmother downstairs and, when she moved out, the sausage factory next door.
She said that the pair did drugs together until she moved out last year to kick the habit.
Ms Frazier’s relationship with Mr Sowell added to pressure on the mayor, her uncle. Zach Reed, a local councillor who filed a complaint about the odour two years ago, has called for a federal investigation into the police response.
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Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Authorities have identified seven of 11 victims whose remains were found
Authorities have identified seven of 11 victims whose remains were found at the Cleveland home of Anthony Sowell, who has been charged with five counts of aggravated murder.
_ Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights, was the first victim identified. Family members say they feared the worst when the first bodies were discovered in the home and backyard. Carmichael was last seen nearly a year ago after telling a friend she was going out for some fun. Her family says she was a crack cocaine addict and claim police didn't pursue her disappearance because of her drug history.
_ Telacia Fortson, 31, of East Cleveland, disappeared in June. She had three children, but lost custody because of drug use. She still spent time with them and when she didn't show up to braid their hair, family members became alarmed. Fortson also liked arranging flowers and attending church.
_ Tishana Culver, 31, of Cleveland, lived a few houses away from Sowell on Imperial Avenue. The mother of four was last seen by her family in June 2008. She had several drug convictions and worked as a beautician.
_ Nancy Cobbs, 43, of Cleveland, disappeared in April around the time of her birthday. She had four children and was living with a daughter about three blocks from Sowell's house. She was a familiar face in the area and had a history of drug abuse.
_ Amelda Hunter, 47, of Cleveland, was a mother of two sons and a daughter. Family members say she vanished last April. Hunter's brother says he had dropped her off in Sowell's neighborhood several times and knows that she drank beer with him in his house. Known to friends as Amy, family members say she loved to read, watch television and work crossword puzzles.
_ Crystal Dozier, 38, of Cleveland, was last seen two years ago in October 2007. She lived a few miles away from Sowell's house on the city's east side, but a few years earlier had lived on the same street as the suspect.
_ Michelle Mason, 45, of Cleveland, lived near Sowell's neighborhood and rarely went longer than two days without talking to her family. They went to police after not hearing from her for a few days in October 2008. Her sister says police didn't take it seriously because of her arrest record, even though she had stopped cashing her Social Security checks. Police say they conducted dozens of searches, including near her home and at hospitals.
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_ Tonia Carmichael, 52, of Warrensville Heights, was the first victim identified. Family members say they feared the worst when the first bodies were discovered in the home and backyard. Carmichael was last seen nearly a year ago after telling a friend she was going out for some fun. Her family says she was a crack cocaine addict and claim police didn't pursue her disappearance because of her drug history.
_ Telacia Fortson, 31, of East Cleveland, disappeared in June. She had three children, but lost custody because of drug use. She still spent time with them and when she didn't show up to braid their hair, family members became alarmed. Fortson also liked arranging flowers and attending church.
_ Tishana Culver, 31, of Cleveland, lived a few houses away from Sowell on Imperial Avenue. The mother of four was last seen by her family in June 2008. She had several drug convictions and worked as a beautician.
_ Nancy Cobbs, 43, of Cleveland, disappeared in April around the time of her birthday. She had four children and was living with a daughter about three blocks from Sowell's house. She was a familiar face in the area and had a history of drug abuse.
_ Amelda Hunter, 47, of Cleveland, was a mother of two sons and a daughter. Family members say she vanished last April. Hunter's brother says he had dropped her off in Sowell's neighborhood several times and knows that she drank beer with him in his house. Known to friends as Amy, family members say she loved to read, watch television and work crossword puzzles.
_ Crystal Dozier, 38, of Cleveland, was last seen two years ago in October 2007. She lived a few miles away from Sowell's house on the city's east side, but a few years earlier had lived on the same street as the suspect.
_ Michelle Mason, 45, of Cleveland, lived near Sowell's neighborhood and rarely went longer than two days without talking to her family. They went to police after not hearing from her for a few days in October 2008. Her sister says police didn't take it seriously because of her arrest record, even though she had stopped cashing her Social Security checks. Police say they conducted dozens of searches, including near her home and at hospitals.
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- Join date : 2009-05-28
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
TerryRose wrote:yet another bit of trivia surrounding this case: A man who works and/or owns a food store across the street from Sowell was interviewed today on local news. He said that Sowell had frequently walked across the street to put something in his store's dumpster. When the employees became curious about what he was dumping, they found a package wrapped with duct tape that really stunk. They reported to the authorities that Sowell was dumping things in their dumpster, according to the interview.
(Hearing this, one can only wonder just how many murders he had committed and successfully disposed of their bodies in this city and in other cities and states in the past 30 plus years. It is just surprising that there are any women left in that section of Cleveland, OH.)
this scares me! seems like we will never know how many women he killed!
adelacruz- Join date : 2009-05-28
Case against Ohio bodies suspect expands overseas
By THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press Writer Thomas J. Sheeran, Associated Press Writer – 29 mins ago
CLEVELAND – Authorities are investigating whether a man whose home and yard harbored the remains of at least 11 people is connected to any killings in places he lived while in the military, including Japan, California and the Carolinas.
The FBI told Cleveland police that the agency will investigate any leads in the case against Anthony Sowell, 50, who served in the Marines from 1978 to 1985, said Scott Wilson, an FBI spokesman in Cleveland.
FBI behavioral specialists visited the Sowell property during the weekend and will try to develop a profile of the killings that could help determine whether investigations need to be opened or reopened elsewhere, Wilson said.
Sowell was stationed at various times at Parris Island, S.C.; Cherry Point, N.C.; Okinawa, Japan; and Camp Pendleton, Calif.
The city of East Cleveland is also reviewing three unsolved slayings in 1988 and 1989, after Sowell returned there from service in the Marines and before he went to prison for attempted rape, said Sgt. Ken Bolton, a detective for the police department in the Cleveland suburb.
Sowell has been charged in Cleveland with five counts of aggravated murder in connection with the bodies found at the home.
The FBI will review its national database of unsolved crimes for any clues to possible connections to Sowell, particularly at his military service locations, Wilson said. The first step is to get a detailed timeline of his service, Wilson said.
Police in Coronado, Calif., near Camp Pendleton, said a woman told them that she saw Sowell's mug shot on TV and was sure he had raped her in 1979.
Officers talked with the woman but were unable to confirm her story because rape investigation records from 30 years ago have been thrown out, said Jesus Ochoa, Coronado police commander.
"She seemed credible," he said.
Near Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown and his deputies are sifting through paper records to check for any unsolved killings or disappearances during the time Sowell was at the Marine base from May 20, 1978, to July 12, 1978.
Brown said he has already run Sowell's name through computerized court files and hasn't found that Sowell got so much as a traffic ticket while in the area. But the paper search is slow going.
"The computer technology then is not what it is now," Brown said.
The unsolved East Cleveland slayings of Rosalind Garner on May 27, 1988, Carmella Prater on Feb. 27, 1989, and Mary Thomas on March 28, 1989, will be checked against the autopsies of the bodies found at Sowell's home to check for similarities, Bolton said.
"It's for the family's closure," he said. "They are unsolved and they happened around the time that he was not in jail."
No connections had been made by Monday, he said.
Seven of the victims found at the Sowell home, all black women, have been identified. The Cuyahoga County coroner's office said Monday that it was working to identify the other four.
Police discovered the first two bodies and a freshly dug grave Oct. 29 at the house on the city's east side. The number grew to 11 by Tuesday.
Investigators returned Monday to the house, which has been cordoned off as a crime scene under 24-hour guard, but there was no immediate word on their activities inside.
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CLEVELAND – Authorities are investigating whether a man whose home and yard harbored the remains of at least 11 people is connected to any killings in places he lived while in the military, including Japan, California and the Carolinas.
The FBI told Cleveland police that the agency will investigate any leads in the case against Anthony Sowell, 50, who served in the Marines from 1978 to 1985, said Scott Wilson, an FBI spokesman in Cleveland.
FBI behavioral specialists visited the Sowell property during the weekend and will try to develop a profile of the killings that could help determine whether investigations need to be opened or reopened elsewhere, Wilson said.
Sowell was stationed at various times at Parris Island, S.C.; Cherry Point, N.C.; Okinawa, Japan; and Camp Pendleton, Calif.
The city of East Cleveland is also reviewing three unsolved slayings in 1988 and 1989, after Sowell returned there from service in the Marines and before he went to prison for attempted rape, said Sgt. Ken Bolton, a detective for the police department in the Cleveland suburb.
Sowell has been charged in Cleveland with five counts of aggravated murder in connection with the bodies found at the home.
The FBI will review its national database of unsolved crimes for any clues to possible connections to Sowell, particularly at his military service locations, Wilson said. The first step is to get a detailed timeline of his service, Wilson said.
Police in Coronado, Calif., near Camp Pendleton, said a woman told them that she saw Sowell's mug shot on TV and was sure he had raped her in 1979.
Officers talked with the woman but were unable to confirm her story because rape investigation records from 30 years ago have been thrown out, said Jesus Ochoa, Coronado police commander.
"She seemed credible," he said.
Near Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown and his deputies are sifting through paper records to check for any unsolved killings or disappearances during the time Sowell was at the Marine base from May 20, 1978, to July 12, 1978.
Brown said he has already run Sowell's name through computerized court files and hasn't found that Sowell got so much as a traffic ticket while in the area. But the paper search is slow going.
"The computer technology then is not what it is now," Brown said.
The unsolved East Cleveland slayings of Rosalind Garner on May 27, 1988, Carmella Prater on Feb. 27, 1989, and Mary Thomas on March 28, 1989, will be checked against the autopsies of the bodies found at Sowell's home to check for similarities, Bolton said.
"It's for the family's closure," he said. "They are unsolved and they happened around the time that he was not in jail."
No connections had been made by Monday, he said.
Seven of the victims found at the Sowell home, all black women, have been identified. The Cuyahoga County coroner's office said Monday that it was working to identify the other four.
Police discovered the first two bodies and a freshly dug grave Oct. 29 at the house on the city's east side. The number grew to 11 by Tuesday.
Investigators returned Monday to the house, which has been cordoned off as a crime scene under 24-hour guard, but there was no immediate word on their activities inside.
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Niece of Cleveland mayor lived with murder suspect Sowell
November 9, 2009 3:15 p.m. EST
Cleveland, Ohio (CNN) -- The niece of the mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, once lived with murder suspect Anthony Sowell, a registered sex offender charged with murder after the remains of 11 victims were found at his home, a spokeswoman for the mayor said Monday.
