October 23, 2023 • 40 mins
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.
Please give this podcast a 5-star rating and review on Apple or a 5-star rating on Spotify. Spread the word about this podcast - tell your friends, coworkers and family about it. Follow the podcast on social media; Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok are @tellmeatruecrimestory.
You can support the podcast at buymeacoffee.com/truecrimestorypod
Thank you so much and big, big hugs to each and every one of you!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tell me a true crime story.
Hey there, welcome to episode32 of Tell Me a True Crime Story
(00:22):
.
I'm your host, holly.
Thank you all for being hereand allowing me to be a part of
your day.
So I did a fair amount ofchit-chatting in the intro of
the last episode, so I'm goingto get to the story pretty
quickly today.
I just want to ask those of youwho haven't reviewed this
podcast on Apple with a writtenreview Are those of you who
(00:43):
listen on Spotify haven't givenme a star rating yet?
Please take a moment to do thatwhen you can, because it helps
me out so much.
I now have 41 reviews on Appleand I want you guys to help me
to get to 50 by Halloween, and Ihave 23 five-star ratings on
Spotify.
(01:03):
Please help me get to 30 byHalloween on Spotify.
I know you guys can do it.
Thank you so much for that, andI will give a shout out to
those who have given me awritten review lately in the
next episode.
If I haven't, you know, givenyou a shout out yet and read
your written review, I will dothat in the next episode.
(01:24):
So I hope that you guys, youand 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.
Now let me tell you a true crimestory.
This is part two, so if youdidn't listen to part one yet,
(01:48):
please go back and listen to itfirst.
So before we get started, Iwanted to mention again that,
among many other sources anddocuments, I used first-hand
accounts from victims for thisstory from a 2016 documentary
that was made about this caseand other shows.
The 2016 documentary is calledUnseen and you can watch it for
(02:11):
free if you have Amazon Prime.
So, in addition to thatdocumentary, oxygen has two
episodes on this case.
One is on their living with aserial killer series and the
other is on snapped.
And actually I just found outabout a couple of more
documentaries on this story.
One is on YouTube.
It's by Vice.
(02:32):
If you know the Vicedocumentaries, it's by Vice and
it's called the ClevelandStrangler the story of a brutal
serial killer and his forgottenvictims, and the other is by
Investigation Discovery.
It's on their killer instinctshow.
So in part one, we coveredAnthony Sowell and we started
with his childhood and welearned also a little bit about
(02:55):
his 11 known victims.
So now let's talk about fivewomen that we're aware of that
happened to escape the deadlyclutches of Anthony Sowell.
The surviving victims accountsare similar to one another and
give us insight into what thelast moments of the women who
did not make it out of his housealive must have been like.
(03:17):
Vanessa Gay said in the unseendocumentary that when she was in
the depths of her drugaddiction all she could think
about was crack.
She sold anything of value toget money for drugs, all of the
electronics, her kids' TVs,xboxes.
Her husband sold their son'sbike.
She said she jumped in and outof cars.
She'd sleep in abandoned houses.
(03:39):
She'd lost so much weight andhad gotten so small that she
could wear a 10-12 in girls'clothing.
She said one day she came homeand all of her family was on the
porch Her cousins, her kids,even a neighbor.
They were all on the porch andthey started in on her about her
drug use.
She walked off and she didn'twant to hear it.
(04:01):
And her 10-year-old daughterfollowed her and laid in the
middle of the street begging hermom to come home.
But Vanessa said at that timeher addiction was so strong she
couldn't even choose her childover the dope.
In September of 2008, vanessawas 34 years old.
She hadn't been home in months.
She'd had a bad day on thisparticular day because she
(04:23):
couldn't get a hold of any drugs.
She was standing outside of abank when a man walked by and
said loud enough so that shecould hear him.
He said it was his birthday,but nobody was celebrating his
birthday.
She told him she didn'tcelebrate birthdays, but told
him happy birthday anyway, andshe walked with him to his house
.
She got an eerie feeling whenshe walked in his house and she
(04:44):
walked up the stairs she smelleda foul odor.
They walked down a hallway andthere was one room off of the
hallway that had plasticcovering the doorway, as if the
room was like being renovated orsomething.
They chatted for about 10 to 15minutes and then she asked him
what?
What were they gonna do if theywere gonna drink or smoke?
He asked her if she had a crackpipe.
(05:06):
She stood up and handed it tohim.
He lit the stem, then turnedaround and punched her in the
face and said bitch, take yourclothes off.
She listened and did exactlywhat he told her to do.
She said his eyes were evilblack holes.
She said she was beaten andraped.
He yelled at her bitch scream,ain't nobody gonna hear you?
(05:27):
He repeatedly raped her forhours and hours all through the
night.
While raping her he rantedabout women who'd done him wrong
, women who smoked crack.
He told Vanessa that she didn'tdeserve what he was going to do
to her, that she wasn't likethe others.
He told her he had aninsatiable sexual appetite.
In the morning she asked him ifshe could use the bathroom and
(05:48):
he said yes.
As she walked to the bathroomin that room off of the hallway
that had the plastic in thedoorway, she noticed the plastic
was now rolled up.
She saw something on the floorin there.
It was a decomposing body withno head, propped up in a seated
position and quote unquote tapedup.
She did her best to remain calm.
(06:10):
She was careful not to changeher expression or demeanor when
she returned from the bathroom.
She didn't want him to knowthat she'd seen anything.
He started repeating to Vanessaif I let you go, you're going to
tell, you're going to tell.
She said tell what.
You might have been a littlemore rougher than what I'm used
to, but what am I going to tell.
She managed to get him to lether leave.
(06:32):
She made sure to walk arm inarm with him, right beside him,
as they walked down the stairstoward the door.
She said she didn't want him toget behind her or she knew she
wouldn't make it out of therealive.
But she did make it out of hishouse on that Sunday morning
with her life.
She walked down the street withher face all beat up, limping
and bleeding.
She passed several people thatwere going to church and they
(06:54):
just turned their heads.
Others laughed at her.
No one helped Vanessa.
She called the police and theywanted her to go down to the
station to file a report.
Instead, she went to anabandoned house she calls them
Bandos and she slept and sleptand slept.
She never did go file a policereport.
She thought she wouldn't bebelieved since she was a crack
(07:15):
addict, so she just stayed highto numb her pain.
Vanessa later found out thatthe headless body that she'd
seen was her friend from thestreets, lashonda Long.
Lashonda's skull was found in ared bucket in Anthony Sol's
basement, but the rest of herbody was never found.
Gladys Wade, who was 39 yearsold at the time, was attacked by
(07:36):
Anthony Sol in early Decemberof 2008.
She'd just bought beer andcigarettes at Amira Imperial
Beverage, the convenience storeat the corner of Imperial Avenue
and East 123rd Street.
Then she started walking downImperial Avenue to go catch the
bus.
Anthony Sol was standingoutside his house on Imperial
(07:56):
Avenue and he said "'MerryChristmas to her'".
She didn't know him, but shereturned the greeting.
He invited her to have a drinkwith him.
She said "'No, thanks, I got myown'.
As she continued walking".
She didn't know it, but he'dcome up behind her.
He knocked her out and grabbedher by her clothes and dragged
her unconscious down thesidewalk and into his house.
(08:17):
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 herclothes and punched her in the
face repeatedly.
She broke away from him and ranfor the back stairs, but
Anthony Sol caught up with her.
(08:37):
He was right behind her at thetop of the stairs.
He grabbed her and they bothtumbled down the stairs.
She crashed through a glassdoor at the bottom, cutting her
thumb deeply.
Anthony Sol continued to attackher.
She gouged his eyeballs, clawedat his face and twisted his
testicles all the way around asfar as she could in an attempt
(08:58):
to get away from him.
She managed to fight him offand stumbled out the side door
of his house.
Gladys ran across the street tobest chicken and pizza and told
them to call the police.
The manager told her she had toget out of the store because
she was bleeding on the floor.
Anthony Sol brazenly followedher there and told the manager
and other people at the pizzashop that she'd stolen from him
(09:20):
and that he had to beat her assand put her out of his house.
She told the manager she didn'teven know Anthony Sol.
The manager again told her toget out of the pizza shop.
She said people standing aroundwere laughing at her and
talking about her.
She left the pizza shop, tookoff running and flagged down a
police officer.
She told the police what hadhappened to her.
(09:41):
The gash on her thumb requiredstitches and officers and EMS
workers noted red marks on herthroat.
