Tell Me a True Crime Story
Tell Me a True Crime Story
Captured on Halloween - The Cleveland Strangler (Part 2)
In 2007, women started disappearing from the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of East Cleveland, Ohio. In the fall of 2009, the decomposing bodies and partial remains of 11 women were recovered from a home located at 12205 Imperial Avenue in Mount Pleasant.
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Tell me a true crime story. Hey there, welcome to episode 32 of Tell Me a True Crime Story. I'm your host, holly. Thank you all for being here and allowing me to be a part of your day. So I did a fair amount of chit-chatting in the intro of the last episode, so I'm going to get to the story pretty quickly today. I just want to ask those of you who haven't reviewed this podcast on Apple with a written review Are those of you who listen on Spotify haven't given me a star rating yet? Please take a moment to do that when you can, because it helps me out so much. I now have 41 reviews on Apple and I want you guys to help me to get to 50 by Halloween, and I have 23 five-star ratings on Spotify. Please help me get to 30 by Halloween on Spotify. I know you guys can do it. Thank you so much for that, and I will give a shout out to those who have given me a written review lately in the next episode. If I haven't, you know, given you a shout out yet and read your written review, I will do that in the next episode. So I hope that you guys, you and your family and everybody that you love. I hope that you guys are happy, healthy and together forever, and big, big hugs to all of you. I love all of you guys.
Speaker 1:Now let me tell you a true crime story. This is part two, so if you didn't listen to part one yet, please go back and listen to it first. So before we get started, I wanted to mention again that, among many other sources and documents, I used first-hand accounts from victims for this story from a 2016 documentary that was made about this case and other shows. The 2016 documentary is called Unseen and you can watch it for free if you have Amazon Prime. So, in addition to that documentary, oxygen has two episodes on this case. One is on their living with a serial killer series and the other is on snapped. And actually I just found out about a couple of more documentaries on this story. One is on YouTube. It's by Vice. If you know the Vice documentaries, it's by Vice and it's called the Cleveland Strangler the story of a brutal serial killer and his forgotten victims, and the other is by Investigation Discovery. It's on their killer instinct show. So in part one, we covered Anthony Sowell and we started with his childhood and we learned also a little bit about his 11 known victims. So now let's talk about five women that we're aware of that happened to escape the deadly clutches of Anthony Sowell. The surviving victims accounts are similar to one another and give us insight into what the last moments of the women who did not make it out of his house alive must have been like.
Speaker 1:Vanessa Gay said in the unseen documentary that when she was in the depths of her drug addiction all she could think about was crack. She sold anything of value to get money for drugs, all of the electronics, her kids' TVs, xboxes. Her husband sold their son's bike. She said she jumped in and out of cars. She'd sleep in abandoned houses. She'd lost so much weight and had gotten so small that she could wear a 10-12 in girls' clothing. She said one day she came home and all of her family was on the porch Her cousins, her kids, even a neighbor. They were all on the porch and they started in on her about her drug use. She walked off and she didn't want to hear it. And her 10-year-old daughter followed her and laid in the middle of the street begging her mom to come home. But Vanessa said at that time her addiction was so strong she couldn't even choose her child over the dope.
Speaker 1:In September of 2008, vanessa was 34 years old. She hadn't been home in months. She'd had a bad day on this particular day because she couldn't get a hold of any drugs. She was standing outside of a bank when a man walked by and said loud enough so that she could hear him. He said it was his birthday, but nobody was celebrating his birthday. She told him she didn't celebrate birthdays, but told him happy birthday anyway, and she walked with him to his house. She got an eerie feeling when she walked in his house and she walked up the stairs she smelled a foul odor.