Lori Frazier, niece of Mayor Frank Jackson, had a relationship with Sowell that ended two years ago, said Andrea Taylor, a spokeswoman for Jackson's office. Taylor said it is unclear whether the relationship was romantic.
"I just want to know why, why he would do this," Frazier told CNN affiliate WOIO on Friday. "He took care of me, good care of me. I never would have thought there were some bodies in the house."
"I lived with him from 2005 to 2007 and he didn't kill me, but he killed all these girls," she said.
Sowell, 50, is facing five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in connection with the deaths. All the victims were African-American women. All that remains of one of them is a skull, wrapped in a paper bag and stuffed into a bucket in the basement.
Sowell served 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape in 1989. He was released in 2005.
Residents of the area near the home said they had noted a smell in the neighborhood, but assumed it was from nearby Ray's Sausage Company.
Asked whether she had noticed a foul odor, Frazier told WOIO, "Yeah, I smelled stuff, but he always told me that -- at first he said it was his stepmother downstairs. And then I guess after she left, he told me that it was Ray's Sausage."
Frazier said Sowell brought other women to the home when she was not there.
The Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office said Monday it is still working on identification of the four remaining unidentified victims.
Hundreds of Cleveland residents gathered outside the house Sunday night to remember the victims.
"It's hard, because I want to burn it down," said Inez Fortson, whose daughter Telacia, 31 and a mother of three children, is among the dead.
Sowell has been placed on a suicide watch at the request of his attorney, according to Sowell's public defender, Kathleen DeMetz. A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered but it's unlikely to happen until after the case goes before a grand jury, the next expected step.
Police recovered the first bodies after they went to Sowell's home to follow up on a rape accusation.
[Sowell] took ... good care of me. I never would have thought there were some bodies in the house.
--Lori Frazier, niece of Cleveland mayor
In a separate incident, neighbors on October 20 reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor. Firefighters and paramedics responded, and later notified police. But the woman told officers that she was at the home "partying," when she fell off the roof, and no charges were filed.
Agents from the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit are assisting Cleveland police, Cleveland FBI spokesman Scott Wilson has said. The agents are preparing a profile of Sowell for police, tracing his life and habits, and his DNA will be entered into a national database to see whether it can be linked to any unsolved crimes.
"Our experts tell us it's likely he's done this before," said Frank Figliuzzi, special agent in charge of the FBI's Cleveland office. "He's probably done it elsewhere, and so we need to determine whether or not he's responsible for other unsolved murders and rapes around the country."
In addition, the FBI is investigating whether Sowell might be linked to crimes abroad, Figliuzzi said.
"We know, for example, he was a Marine, he was assigned to California, he served in Okinawa, Japan, and we'll be matching all the facts from these crimes here in Cleveland with the crimes that remain unsolved in our database, and we'll specifically be looking at those locations where he's previously lived."
Allen Sowell, the suspect's half-brother, told CNN he last saw his brother more than 20 years ago. Their stepmother, who lived in the house after Anthony Sowell got out of prison, said she knew of nothing odd going on at the time, Allen Sowell said.
The stepmother tried to get Anthony Sowell evicted from the house in 2007 because he wasn't paying rent, Allen Sowell said. Anthony Sowell said he shouldn't have to pay rent on a house that belonged to his father, who died in 2004, and remained in the house when his stepmother had to be hospitalized in 2007, his half-brother said.
Allen Sowell said he was aware of his half-brother's prison record, but "just couldn't fathom" the accusations now facing him.
"I didn't think he was in that bad of a mental state," Allen Sowell said. "You never think it would happen to your family. It's a horrible feeling."
At 66, Allen Sowell is 16 years older than his half-brother, and the two didn't meet until Anthony Sowell was 9.
He added, "He deserves whatever he gets from the justice system."
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Cleveland, Ohio (CNN) -- The niece of the mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, once lived with murder suspect Anthony Sowell, a registered sex offender charged with murder after the remains of 11 victims were found at his home, a spokeswoman for the mayor said Monday.
Lori Frazier, niece of Mayor Frank Jackson, had a relationship with Sowell that ended two years ago, said Andrea Taylor, a spokeswoman for Jackson's office. Taylor said it is unclear whether the relationship was romantic.
"I just want to know why, why he would do this," Frazier told CNN affiliate WOIO on Friday. "He took care of me, good care of me. I never would have thought there were some bodies in the house."
"I lived with him from 2005 to 2007 and he didn't kill me, but he killed all these girls," she said.
Sowell, 50, is facing five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in connection with the deaths. All the victims were African-American women. All that remains of one of them is a skull, wrapped in a paper bag and stuffed into a bucket in the basement.
Sowell served 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape in 1989. He was released in 2005.
Residents of the area near the home said they had noted a smell in the neighborhood, but assumed it was from nearby Ray's Sausage Company.
Asked whether she had noticed a foul odor, Frazier told WOIO, "Yeah, I smelled stuff, but he always told me that -- at first he said it was his stepmother downstairs. And then I guess after she left, he told me that it was Ray's Sausage."
Frazier said Sowell brought other women to the home when she was not there.
The Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office said Monday it is still working on identification of the four remaining unidentified victims.
Hundreds of Cleveland residents gathered outside the house Sunday night to remember the victims.
"It's hard, because I want to burn it down," said Inez Fortson, whose daughter Telacia, 31 and a mother of three children, is among the dead.
Sowell has been placed on a suicide watch at the request of his attorney, according to Sowell's public defender, Kathleen DeMetz. A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered but it's unlikely to happen until after the case goes before a grand jury, the next expected step.
Police recovered the first bodies after they went to Sowell's home to follow up on a rape accusation.
[Sowell] took ... good care of me. I never would have thought there were some bodies in the house.
--Lori Frazier, niece of Cleveland mayor
In a separate incident, neighbors on October 20 reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor. Firefighters and paramedics responded, and later notified police. But the woman told officers that she was at the home "partying," when she fell off the roof, and no charges were filed.
Agents from the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit are assisting Cleveland police, Cleveland FBI spokesman Scott Wilson has said. The agents are preparing a profile of Sowell for police, tracing his life and habits, and his DNA will be entered into a national database to see whether it can be linked to any unsolved crimes.
"Our experts tell us it's likely he's done this before," said Frank Figliuzzi, special agent in charge of the FBI's Cleveland office. "He's probably done it elsewhere, and so we need to determine whether or not he's responsible for other unsolved murders and rapes around the country."
In addition, the FBI is investigating whether Sowell might be linked to crimes abroad, Figliuzzi said.
"We know, for example, he was a Marine, he was assigned to California, he served in Okinawa, Japan, and we'll be matching all the facts from these crimes here in Cleveland with the crimes that remain unsolved in our database, and we'll specifically be looking at those locations where he's previously lived."
Allen Sowell, the suspect's half-brother, told CNN he last saw his brother more than 20 years ago. Their stepmother, who lived in the house after Anthony Sowell got out of prison, said she knew of nothing odd going on at the time, Allen Sowell said.
The stepmother tried to get Anthony Sowell evicted from the house in 2007 because he wasn't paying rent, Allen Sowell said. Anthony Sowell said he shouldn't have to pay rent on a house that belonged to his father, who died in 2004, and remained in the house when his stepmother had to be hospitalized in 2007, his half-brother said.
Allen Sowell said he was aware of his half-brother's prison record, but "just couldn't fathom" the accusations now facing him.
"I didn't think he was in that bad of a mental state," Allen Sowell said. "You never think it would happen to your family. It's a horrible feeling."
At 66, Allen Sowell is 16 years older than his half-brother, and the two didn't meet until Anthony Sowell was 9.
He added, "He deserves whatever he gets from the justice system."
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Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Wrap, love that avatar sign!!! :lol!:
TerryRose- Join date : 2009-05-31
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Thanks, have not smoked in a week so this is my message. If it will kill cockroaches, it will kill anything.TerryRose wrote:Wrap, love that avatar sign!!! :lol!:
Anthony Sowell Nine Victims Identified
Anthony Sowell has shocked and horrified Cleveland, Ohio and the nation with his crimes. Though he is to be innocent until proven guilty there is no doubt that he will go down in history as one of the worst serial killers in our generation. Yesterday, two of Anthony Sowell’s 11 victims were identified bringing the total to 9. Here are the names of the 9 victims that have been identified.
1. Tonia Carmichael
2. Telacia Fortson
3. Tishana Culver
4. Nancy Cobbs
5. Amelda Hunter
6. Chrystal Dozier
7. Michele Mason
8. Janice Webb
9. Kim Yvette Smith
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1. Tonia Carmichael
2. Telacia Fortson
3. Tishana Culver
4. Nancy Cobbs
5. Amelda Hunter
6. Chrystal Dozier
7. Michele Mason
8. Janice Webb
9. Kim Yvette Smith
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Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Anthony Sowell, suspect in multiple Cleveland killings, pleads not guilty to rape and attempted murder
The Ohio man whom investigators believe may be one of the Midwest's most prolific serial killers pleaded not guilty this morning to charges of rape and attempted murder in connection with a September attack that led to investigators discovering the remains of 11 women at his home.
Amid heavy security inside Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Cleveland, Anthony Sowell, 50, also pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and felonious assault as part of the alleged Sept. 22 sexual attack.
Judge John P. O'Donnell ordered that $1 million be added to Sowell's existing $5 million bond. Sowell is being held at the Cuyahoga County Jail.
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The Ohio man whom investigators believe may be one of the Midwest's most prolific serial killers pleaded not guilty this morning to charges of rape and attempted murder in connection with a September attack that led to investigators discovering the remains of 11 women at his home.
Amid heavy security inside Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court in Cleveland, Anthony Sowell, 50, also pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and felonious assault as part of the alleged Sept. 22 sexual attack.
Judge John P. O'Donnell ordered that $1 million be added to Sowell's existing $5 million bond. Sowell is being held at the Cuyahoga County Jail.
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Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Not guilty, huh? So, those 13 bodies just happened to show up in his house all on their own?
And, why doesn't the judge just issue a No Bond Status??
And, why doesn't the judge just issue a No Bond Status??
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Judge "not guilty you say?"
NiteSpinR- Tech Support Admin
- Join date : 2009-05-30
Still Searching Sowell's Yard
UPDATED 11-15-09
(CNN) -- After authorities used thermal-imaging equipment and ground-penetrating radar to search outside murder suspect Anthony Sowell's home and a property next door in Cleveland, Ohio, FBI agents marked areas outside the home with spray paint, CNN has learned.
The high-tech search could mean police plan to dig for more possible victims this week, but police will not reveal their plans. The remains of 11 women have been found inside and outside Sowell's home.
The registered sex offender, who served 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape, now faces five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in the deaths.