Anthony Sol was arrested.
Officers took pictures of bloodon the stairs and walls in his
house and of Gladys Wade'ssweater shoved in a trash can.
The case was assigned toDetective Georgia Hussein, but
Detective Hussein never talkedto the officers that arrested
(10:04):
Anthony Sol that day.
She didn't pull photos of thecrime scene or the photos of
Gladys Wade and Anthony Sol thatshowed injuries to both of them
.
She didn't access Gladys Wade'smedical records.
She didn't obtain a searchwarrant for Anthony Sol's home.
Detective Hussain failed to tellthe District Attorney that
Anthony Sowell had spent 15years in prison for attempted
(10:26):
rape, because she didn't believethat information was relevant.
Anthony Sowell told authoritiesthat Gladys had attacked him
and he did have visible injuriesbecause she had fought him in
self-defense.
After all, gladys Wade had beenin a fight for her life.
In the eyes of the DA, it wasGladys Wade's word against
Anthony Sowell's.
The DA deemed Gladys Wadequote-unquote, not credible, and
(10:49):
said there was quote-unquoteinsufficient evidence to charge
Anthony Sowell and he wasreleased without charges.
Anthony Sowell went on tomurder six more women after that
attack on Gladys Wade KimYvette Smith, nancy Cobbs,
amelda Amy Hunter, janice Webb,tlaesia Fortson and Diane Turner
(11:10):
, and three others just barelyescaped with their lives.
So that's nine more women thatAnthony Sowell was able to
murder or victimize, and nearlymurder after Gladys Wade escaped
and went to the authorities.
Tanya Doss survived an encounterwith Anthony Sowell in April of
2009.
At that time she'd known himfor four years, since 2005.
(11:34):
They would often sit on theporch together and barbecue or
play chess.
She had even slept over at hishouse before, so on this night
she willingly went with him whenhe invited her to smoke crack
at his house and watch an NBAbasketball game on TV.
When the game was over, theylistened to music and talked.
Anthony Sowell started talkingabout his ex-girlfriend, lori
(11:55):
Frazier.
He showed Tanya Lori's clothesand papers.
She'd left there and wassupposed to return and retrieve,
but she never did.
He told Tanya that whenever hecared about someone, they left
him Without warning.
Anthony Sowell began chokingTanya.
She said he choked her so hardher eyes bulged and tears poured
from her eyes as he was chokingher.
(12:15):
He said you can be the nextcrackhead bitch dead up in the
street and nobody give a fuckabout you.
He told her to knock on thefloor three times if she wanted
to live.
She did and he released hisgrip.
He then slapped her across theface really hard and said bitch,
take off your clothes.
Then he stared off into space.
She laid down on the bed withher back to him, curled up in a
(12:38):
fetal position.
She was terrified of what mighthappen next.
He did not rape her and sheeventually cried herself to
sleep.
In the morning she said AnthonySowell seemed to be back to his
normal self.
He acted as if nothing hadhappened.
He made her a bologna sandwich.
She made up a story and toldAnthony Sowell she had to go see
(12:58):
her granddaughter in thehospital, and he let her leave.
He even gave her a coat to wearhome.
She felt lucky to be alive andshe never went back there.
But she didn't report it to thepolice.
She thought it was an isolatedincident fueled by drugs and
alcohol.
She only told the police abouther ordeal after the bodies were
found on his property.
(13:19):
Another woman, latundra Billups,had been to Anthony Sowell's
home on several occasions beforeand hung out with him in his
third floor attic apartment.
In September of 2009, latundrasaw Anthony Sowell outside of a
convenience store.
He had two 40 ounce beers andLatundra asked him if she could
have some beer with him.
He said come on, and sheaccompanied him to his house on
(13:40):
Imperial Avenue.
They smoked crack and went toan empty room on the second
floor of his house.
The only items in the room werea blanket and a piece of an
extension cord, both on thefloor.
Anthony Sowell brought a chairinto the room.
When they got into that room,anthony Sowell asked Latundra to
turn around.
She was tipsy and just did whathe asked.
When she turned around, he puthis hand on the back of her neck
(14:02):
and squeezed it really hard.
She turned around and pushedhim.
He then hit Latundra hard inthe face and ripped her shirt
off.
He made her remove her clothesand lay on her stomach.
He then raped her.
As he was raping her, he putthe extension cord around her
neck and choked her until sheblacked out and lost
consciousness.
Latundra woke up several hourslater.
(14:24):
Her neck was burning and shewas wet.
She sat straight up.
She saw Anthony Sowell sittingin front of her on the chair,
smoking.
His eyes bulged and she saidAnthony Sowell looked startled
and shocked, presumably becauseshe was still alive.
He thought he'd killed her.
He then told her that he wasgoing to kill her and then kill
(14:44):
himself, because he knew he wasgoing to go to jail.
However, she persuaded him tolet her go.
She told him something likequote you're not going to jail,
but I'm never coming over here,no more.
End quote.
He told her he was sorry andthat he'd just been going
through a lot of things.
She said well, I ain't didnothing to you.
(15:04):
She got dressed as he was stilltalking.
They walked down the steps.
He stood in the doorway.
As she walked down the drivewayshe looked back a couple of
times to see if he was stillthere and as soon as she reached
the corner she took off runningthe hospital, collected sexual
assault evidence and shereported the whole incident to
the police.
According to Latundra, she wasnot contacted by a detective
(15:28):
until three weeks later.
She gave a formal statement toDetective Richard Durst at the
sex crimes unit office onOctober 27, 2009.
Sean Morris' nearly deadlyencounter with Anthony Sowell
began pleasantly enough In theearly morning on October 20,
2009,.
Sean Morris was drinking beerwith a friend at a bus stop
(15:51):
located at 140th Street andKingsman Road.
She saw Anthony Sowell get offof a bus across the street and
walk to a nearby house to buycrack.
He eventually walked over towhere she was and began talking
with her On 7 am.
Sean said she needed to leavethe bus stop area so her kids
would not see her there drunkwhen they went to school.
(16:11):
That's when Anthony Sowellinvited her to his house to
continue drinking and to smokecrack.
They walked several blocks tohis house on Imperial Avenue.
She hung out with him withoutincident for about five hours.
They were just talking,drinking and smoking.
She said he acted like agentleman and nothing about
their time together made herfeel threatened.
(16:31):
She left his house around noon.
Anthony Sowell politely walkedher to the door.
When she realized she had lefther ID on his dresser, she went
back to his house to retrieve it.
When she got there he leanedout the window and she told him
she'd forgotten her ID.
He told her to come up and getit.
When he opened the door and shewent in, his demeanor suddenly
(16:53):
changed and he put her in achokehold.
He ordered her upstairs and toremove her clothes and lie down
on her stomach.
He then violently raped her.
While he was raping her he toldShawn I hate you bitches.
Look at you.
You've got a husband at homeand you out here in the street.
That's why I hate bitches.
Shawn's screams prompted AnthonySowell to get up and start
(17:14):
closing the open windows so thatno one could hear her.
She noticed there was a windowstill open and prayed for the
courage to jump from it.
She prayed to God that she'dfound herself in a predicament
and that she would not die whenshe jumped from the window.
She sprung up from the bed andwent to the window and kicked
out the screen.
She climbed naked out of thewindow and hung by her
(17:35):
fingertips from the window ledge.
She was hoping to drop down tothe ground without getting hurt.
But Anthony Sowell came to thewindow, grabbed her hands and
tried to pull her back in.
When he couldn't she said hequote unquote shoved her down as
hard as he could.
Shawn fell 20 feet to theconcrete below and lost
(17:55):
consciousness.
Anthony Sowell went outsidenaked and tried to drag the
unconscious and bleeding Shawnback into his house.
People in the area heard andsaw a commotion and started to
gather around.
The witnesses that day, whoincluded a neighborhood property
owner, city of Cleveland,workers and faucet best, owner
of best chicken and pizza fromacross the street, tried to
(18:18):
prevent Anthony Sowell frommoving Shawn due to the extent
of her injuries.
At Anthony Sowell's trial,donald Laster, who owns property
on Imperial Avenue, was one ofthe first people to respond to
the scene after Shawn fell fromthe window.
He testified that he saw threemen taking pictures on their
cell phones and he saw a nakedwoman laying on the ground,
(18:39):
moaning and not moving.
He then saw a naked AnthonySowell come around the corner of
the house, walking in a lowcrouched position.