Speaker 1:They walked down a hallway and there was one room off of the hallway that had plastic covering the doorway, as if the room was like being renovated or something. They chatted for about 10 to 15 minutes and then she asked him what? What were they gonna do if they were gonna drink or smoke? He asked her if she had a crack pipe. She stood up and handed it to him. He lit the stem, then turned around and punched her in the face and said bitch, take your clothes off. She listened and did exactly what he told her to do. She said his eyes were evil black holes. She said she was beaten and raped. He yelled at her bitch scream, ain't nobody gonna hear you? He repeatedly raped her for hours and hours all through the night. While raping her he ranted about women who'd done him wrong, women who smoked crack. He told Vanessa that she didn't deserve what he was going to do to her, that she wasn't like the others. He told her he had an insatiable sexual appetite.
Speaker 1:In the morning she asked him if she could use the bathroom and he said yes. As she walked to the bathroom in that room off of the hallway that had the plastic in the doorway, she noticed the plastic was now rolled up. She saw something on the floor in there. It was a decomposing body with no head, propped up in a seated position and quote unquote taped up. She did her best to remain calm. She was careful not to change her expression or demeanor when she returned from the bathroom. She didn't want him to know that she'd seen anything.
Speaker 1:He started repeating to Vanessa if I let you go, you're going to tell, you're going to tell. She said tell what. You might have been a little more rougher than what I'm used to, but what am I going to tell. She managed to get him to let her leave. She made sure to walk arm in arm with him, right beside him, as they walked down the stairs toward the door. She said she didn't want him to get behind her or she knew she wouldn't make it out of there alive. But she did make it out of his house on that Sunday morning with her life.
Speaker 1:She walked down the street with her face all beat up, limping and bleeding. She passed several people that were going to church and they just turned their heads. Others laughed at her. No one helped Vanessa. She called the police and they wanted her to go down to the station to file a report. Instead, she went to an abandoned house she calls them Bandos and she slept and slept and slept. She never did go file a police report. She thought she wouldn't be believed since she was a crack addict, so she just stayed high to numb her pain. Vanessa later found out that the headless body that she'd seen was her friend from the streets, lashonda Long. Lashonda's skull was found in a red bucket in Anthony Sol's basement, but the rest of her body was never found.
Speaker 1:Gladys Wade, who was 39 years old at the time, was attacked by Anthony Sol in early December of 2008. She'd just bought beer and cigarettes at Amira Imperial Beverage, the convenience store at the corner of Imperial Avenue and East 123rd Street. Then she started walking down Imperial Avenue to go catch the bus. Anthony Sol was standing outside his house on Imperial Avenue and he said "'Merry Christmas to her'". She didn't know him, but she returned the greeting. He invited her to have a drink with him. She said "'No, thanks, I got my own'. As she continued walking". She didn't know it, but he'd come up behind her. He knocked her out and grabbed her by her clothes and dragged her unconscious down the sidewalk and into his house.
Speaker 1:When she regained consciousness, she was locked in a bedroom on the third floor of his home. She started screaming. Then he came in and said "'Bitch, you can scream all you want. "'nobody can hear you. "'you bout to die'". He ordered her to take off her clothes and punched her in the face repeatedly. She broke away from him and ran for the back stairs, but Anthony Sol caught up with her. He was right behind her at the top of the stairs. He grabbed her and they both tumbled down the stairs. She crashed through a glass door at the bottom, cutting her thumb deeply. Anthony Sol continued to attack her. She gouged his eyeballs, clawed at his face and twisted his testicles all the way around as far as she could in an attempt to get away from him. She managed to fight him off and stumbled out the side door of his house.
Speaker 1:Gladys ran across the street to best chicken and pizza and told them to call the police. The manager told her she had to get out of the store because she was bleeding on the floor. Anthony Sol brazenly followed her there and told the manager and other people at the pizza shop that she'd stolen from him and that he had to beat her ass and put her out of his house. She told the manager she didn't even know Anthony Sol. The manager again told her to get out of the pizza shop. She said people standing around were laughing at her and talking about her. She left the pizza shop, took off running and flagged down a police officer. She told the police what had happened to her. The gash on her thumb required stitches and officers and EMS workers noted red marks on her throat.