Asked Sunday whether any evidence was found in the search Friday night and Saturday, Cleveland Police Lt. Thomas Stacho told CNN, "We will evaluate yesterday's examination and determine how to proceed in the coming days."
He added, "No evidence was taken from either Sowell's home or the home next door."
"We're finished using the high-tech equipment, and the results of those searches have been provided to the Cleveland police department for review," said FBI Spokesman Scott Wilson.
On Friday night and Saturday, FBI agents used sophisticated thermal-imaging equipment and ground-penetrating radar to search both properties at the request of Cleveland police. Wilson told CNN the radar "can determine whether there are certain structures under the soil."
Areas singled out with paint outside Sowell's home appear to indicate police found something worth pursuing.
Further investigation could require additional search warrants and help from the Cleveland coroner's office. Both were used to find the previous remains, which included a skull hidden inside Sowell's home.
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(CNN) -- After authorities used thermal-imaging equipment and ground-penetrating radar to search outside murder suspect Anthony Sowell's home and a property next door in Cleveland, Ohio, FBI agents marked areas outside the home with spray paint, CNN has learned.
The high-tech search could mean police plan to dig for more possible victims this week, but police will not reveal their plans. The remains of 11 women have been found inside and outside Sowell's home.
The registered sex offender, who served 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape, now faces five counts of aggravated murder, rape, felonious assault and kidnapping in the deaths.
Asked Sunday whether any evidence was found in the search Friday night and Saturday, Cleveland Police Lt. Thomas Stacho told CNN, "We will evaluate yesterday's examination and determine how to proceed in the coming days."
He added, "No evidence was taken from either Sowell's home or the home next door."
"We're finished using the high-tech equipment, and the results of those searches have been provided to the Cleveland police department for review," said FBI Spokesman Scott Wilson.
On Friday night and Saturday, FBI agents used sophisticated thermal-imaging equipment and ground-penetrating radar to search both properties at the request of Cleveland police. Wilson told CNN the radar "can determine whether there are certain structures under the soil."
Areas singled out with paint outside Sowell's home appear to indicate police found something worth pursuing.
Further investigation could require additional search warrants and help from the Cleveland coroner's office. Both were used to find the previous remains, which included a skull hidden inside Sowell's home.
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NiteSpinR- Tech Support Admin
- Join date : 2009-05-30
UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
A registered sex offender attacked 14 women and killed 11 of them, leaving their remains in and around his home, a prosecutor said Tuesday in announcing a grand jury indictment against the suspected serial killer.
Anthony Sowell, 50, is indicted on murder charges in the deaths of 11 women, plus dozens of other counts, including kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, attempted murder, assault and rape.
"The Cuyahoga County grand jury has returned an indictment against this monster for brutalizing three women, two of whom were raped, and murdering 11 more," said County Prosecutor Bill Mason, speaking at courthouse news conference. He expects to seek the death penalty.
Sowell's attorney in a rape case incorporated in the indictment, Brian McGraw, did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press on Tuesday. Sowell, jailed in a segregation cell, has turned away family and media requests to visit, Sheriff Bob Reid said. The Associated Press wrote to him last month asking for a jailhouse interview but there was no response.
Mason said Sowell lured vulnerable women to his home and that, "once inside, he tormented them, threatened them and assaulted them. He murdered 11 of them."
Authorities have said the victims were homeless or living alone and had drug or alcohol addictions.
Mason said the charges include allegations that Sowell attacked three women who survived: a 40-year-old woman who says she was assaulted on Dec. 8, 2008; a 36-year-old who says she was attacked Sept. 22 and whose complaint prompted the search of Sowell's home; and a 51-year-old woman who said she was assaulted Oct. 20.
Mason called the alleged attacks "eerily similar" and said investigators were still trying to determine whether Sowell was connected to unsolved slayings in nearby East Cleveland and elsewhere, including some cities where he was stationed when he served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1978 to 1985.
Sowell was charged with two separate aggravated murder counts in each of the 11 deaths; for each victim he was charged with premeditated murder and with murder while committing the felony of kidnapping. A jury convicting him could choose one or the other, but not both. Each murder count carries the possibility of the death penalty.
Mason said the 11 homicide victims, in general, were strangled with items like cords or rope, by hands or by an unknown method.
Mason would not discuss what evidence might connect Sowell to the 11 homicides beyond the discovery of the bodies.
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Richard Bombik said Sowell had "a specific scheme of doing things ... a distinct pattern."
"The three people that survived in this case will be probably the most important evidence in the case because it will show a pattern," he said. "The guy does have this thing for choking people. ... It's the same pattern except three of them lived to escape and talk about it."
He said the testimony also would be useful because decomposition of the slaying victims limited forensic testing.
"A lot of them were nude from the waist down, even when he buried them," he said.
Sowell previously had been charged with five of the murders.
His home was searched after the 36-year-old woman said he had attacked her there. He has already pleaded not guilty to charges with rape, kidnapping, felonious assault and attempted murder in that case.
Sowell, who served 15 years in prison for a 1989 attempted rape, was arrested while walking in the neighborhood on Oct. 31, two days after police began searching his home.
Of the 11 alleged victims, all black women, 10 have been identified. The remains of 10 women and a skull were found in his home and buried in the yard.
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Anthony Sowell, 50, is indicted on murder charges in the deaths of 11 women, plus dozens of other counts, including kidnapping, abuse of a corpse, attempted murder, assault and rape.
"The Cuyahoga County grand jury has returned an indictment against this monster for brutalizing three women, two of whom were raped, and murdering 11 more," said County Prosecutor Bill Mason, speaking at courthouse news conference. He expects to seek the death penalty.
Sowell's attorney in a rape case incorporated in the indictment, Brian McGraw, did not immediately return a message left by The Associated Press on Tuesday. Sowell, jailed in a segregation cell, has turned away family and media requests to visit, Sheriff Bob Reid said. The Associated Press wrote to him last month asking for a jailhouse interview but there was no response.
Mason said Sowell lured vulnerable women to his home and that, "once inside, he tormented them, threatened them and assaulted them. He murdered 11 of them."
Authorities have said the victims were homeless or living alone and had drug or alcohol addictions.
Mason said the charges include allegations that Sowell attacked three women who survived: a 40-year-old woman who says she was assaulted on Dec. 8, 2008; a 36-year-old who says she was attacked Sept. 22 and whose complaint prompted the search of Sowell's home; and a 51-year-old woman who said she was assaulted Oct. 20.
Mason called the alleged attacks "eerily similar" and said investigators were still trying to determine whether Sowell was connected to unsolved slayings in nearby East Cleveland and elsewhere, including some cities where he was stationed when he served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1978 to 1985.
Sowell was charged with two separate aggravated murder counts in each of the 11 deaths; for each victim he was charged with premeditated murder and with murder while committing the felony of kidnapping. A jury convicting him could choose one or the other, but not both. Each murder count carries the possibility of the death penalty.
Mason said the 11 homicide victims, in general, were strangled with items like cords or rope, by hands or by an unknown method.
Mason would not discuss what evidence might connect Sowell to the 11 homicides beyond the discovery of the bodies.
Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Richard Bombik said Sowell had "a specific scheme of doing things ... a distinct pattern."
"The three people that survived in this case will be probably the most important evidence in the case because it will show a pattern," he said. "The guy does have this thing for choking people. ... It's the same pattern except three of them lived to escape and talk about it."
He said the testimony also would be useful because decomposition of the slaying victims limited forensic testing.
"A lot of them were nude from the waist down, even when he buried them," he said.
Sowell previously had been charged with five of the murders.
His home was searched after the 36-year-old woman said he had attacked her there. He has already pleaded not guilty to charges with rape, kidnapping, felonious assault and attempted murder in that case.
Sowell, who served 15 years in prison for a 1989 attempted rape, was arrested while walking in the neighborhood on Oct. 31, two days after police began searching his home.
Of the 11 alleged victims, all black women, 10 have been identified. The remains of 10 women and a skull were found in his home and buried in the yard.
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Last edited by BJ in OR on Fri Feb 05, 2010 4:15 am; edited 5 times in total
Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Sowell due back in court on Wednesday Dec 2/ News conference later today
Anthony Sowell is led into court for arraignment on rape, kidnapping, attempted murder and felonious assault charges Friday, Nov. 13, 2009, in Cleveland. A search of Sowell's home after his arrest Sept. 22, led to the discovery of the remains of 11 women on the property. (AP Photo)
Ten of those found have been identified as Tonia Carmichael, 52; Nancy Cobbs, 45; Tishana Culver, 31; Crystal Dozier, 38; Telacia Fortson, 31; Amelda Hunter, 47; Michelle Mason, 45; Kim Yvette Smith, 44; Janice Webb, 49; and Leshanda Long, 25.
The Plain Dealer reports that Sowell is scheduled to appear in court on Wednesday. He is being held on $6 million bond.
A news conference regarding the case is expected to take place later this afternoon.
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Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
The indictment also alleges that Sowell assaulted women on December 8, 2008, and on September 22 and October 20 of this year.
The September and October victims were raped, and the other woman was punched and choked before she escaped, Mason said. Sowell's charges in the incidents include attempted murder, rape or attempted rape, kidnapping, robbery and felonious assault.
Sowell already faced charges in the September 22 rape and has pleaded not guilty.
On October 20, neighbors reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor of his house. Firefighters responded and later notified police. But the woman told officers she fell off the roof while she was at the home "partying," police said earlier. No charges were filed at the time.
Mason said, however, that the 51-year-old woman had been invited to Sowell's home and left, but was lured back in. After being choked and raped, she attempted to escape out a second-floor window as Sowell tried to pull her back in. When he was unsuccessful, he pushed her out, and she lay unconscious in an alley for a while before he pulled her back in the house.
Sowell threatened his victims and warned them not to contact police, Mason said.
It's possible there are other victims, he said, and he urged anyone who has not come forward to do so.
Sowell "knew what he was doing was wrong at the time he was doing it," Mason said.
As of last month, Sowell was on suicide watch at the request of his public defender, Kathleen DeMetz. She had said a psychiatric evaluation of Sowell had been ordered but was unlikely to happen until after an indictment was filed.
Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid said Tuesday that Sowell has been a "model prisoner," is kept in an isolated unit and has declined visitation requests.
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The September and October victims were raped, and the other woman was punched and choked before she escaped, Mason said. Sowell's charges in the incidents include attempted murder, rape or attempted rape, kidnapping, robbery and felonious assault.
Sowell already faced charges in the September 22 rape and has pleaded not guilty.