Anthony Sowell told DonaldLaster that the woman on the
ground was his wife and she fellout of the window while they
were having sex.
Anthony Sowell tried to takeShawn inside and Donald Laster
threatened him, saying Don't doit or I'll kick your ass.
(19:01):
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 inthe door so that Anthony Sowell
couldn't close the door.
Donald Laster went in alongwith a fireman and Anthony
Sowell dropped Shawn with a thud.
(19:22):
Another witness, leroy Bates Sr,was in the area when Shawn fell
and went to the scene.
He too was telling AnthonySowell not to move Shawn.
Anthony Sowell told him toquote unquote, leave us alone.
Fawcett Best testified that hedidn't see Shawn fall from the
window, but saw Anthony Sowellnaked and the naked woman.
(19:42):
Anthony Sowell kept trying toget Shawn, who was unconscious,
into his house.
Fawcett Best, owner of BestChicken and Pizza, which was
right across the street, ran toAnthony Sowell and said what did
you do, anthony?
Anthony Sowell replied it'scool.
Fawcett Best then said no, it'snot, she's all bloody.
This scene on the side of thehouse where Shawn fell was
(20:03):
captured on camera from therooftop of a nearby business,
ray's Sausage.
The video has no sound, butjurors at Anthony Sowell's trial
watched the video and got tosee a naked Anthony Sowell
approach, then stand overShawn's limp body.
Shawn, off camera, throwsAnthony Sowell an article of
clothing or something.
After a few minutes AnthonySowell helps Shawn to her feet
(20:26):
and they walk away together.
Shawn was taken by ambulance toMetro Health Medical Center.
Anthony Sowell actually rodewith her in the ambulance.
He told medical personnel hewas her husband.
He said that they'd been doingdrugs and that her fall was an
accident.
Shawn awoke two days later inthe hospital with no memory of
getting up from the ground andwalking away with Anthony Sowell
(20:47):
.
The injuries that Shawnsuffered in the fall from the
window were grave.
She had a fractured skull,eight broken ribs, both of her
hands were broken and she hadsuffered an aneurysm.
Shawn asked a nurse in thehospital for a phone so that she
could call her husband and lethim know where she was.
The nurse told her that herhusband had ridden with her in
(21:08):
the ambulance.
She told the nurse that thatman was not her husband.
Shawn told her family thatshe'd been hit by a car.
Because she was too ashamed totell them the truth.
She did not report her assaultto police because Anthony Sowell
had threatened to kill her ifshe did.
Nine days after the attack onShawn Morris on Thursday,
(21:28):
october 29, 2009, officers withthe Cleveland Police Department
went to 1205 Imperial Avenuewith an arrest warrant for
Anthony Sowell for the rape ofLatundra Billups and a search
warrant for his home.
It was considered a high-riskwarrant, so the SWAT team
entered first in order to clearthe home.
When there was no answer at thedoor, the SWAT team forced
(21:52):
entry and did a security sweepof the residents.
There were no lights on in thehouse and it was difficult to
find the light switches.
One detective said it was likea haunted house.
As they moved through the house, the smell of death became
overwhelmingly intense.
After sweeping the house, itwas determined that Anthony
Sowell was not at home.
Two decomposing bodies lyingface down were located in a
(22:15):
locked room at the south end ofthe hallway on the third floor
of his house.
The bodies were covered withpiles of clothing and one of
them was wrapped in a blackplastic trash bag up to her
knees.
There was a shovel lying on thefloor between the bodies.
The windows in the room werecovered with garbage bags.
Then Detective Lemmy Griffinsaid there were mice and rat
(22:37):
droppings and dead flieseverywhere all over the floor,
as if someone had thrown a wholebag of rice all over the floor.
The rodents and flies had beenfeeding on the bodies.
The SWAT team backed out of thehouse and it was sealed off for
the crime scene unit.
Through DNA analysis, the firsttwo bodies observed by the SWAT
(22:57):
team were later determined to bethe bodies of Talaesia Fortson,
last seen five months earlierin June, and Diane Turner, who
went missing a month prior inSeptember.
Thirty-eight-year-old DianeTurner was the last of the women
to go missing in the area.
That was later discovered atAnthony Sowell's home.
A T-shirt had been used tostrangle Talaesia Fortson.
(23:19):
Her body was nude from thewaist down and covered by a pile
of clothing.
Many of her belongings werefound lying around Anthony
Sowell's house, including herearrings, a skirt and her food
stamp card.
A receipt found in a trash bagon his second floor balcony
showed that Anthony Sowell hadused her food stamp card months
after she went missing.
(23:41):
Diane Turner's body was foundlying next to the body of
Talaesia Fortson.
She was face down and coveredwith a pile of clothing.
Her legs were bagged up to herknees.
She was nude from the waistdown.
There was no ligature and nobindings on her body.
Her body was too badlydecomposed to determine exactly
how she died.
The coroner concluded that shewas killed by homicidal violence
(24:04):
of an undetermined type.
Another search warrant wasobtained and carried out the
next day.
For this search, investigatorswere accompanied by personnel
from the coroner's office and acadaver dog.
A body was located beneath thebasement staircase covered by
plywood and a large mound ofdirt.
The body had been wrappedloosely in a large sheet of
(24:25):
plastic.
A shirt that had been used togag the woman was still tied in
her mouth and knotted around theback of her head.
There was a green belt that hadbeen used as a ligature, still
tightly coiled around her neck.
Her wrists were bound withshoelaces.
This body was later determinedto be Janice Webb.
She had been last seen on June3, 2009,.
(24:45):
About five months earlier.
There were two more bodies onthe third floor.
One was inside two blackplastic garbage bags and the
other was in a crawl spacebeneath dirt.
The body in the bag turned outto be Nancy Cobbs, who went
missing in April of 2009,.
About seven months earlier.
There were shoelaces tiedaround her wrist.
She also had shoelaces aroundher neck that had been used as a
(25:08):
ligature.
Her body had decomposed at anaccelerated rate.
It had been reduced to askeleton and soft tissue and
only weighed 46 pounds uponarrival at the coroner's office.
The body in the crawl space wasthat of Tashauna Culver.
She went missing in June of2008,.
Nearly a year and a halfearlier, tashauna's body was
(25:29):
stuffed face down into a crawlspace in the west wall of the
front room of the house.
Her hyoid bone in her neck wasbroken, suggesting she had been
manually strangled at one point.
Her ankles were still boundwith knotted rope and her wrists
were bound with rope and abrown sock.
She was the only victim thatwas discovered fully clothed.
Her body was found wrapped inseveral black garbage bags that
(25:50):
were secured with duct tape.
Her body was covered with dirtthat had been brought up from
the back yard.
The cadaver dog alerted to aspot by a bush in the back yard
near the back porch.
Tanya Carmichael's body wasdiscovered there in a shallow
grave.
Her body had been wrappedtotally nude in two black
plastic bags and a whitemattress cover.
A black cell phone or cameracharger cord had been used as a
(26:13):
ligature and it was stillwrapped very tightly around her
neck.
She had gone missing almost ayear earlier, on November 10,
2008.
Another search warrant wasobtained and on November 3, 2009
, a backhoe was brought toAnthony Sowell's home to
continue searching for morepossible murder victims.
At the time, there were morethan a dozen women missing from
(26:35):
Cleveland's District 4.
A crowd gathered on thesidewalk across the street to
watch.
Four more bodies werediscovered in the back yard.
They had all been buried about15 to 18 inches deep in the
ground.
Evidently, anthony Sowell ranout of room to bury his victims
in the back yard and he juststarted leaving them in the
house.
The bodies unearthed by thebackhoe were later identified to
(26:58):
be the bodies of Michelle Mason, who had gone missing a year
earlier.
Kim Yvette Smith, who had gonemissing 11 months earlier.
Amelda Amy Hunter, who had gonemissing about 6 months earlier,
and Crystal Dozier, who hadgone missing in 2007,.
About a year and a half earlier, michelle Mason's body was
(27:19):
discovered lying face down andwas nude from the waist down.
Her body had been rolled upinside of a black comforter and
an orange blanket.
When two plastic bags werewrapped around the blankets and
secured with duct tape, therewas a used condom left wrapped
inside with the body.
She still had a brown sock thathad been used as a ligature
around her neck.
(27:40):
When Kim Yvette Smith's body wasunearthed, she still had the
remains of some type of clothbindings on her wrists and
ankles.