Speaker 1:Anthony Sol was arrested. Officers took pictures of blood on the stairs and walls in his house and of Gladys Wade's sweater shoved in a trash can. The case was assigned to Detective Georgia Hussein, but Detective Hussein never talked to the officers that arrested Anthony Sol that day. She didn't pull photos of the crime scene or the photos of Gladys Wade and Anthony Sol that showed injuries to both of them. She didn't access Gladys Wade's medical records. She didn't obtain a search warrant for Anthony Sol's home.
Speaker 1:Detective Hussain failed to tell the District Attorney that Anthony Sowell had spent 15 years in prison for attempted rape, because she didn't believe that information was relevant. Anthony Sowell told authorities that Gladys had attacked him and he did have visible injuries because she had fought him in self-defense. After all, gladys Wade had been in a fight for her life. In the eyes of the DA, it was Gladys Wade's word against Anthony Sowell's. The DA deemed Gladys Wade quote-unquote, not credible, and said there was quote-unquote insufficient evidence to charge Anthony Sowell and he was released without charges. Anthony Sowell went on to murder six more women after that attack on Gladys Wade Kim Yvette Smith, nancy Cobbs, amelda Amy Hunter, janice Webb, tlaesia Fortson and Diane Turner, and three others just barely escaped with their lives. So that's nine more women that Anthony Sowell was able to murder or victimize, and nearly murder after Gladys Wade escaped and went to the authorities.
Speaker 1:Tanya Doss survived an encounter with Anthony Sowell in April of 2009. At that time she'd known him for four years, since 2005. They would often sit on the porch together and barbecue or play chess. She had even slept over at his house before, so on this night she willingly went with him when he invited her to smoke crack at his house and watch an NBA basketball game on TV. When the game was over, they listened to music and talked. Anthony Sowell started talking about his ex-girlfriend, lori Frazier. He showed Tanya Lori's clothes and papers. She'd left there and was supposed to return and retrieve, but she never did. He told Tanya that whenever he cared about someone, they left him Without warning.
Speaker 1:Anthony Sowell began choking Tanya. She said he choked her so hard her eyes bulged and tears poured from her eyes as he was choking her. He said you can be the next crackhead bitch dead up in the street and nobody give a fuck about you. He told her to knock on the floor three times if she wanted to live. She did and he released his grip. He then slapped her across the face really hard and said bitch, take off your clothes. Then he stared off into space. She laid down on the bed with her back to him, curled up in a fetal position. She was terrified of what might happen next. He did not rape her and she eventually cried herself to sleep.
Speaker 1:In the morning she said Anthony Sowell seemed to be back to his normal self. He acted as if nothing had happened. He made her a bologna sandwich. She made up a story and told Anthony Sowell she had to go see her granddaughter in the hospital, and he let her leave. He even gave her a coat to wear home. She felt lucky to be alive and she never went back there. But she didn't report it to the police. She thought it was an isolated incident fueled by drugs and alcohol. She only told the police about her ordeal after the bodies were found on his property.
Speaker 1:Another woman, latundra Billups, had been to Anthony Sowell's home on several occasions before and hung out with him in his third floor attic apartment. In September of 2009, latundra saw Anthony Sowell outside of a convenience store. He had two 40 ounce beers and Latundra asked him if she could have some beer with him. He said come on, and she accompanied him to his house on Imperial Avenue. They smoked crack and went to an empty room on the second floor of his house. The only items in the room were a blanket and a piece of an extension cord, both on the floor. Anthony Sowell brought a chair into the room. When they got into that room, anthony Sowell asked Latundra to turn around. She was tipsy and just did what he asked. When she turned around, he put his hand on the back of her neck and squeezed it really hard. She turned around and pushed him. He then hit Latundra hard in the face and ripped her shirt off. He made her remove her clothes and lay on her stomach. He then raped her. As he was raping her, he put the extension cord around her neck and choked her until she blacked out and lost consciousness.