On October 20, neighbors reported seeing a naked woman fall from the second floor of his house. Firefighters responded and later notified police. But the woman told officers she fell off the roof while she was at the home "partying," police said earlier. No charges were filed at the time.
Mason said, however, that the 51-year-old woman had been invited to Sowell's home and left, but was lured back in. After being choked and raped, she attempted to escape out a second-floor window as Sowell tried to pull her back in. When he was unsuccessful, he pushed her out, and she lay unconscious in an alley for a while before he pulled her back in the house.
Sowell threatened his victims and warned them not to contact police, Mason said.
It's possible there are other victims, he said, and he urged anyone who has not come forward to do so.
Sowell "knew what he was doing was wrong at the time he was doing it," Mason said.
As of last month, Sowell was on suicide watch at the request of his public defender, Kathleen DeMetz. She had said a psychiatric evaluation of Sowell had been ordered but was unlikely to happen until after an indictment was filed.
Cuyahoga County Sheriff Bob Reid said Tuesday that Sowell has been a "model prisoner," is kept in an isolated unit and has declined visitation requests.
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Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
85 counts I can't remember if this state has the death penalty?
Guest- Guest
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Sex Offender in Ohio Offers Insanity Plea in 11 Deaths
By LIZ ROBBINS
Published: December 3, 2009
Anthony Sowell, the registered sex offender accused of killing 11 women and burying their remains in and around his house in Cleveland, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on Thursday morning.
Anthony Sowell, 50, has been charged with 85 counts, including 11 counts of murder.
Mr. Sowell, 50, who was indicted on Tuesday on 85 counts, appeared in court via a video hookup from his jail cell. The charges included 11 counts of murder, as well as attempted murder, kidnapping, rape, assault and corpse abuse.
The Cuyahoga County prosecutor, Bill Mason, said in an interview Thursday that he would seek the death penalty.
In order to prove his insanity defense under Ohio law, Mr. Sowell must show that at the time of the acts he could not differentiate between right and wrong as a result of “severe mental disease or defect.”
Mr. Mason said he was “very confident” that the evidence his office had would refute such a claim.
“He knew what he was doing by the way he covered it up,” Mr. Mason said. “He took the bodies and hid them. He obviously knew that if he left them lying on the front porch he would get caught.”
Still, Mr. Mason said he was not surprised by Mr. Sowell’s plea.
“There are 11 dead bodies and three documented assaults. I don’t know what else he could have done,” he said. “In these types of very heinous crimes, the only place you can turn is to say you’re insane.”
Such a defense, however, has not worked in the cases of other accused serial killers, from Lee B. Malvo, one of the Washington snipers, to Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and dismembered 15 men and boys and admitted to killing two others.
“It’s fair to say that the defense of insanity is the defense of last resort for any criminal defense attorney,” said Joshua Dressler, a professor at the Michael E. Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. “Juries don’t like the defense. Despite the fact that there are so many myths about the defense, that it’s easy and people get off on it, it’s actually an extraordinarily hard defense.”
Mr. Dressler added: “Jurors bring their own moral judgment to the situation. Ultimately the insanity defense tries to distinguish between the evil person or the sick person, or, as I tell my students, ‘the mad versus the bad.’ ”
Perhaps the most notable criminal in the last few decades to be found not guilty by reason of insanity was John W. Hinckley Jr., in the 1981 shooting of President Ronald Reagan. Congress responded by adopting a much narrower insanity defense, and four states even abolished it.
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By LIZ ROBBINS
Published: December 3, 2009
Anthony Sowell, the registered sex offender accused of killing 11 women and burying their remains in and around his house in Cleveland, pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on Thursday morning.
Anthony Sowell, 50, has been charged with 85 counts, including 11 counts of murder.
Mr. Sowell, 50, who was indicted on Tuesday on 85 counts, appeared in court via a video hookup from his jail cell. The charges included 11 counts of murder, as well as attempted murder, kidnapping, rape, assault and corpse abuse.
The Cuyahoga County prosecutor, Bill Mason, said in an interview Thursday that he would seek the death penalty.
In order to prove his insanity defense under Ohio law, Mr. Sowell must show that at the time of the acts he could not differentiate between right and wrong as a result of “severe mental disease or defect.”
Mr. Mason said he was “very confident” that the evidence his office had would refute such a claim.
“He knew what he was doing by the way he covered it up,” Mr. Mason said. “He took the bodies and hid them. He obviously knew that if he left them lying on the front porch he would get caught.”
Still, Mr. Mason said he was not surprised by Mr. Sowell’s plea.
“There are 11 dead bodies and three documented assaults. I don’t know what else he could have done,” he said. “In these types of very heinous crimes, the only place you can turn is to say you’re insane.”
Such a defense, however, has not worked in the cases of other accused serial killers, from Lee B. Malvo, one of the Washington snipers, to Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and dismembered 15 men and boys and admitted to killing two others.
“It’s fair to say that the defense of insanity is the defense of last resort for any criminal defense attorney,” said Joshua Dressler, a professor at the Michael E. Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University. “Juries don’t like the defense. Despite the fact that there are so many myths about the defense, that it’s easy and people get off on it, it’s actually an extraordinarily hard defense.”
Mr. Dressler added: “Jurors bring their own moral judgment to the situation. Ultimately the insanity defense tries to distinguish between the evil person or the sick person, or, as I tell my students, ‘the mad versus the bad.’ ”
Perhaps the most notable criminal in the last few decades to be found not guilty by reason of insanity was John W. Hinckley Jr., in the 1981 shooting of President Ronald Reagan. Congress responded by adopting a much narrower insanity defense, and four states even abolished it.
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Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Of course he's crazy, insane and evil. He is NOT "not guilty" because he's insane. I say his "get out of jail" card should read on the flip side "go straight to the chair".
laga- Join date : 2009-05-29
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Well, the latest is this: They ID'd the 11th victim who was a drug user but loved by a little daughter who was legally in custody of another relative.
Other states and locations have not come up with any other bodies or missing persons that may have been in contact with this man as of this writing.
This monster is trying to cop a plea of insanity. The prosecutor says, since he had known right from wrong at the time of his crimes, he does not fit the definition of insanity, and he says the only descriptive word for him is "evil". Sowell, on the other hand, has been vague about his crimes, saying he "dreamed" that he did something like that. Strikes a familiar chord, doesn't it, fellow VH members?---Wasn't it Misty who claimed vague memories, like in a "dream" state the night Haleigh disappeared?
Other states and locations have not come up with any other bodies or missing persons that may have been in contact with this man as of this writing.
This monster is trying to cop a plea of insanity. The prosecutor says, since he had known right from wrong at the time of his crimes, he does not fit the definition of insanity, and he says the only descriptive word for him is "evil". Sowell, on the other hand, has been vague about his crimes, saying he "dreamed" that he did something like that. Strikes a familiar chord, doesn't it, fellow VH members?---Wasn't it Misty who claimed vague memories, like in a "dream" state the night Haleigh disappeared?
TerryRose- Join date : 2009-05-31
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Dreamed my tail! Insane my butt. He is pure evil
CritterFan1- Join date : 2009-06-01
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
I am sorry, Critter but I read this post before reading Terry Rose's. The first two sentences really threw me off!!!! :lol!:CritterFan1 wrote:Dreamed my tail! Insane my butt. He is pure evil
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Sorry, I got a little carried away, this guy was a sick you know what, but not insane. He knows right from wrong.
CritterFan1- Join date : 2009-06-01
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
No, you are exactly correct!! He is NOT insane. He knew exactly what he was doing!!
He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 11 counts of aggravated murder and other charges.
The capital murder trial of suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell should begin in three to four months, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Timothy McGinty told lawyers for both sides this morning.
Sowell appeared in court but did not say anything beyond answering McGinty's questions with "yes sir" and "yes your honor." He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 11 counts of aggravated murder and other charges. Investigators found 11 women dead at Sowell's home on Imperial Avenue. He was also charged in three other attacks on women.
McGinty ruled that the trial must take place in 180 days, but asked prosecutors and defense attorney John Parker to try to resolve any procedural issues and start the trial in three to four months.
McGinty also rejected a motion filed by Sowell's attorneys asking for a gag order that would forbid both sides from talking to the media about the case.
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Sowell appeared in court but did not say anything beyond answering McGinty's questions with "yes sir" and "yes your honor." He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to 11 counts of aggravated murder and other charges. Investigators found 11 women dead at Sowell's home on Imperial Avenue. He was also charged in three other attacks on women.
McGinty ruled that the trial must take place in 180 days, but asked prosecutors and defense attorney John Parker to try to resolve any procedural issues and start the trial in three to four months.
McGinty also rejected a motion filed by Sowell's attorneys asking for a gag order that would forbid both sides from talking to the media about the case.
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Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Women seeking counseling in Cleveland/ not wanting to end up like Sowell's victims
The number of drug addicted women seeking treatment has spiked dramatically in Cleveland, an increase counseling centers say is a result of the discovery of the city's so-called "house of horrors."
Accused serial killer Anthony Sowell pleaded not guilty earlier this month after being indicted as a "monster" who lured 14 homeless or addicted women into his house where he sexually attacked them and strangled 11 of them.
Now counseling experts in the area say more women are vowing not to end up like Sowell's victims and are seeking treatment for their drug and alcohol problems.
"When we compared this November to last year's, we saw a 36 percent increase in women seeking treatment for substance abuse," Steve Wertheim, the director of Cleveland's United Way's First Call for Help 2-1-1, which offers referrals to drug assistance programs.
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Accused serial killer Anthony Sowell pleaded not guilty earlier this month after being indicted as a "monster" who lured 14 homeless or addicted women into his house where he sexually attacked them and strangled 11 of them.
Now counseling experts in the area say more women are vowing not to end up like Sowell's victims and are seeking treatment for their drug and alcohol problems.
"When we compared this November to last year's, we saw a 36 percent increase in women seeking treatment for substance abuse," Steve Wertheim, the director of Cleveland's United Way's First Call for Help 2-1-1, which offers referrals to drug assistance programs.
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Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
That is good news. Whatever it takes to get these people rehabilitated!
defense team withdrew its motion of not guilty by reason of insanity
Accused murderer Anthony Sowell’s defense team withdrew its motion of not guilty by reason of insanity.
There was a pretrial for Sowell Wednesday.
According to the prosecutor’s officer, the defense also executed another waiver of speedy trial. The trial is still scheduled for June 2 and the next pretrial is scheduled for Jan. 27.
The defense does have a right to file a motion in the future regarding the insanity plea.
In December, Sowell was officially charged in the slayings of 11 women found dead in his Cleveland home. He faces an 85-count indictment that includes 11 counts of aggravated murder and charges of rape, kidnapping and abuse of a corpse.