Her body was covered in threeblack garbage bags, which were
then wrapped in a seven-footsheet of plastic.
Her body was in an advancedstate of decomposition.
Therefore, the coroner couldonly conclude she had died from
(28:01):
undetermined homicidal violence.
Just like six of his othervictims, amelda Amy Hunter still
had the ligature she had beenstrangled with around her neck.
It was a shoulder strap from abag or briefcase.
She was nude from the waistdown and wrapped in multiple
black garbage bags.
Crystal Dozier's body was nudefrom the waist down and badly
(28:23):
decomposed.
Her wrists were bound above herhead and her ankles were tied
together with a wire cable.
Some type of cloth ligaturethat had been used to strangle
her remained on her neck, stilltied and knotted.
Anthony Sowell had wrapped herbody in two layers of plastic
and tied it together with blackcoaxial-style cable and duct
tape before burying it.
(28:44):
In the basement a human skullwas found in a black plastic bag
inside of a red bucket.
The bucket had been chewed onby an animal.
There was no decompositiontissue in the bucket, so it
could not be determined when herskull had been placed in there.
Dna analysis later proved thatthe skull belonged to LaShonda
(29:05):
Long, who had gone missing about15 months earlier.
None of LaShonda's other bodyparts were located.
Also on the floor in thebasement were lots of cut
extension cord pieces.
On October 29, 2009, when policehad discovered the first bodies
at 1205 Imperial Avenue, one ofthe most massive manhunts in
(29:27):
Cleveland history began forAnthony Sowell.
They wanted to locate himbefore Halloween, when lots of
kids would be out trick ortreating, but he hadn't left the
area.
He'd been sleeping in abandonedhouses in the neighborhood.
People on Imperial Avenuecalled Tressa Garrison, anthony
Sowell's sister, saying thatthere were dead bodies in the
(29:48):
house on Imperial.
She didn't know if her brotherwas one of the dead people or
not, but hours later AnthonySowell called Tressa during the
manhunt she lived nearby and hetold her to meet up with him.
They met two streets over fromImperial Avenue and stood on the
side of the street and talked.
He said that he had somethingto tell her.
He told her that everythingthat was being said about him is
(30:11):
true.
He said he didn't know why hedid it.
He was just all fucked up inthe head.
He told her he loved her andthat he would call her later.
He said he had to go becausethe police were looking for him.
On Halloween morning, saturday,october 31, 2009, someone in
the neighborhood saw AnthonySowell walking on Mount Auburn
(30:31):
Avenue about one mile from hishome and called the police.
They'd recognized him from newsreports.
During his interrogation afterhis arrest, anthony Sowell told
detectives that he choked hisvictims.
Quote unquote in his dreams hesaid he punished the women he
brought over.
They were bad, he said.
Court documents state that hespecifically resented the fact
(30:54):
that the quote unquote bad womenwere neglecting their children
while walking the streets tofeed their drug habit.
He said he started taking hisanger out on women in the
neighborhood after he and Loribroke up.
He said the women reminded himof his girl, meaning Lori.
There's one information fromhim that would help them
identify the bodies at his home.
(31:15):
He said that when he'd been ata store he saw a flyer with one
of his victims' pictures on it.
It was the missing personposter from Michelle Mason.
He said he felt like he knewher when he looked at it, but
other than that, he didn't givethem any names or helpful
information as to the identitiesof the victims.
All of his victims ended upbeing identified through DNA
(31:36):
analysis.
Anthony Sowell was held in jailin a $5 million bond.
He was charged with 85 countsthat included charges of murder,
kidnapping, rape and abuse of acorpse.
He pleaded not guilty by reasonof insanity, but later changed
his plea to not guilty.
His trial began on June 27,2011.
(31:57):
Survivors of Anthony Sowelltook the stand and told their
stories.
Sean Morris, who jumped out ofthe window to escape Anthony
Sowell, said that when she leftthe stand after testifying, she
spat at Anthony Sowell andcalled him a punk-ass bitch.
She said she was so consumedwith intense hatred for him but
has since forgiven him and letgo of the anger.
(32:20):
She's thankful that she's asurvivor and not a victim.
Anthony Sowell was convicted onall but one of the counts
against him.
The soul not guilty was for acharge of aggravated robbery,
robbery in which he was accusedof stealing $11 from a surviving
victim.
On August 11, 2011, the juryrecommended that Anthony Sowell
(32:45):
be put to death.
Judge Dick Ambrose upheld thejury's death penalty
recommendation and set AnthonySowell's execution date for
October 29, 2012, theanniversary of the discovery of
the first bodies in his house.
But Anthony Sowell appealed hisconviction and his execution
(33:06):
date was delayed until heexhausted all of his appeals.
About four months after histrial ended and two years after
the bodies of 11 women werediscovered there.
On Tuesday, december 6, 2011,the house at 1205 Imperial
Avenue was demolished.
A light rain fell andspectators chanted tear it down,
(33:30):
tear it down to the ground, andamen and hallelujah.
It took about two hours to tearit down completely.
Trucks escorted by policehauled away the debris to a
recycling plant where it wasshredded immediately.
This was to prevent anyone fromtaking anything from the home
to keep as some type of memento.
(33:51):
According to Reuterscom, awebsite sold dirt from Anthony
Sowell's yard where the victimshad been buried for $25.
Near the end of 2019, cuyahogaCounty Assistant Prosecuting
Attorney, chris Schroeder, told19 News in Cleveland.
Quote 10 years have gone by andwe're still only about halfway
(34:12):
through the appellate process.
End quote Anthony Sowell wasstill appealing his sentence
when, on January 21, 2021, hewas moved from death row at
Ohio's Chillicothe CorrectionalInstitution to the end of life
care at the Franklin MedicalCenter Prison Hospital in
Columbus, ohio.
At 3.27 pm on February 6, 2021,anthony Sowell, ohio Department
(34:40):
of Rehabilitation andCorrection in Mate Number
A604609, passed away at the ageof 61.
An Ohio Department ofRehabilitation and Correction
spokeswoman said Anthony Sowelldied of a terminal illness, but
would not specify exactly whatit was.
She did say, however, that hedid not die from COVID-19.
(35:04):
Another victim of Anthony Sowellwas not a living breathing
victim, but a business that wasnext door to his house on
Imperial Avenue.
For years, a rancid, putridstench hung in the air over
123rd Avenue and Imperial Avenue.
Everyone assumed it was fromRay's Sausage next door.
A resident across the streetfrom Anthony Sowell called City
(35:27):
Hall to complain about the odor.
She said it smelled like a deadperson or a dead animal.
City inspectors visited theSausage factory and Ray's
Sausage incurred thousands ofdollars worth of expenses to
make changes like putting in newsewer traps and a new
ventilation system.
Some reports said theseexpenses totaled about $30,000,
(35:50):
but other reports that I cameacross said that they totaled
around $200,000.
However, nothing worked and thesmell would not go away.
Tressa, anthony Sowell's sister, said she'd smelled the awful
smell too when she was in herbrother's house.
The horrible smell evenpermeated his clothes.
(36:11):
Anthony Sowell just blamed iton Ray's Sausage.
The family of Anthony Sowell'smurder victim, crystal Dozier,
filed a claim against the cityof Cleveland.
The family was paid $2,500.
The city of Cleveland also paida combined $1 million to the
families of six women who fellvictim to Anthony Sowell, citing
(36:35):
a botched investigation whichallowed Anthony Sowell to remain
free to go on and murder thosesix women.
The families of Nancy Cobbs,tlacia Fortson, amelda Amy
Hunter, lashonda Long, dianeTurner and Janice Webb split the
$1 million settlement equally.
Two surviving victims ofAnthony Sowell also sued the
(37:00):
city of Cleveland.
The city paid $260,000 tosurviving victim Latundra
Billups and $40,000 to survivingvictim Gladys Wade.
On a very happy note, survivorLatundra Billups went on to earn
a master's degree in socialwork at Cleveland State
University in 2016.
(37:23):
On Saturday, november 6, 2021, amemorial called the Garden of
Eleven Angels was unveiled thathonors the victims of Anthony
Sowell.
Inscribed on the plaque are thewords quote in honor and memory
of the survivors, the victimsboth known and unknown, and the
entire community impacted by theviolent acts that transpired on
(37:45):
Imperial Avenue.
End quote the memorial honorsthe women whose bodies were
found hidden in and around hishome located at 1205 Imperial
Avenue.