Speaker 1:Latundra woke up several hours later. Her neck was burning and she was wet. She sat straight up. She saw Anthony Sowell sitting in front of her on the chair, smoking. His eyes bulged and she said Anthony Sowell looked startled and shocked, presumably because she was still alive. He thought he'd killed her. He then told her that he was going to kill her and then kill himself, because he knew he was going to go to jail. However, she persuaded him to let her go. She told him something like quote you're not going to jail, but I'm never coming over here, no more. End quote. He told her he was sorry and that he'd just been going through a lot of things. She said well, I ain't did nothing to you. She got dressed as he was still talking. They walked down the steps. He stood in the doorway. As she walked down the driveway she looked back a couple of times to see if he was still there and as soon as she reached the corner she took off running the hospital, collected sexual assault evidence and she reported the whole incident to the police. According to Latundra, she was not contacted by a detective until three weeks later. She gave a formal statement to Detective Richard Durst at the sex crimes unit office on October 27, 2009.
Speaker 1:Sean Morris' nearly deadly encounter with Anthony Sowell began pleasantly enough In the early morning on October 20, 2009,. Sean Morris was drinking beer with a friend at a bus stop located at 140th Street and Kingsman Road. She saw Anthony Sowell get off of a bus across the street and walk to a nearby house to buy crack. He eventually walked over to where she was and began talking with her On 7 am. Sean said she needed to leave the bus stop area so her kids would not see her there drunk when they went to school. That's when Anthony Sowell invited her to his house to continue drinking and to smoke crack. They walked several blocks to his house on Imperial Avenue.
Speaker 1:She hung out with him without incident for about five hours. They were just talking, drinking and smoking. She said he acted like a gentleman and nothing about their time together made her feel threatened. She left his house around noon. Anthony Sowell politely walked her to the door. When she realized she had left her ID on his dresser, she went back to his house to retrieve it. When she got there he leaned out the window and she told him she'd forgotten her ID. He told her to come up and get it. When he opened the door and she went in, his demeanor suddenly changed and he put her in a chokehold. He ordered her upstairs and to remove her clothes and lie down on her stomach. He then violently raped her. While he was raping her he told Shawn I hate you bitches. Look at you. You've got a husband at home and you out here in the street. That's why I hate bitches.
Speaker 1:Shawn's screams prompted Anthony Sowell to get up and start closing the open windows so that no one could hear her. She noticed there was a window still open and prayed for the courage to jump from it. She prayed to God that she'd found herself in a predicament and that she would not die when she jumped from the window. She sprung up from the bed and went to the window and kicked out the screen. She climbed naked out of the window and hung by her fingertips from the window ledge. She was hoping to drop down to the ground without getting hurt. But Anthony Sowell came to the window, grabbed her hands and tried to pull her back in. When he couldn't she said he quote unquote shoved her down as hard as he could. Shawn fell 20 feet to the concrete below and lost consciousness. Anthony Sowell went outside naked and tried to drag the unconscious and bleeding Shawn back into his house. People in the area heard and saw a commotion and started to gather around. The witnesses that day, who included a neighborhood property owner, city of Cleveland, workers and faucet best, owner of best chicken and pizza from across the street, tried to prevent Anthony Sowell from moving Shawn due to the extent of her injuries.
Speaker 1:At Anthony Sowell's trial, donald Laster, who owns property on Imperial Avenue, was one of the first people to respond to the scene after Shawn fell from the window. He testified that he saw three men taking pictures on their cell phones and he saw a naked woman laying on the ground, moaning and not moving. He then saw a naked Anthony Sowell come around the corner of the house, walking in a low crouched position. Anthony Sowell told Donald Laster that the woman on the ground was his wife and she fell out of the window while they were having sex. Anthony Sowell tried to take Shawn inside and Donald Laster threatened him, saying Don't do it or I'll kick your ass. Donald Laster called 911. As the ambulance was pulling up, anthony Sowell took off with Shawn, carrying her to his house. Donald Laster put his foot in the door so that Anthony Sowell couldn't close the door. Donald Laster went in along with a fireman and Anthony Sowell dropped Shawn with a thud.