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There was a pretrial for Sowell Wednesday.
According to the prosecutor’s officer, the defense also executed another waiver of speedy trial. The trial is still scheduled for June 2 and the next pretrial is scheduled for Jan. 27.
The defense does have a right to file a motion in the future regarding the insanity plea.
In December, Sowell was officially charged in the slayings of 11 women found dead in his Cleveland home. He faces an 85-count indictment that includes 11 counts of aggravated murder and charges of rape, kidnapping and abuse of a corpse.
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Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Well, good. But personally, I think the guy is completely bat chit insane. Whatever works as this animal will never see the light of day again!!!
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
:lol!:Wrapitup wrote:Well, good. But personally, I think the guy is completely bat chit insane. Whatever works as this animal will never see the light of day again!!!
Guest- Guest
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
I have issues with the term "Throw-Away Women"
It's not that I want them to go unrecognized, I just don't like this particular label attached to these individuals.
JMO...
ya'll know I gotem!
It's not that I want them to go unrecognized, I just don't like this particular label attached to these individuals.
JMO...
ya'll know I gotem!
Last edited by NiteSpinR on Mon Jun 24, 2013 11:31 pm; edited 1 time in total
NiteSpinR- Tech Support Admin
- Join date : 2009-05-30
The road to Imperial Avenue
Anthony Sowell eighth grade
1959-1978:
Shy boy, troubled home: The house at 1878 Page Ave. in East Cleveland stood out in the 1960s; it was lime-green.
It stands out now because it was the childhood home of serial killing defendant Anthony Sowell.
Neighbors remember that the roomy, two-story house between Euclid Avenue and Forest Hill Park had a nice back yard. And, back then, it was an overwhelmingly white, mostly working-class neighborhood, just beginning its slow slide into abject poverty.
"That was a gorgeous house," said Katie L. Tabb, who raised her children just down the street.
Inside those walls, Anthony lived out much of his childhood with his half-sister and seven cousins. The cousins moved into the home after their mother died.
"We were always really unsure what the [family] layout was," said Chip Fleshman, who grew up on Page.
Anthony’s mother, Claudia Benson Garrison, and his maternal grandmother, Irene Justice headed the household. Justice is dead, and Claudia Garrison could not be located to comment for this story.
His father, Thomas Sowell, was absent.
"I never saw a father, no," recalled Tabb. In fact, said Ramona Davis, 49, one of Anthony’s live-in cousins, the absent Mr. Sowell was not even talked about. "For some reason, [Anthony] and his father didn’t get along."
Sowell not only lacked a father figure in his childhood, but he also witnessed abuse, two of Sowell’s cousins said in separate interviews. Ramona Davis and her twin sister, Leona, say an adult would force them to strip "butt-naked," tie them up and beat them. Electrical extension cords often were used to bind and whip them, the cousins said.
"It was psycho," Ramona Davis said.
Anthony was not beaten, both twins said, but he watched the beatings.
And, Leona said, he also connived to create trouble for his cousins. Anthony would secretly drink his grandmother’s Pepsi or start a fight, then blame Leona, who got punished, she said.
If Anthony’s childhood was as dysfunctional as his cousins describe, Tabb didn’t see it reflected in his behavior.
"He was the kindest child you wanted to deal with," Tabb said. "He was always very respectable."
Anthony was shy and skinny, said Cavana Faithwalker, an artist and staff member at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Faithwalker met him in the early 1970s, when Anthony attended Kirk Junior High.
"He was a little quiet and never one to start a conversation," Faithwalker wrote in an e-mail. "If you said, ‘Hi,’ he would say, ‘Hi.’ If you asked a question, he would answer it. He was friendly, sort of, in that he would smile whenever I looked in his direction."
Anthony’s family, while not rich, was not poor, Fleshman said. But when he got to be high-school age, he couldn’t afford a car.
"He was a walker, you know?" Fleshman said. "To have a car as a high-school kid was a big deal." Anthony the teenager was no ladies’ man, either, Fleshman said: "I never knew him to have a girlfriend."
Acquaintances subjected Tony to a "constant ritual of teasing," especially about an assumed lack of sexual experience, Faithwalker said. Occasionally, he got angry.
"I remember one time on the basketball courts a group of people teasing him about girls, being a virgin, and things in general," Faithwalker said, recalling an incident, later in the 1970s, at Forest Hill Park.
"He tried to talk the ‘bitches-and-ho’s’ kind of talk, but it really wasn’t part of him. A cat threw the ball to him. Anthony was so mad. He caught the ball in his stomach. He took the ball and whipped it at the guy. The guy could eat Anthony for breakfast, and would have, except another guy stepped in."
But one of his cousins said Anthony was no virgin.
Sowell, according to Leona, regularly took her upstairs to a bedroom in the Page Avenue house and forced her to have sex with him when they were pre-teens.
"It was happening almost every day," Leona said.
Ramona said she had never witnessed her sister being raped, but she said she believed Leona.
Leona Davis said she tried to report the rapes to authorities, but no one believed her.
Maybe they should have, Leona Davis said: "I don’t think [the Imperial Avenue killings] would’ve ever happened if somebody would’ve listened to me."
1978-1985:
The Marines, a child, a marriage: If you were 18 in the late 1970s and you wanted out of deteriorating East Cleveland, and you wanted out fast, you could always join the Marines.
Which is what Anthony Sowell did, reporting for boot camp on Jan. 24, 1978, at Parris Island, S.C. He had at least three good reasons for getting out of town.
He was a bashful kid who might have found "The Few, The Proud" slogan a tempting boost.
He didn’t have enough credits to graduate high school, he said in a 2005 psychological evaluation. (Sowell also said he attended Shaw High School, but East Cleveland officials said they have no record he did.)
And he had just made a Shaw High School student pregnant. His daughter by that union was born 8½ months after Sowell joined the Marines. Neither woman would respond to questions about Sowell.
An unidentified woman, who was with Sowell’s daughter when two Plain Dealer reporters approached, said: "You should talk to the Marines."
The Marine Corps would not release much about Sowell beyond the standard name, rank and serial number. Even Sowell’s lawyers acknowledged three weeks ago that they knew little about his military career.
One thing is clear: The Marines taught Sowell how to subdue and kill using his hands and how to wield everyday objects as improvised weapons.
After boot camp, Sowell reported to North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune on April 24, 1978, for the then-standard, 22-day basic combat training course.
That included hand-to-hand and close-quarters combat to develop what the corps now calls the "warrior ethos." The syllabus included "basic chokes" and "basic weapons of opportunity."
Sowell spent another month at Camp Lejeune learning electrical wiring. He was then assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock, N.C., as an electrician.
Sowell spent almost five of his seven years in the Marines at Cherry Point, and lived for at least part of that time in a trailer - blue with a white stripe - situated with seven other trailers in a secluded area.
Five months after returning to Cherry Point from a year-long stint in the Pacific, Sowell got married in September 1981 to a fellow Marine. It was a civil ceremony performed by a magistrate in a historic courthouse in New Bern, N.C. He was 22.
The woman, named Kim Yvette Lawson, died in 1998 while Sowell was serving time in an Ohio penitentiary. Her mother said her daughter told her Sowell was drinking to excess. She married him to help him.
"She didn’t want him to get a dishonorable discharge," Norma Lawson said from her home in California. "She was trying to get him through the Marine Corps. She divorced him the day she got out," in 1985.
After a year at Camp Butler in Okinawa, Japan, Sowell left the Marines, too, on Jan. 15, 1985, at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
Although the Marines said he went AWOL for two months at one point, Sgt. Sowell departed with a foot-locker full of praise, including a rifle sharpshooter award, good conduct medal, a certificate of commendation and two letters of appreciation.
He returned home to Page Avenue, where court records show he resumed an old habit - drinking too much. And within the next few years, he would start working up a long arrest sheet.
1985-1990:
Booze, drugs, violence, arrests: The East Cleveland Sowell returned to after leaving the Marines in January 1985 was completely changed.
So was Sowell, who got very busy getting very drunk, and very angry, according to his own admission and his police record.
The East Cleveland population was now 90 percent black. A quarter of East Clevelanders lived below the poverty level. City finances were a shambles.
And much of the Cleveland area was inundated by crack - a new, smokable, potent form of cocaine that swept the country’s urban areas in 1985. Crime rates rose and a new subset of female addicts - women so desperate to get high they would sell or barter their bodies to get a few rocks of crack - hit the streets.
Into this milieu arrived a 25-year-old man at liberty after a seven-year military regimen. He was divorced after four years from a wife worried about his boozing, and - court documents indicate - he was being accused of ducking his responsibilities as the father of a 7-year-old.
Sowell hit the bottle hard.
He had at least six drinks nearly every day during this period of his life, he told psychological evaluators in 2005. He would sometimes start first thing in the morning, and, would occasionally black out, he said.
"He acknowledged having family problems and increased aggressiveness when drinking," the evaluation said.
That aggression surfaced in 1988 when police arrested Sowell on a charge of domestic violence, and he served eight days in jail, East Cleveland police said.
The evaluation doesn’t mention illegal drugs, but his arrest record lists a 1988 charge of possessing dangerous drugs, though it does not specify what drug. Other arrests from 1986-1989 included charges of disorderly conduct, DUI and public drunkenness. The records are incomplete, making it impossible to determine the outcomes of those cases.
Meanwhile, terror stalked East Cleveland.
The bodies of three women - two of them suspected drug-users - turned up near Sowell’s Page Avenue home.
In May 1988, the body of 36-year-old Rosalind Garner was found in her home on Hayden Avenue. She had been strangled.
Carmella Karen Prater, 27, a resident of Page Avenue and a suspected drug-user, was found in an abandoned home on First Avenue, just off Hayden, on Feb. 27, 1989. The cause of death is unknown.
A month later, on March 28, the body of another suspected drug-user, Mary Thomas, 27, was found near an abandoned building, again on First Avenue.
The red ribbon used to strangle Thomas was still around her neck.
None of the cases is solved.
East Cleveland police reopened the cases after Sowell’s arrest in the Imperial Avenue strangler case. No link has been made.
Police did link Sowell to the attempted rape of a 21-year-old woman who was three months pregnant. She told her story to the authorities four months after Thomas’ body was discovered.
On July 22, 1989, Sowell met the woman at a motel at Euclid Avenue and Lee Road, the woman told police. The woman, who has a criminal record of drug use, feared police who had arrived at the motel might arrest her.
Sowell told her that her boyfriend was waiting for her at Sowell’s house, about 500 yards away, the police report says.
The boyfriend wasn’t at Sowell’s house, the woman told police. But a bed was.