The women honored ArtanyaCarmichael, nancy Cobbs,
tashanna Culver, crystal Dozier,tlacia Fortson, amelda Amy
(38:06):
Hunter, lashonda Long, michelleMason, kim Yvette Smith, diane
Turner and Janice Webb.
According to an article by HopeSloup on wkyccom, quote the
Garden of Eleven Angels alsoincludes more than 30 different
varieties of trees, plants andflowers to breathe life into the
(38:28):
space once occupied by Sowell'shome.
End quote.
I wanted to mention thedocumentaries that cover this
case again in case you guyswanted to go and check them out
the 2016 documentary that wasmade about him and his victims
and survivors.
It's called Unseen and you'llbe able to see some of the
survivors and hear them telltheir stories in their own words
(38:51):
.
So it's called Unseen.
It's free on Amazon Prime ifyou have a membership Amazon
Prime membership and also theones on Oxygen.
They put out two episodes andthen the one on Vice, so that's
on YouTube.
So thank you so much forlistening to this episode of
(39:14):
Tell Me a True Crime Story.
Please follow or subscribe tothe podcast and tell your
friends and coworkers and familyabout it and share the podcast
or just share an episode thatyou loved.
Follow the podcast on socialmedia.
Facebook, instagram and TikTokare at Tell Me a True Crime
(39:36):
Story.
Please write a review for thepodcast and give it five stars.
If you listen on Spotify, thathelps me out so much.
Guys.
Remember I'm trying to reach 50reviews on Apple and 30 ratings
on Spotify by Halloween andI'll give you a shout out on the
podcast and read your review.
(39:58):
So this podcast is growing andit's thanks to all of you guys
and it's really inspiring me andmaking all this work really
worth my while, and I justreally appreciate you guys so
much and I hope that you andyour family are happy, healthy
and together forever.
Thank you for being here.
(40:19):
I truly appreciate and loveeach and every one of you, and
join me in episode 33 when I'lltell you another True Crime
Story.
Big hugs to all of you.
Bye, bye.
Tell me a true crime story.
Hey there, welcome to episode32 of Tell Me a True Crime Story
(00:22):
.
I'm your host, holly.
Thank you all for being hereand allowing me to be a part of
your day.
So I did a fair amount ofchit-chatting in the intro of
the last episode, so I'm goingto get to the story pretty
quickly today.
I just want to ask those of youwho haven't reviewed this
podcast on Apple with a writtenreview Are those of you who
(00:43):
listen on Spotify haven't givenme a star rating yet?
Please take a moment to do thatwhen you can, because it helps
me out so much.
I now have 41 reviews on Appleand I want you guys to help me
to get to 50 by Halloween, and Ihave 23 five-star ratings on
Spotify.
(01:03):
Please help me get to 30 byHalloween on Spotify.
I know you guys can do it.
Thank you so much for that, andI will give a shout out to
those who have given me awritten review lately in the
next episode.
If I haven't, you know, givenyou a shout out yet and read
your written review, I will dothat in the next episode.
(01:24):
So I hope that you guys, youand 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.
Now let me tell you a true crimestory.
This is part two, so if youdidn't listen to part one yet,
(01:48):
please go back and listen to itfirst.
So before we get started, Iwanted to mention again that,
among many other sources anddocuments, I used first-hand
accounts from victims for thisstory from a 2016 documentary
that was made about this caseand other shows.
The 2016 documentary is calledUnseen and you can watch it for
(02:11):
free if you have Amazon Prime.
So, in addition to thatdocumentary, oxygen has two
episodes on this case.
One is on their living with aserial killer series and the
other is on snapped.
And actually I just found outabout a couple of more
documentaries on this story.
One is on YouTube.
It's by Vice.
(02:32):
If you know the Vicedocumentaries, it's by Vice and
it's called the ClevelandStrangler the story of a brutal
serial killer and his forgottenvictims, and the other is by
Investigation Discovery.
It's on their killer instinctshow.
So in part one, we coveredAnthony Sowell and we started
with his childhood and welearned also a little bit about
(02:55):
his 11 known victims.
So now let's talk about fivewomen that we're aware of that
happened to escape the deadlyclutches of Anthony Sowell.
The surviving victims accountsare similar to one another and
give us insight into what thelast moments of the women who
did not make it out of his housealive must have been like.
(03:17):
Vanessa Gay said in the unseendocumentary that when she was in
the depths of her drugaddiction all she could think
about was crack.
She sold anything of value toget money for drugs, all of the
electronics, her kids' TVs,xboxes.
Her husband sold their son'sbike.
She said she jumped in and outof cars.
She'd sleep in abandoned houses.
(03:39):
She'd lost so much weight andhad gotten so small that she
could wear a 10-12 in girls'clothing.
She said one day she came homeand all of her family was on the
porch Her cousins, her kids,even a neighbor.
They were all on the porch andthey started in on her about her
drug use.
She walked off and she didn'twant to hear it.
(04:01):
And her 10-year-old daughterfollowed her and laid in the
middle of the street begging hermom to come home.
But Vanessa said at that timeher addiction was so strong she
couldn't even choose her childover the dope.
In September of 2008, vanessawas 34 years old.
She hadn't been home in months.
She'd had a bad day on thisparticular day because she
(04:23):
couldn't get a hold of any drugs.
She was standing outside of abank when a man walked by and
said loud enough so that shecould hear him.
He said it was his birthday,but nobody was celebrating his
birthday.
She told him she didn'tcelebrate birthdays, but told
him happy birthday anyway, andshe walked with him to his house
.
She got an eerie feeling whenshe walked in his house and she
(04:44):
walked up the stairs she smelleda foul odor.
They walked down a hallway andthere was one room off of the
hallway that had plasticcovering the doorway, as if the
room was like being renovated orsomething.
They chatted for about 10 to 15minutes and then she asked him
what?
What were they gonna do if theywere gonna drink or smoke?
He asked her if she had a crackpipe.
(05:06):
She stood up and handed it tohim.
He lit the stem, then turnedaround and punched her in the
face and said bitch, take yourclothes off.
She listened and did exactlywhat he told her to do.
She said his eyes were evilblack holes.
She said she was beaten andraped.
He yelled at her bitch scream,ain't nobody gonna hear you?
(05:27):
He repeatedly raped her forhours and hours all through the
night.
While raping her he rantedabout women who'd done him wrong
, women who smoked crack.
He told Vanessa that she didn'tdeserve what he was going to do
to her, that she wasn't likethe others.
He told her he had aninsatiable sexual appetite.
In the morning she asked him ifshe could use the bathroom and
(05:48):
he said yes.
As she walked to the bathroomin that room off of the hallway
that had the plastic in thedoorway, she noticed the plastic
was now rolled up.
She saw something on the floorin there.
It was a decomposing body withno head, propped up in a seated
position and quote unquote tapedup.
She did her best to remain calm.
(06:10):
She was careful not to changeher expression or demeanor when
she returned from the bathroom.
She didn't want him to knowthat she'd seen anything.
He started repeating to Vanessaif I let you go, you're going to
tell, you're going to tell.
She said tell what.
You might have been a littlemore rougher than what I'm used
to, but what am I going to tell.
She managed to get him to lether leave.
(06:32):
She made sure to walk arm inarm with him, right beside him,
as they walked down the stairstoward the door.
She said she didn't want him toget behind her or she knew she
wouldn't make it out of therealive.
But she did make it out of hishouse on that Sunday morning
with her life.
She walked down the street withher face all beat up, limping
and bleeding.
She passed several people thatwere going to church and they
(06:54):
just turned their heads.
Others laughed at her.
No one helped Vanessa.
She called the police and theywanted her to go down to the
station to file a report.
Instead, she went to anabandoned house she calls them
Bandos and she slept and sleptand slept.
She never did go file a policereport.
She thought she wouldn't bebelieved since she was a crack
(07:15):
addict, so she just stayed highto numb her pain.
Vanessa later found out thatthe headless body that she'd
seen was her friend from thestreets, lashonda Long.
Lashonda's skull was found in ared bucket in Anthony Sol's
basement, but the rest of herbody was never found.
Gladys Wade, who was 39 yearsold at the time, was attacked by
(07:36):
Anthony Sol in early Decemberof 2008.
She'd just bought beer andcigarettes at Amira Imperial
Beverage, the convenience storeat the corner of Imperial Avenue
and East 123rd Street.
Then she started walking downImperial Avenue to go catch the
bus.