Speaker 1:Another witness, leroy Bates Sr, was in the area when Shawn fell and went to the scene. He too was telling Anthony Sowell not to move Shawn. Anthony Sowell told him to quote unquote, leave us alone. Fawcett Best testified that he didn't see Shawn fall from the window, but saw Anthony Sowell naked and the naked woman. Anthony Sowell kept trying to get Shawn, who was unconscious, into his house. Fawcett Best, owner of Best Chicken and Pizza, which was right across the street, ran to Anthony Sowell and said what did you do, anthony? Anthony Sowell replied it's cool. Fawcett Best then said no, it's not, she's all bloody.
Speaker 1:This scene on the side of the house where Shawn fell was captured on camera from the rooftop of a nearby business, ray's Sausage. The video has no sound, but jurors at Anthony Sowell's trial watched the video and got to see a naked Anthony Sowell approach, then stand over Shawn's limp body. Shawn, off camera, throws Anthony Sowell an article of clothing or something. After a few minutes Anthony Sowell helps Shawn to her feet and they walk away together. Shawn was taken by ambulance to Metro Health Medical Center. Anthony Sowell actually rode with her in the ambulance. He told medical personnel he was her husband. He said that they'd been doing drugs and that her fall was an accident.
Speaker 1:Shawn awoke two days later in the hospital with no memory of getting up from the ground and walking away with Anthony Sowell. The injuries that Shawn suffered in the fall from the window were grave. She had a fractured skull, eight broken ribs, both of her hands were broken and she had suffered an aneurysm. Shawn asked a nurse in the hospital for a phone so that she could call her husband and let him know where she was. The nurse told her that her husband had ridden with her in the ambulance. She told the nurse that that man was not her husband. Shawn told her family that she'd been hit by a car. Because she was too ashamed to tell them the truth. She did not report her assault to police because Anthony Sowell had threatened to kill her if she did.
Speaker 1:Nine days after the attack on Shawn Morris on Thursday, october 29, 2009, officers with the Cleveland Police Department went to 1205 Imperial Avenue with an arrest warrant for Anthony Sowell for the rape of Latundra Billups and a search warrant for his home. It was considered a high-risk warrant, so the SWAT team entered first in order to clear the home. When there was no answer at the door, the SWAT team forced entry and did a security sweep of the residents. There were no lights on in the house and it was difficult to find the light switches. One detective said it was like a haunted house. As they moved through the house, the smell of death became overwhelmingly intense. After sweeping the house, it was determined that Anthony Sowell was not at home. Two decomposing bodies lying face down were located in a locked room at the south end of the hallway on the third floor of his house. The bodies were covered with piles of clothing and one of them was wrapped in a black plastic trash bag up to her knees. There was a shovel lying on the floor between the bodies. The windows in the room were covered with garbage bags. Then Detective Lemmy Griffin said there were mice and rat droppings and dead flies everywhere all over the floor, as if someone had thrown a whole bag of rice all over the floor. The rodents and flies had been feeding on the bodies. The SWAT team backed out of the house and it was sealed off for the crime scene unit.
Speaker 1:Through DNA analysis, the first two bodies observed by the SWAT team were later determined to be the bodies of Talaesia Fortson, last seen five months earlier in June, and Diane Turner, who went missing a month prior in September. Thirty-eight-year-old Diane Turner was the last of the women to go missing in the area. That was later discovered at Anthony Sowell's home. A T-shirt had been used to strangle Talaesia Fortson. Her body was nude from the waist down and covered by a pile of clothing. Many of her belongings were found lying around Anthony Sowell's house, including her earrings, a skirt and her food stamp card. A receipt found in a trash bag on his second floor balcony showed that Anthony Sowell had used her food stamp card months after she went missing.