He threw her on it, and choked and raped her over and over, according to the police report.
When she tried to leave, Sowell bound her hands with a necktie, cinched a belt around her feet and stuffed a rag in her mouth, the woman said. Then Sowell, who had been drinking, fell asleep. She wriggled free and escaped out a window.
A grand jury indicted Sowell in the July 22 case. He did not show for his court date, and on Dec. 8, the court issued an arrest warrant. But Sowell was nowhere to be found.
Seven months later and four miles away, another woman said Sowell raped her, too.
At 1 a.m. Sunday, June 24, 1990, the 31-year-old woman told police, she went to a house on East 71st Street in Cleveland. She sat beside Sowell on a loveseat and started drinking.
Sowell got up, the police report says, came up behind her and starting choking her, spewing a stream of obscene descriptions of sex acts, how and where he would violate her, and announcing that "she was his bitch, and she had better learn to like it."
He dragged her upstairs by the neck and raped her orally, vaginally and anally - even after the woman told him she was five months pregnant and begged him to stop, the woman said.
Instead, Sowell forced her to say, "Yes, sir, I like it," the police report says.
Sowell again went to sleep, and the woman left. When she returned with the police about 8 a.m., he was still sleeping.
The police arrested Sowell, but charges were never filed after police said the woman could not be found to testify.
But the police finally had their man in the 1989 rape case, and Sowell was in jail awaiting trial on those charges, court documents say.
He eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of attempted rape, the record shows, and on Sept. 12, 1990, Judge James P. Kilbane sentenced the prisoner to five to 15 years in prison.
Eight days after sentencing, Sowell was taken to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s prison in Lorain.
The shy kid from East Cleveland was now 31, and a convict.
1990-2005:
Prison, 12 Steps, denial: The fifth step in 12-step self-help programs goes like this: "We admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs."
In prison, Anthony Sowell went to the meetings of at least two 12-step programs, Alcoholics Anonymous and Adult Children of Alcoholics, prison officials said.
But Step 5 apparently didn’t carry over when it came to Sowell trying to get help behind bars for his sexual obsessions.
In 1993, Sowell signed up for sex-offender treatment but was turned down, a parole officer noted. The reason: He would not admit he was a sex offender.
He might have been in denial, but Sowell was also a model prisoner for his 15 years at four different Ohio penitentiaries, officials said. He had no major rule infractions on his record, and only four minor violations.
He took courses called "Living Without Violence," "Cage Your Rage," "Positive Personal Change" and "Drug Awareness Prevention." He called on his Marine training to work as an electrician. And he honed his culinary skills in the prison kitchen, which after his release in 2005 helped him earn a reputation for throwing good barbecues.
"He used to like to cook a lot," said Tanja Doss, who used to go to Sowell’s Imperial Avenue home in 2005. "He was a chef."
Sowell had to deal with other prisoners’ attitudes about attempted rape.
Carlton Pope, who said he has served 30 years in Ohio prisons, said he met Sowell at Grafton Correctional Institution, where Sowell spent the last nine years and three months of his stretch.
"I shunned him because not only did he seem demented and a psychotic pervert, he carried the stigma of a convicted rapist," Pope said.
Despite his good behavior, the violence of Sowell’s crime persuaded parole officials to repeatedly deny his request for release. He served his maximum sentence. He was still in prison in 2002 when he learned that his father, Thomas Sowell, had died.
Sowell won two small victories in prison.
One was a high-school education. On Sept. 17, 2002, Sowell took a GED examination at Grafton and passed with 2,820 points, easily besting the 2,250-point threshold.
The second, according to Doss, was this: Sowell gave up alcohol and any other intoxicants he might have been using.
But in retrospect, Sowell’s education and reformation efforts in prison did not prepare him to deal with his problems on the outside when, on June 20, 2005, at age 45, he walked out of prison a free man.
2005-07:
A savior? Or a killer in the making?: Out of prison in 2005, Anthony Sowell might have gotten it into his head to try to "help" women who bartered their bodies with men for crack cocaine.
He offered them malt liquor, companionship and shelter from the dangers of the streets on Cleveland’s East Side, said four women with drug problems who had encounters with Sowell.
But if Sowell felt betrayed by those he thought he was trying to help, he would terrorize, attack or rape them, according to the police reports made by two women who said Sowell befriended them and then turned on them.
The "helper" theory, a person close to the investigation of the Imperial Avenue strangler case said, is one motive police have pursued in their interrogation and investigation of Sowell.
When he was released from prison, Sowell was apparently clean and sober. A psychological evaluation deemed him unlikely to rape again.
He had to register as a sex offender, reporting to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office once a year until a 2008 federal law mandated that he had to check in every 90 days.
He rented out space in the home of his late father’s widow, Segerna Sowell, at 12205 Imperial Ave. in Cleveland, a white, 2½-story double.
He completed "NETworks 4 Success," a program for ex-convicts offered by the Towards Employment nonprofit agency.
And he started dating women who lived or hung out in the poor, crime-ridden Mount Pleasant neighborhood he now called home, according to two of the women’s accounts.
Tanja Doss, 43, is one of the women who says she was involved with - and, she says, eventually attacked by - Sowell. Doss said she met Sowell in 2005, when she lived across the street from him.
At that time, Doss said, Sowell did not use crack cocaine. But she and "Tone" drank beer, played chess and barbecued. He told Doss he had been in prison but that he had taken the rap for a crime committed by someone else.
"I used to go over there and be like, ‘Tone, what’s up?’ " said Doss. "He seemed like a regular human being. He had a little laughter in him."
Not everyone thought so.
Reginald McKay, who met Sowell in 2005, described Sowell at the time as: "Not crazy, but strange. Sort of quiet, mousy, sneaky, sort of."
It was around this time that Sowell began dating Lori Frazier, Frazier told a Cleveland television news reporter.
Frazier made headlines after Sowell’s arrest in the Imperial Avenue strangler case because Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is her uncle. She declined to speak for this story.
But both the mayor and Frazier - who described herself as a former crack user - have said Sowell and Frazier had a relationship. It lasted from 2005 until 2007 or early¤’08, according to Doss and to Frazier’s statements on television.
"He took good care of me," Frazier said. "Good care of me."
Frazier lived with Sowell in the Imperial Avenue house in what looked like a monogamous relationship, Doss said.
Doss said she moved to New York by 2006 but would come back to visit Imperial Avenue. Occasionally, she would knock on Sowell’s door.
"He’d say, ‘I got a woman now, so you can’t come and visit me,’ " Doss said. That woman was Frazier, Doss said. "I’d see them walking together and all that."
In another sign of outward stability, Sowell got a steady job in March 2006, through NETworks 4 Success, as a rubber-molder at Custom Rubber Corp. on East 55th Street in Cleveland.
"He was a very good employee," said company President Charlie Braun.
But by 2007, Sowell’s personal and work lives started to unravel.
And women on or near Imperial Avenue began to go missing, women whose decomposing bodies would later be found in and around Sowell’s house.
2007-09:
The smell of death: 2007 was a bad year for Anthony Sowell.
It’s also when the stench of death came to linger on Imperial Avenue.
In 2007 or early 2008, Sowell ended a nearly three-year, live-in relationship with Lori Frazier, Frazier and others said. But he remained hung up on her for another two years, two other women who knew Sowell said.
In July 2007, after Sowell didn’t show up two days in a row, Custom Rubber Products Corp. fired him, company President Charlie Braun said. Sowell’s means of self-support were reduced to collecting and selling scrap metal.
About the same time, in May or June 2007, the woman believed to be the first Imperial Avenue strangler victim, Crystal Dozier, went missing, police said.
That June also marks the first time an Imperial Avenue neighbor called Councilman Zack Reed to complain about odor of decaying flesh, Reed said.
The stink got stronger. And more women went missing, and at an ever-increasing rate.
Sowell was a familiar figure in the ragtag army of men and women who push shopping carts through snow and sun scavenging for scrap copper and less-precious metals among the abandoned and torn-down homes in the decay of inner-city Cleveland.
View full sizePlain Dealer file photo
A scrapper walks across a Cleveland street. Anthony Sowell made his money as a scrap metal collector.
Scrapper Kim Kemp sells her Saturday haul first thing the next morning at Ohio Metal Recycling Inc. on Grand Avenue, one of the only such businesses in the city open on Sunday.
"Everybody knew him," said Kemp, who said a scrapper friend of hers was invited to smoke crack at Sowell’s house.
"He smoked [crack]. I guess he did what he did to get his hustle."
On Imperial, Sowell was a regular and neighborly fixture, inviting others over for cookouts, chess games and malt liquor. His libations of choice were "forties" of King Cobra, 40-ounce bottles of an Anheuser-Busch brand valued for its relatively high 6 percent alcohol content, cheap price and lack of flavor.
And among neighborhood women looking to "kick it" - smoke crack and drink- Sowell was known to have a party place beyond the reach of his stepmother/landlady, whose disabilities prevented her from climbing the two flights of stairs to the third floor.
"He was a cool - supposed to be a cool person," said Doss, a former friend of Sowell’s from 2005 who returned to Cleveland in 2007 after living in New York. "Like I said, ‘Let’s go drink a beer.’ ‘All right, cool.’ ‘Let’s go smoke a joint.’ ‘Cool.’ "
Sowell had experience with drugs in the late 1980s, his East Cleveland police record says.
Sowell started smoking crack cocaine not long after his release from prison in 2005, said Allen Sowell, his half-brother.
By 2007, Doss said, Sowell had the gaunt look typical of a chronic crack abuser. And by 2009, Doss said, she smoked crack with Sowell, in tandem with drinking, a dangerous combination linked by medical studies to aggression.
And Sowell himself admitted to an emergency medical crew that he had been smoking crack and drinking all day when an ambulance showed up at his house in an Oct. 20, 2009, incident.
At least two women voluntarily went to Sowell’s in 2009 for what they thought would be good times, but the good times suddenly turned violent, they said. They survived to tell strikingly similar tales, in police reports and - in one case - in extensive interviews.
Their stories - one from Doss, who said in interviews and in a police report that Sowell attacked her on April 21, and another from a police report about an alleged Sept. 22 rape involving a 36-year-old former Imperial Avenue resident - offer insight into what might have happened to the women whose bodies were found at Sowell’s house.
Sowell is accused of using alcohol and/or drugs to lure vulnerable acquaintances, drug users with criminal pasts who lived on the fringe, police and prosecutors said.
The encounters began unthreateningly, but turned violent after the beer and drugs ran out, or a question Sowell didn’t like was asked, according to the two women.