Anthony Sol was standingoutside his house on Imperial
(07:56):
Avenue and he said "'MerryChristmas to her'".
She didn't know him, but shereturned the greeting.
He invited her to have a drinkwith him.
She said "'No, thanks, I got myown'.
As she continued walking".
She didn't know it, but he'dcome up behind her.
He knocked her out and grabbedher by her clothes and dragged
her unconscious down thesidewalk and into his house.
(08:17):
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 herclothes and punched her in the
face repeatedly.
She broke away from him and ranfor the back stairs, but
Anthony Sol caught up with her.
(08:37):
He was right behind her at thetop of the stairs.
He grabbed her and they bothtumbled down the stairs.
She crashed through a glassdoor at the bottom, cutting her
thumb deeply.
Anthony Sol continued to attackher.
She gouged his eyeballs, clawedat his face and twisted his
testicles all the way around asfar as she could in an attempt
(08:58):
to get away from him.
She managed to fight him offand stumbled out the side door
of his house.
Gladys ran across the street tobest chicken and pizza and told
them to call the police.
The manager told her she had toget out of the store because
she was bleeding on the floor.
Anthony Sol brazenly followedher there and told the manager
and other people at the pizzashop that she'd stolen from him
(09:20):
and that he had to beat her assand put her out of his house.
She told the manager she didn'teven know Anthony Sol.
The manager again told her toget out of the pizza shop.
She said people standing aroundwere laughing at her and
talking about her.
She left the pizza shop, tookoff running and flagged down a
police officer.
She told the police what hadhappened to her.
(09:41):
The gash on her thumb requiredstitches and officers and EMS
workers noted red marks on herthroat.
Anthony Sol was arrested.
Officers took pictures of bloodon the stairs and walls in his
house and of Gladys Wade'ssweater shoved in a trash can.
The case was assigned toDetective Georgia Hussein, but
Detective Hussein never talkedto the officers that arrested
(10:04):
Anthony Sol that day.
She didn't pull photos of thecrime scene or the photos of
Gladys Wade and Anthony Sol thatshowed injuries to both of them
.
She didn't access Gladys Wade'smedical records.
She didn't obtain a searchwarrant for Anthony Sol's home.
Detective Hussain failed to tellthe District Attorney that
Anthony Sowell had spent 15years in prison for attempted
(10:26):
rape, because she didn't believethat information was relevant.
Anthony Sowell told authoritiesthat Gladys had attacked him
and he did have visible injuriesbecause she had fought him in
self-defense.
After all, gladys Wade had beenin a fight for her life.
In the eyes of the DA, it wasGladys Wade's word against
Anthony Sowell's.
The DA deemed Gladys Wadequote-unquote, not credible, and
(10:49):
said there was quote-unquoteinsufficient evidence to charge
Anthony Sowell and he wasreleased without charges.
Anthony Sowell went on tomurder six more women after that
attack on Gladys Wade KimYvette Smith, nancy Cobbs,
amelda Amy Hunter, janice Webb,tlaesia Fortson and Diane Turner
(11:10):
, and three others just barelyescaped with their lives.
So that's nine more women thatAnthony Sowell was able to
murder or victimize, and nearlymurder after Gladys Wade escaped
and went to the authorities.
Tanya Doss survived an encounterwith Anthony Sowell in April of
2009.
At that time she'd known himfor four years, since 2005.
(11:34):
They would often sit on theporch together and barbecue or
play chess.
She had even slept over at hishouse before, so on this night
she willingly went with him whenhe invited her to smoke crack
at his house and watch an NBAbasketball game on TV.
When the game was over, theylistened to music and talked.
Anthony Sowell started talkingabout his ex-girlfriend, lori
(11:55):
Frazier.
He showed Tanya Lori's clothesand papers.
She'd left there and wassupposed to return and retrieve,
but she never did.
He told Tanya that whenever hecared about someone, they left
him Without warning.
Anthony Sowell began chokingTanya.
She said he choked her so hardher eyes bulged and tears poured
from her eyes as he was chokingher.
(12:15):
He said you can be the nextcrackhead bitch dead up in the
street and nobody give a fuckabout you.
He told her to knock on thefloor three times if she wanted
to live.
She did and he released hisgrip.
He then slapped her across theface really hard and said bitch,
take off your clothes.
Then he stared off into space.
She laid down on the bed withher back to him, curled up in a
(12:38):
fetal position.
She was terrified of what mighthappen next.
He did not rape her and sheeventually cried herself to
sleep.
In the morning she said AnthonySowell seemed to be back to his
normal self.
He acted as if nothing hadhappened.
He made her a bologna sandwich.
She made up a story and toldAnthony Sowell she had to go see
(12:58):
her granddaughter in thehospital, and he let her leave.
He even gave her a coat to wearhome.
She felt lucky to be alive andshe never went back there.
But she didn't report it to thepolice.
She thought it was an isolatedincident fueled by drugs and
alcohol.
She only told the police abouther ordeal after the bodies were
found on his property.
(13:19):
Another woman, latundra Billups,had been to Anthony Sowell's
home on several occasions beforeand hung out with him in his
third floor attic apartment.
In September of 2009, latundrasaw Anthony Sowell outside of a
convenience store.
He had two 40 ounce beers andLatundra asked him if she could
have some beer with him.
He said come on, and sheaccompanied him to his house on
(13:40):
Imperial Avenue.
They smoked crack and went toan empty room on the second
floor of his house.
The only items in the room werea blanket and a piece of an
extension cord, both on thefloor.
Anthony Sowell brought a chairinto the room.
When they got into that room,anthony Sowell asked Latundra to
turn around.
She was tipsy and just did whathe asked.
When she turned around, he puthis hand on the back of her neck
(14:02):
and squeezed it really hard.
She turned around and pushedhim.
He then hit Latundra hard inthe face and ripped her shirt
off.
He made her remove her clothesand lay on her stomach.
He then raped her.
As he was raping her, he putthe extension cord around her
neck and choked her until sheblacked out and lost
consciousness.
Latundra woke up several hourslater.
(14:24):
Her neck was burning and shewas wet.
She sat straight up.
She saw Anthony Sowell sittingin front of her on the chair,
smoking.
His eyes bulged and she saidAnthony Sowell looked startled
and shocked, presumably becauseshe was still alive.
He thought he'd killed her.
He then told her that he wasgoing to kill her and then kill
(14:44):
himself, because he knew he wasgoing to go to jail.
However, she persuaded him tolet her go.
She told him something likequote you're not going to jail,
but I'm never coming over here,no more.
End quote.
He told her he was sorry andthat he'd just been going
through a lot of things.
She said well, I ain't didnothing to you.
(15:04):
She got dressed as he was stilltalking.
They walked down the steps.
He stood in the doorway.
As she walked down the drivewayshe looked back a couple of
times to see if he was stillthere and as soon as she reached
the corner she took off runningthe hospital, collected sexual
assault evidence and shereported the whole incident to
the police.
According to Latundra, she wasnot contacted by a detective
(15:28):
until three weeks later.
She gave a formal statement toDetective Richard Durst at the
sex crimes unit office onOctober 27, 2009.
Sean Morris' nearly deadlyencounter with Anthony Sowell
began pleasantly enough In theearly morning on October 20,
2009,.
Sean Morris was drinking beerwith a friend at a bus stop
(15:51):
located at 140th Street andKingsman Road.
She saw Anthony Sowell get offof a bus across the street and
walk to a nearby house to buycrack.
He eventually walked over towhere she was and began talking
with her On 7 am.
Sean said she needed to leavethe bus stop area so her kids
would not see her there drunkwhen they went to school.
(16:11):
That's when Anthony Sowellinvited her to his house to
continue drinking and to smokecrack.
They walked several blocks tohis house on Imperial Avenue.
She hung out with him withoutincident for about five hours.
They were just talking,drinking and smoking.
She said he acted like agentleman and nothing about
their time together made herfeel threatened.
(16:31):
She left his house around noon.
Anthony Sowell politely walkedher to the door.
When she realized she had lefther ID on his dresser, she went
back to his house to retrieve it.
When she got there he leanedout the window and she told him
she'd forgotten her ID.
He told her to come up and getit.
When he opened the door and shewent in, his demeanor suddenly
(16:53):
changed and he put her in achokehold.
He ordered her upstairs and toremove her clothes and lie down
on her stomach.
He then violently raped her.
While he was raping her he toldShawn I hate you bitches.
Look at you.