Speaker 1:Diane Turner's body was found lying next to the body of Talaesia Fortson. She was face down and covered with a pile of clothing. Her legs were bagged up to her knees. She was nude from the waist down. There was no ligature and no bindings on her body. Her body was too badly decomposed to determine exactly how she died. The coroner concluded that she was killed by homicidal violence of an undetermined type.
Speaker 1:Another search warrant was obtained and carried out the next day. For this search, investigators were accompanied by personnel from the coroner's office and a cadaver dog. A body was located beneath the basement staircase covered by plywood and a large mound of dirt. The body had been wrapped loosely in a large sheet of plastic. A shirt that had been used to gag the woman was still tied in her mouth and knotted around the back of her head. There was a green belt that had been used as a ligature, still tightly coiled around her neck. Her wrists were bound with shoelaces.
Speaker 1:This body was later determined to be Janice Webb. She had been last seen on June 3, 2009,. About five months earlier. There were two more bodies on the third floor. One was inside two black plastic garbage bags and the other was in a crawl space beneath dirt. The body in the bag turned out to be Nancy Cobbs, who went missing in April of 2009,. About seven months earlier. There were shoelaces tied around her wrist. She also had shoelaces around her neck that had been used as a ligature. Her body had decomposed at an accelerated rate. It had been reduced to a skeleton and soft tissue and only weighed 46 pounds upon arrival at the coroner's office.
Speaker 1:The body in the crawl space was that of Tashauna Culver. She went missing in June of 2008,. Nearly a year and a half earlier, tashauna's body was stuffed face down into a crawl space in the west wall of the front room of the house. Her hyoid bone in her neck was broken, suggesting she had been manually strangled at one point. Her ankles were still bound with knotted rope and her wrists were bound with rope and a brown sock. She was the only victim that was discovered fully clothed. Her body was found wrapped in several black garbage bags that were secured with duct tape. Her body was covered with dirt that had been brought up from the back yard. The cadaver dog alerted to a spot by a bush in the back yard near the back porch. Tanya Carmichael's body was discovered there in a shallow grave. Her body had been wrapped totally nude in two black plastic bags and a white mattress cover. A black cell phone or camera charger cord had been used as a ligature and it was still wrapped very tightly around her neck. She had gone missing almost a year earlier, on November 10, 2008.
Speaker 1:Another search warrant was obtained and on November 3, 2009, a backhoe was brought to Anthony Sowell's home to continue searching for more possible murder victims. At the time, there were more than a dozen women missing from Cleveland's District 4. A crowd gathered on the sidewalk across the street to watch. Four more bodies were discovered in the back yard. They had all been buried about 15 to 18 inches deep in the ground. Evidently, anthony Sowell ran out of room to bury his victims in the back yard and he just started leaving them in the house.
Speaker 1:The bodies unearthed by the backhoe were later identified to be the bodies of Michelle Mason, who had gone missing a year earlier. Kim Yvette Smith, who had gone missing 11 months earlier. Amelda Amy Hunter, who had gone missing about 6 months earlier, and Crystal Dozier, who had gone missing in 2007,. About a year and a half earlier, michelle Mason's body was discovered lying face down and was nude from the waist down. Her body had been rolled up inside of a black comforter and an orange blanket. When two plastic bags were wrapped around the blankets and secured with duct tape, there was a used condom left wrapped inside with the body. She still had a brown sock that had been used as a ligature around her neck.
Speaker 1:When Kim Yvette Smith's body was unearthed, she still had the remains of some type of cloth bindings on her wrists and ankles. Her body was covered in three black garbage bags, which were then wrapped in a seven-foot sheet of plastic. Her body was in an advanced state of decomposition. Therefore, the coroner could only conclude she had died from undetermined homicidal violence. Just like six of his other victims, amelda Amy Hunter still had the ligature she had been strangled with around her neck. It was a shoulder strap from a bag or briefcase. She was nude from the waist down and wrapped in multiple black garbage bags.