In Doss’ case, she said Sowell slapped her, choked her and forced her to strip naked after he ran out of crack. She curled up on a bed, and Sowell eventually left her alone.
In the Sept. 22 case, the woman told police that Sowell reacted violently after she asked him about another woman who said Sowell had attacked her. Sowell then raped the woman in the Sept. 22 case while tightening an electrical extension cord around her neck until she passed out, a police report says.
In both cases, the women said, he became preternaturally calm after the attacks, offered them money, food or clothing, and watched as they walked out the door.
These traits line up with several facets of the profile of sexually sadistic serial killers used by the FBI and police departments to identify suspects in cases.
The instantaneous rage, followed by calm, is particularly telling, according to criminal behavior profiling experts. The pattern is consistent with a "heating-up, cooling-down" cycle of behavior often seen in sexually sadistic killers, said City University of New York crime historian Harold Schechter, author of "The Serial Killer Files."
Another pattern in the Imperial Avenue case also fits the profile of a typical serial killer: a growing appetite for violence.
In all of 2007, only one woman whose body later was found at Sowell’s home went missing, police said. Then there was a year-long gap.
In 2008, four women linked to him disappeared, and another woman claimed he attacked her. The bodies of the four were later found at his home. The fifth woman was bleeding when she approached police and told them Sowell punched her in the head and demanded she take her clothes off on Dec. 8, 2008.
Then, in 2009: Eight.
Six of the women whose bodies were found at Sowell’s house went missing last year. Add to them two others: Doss, who said she was assaulted by Sowell in April, and the woman who reported he raped her on Sept. 22.
That escalation in the frequency of violent episodes linked to Sowell’s Imperial Avenue home - one in 2007, five in 2008 and eight in 2009 - suggests the strangler had become addicted to the sexual thrills associated with serial killers, said Stephen T. Holmes, a criminologist at Orlando’s University of Central Florida and the author of a series of books on serial killers.
In other words: the killer had to have more and more violence to satisfy his insatiable lust.
What exactly prompted the rage that led to the Imperial Avenue slayings remains a mystery, though it obviously was aimed at women in general, and specifically at women who sold their bodies and risked their lives for drugs, Schechter said.
Two women who had encounters with Sowell in 2009 said he remained obsessed with Frazier, the former admitted crack user he broke up with in 2007 or early 2008. Frazier would not comment for this story despite repeated requests.
Doss said Sowell showed her, in April 2009, a purple sweat suit he had bought for Frazier. And the woman in the Sept. 22, 2009, incident said Sowell still kept some of Frazier’s clothes around, two years after their relationship ended, the police report says.
Sowell’s world came crashing down Oct. 29, when police went to his house to arrest the gaunt 50-year-old in the Sept. 22 case. He was gone. What they found was a nightmare scenario of decomposing bodies.
Sowell saw the commotion of emergency vehicles at his house on the night of Oct. 29 and before asking for a ride back to his sister’s house on East 131st Street, eluding arrest, he said this to neighbor Debbie Madison:
" ‘That girl made me do it.’ "
As the body count rose, police found and arrested Sowell on Oct. 31, while the city reacted in horror and disbelief, and the world watched in fascination.
Little more about Sowell has been forthcoming from police and prosecutors as the city awaits his trial on charges of murder and rape in Cleveland’s grisliest serial-killing spree since the Torso Murders of the 1930s.
But questions remain.
Why, for instance, didn’t police and prosecutors pursue charges against Sowell after a bloodied woman claimed Sowell attacked her at his Imperial Avenue home in December 2008?
Although several legal experts have said enough evidence existed for a grand jury to indict Sowell, authorities decided the woman wasn’t credible and dropped the case. Six more women whose bodies were found at Sowell’s Imperial Avenue home disappeared after the cops let Sowell go.
And conclusions can be drawn.
The evidence suggests, for example, that Sowell -- while ultimately responsible for his own actions -- was shaped by and operated in a deadly subculture that is underpoliced and underserved by the social safety net.
It is a world of casual brutality and degradation where sexual favors and drugs are ready currency, a world that many of us, safe behind the locked doors of our cars and in the relative comfort of our homes, choose to not think about, even though it exists so close to our own little worlds.
But, if we look, glimpses of it can be seen through the lens of the life of the man born Anthony Edward Sowell.
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- Join date : 2009-05-28
Sowell attempts to raise money by selling letters on a serial killer website
Anthony Sowell attempts to raise money by selling letters on a serial killer website. A website that sells letters and personal items from America's serial killers has listed letters written by accused serial killer, Anthony Sowell from Cleveland, Ohio. Thursday, the families of the victims have made it clear that they want it to stop. Sowell has been charged with murder, rape, assault and corpse abuse and is being held while he awaits trial.
Serialkillersink.net is the controversy website that posted letters, envelopes and a Christmas card from Anthony Sowell. The letters and card were listed for $200, envelopes were $100, and according to the website they were sent from Sowell. Four of five items show out of stock.
One of the letters listed for $200 on the website states: "I can only get money orders at this time and yes, I can receive pictures. P.S. the 25 dollars is fine. Thank you."
Fox News reported that Dorothy Pollard, the aunt of murder victim Diane Turner said,"I think it was a damn shame that he was even permitted to do it and whoever was supplying him with paper, they have no damn conscience and they can't care about nobody because he shouldn't be supplied with anything down there."
"No way should he be allowed to receive anything and profit off of anything for all the pain that he has caused," Fox News reported.
The owner of the website Serialkillersink.net said that inmates do not get paid for the items sold on their site and that most of the customers are criminology professors who use the letters in classes, according to Fox News.
Fox News reported that the Cuyahoga County jail said that Sowell has had several small money deposits made to his jail account.
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Serialkillersink.net is the controversy website that posted letters, envelopes and a Christmas card from Anthony Sowell. The letters and card were listed for $200, envelopes were $100, and according to the website they were sent from Sowell. Four of five items show out of stock.
One of the letters listed for $200 on the website states: "I can only get money orders at this time and yes, I can receive pictures. P.S. the 25 dollars is fine. Thank you."
Fox News reported that Dorothy Pollard, the aunt of murder victim Diane Turner said,"I think it was a damn shame that he was even permitted to do it and whoever was supplying him with paper, they have no damn conscience and they can't care about nobody because he shouldn't be supplied with anything down there."
"No way should he be allowed to receive anything and profit off of anything for all the pain that he has caused," Fox News reported.
The owner of the website Serialkillersink.net said that inmates do not get paid for the items sold on their site and that most of the customers are criminology professors who use the letters in classes, according to Fox News.
Fox News reported that the Cuyahoga County jail said that Sowell has had several small money deposits made to his jail account.
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Sowell is scheduled to go on trial June 2
A judge in Cleveland has turned down a request to move the trial of a suspected serial killer who's charged with killing 11 women and hiding their remains in and around his home.
Lawyers for Anthony Sowell also lost a bid to have death penalty specifications removed from the charges.
Sowell appeared in a Cleveland courtroom Wednesday but said nothing during the hearing.
Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold said she might reconsider the request to move the trial if the court has trouble finding enough jurors.
Sowell is scheduled to go on trial June 2. Authorities say he lured women to his home and either buried the bodies in his backyard or left their remains inside the house.
He has pleaded not guilty to murder, rape, assault and corpse abuse.
Lawyers for Anthony Sowell also lost a bid to have death penalty specifications removed from the charges.
Sowell appeared in a Cleveland courtroom Wednesday but said nothing during the hearing.
Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold said she might reconsider the request to move the trial if the court has trouble finding enough jurors.
Sowell is scheduled to go on trial June 2. Authorities say he lured women to his home and either buried the bodies in his backyard or left their remains inside the house.
He has pleaded not guilty to murder, rape, assault and corpse abuse.
Nama- Administration
- Join date : 2009-05-28
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
I hope that the Anthony case is treated the same way. They are nothing alike but both are horrific.
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
laga wrote:Of course he's crazy, insane and evil. He is NOT "not guilty" because he's insane. I say his "get out of jail" card should read on the flip side "go straight to the chair".
So very well said.. I like that "Get Out Of Jail" card idea!!! :cheers: :cheers: :cheers:
Marica- Join date : 2009-07-23
Anthony Sowell's lawyers ask judge to protect client's rights and give more money for defense
Lawyers for suspected serial killer Anthony Sowell argued this morning in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court that East Cleveland police should not have questioned him Feb. 12 in the County Jail.
The detectives confirmed that Sowell knew a woman who disappeared in 1989.
His attorneys, John Parker and Rufus Sims, asked Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold to bar any police from interviewing their client.
The judge delayed making a decisions because the East Cleveland detectives were not present. The hearing is scheduled to resume at 2 p.m.
The court considered a flurry of motions filed by the defense. Chief among them was a request for more money to defend Sowell, who faces an 85-count indictment in connection with the remains of 11 women that were found in his Imperial Avenue home.
Cuyahoga County limits each attorney's total bill to $12,500 a case, Parker said.
However, Parker said defending Sowell will cost at least $19,000 for each attorney -- and that is just for the time the attorneys spend during the trial this summer.
The trial is expected to last at least two months. Prosecutors have announced 100 potential witnesses and experts they could call to testify.
Saffold said she would write a letter to Presiding Judge Nancy Fuerst asking that the pay limit be raised.
State law limits attorney pay to $75,000 a case, Parker said in an interview.
Parker also asked the judge to seal the identity of any expert who interviews Sowell for his defense.
Saffold declined to rule on this motion, but said she won't afford Sowell any privileges not given to all defendants.
"This is just another case," Saffold said.
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The detectives confirmed that Sowell knew a woman who disappeared in 1989.
His attorneys, John Parker and Rufus Sims, asked Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold to bar any police from interviewing their client.
The judge delayed making a decisions because the East Cleveland detectives were not present. The hearing is scheduled to resume at 2 p.m.
The court considered a flurry of motions filed by the defense. Chief among them was a request for more money to defend Sowell, who faces an 85-count indictment in connection with the remains of 11 women that were found in his Imperial Avenue home.
Cuyahoga County limits each attorney's total bill to $12,500 a case, Parker said.
However, Parker said defending Sowell will cost at least $19,000 for each attorney -- and that is just for the time the attorneys spend during the trial this summer.
The trial is expected to last at least two months. Prosecutors have announced 100 potential witnesses and experts they could call to testify.
Saffold said she would write a letter to Presiding Judge Nancy Fuerst asking that the pay limit be raised.
State law limits attorney pay to $75,000 a case, Parker said in an interview.
Parker also asked the judge to seal the identity of any expert who interviews Sowell for his defense.
Saffold declined to rule on this motion, but said she won't afford Sowell any privileges not given to all defendants.