You've got a husband at homeand you out here in the street.
That's why I hate bitches.
Shawn's screams prompted AnthonySowell to get up and start
(17:14):
closing the open windows so thatno one could hear her.
She noticed there was a windowstill open and prayed for the
courage to jump from it.
She prayed to God that she'dfound herself in a predicament
and that she would not die whenshe jumped from the window.
She sprung up from the bed andwent to the window and kicked
out the screen.
She climbed naked out of thewindow and hung by her
(17:35):
fingertips from the window ledge.
She was hoping to drop down tothe ground without getting hurt.
But Anthony Sowell came to thewindow, grabbed her hands and
tried to pull her back in.
When he couldn't she said hequote unquote shoved her down as
hard as he could.
Shawn fell 20 feet to theconcrete below and lost
(17:55):
consciousness.
Anthony Sowell went outsidenaked and tried to drag the
unconscious and bleeding Shawnback into his house.
People in the area heard andsaw a commotion and started to
gather around.
The witnesses that day, whoincluded a neighborhood property
owner, city of Cleveland,workers and faucet best, owner
of best chicken and pizza fromacross the street, tried to
(18:18):
prevent Anthony Sowell frommoving Shawn due to the extent
of her injuries.
At Anthony Sowell's trial,donald Laster, who owns property
on Imperial Avenue, was one ofthe first people to respond to
the scene after Shawn fell fromthe window.
He testified that he saw threemen taking pictures on their
cell phones and he saw a nakedwoman laying on the ground,
(18:39):
moaning and not moving.
He then saw a naked AnthonySowell come around the corner of
the house, walking in a lowcrouched position.
Anthony Sowell told DonaldLaster that the woman on the
ground was his wife and she fellout of the window while they
were having sex.
Anthony Sowell tried to takeShawn inside and Donald Laster
threatened him, saying Don't doit or I'll kick your ass.
(19:01):
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 inthe door so that Anthony Sowell
couldn't close the door.
Donald Laster went in alongwith a fireman and Anthony
Sowell dropped Shawn with a thud.
(19:22):
Another witness, leroy Bates Sr,was in the area when Shawn fell
and went to the scene.
He too was telling AnthonySowell not to move Shawn.
Anthony Sowell told him toquote unquote, leave us alone.
Fawcett Best testified that hedidn't see Shawn fall from the
window, but saw Anthony Sowellnaked and the naked woman.
(19:42):
Anthony Sowell kept trying toget Shawn, who was unconscious,
into his house.
Fawcett Best, owner of BestChicken and Pizza, which was
right across the street, ran toAnthony Sowell and said what did
you do, anthony?
Anthony Sowell replied it'scool.
Fawcett Best then said no, it'snot, she's all bloody.
This scene on the side of thehouse where Shawn fell was
(20:03):
captured on camera from therooftop of a nearby business,
ray's Sausage.
The video has no sound, butjurors at Anthony Sowell's trial
watched the video and got tosee a naked Anthony Sowell
approach, then stand overShawn's limp body.
Shawn, off camera, throwsAnthony Sowell an article of
clothing or something.
After a few minutes AnthonySowell helps Shawn to her feet
(20:26):
and they walk away together.
Shawn was taken by ambulance toMetro Health Medical Center.
Anthony Sowell actually rodewith her in the ambulance.
He told medical personnel hewas her husband.
He said that they'd been doingdrugs and that her fall was an
accident.
Shawn awoke two days later inthe hospital with no memory of
getting up from the ground andwalking away with Anthony Sowell
(20:47):
.
The injuries that Shawnsuffered in the fall from the
window were grave.
She had a fractured skull,eight broken ribs, both of her
hands were broken and she hadsuffered an aneurysm.
Shawn asked a nurse in thehospital for a phone so that she
could call her husband and lethim know where she was.
The nurse told her that herhusband had ridden with her in
(21:08):
the ambulance.
She told the nurse that thatman was not her husband.
Shawn told her family thatshe'd been hit by a car.
Because she was too ashamed totell them the truth.
She did not report her assaultto police because Anthony Sowell
had threatened to kill her ifshe did.
Nine days after the attack onShawn Morris on Thursday,
(21:28):
october 29, 2009, officers withthe Cleveland Police Department
went to 1205 Imperial Avenuewith an arrest warrant for
Anthony Sowell for the rape ofLatundra Billups and a search
warrant for his home.
It was considered a high-riskwarrant, so the SWAT team
entered first in order to clearthe home.
When there was no answer at thedoor, the SWAT team forced
(21:52):
entry and did a security sweepof the residents.
There were no lights on in thehouse and it was difficult to
find the light switches.
One detective said it was likea haunted house.
As they moved through the house, the smell of death became
overwhelmingly intense.
After sweeping the house, itwas determined that Anthony
Sowell was not at home.
Two decomposing bodies lyingface down were located in a
(22:15):
locked room at the south end ofthe hallway on the third floor
of his house.
The bodies were covered withpiles of clothing and one of
them was wrapped in a blackplastic trash bag up to her
knees.
There was a shovel lying on thefloor between the bodies.
The windows in the room werecovered with garbage bags.
Then Detective Lemmy Griffinsaid there were mice and rat
(22:37):
droppings and dead flieseverywhere all over the floor,
as if someone had thrown a wholebag of rice all over the floor.
The rodents and flies had beenfeeding on the bodies.
The SWAT team backed out of thehouse and it was sealed off for
the crime scene unit.
Through DNA analysis, the firsttwo bodies observed by the SWAT
(22:57):
team were later determined to bethe bodies of Talaesia Fortson,
last seen five months earlierin June, and Diane Turner, who
went missing a month prior inSeptember.
Thirty-eight-year-old DianeTurner was the last of the women
to go missing in the area.
That was later discovered atAnthony Sowell's home.
A T-shirt had been used tostrangle Talaesia Fortson.
(23:19):
Her body was nude from thewaist down and covered by a pile
of clothing.
Many of her belongings werefound lying around Anthony
Sowell's house, including herearrings, a skirt and her food
stamp card.
A receipt found in a trash bagon his second floor balcony
showed that Anthony Sowell hadused her food stamp card months
after she went missing.
(23:41):
Diane Turner's body was foundlying next to the body of
Talaesia Fortson.
She was face down and coveredwith a pile of clothing.
Her legs were bagged up to herknees.
She was nude from the waistdown.
There was no ligature and nobindings on her body.
Her body was too badlydecomposed to determine exactly
how she died.
The coroner concluded that shewas killed by homicidal violence
(24:04):
of an undetermined type.
Another search warrant wasobtained and carried out the
next day.
For this search, investigatorswere accompanied by personnel
from the coroner's office and acadaver dog.
A body was located beneath thebasement staircase covered by
plywood and a large mound ofdirt.
The body had been wrappedloosely in a large sheet of
(24:25):
plastic.
A shirt that had been used togag the woman was still tied in
her mouth and knotted around theback of her head.
There was a green belt that hadbeen used as a ligature, still
tightly coiled around her neck.
Her wrists were bound withshoelaces.
This body was later determinedto be Janice Webb.
She had been last seen on June3, 2009,.
(24:45):
About five months earlier.
There were two more bodies onthe third floor.
One was inside two blackplastic garbage bags and the
other was in a crawl spacebeneath dirt.
The body in the bag turned outto be Nancy Cobbs, who went
missing in April of 2009,.
About seven months earlier.
There were shoelaces tiedaround her wrist.
She also had shoelaces aroundher neck that had been used as a
(25:08):
ligature.
Her body had decomposed at anaccelerated rate.
It had been reduced to askeleton and soft tissue and
only weighed 46 pounds uponarrival at the coroner's office.
The body in the crawl space wasthat of Tashauna Culver.
She went missing in June of2008,.
Nearly a year and a halfearlier, tashauna's body was
(25:29):
stuffed face down into a crawlspace in the west wall of the
front room of the house.
Her hyoid bone in her neck wasbroken, suggesting she had been
manually strangled at one point.
Her ankles were still boundwith knotted rope and her wrists
were bound with rope and abrown sock.
She was the only victim thatwas discovered fully clothed.
Her body was found wrapped inseveral black garbage bags that
(25:50):
were secured with duct tape.
Her body was covered with dirtthat had been brought up from
the back yard.
The cadaver dog alerted to aspot by a bush in the back yard
near the back porch.
Tanya Carmichael's body wasdiscovered there in a shallow
grave.