Speaker 1:Crystal Dozier's body was nude from the waist down and badly decomposed. Her wrists were bound above her head and her ankles were tied together with a wire cable. Some type of cloth ligature that had been used to strangle her remained on her neck, still tied and knotted. Anthony Sowell had wrapped her body in two layers of plastic and tied it together with black coaxial-style cable and duct tape before burying it. In the basement a human skull was found in a black plastic bag inside of a red bucket. The bucket had been chewed on by an animal. There was no decomposition tissue in the bucket, so it could not be determined when her skull had been placed in there. Dna analysis later proved that the skull belonged to LaShonda Long, who had gone missing about 15 months earlier. None of LaShonda's other body parts were located. Also on the floor in the basement were lots of cut extension cord pieces.
Speaker 1:On October 29, 2009, when police had discovered the first bodies at 1205 Imperial Avenue, one of the most massive manhunts in Cleveland history began for Anthony Sowell. They wanted to locate him before Halloween, when lots of kids would be out trick or treating, but he hadn't left the area. He'd been sleeping in abandoned houses in the neighborhood. People on Imperial Avenue called Tressa Garrison, anthony Sowell's sister, saying that there were dead bodies in the house on Imperial. She didn't know if her brother was one of the dead people or not, but hours later Anthony Sowell called Tressa during the manhunt she lived nearby and he told her to meet up with him. They met two streets over from Imperial Avenue and stood on the side of the street and talked. He said that he had something to tell her. He told her that everything that was being said about him is true. He said he didn't know why he did it. He was just all fucked up in the head. He told her he loved her and that he would call her later. He said he had to go because the police were looking for him. On Halloween morning, saturday, october 31, 2009, someone in the neighborhood saw Anthony Sowell walking on Mount Auburn Avenue about one mile from his home and called the police. They'd recognized him from news reports.
Speaker 1:During his interrogation after his arrest, anthony Sowell told detectives that he choked his victims. Quote unquote in his dreams he said he punished the women he brought over. They were bad, he said. Court documents state that he specifically resented the fact that the quote unquote bad women were neglecting their children while walking the streets to feed their drug habit. He said he started taking his anger out on women in the neighborhood after he and Lori broke up. He said the women reminded him of his girl, meaning Lori. There's one information from him that would help them identify the bodies at his home. He said that when he'd been at a store he saw a flyer with one of his victims' pictures on it. It was the missing person poster from Michelle Mason. He said he felt like he knew her when he looked at it, but other than that, he didn't give them any names or helpful information as to the identities of the victims. All of his victims ended up being identified through DNA analysis.
Speaker 1:Anthony Sowell was held in jail in a $5 million bond. He was charged with 85 counts that included charges of murder, kidnapping, rape and abuse of a corpse. He pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, but later changed his plea to not guilty. His trial began on June 27, 2011. Survivors of Anthony Sowell took the stand and told their stories. Sean Morris, who jumped out of the window to escape Anthony Sowell, said that when she left the stand after testifying, she spat at Anthony Sowell and called him a punk-ass bitch. She said she was so consumed with intense hatred for him but has since forgiven him and let go of the anger. She's thankful that she's a survivor and not a victim.
Speaker 1:Anthony Sowell was convicted on all but one of the counts against him. The soul not guilty was for a charge of aggravated robbery, robbery in which he was accused of stealing $11 from a surviving victim. On August 11, 2011, the jury recommended that Anthony Sowell be put to death. Judge Dick Ambrose upheld the jury's death penalty recommendation and set Anthony Sowell's execution date for October 29, 2012, the anniversary of the discovery of the first bodies in his house. But Anthony Sowell appealed his conviction and his execution date was delayed until he exhausted all of his appeals. About four months after his trial ended and two years after the bodies of 11 women were discovered there.