"This is just another case," Saffold said.
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Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
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Three more counts were added to the 85 counts against Sowell today. A representative of the prosecutor's office indicated that this is just the beginning and that there will be more, according to the verbal account of this story on the news today.
Three more counts were added to the 85 counts against Sowell today. A representative of the prosecutor's office indicated that this is just the beginning and that there will be more, according to the verbal account of this story on the news today.
TerryRose- Join date : 2009-05-31
New charges for Sowell
A prosecutor says a suspect in the slayings of 11 women in Cleveland has been indicted on new charges involving an attack on another woman.
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason tells The Associated Press that 50-year-old Anthony Sowell (SOH'-wehl) was charged Thursday with the rape, felonious assault and kidnapping of a 36-year-old Cleveland woman at his home. Mason says Sowell attacked the woman in September 2008, more than a year before the decomposing remains of the 11 other women were found in and around his home.
Sowell has pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated murder. Authorities say he lured vulnerable women to his home and attacked them.
Since November, Sowell has been charged with attacking five other women who survived.
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Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason tells The Associated Press that 50-year-old Anthony Sowell (SOH'-wehl) was charged Thursday with the rape, felonious assault and kidnapping of a 36-year-old Cleveland woman at his home. Mason says Sowell attacked the woman in September 2008, more than a year before the decomposing remains of the 11 other women were found in and around his home.
Sowell has pleaded not guilty to charges including aggravated murder. Authorities say he lured vulnerable women to his home and attacked them.
Since November, Sowell has been charged with attacking five other women who survived.
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The Judge Is Removed From Serial Killer Suspect Anthony Sowell's Case
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April 23, 2010 9:49 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- The Ohio Supreme Court has removed a Cleveland judge from a case after attorneys for serial killer suspect Anthony Sowell accused her of bias as a result of postings about their client on a newspaper website.
Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold was removed from the case Thursday, and it has been turned over to the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for reassignment to another judge.
Sowell faces murder, attempted murder, rape and attempted rape charges in connection with the killings of 11 women and attacks on five other women. He was arrested after the bodies of the slain women were found at his house last fall, and he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Sowell's attorneys, John P. Parker and Rufus Sims, filed an affidavit Monday seeking Saffold's disqualification, according to court documents.
They alleged that Saffold had "improper," ex parte conversations with the former judge on the case, Timothy McGinty, and a newspaper reporter from The Cleveland Plain Dealer. They also said that e-mails from the judge's personal and office accounts allegedly were sources of information for a March 26 Plain Dealer article and that the judge has a financial interest in the case because she and her daughter have sued the newspaper over the apparent use of her e-mails as sourcing for that article.
The defense said someone using the moniker "lawmiss" posted derogatory comments on the newspaper's website about attorney Sims and Sowell.
Those comments were linked to Saffold's account, but she has denied posting them and has said her court computer was not used to make them.
Saffold could not be reached for comment Thursday.
However, she filed a response to the defense, insisting she harbors no bias in the case and denying she had any improper conversations about it with others. She also said her civil suit against the newspaper has nothing to do with the case against the defendant.
Still, acting Chief Justice Paul E. Pfeifer found the concerns over Saffold's e-mail accounts and the public postings particularly troubling.
"Although Judge Saffold denied that she was the source of these online comments, she has admitted that the comments originated from the online account shared by her and members of her family and that the comments were posted by her daughter," Pfeifer said in his ruling.
He said the "unfortunate postings" impede Saffold's ability to resolve legal issues in the case that would appear to be objective and fair.
While there's no evidence of Saffold's actual bias, Pfeifer said, "disqualification is appropriate where the public's confidence in the integrity of the judicial system is at stake."
April 23, 2010 9:49 a.m. EDT
(CNN) -- The Ohio Supreme Court has removed a Cleveland judge from a case after attorneys for serial killer suspect Anthony Sowell accused her of bias as a result of postings about their client on a newspaper website.
Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold was removed from the case Thursday, and it has been turned over to the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for reassignment to another judge.
Sowell faces murder, attempted murder, rape and attempted rape charges in connection with the killings of 11 women and attacks on five other women. He was arrested after the bodies of the slain women were found at his house last fall, and he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Sowell's attorneys, John P. Parker and Rufus Sims, filed an affidavit Monday seeking Saffold's disqualification, according to court documents.
They alleged that Saffold had "improper," ex parte conversations with the former judge on the case, Timothy McGinty, and a newspaper reporter from The Cleveland Plain Dealer. They also said that e-mails from the judge's personal and office accounts allegedly were sources of information for a March 26 Plain Dealer article and that the judge has a financial interest in the case because she and her daughter have sued the newspaper over the apparent use of her e-mails as sourcing for that article.
The defense said someone using the moniker "lawmiss" posted derogatory comments on the newspaper's website about attorney Sims and Sowell.
Those comments were linked to Saffold's account, but she has denied posting them and has said her court computer was not used to make them.
Saffold could not be reached for comment Thursday.
However, she filed a response to the defense, insisting she harbors no bias in the case and denying she had any improper conversations about it with others. She also said her civil suit against the newspaper has nothing to do with the case against the defendant.
Still, acting Chief Justice Paul E. Pfeifer found the concerns over Saffold's e-mail accounts and the public postings particularly troubling.
"Although Judge Saffold denied that she was the source of these online comments, she has admitted that the comments originated from the online account shared by her and members of her family and that the comments were posted by her daughter," Pfeifer said in his ruling.
He said the "unfortunate postings" impede Saffold's ability to resolve legal issues in the case that would appear to be objective and fair.
While there's no evidence of Saffold's actual bias, Pfeifer said, "disqualification is appropriate where the public's confidence in the integrity of the judicial system is at stake."
NiteSpinR- Tech Support Admin
- Join date : 2009-05-30
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold
Judge Stan Strickland
:scratch:
Judge Stan Strickland
:scratch:
NiteSpinR- Tech Support Admin
- Join date : 2009-05-30
Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Serious coincedink there.[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
Judge Won't Move 'House of Horrors' Trial
A Cleveland judge has ruled that he will not grant a change of venue for a man charged with killing 11 women whose remains were found in and around his home. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose said he will first attempt to seat an unbiased jury in Cleveland before moving the trial of Anthony Sowell.
Sowell has pleaded not guilty to killing the 11 women. His trial is scheduled for September.
Judge Ambrose, the third judge assigned to the case after two others stepped down, said that he would bar cameras and recording devices from the jury selection process in hopes of limiting outside influences.
During the actual trial, Judge Ambrose said it would allow pool coverage only.
The defense had asked for the change of venue because of the widespread press coverage of the case in Cleveland and the leaking of confidential court documents.
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Sowell has pleaded not guilty to killing the 11 women. His trial is scheduled for September.
Judge Ambrose, the third judge assigned to the case after two others stepped down, said that he would bar cameras and recording devices from the jury selection process in hopes of limiting outside influences.
During the actual trial, Judge Ambrose said it would allow pool coverage only.
The defense had asked for the change of venue because of the widespread press coverage of the case in Cleveland and the leaking of confidential court documents.
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- Join date : 2009-05-28
Cleveland: Defense seeks trial delay in Anthony Sowell case
Attorneys for Anthony Sowell, the man charged with killing 11 women and dumping their remains around his Imperial Avenue home, are asking Judge Dick Ambrose to delay the trial until January 2011.
In a motion filed Tuesday with the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, the defense team for Sowell, 50, says it needs more time to interview more than 150 witnesses and review evidence.
The trial has already been delayed once and is scheduled to begin Sept. 7.
The defense is also requesting an inventory of all evidence submitted to the FBI or other federal agencies for review or testing.
Earlier this month, Ambrose rejected the defense's request to move the trial out of Cleveland.
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In a motion filed Tuesday with the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, the defense team for Sowell, 50, says it needs more time to interview more than 150 witnesses and review evidence.
The trial has already been delayed once and is scheduled to begin Sept. 7.
The defense is also requesting an inventory of all evidence submitted to the FBI or other federal agencies for review or testing.
Earlier this month, Ambrose rejected the defense's request to move the trial out of Cleveland.
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Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
I think this trial should start in September. It's quite evident that Sowell killed these women and stashed them all over his house.
I don't even know how ANY defense attorney can defend someone like Sowell. Seriously, I think he is crazy and will probably get the insanity defense. Just start the trial in September and get it over with!
I don't even know how ANY defense attorney can defend someone like Sowell. Seriously, I think he is crazy and will probably get the insanity defense. Just start the trial in September and get it over with!
Anthony Sowell's murder trial postponed until Valentine's Day
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose has granted Anthony Sowell's attorneys' motion to delay the scheduled Sept. 7 start of the trial. Ambrose set the new trial starting date for Feb. 14.
Sowell, 50, is accused of killing 11 women and dumping their remains in and around his Imperial Avenue home.
Sowell's lawyers say they need more time to interview more than 150 witnesses, review forensic evidence and conduct mental health evaluations.
If convicted, Sowell faces the death penalty.
Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecutor Pinkey Carr tells Channel 3 News that the defense attorneys have been asking for delays since the beginning, even when the case was originally assigned to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judges Tim McGinty and Shirley Strickland Saffold.
"This time, though, they were more specific with why they needed the delay and how much time they needed," Carr said.
What do prosecutors think about the delay?
"I'd rather see this now, as you don't want to go through an entire trial and then have the defense appeal the verdict on the grounds that they didn't have enough time to prepare," Carr said.
But delayed until Valentine's Day 2011?
"I hope it will be a very bad Valentine's Day for Anthony Sowell," Carr said.
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Sowell, 50, is accused of killing 11 women and dumping their remains in and around his Imperial Avenue home.
Sowell's lawyers say they need more time to interview more than 150 witnesses, review forensic evidence and conduct mental health evaluations.
If convicted, Sowell faces the death penalty.
Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecutor Pinkey Carr tells Channel 3 News that the defense attorneys have been asking for delays since the beginning, even when the case was originally assigned to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judges Tim McGinty and Shirley Strickland Saffold.
"This time, though, they were more specific with why they needed the delay and how much time they needed," Carr said.
What do prosecutors think about the delay?
"I'd rather see this now, as you don't want to go through an entire trial and then have the defense appeal the verdict on the grounds that they didn't have enough time to prepare," Carr said.
But delayed until Valentine's Day 2011?
"I hope it will be a very bad Valentine's Day for Anthony Sowell," Carr said.
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Nama- Administration
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Re: UPDATE: Anthony Sowell Sentenced to Death
Like I said already....this man is SO guilty. These women didn't kill themselves and stash their bodies. Give me a break!! What a waste of time, money, and justice for the victim's families!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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