Speaker 1:On Tuesday, december 6, 2011, the house at 1205 Imperial Avenue was demolished. A light rain fell and spectators chanted tear it down, tear it down to the ground, and amen and hallelujah. It took about two hours to tear it down completely. Trucks escorted by police hauled away the debris to a recycling plant where it was shredded immediately. This was to prevent anyone from taking anything from the home to keep as some type of memento. According to Reuterscom, a website sold dirt from Anthony Sowell's yard where the victims had been buried for $25.
Speaker 1:Near the end of 2019, cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, chris Schroeder, told 19 News in Cleveland. Quote 10 years have gone by and we're still only about halfway through the appellate process. End quote Anthony Sowell was still appealing his sentence when, on January 21, 2021, he was moved from death row at Ohio's Chillicothe Correctional Institution to the end of life care at the Franklin Medical Center Prison Hospital in Columbus, ohio. At 3.27 pm on February 6, 2021, anthony Sowell, ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in Mate Number A604609, passed away at the age of 61. An Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction spokeswoman said Anthony Sowell died of a terminal illness, but would not specify exactly what it was. She did say, however, that he did not die from COVID-19.
Speaker 1:Another victim of Anthony Sowell was not a living breathing victim, but a business that was next door to his house on Imperial Avenue. For years, a rancid, putrid stench hung in the air over 123rd Avenue and Imperial Avenue. Everyone assumed it was from Ray's Sausage next door. A resident across the street from Anthony Sowell called City Hall to complain about the odor. She said it smelled like a dead person or a dead animal. City inspectors visited the Sausage factory and Ray's Sausage incurred thousands of dollars worth of expenses to make changes like putting in new sewer traps and a new ventilation system. Some reports said these expenses totaled about $30,000, but other reports that I came across said that they totaled around $200,000. However, nothing worked and the smell would not go away. Tressa, anthony Sowell's sister, said she'd smelled the awful smell too when she was in her brother's house. The horrible smell even permeated his clothes. Anthony Sowell just blamed it on Ray's Sausage.
Speaker 1:The family of Anthony Sowell's murder victim, crystal Dozier, filed a claim against the city of Cleveland. The family was paid $2,500. The city of Cleveland also paid a combined $1 million to the families of six women who fell victim to Anthony Sowell, citing a botched investigation which allowed Anthony Sowell to remain free to go on and murder those six women. The families of Nancy Cobbs, tlacia Fortson, amelda Amy Hunter, lashonda Long, diane Turner and Janice Webb split the $1 million settlement equally. Two surviving victims of Anthony Sowell also sued the city of Cleveland. The city paid $260,000 to surviving victim Latundra Billups and $40,000 to surviving victim Gladys Wade. On a very happy note, survivor Latundra Billups went on to earn a master's degree in social work at Cleveland State University in 2016.
Speaker 1:On Saturday, november 6, 2021, a memorial called the Garden of Eleven Angels was unveiled that honors the victims of Anthony Sowell. Inscribed on the plaque are the words quote in honor and memory of the survivors, the victims both known and unknown, and the entire community impacted by the violent acts that transpired on Imperial Avenue. End quote the memorial honors the women whose bodies were found hidden in and around his home located at 1205 Imperial Avenue. The women honored Artanya Carmichael, nancy Cobbs, tashanna Culver, crystal Dozier, tlacia Fortson, amelda Amy Hunter, lashonda Long, michelle Mason, kim Yvette Smith, diane Turner and Janice Webb. According to an article by Hope Sloup on wkyccom, quote the Garden of Eleven Angels also includes more than 30 different varieties of trees, plants and flowers to breathe life into the space once occupied by Sowell's home. End quote.
Speaker 1:I wanted to mention the documentaries that cover this case again in case you guys wanted to go and check them out the 2016 documentary that was made about him and his victims and survivors. It's called Unseen and you'll be able to see some of the survivors and hear them tell their stories in their own words. So it's called Unseen. It's free on Amazon Prime if you have a membership Amazon Prime membership and also the ones on Oxygen. They put out two episodes and then the one on Vice, so that's on YouTube.
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