Her body had been wrappedtotally nude in two black
plastic bags and a whitemattress cover.
A black cell phone or cameracharger cord had been used as a
(26:13):
ligature and it was stillwrapped very tightly around her
neck.
She had gone missing almost ayear earlier, on November 10,
2008.
Another search warrant wasobtained and on November 3, 2009
, a backhoe was brought toAnthony Sowell's home to
continue searching for morepossible murder victims.
At the time, there were morethan a dozen women missing from
(26:35):
Cleveland's District 4.
A crowd gathered on thesidewalk across the street to
watch.
Four more bodies werediscovered in the back yard.
They had all been buried about15 to 18 inches deep in the
ground.
Evidently, anthony Sowell ranout of room to bury his victims
in the back yard and he juststarted leaving them in the
house.
The bodies unearthed by thebackhoe were later identified to
(26:58):
be the bodies of Michelle Mason, who had gone missing a year
earlier.
Kim Yvette Smith, who had gonemissing 11 months earlier.
Amelda Amy Hunter, who had gonemissing about 6 months earlier,
and Crystal Dozier, who hadgone missing in 2007,.
About a year and a half earlier, michelle Mason's body was
(27:19):
discovered lying face down andwas nude from the waist down.
Her body had been rolled upinside of a black comforter and
an orange blanket.
When two plastic bags werewrapped around the blankets and
secured with duct tape, therewas a used condom left wrapped
inside with the body.
She still had a brown sock thathad been used as a ligature
around her neck.
(27:40):
When Kim Yvette Smith's body wasunearthed, she still had the
remains of some type of clothbindings on her wrists and
ankles.
Her body was covered in threeblack garbage bags, which were
then wrapped in a seven-footsheet of plastic.
Her body was in an advancedstate of decomposition.
Therefore, the coroner couldonly conclude she had died from
(28:01):
undetermined homicidal violence.
Just like six of his othervictims, amelda Amy Hunter still
had the ligature she had beenstrangled with around her neck.
It was a shoulder strap from abag or briefcase.
She was nude from the waistdown and wrapped in multiple
black garbage bags.
Crystal Dozier's body was nudefrom the waist down and badly
(28:23):
decomposed.
Her wrists were bound above herhead and her ankles were tied
together with a wire cable.
Some type of cloth ligaturethat had been used to strangle
her remained on her neck, stilltied and knotted.
Anthony Sowell had wrapped herbody in two layers of plastic
and tied it together with blackcoaxial-style cable and duct
tape before burying it.
(28:44):
In the basement a human skullwas found in a black plastic bag
inside of a red bucket.
The bucket had been chewed onby an animal.
There was no decompositiontissue in the bucket, so it
could not be determined when herskull had been placed in there.
Dna analysis later proved thatthe skull belonged to LaShonda
(29:05):
Long, who had gone missing about15 months earlier.
None of LaShonda's other bodyparts were located.
Also on the floor in thebasement were lots of cut
extension cord pieces.
On October 29, 2009, when policehad discovered the first bodies
at 1205 Imperial Avenue, one ofthe most massive manhunts in
(29:27):
Cleveland history began forAnthony Sowell.
They wanted to locate himbefore Halloween, when lots of
kids would be out trick ortreating, but he hadn't left the
area.
He'd been sleeping in abandonedhouses in the neighborhood.
People on Imperial Avenuecalled Tressa Garrison, anthony
Sowell's sister, saying thatthere were dead bodies in the
(29:48):
house on Imperial.
She didn't know if her brotherwas one of the dead people or
not, but hours later AnthonySowell called Tressa during the
manhunt she lived nearby and hetold her to meet up with him.
They met two streets over fromImperial Avenue and stood on the
side of the street and talked.
He said that he had somethingto tell her.
He told her that everythingthat was being said about him is
(30:11):
true.
He said he didn't know why hedid it.
He was just all fucked up inthe head.
He told her he loved her andthat he would call her later.
He said he had to go becausethe police were looking for him.
On Halloween morning, saturday,october 31, 2009, someone in
the neighborhood saw AnthonySowell walking on Mount Auburn
(30:31):
Avenue about one mile from hishome and called the police.
They'd recognized him from newsreports.
During his interrogation afterhis arrest, anthony Sowell told
detectives that he choked hisvictims.
Quote unquote in his dreams hesaid he punished the women he
brought over.
They were bad, he said.
Court documents state that hespecifically resented the fact
(30:54):
that the quote unquote bad womenwere neglecting their children
while walking the streets tofeed their drug habit.
He said he started taking hisanger out on women in the
neighborhood after he and Loribroke up.
He said the women reminded himof his girl, meaning Lori.
There's one information fromhim that would help them
identify the bodies at his home.
(31:15):
He said that when he'd been ata store he saw a flyer with one
of his victims' pictures on it.
It was the missing personposter from Michelle Mason.
He said he felt like he knewher when he looked at it, but
other than that, he didn't givethem any names or helpful
information as to the identitiesof the victims.
All of his victims ended upbeing identified through DNA
(31:36):
analysis.
Anthony Sowell was held in jailin a $5 million bond.
He was charged with 85 countsthat included charges of murder,
kidnapping, rape and abuse of acorpse.
He pleaded not guilty by reasonof insanity, but later changed
his plea to not guilty.
His trial began on June 27,2011.
(31:57):
Survivors of Anthony Sowelltook the stand and told their
stories.
Sean Morris, who jumped out ofthe window to escape Anthony
Sowell, said that when she leftthe stand after testifying, she
spat at Anthony Sowell andcalled him a punk-ass bitch.
She said she was so consumedwith intense hatred for him but
has since forgiven him and letgo of the anger.
(32:20):
She's thankful that she's asurvivor and not a victim.
Anthony Sowell was convicted onall but one of the counts
against him.
The soul not guilty was for acharge of aggravated robbery,
robbery in which he was accusedof stealing $11 from a surviving
victim.
On August 11, 2011, the juryrecommended that Anthony Sowell
(32:45):
be put to death.
Judge Dick Ambrose upheld thejury's death penalty
recommendation and set AnthonySowell's execution date for
October 29, 2012, theanniversary of the discovery of
the first bodies in his house.
But Anthony Sowell appealed hisconviction and his execution
(33:06):
date was delayed until heexhausted all of his appeals.
About four months after histrial ended and two years after
the bodies of 11 women werediscovered there.
On Tuesday, december 6, 2011,the house at 1205 Imperial
Avenue was demolished.
A light rain fell andspectators chanted tear it down,
(33:30):
tear it down to the ground, andamen and hallelujah.
It took about two hours to tearit down completely.
Trucks escorted by policehauled away the debris to a
recycling plant where it wasshredded immediately.
This was to prevent anyone fromtaking anything from the home
to keep as some type of memento.
(33:51):
According to Reuterscom, awebsite sold dirt from Anthony
Sowell's yard where the victimshad been buried for $25.
Near the end of 2019, cuyahogaCounty Assistant Prosecuting
Attorney, chris Schroeder, told19 News in Cleveland.
Quote 10 years have gone by andwe're still only about halfway
(34:12):
through the appellate process.
End quote Anthony Sowell wasstill appealing his sentence
when, on January 21, 2021, hewas moved from death row at
Ohio's Chillicothe CorrectionalInstitution to the end of life
care at the Franklin MedicalCenter Prison Hospital in
Columbus, ohio.
At 3.27 pm on February 6, 2021,anthony Sowell, ohio Department
(34:40):
of Rehabilitation andCorrection in Mate Number
A604609, passed away at the ageof 61.
An Ohio Department ofRehabilitation and Correction
spokeswoman said Anthony Sowelldied of a terminal illness, but
would not specify exactly whatit was.
She did say, however, that hedid not die from COVID-19.
(35:04):
Another victim of Anthony Sowellwas not a living breathing
victim, but a business that wasnext door to his house on
Imperial Avenue.
For years, a rancid, putridstench hung in the air over
123rd Avenue and Imperial Avenue.
Everyone assumed it was fromRay's Sausage next door.
A resident across the streetfrom Anthony Sowell called City
(35:27):
Hall to complain about the odor.
She said it smelled like a deadperson or a dead animal.
City inspectors visited theSausage factory and Ray's
Sausage incurred thousands ofdollars worth of expenses to
make changes like putting in newsewer traps and a new
ventilation system.
Some reports said theseexpenses totaled about $30,000,
(35:50):
but other reports that I cameacross said that they totaled
around $200,000.
However, nothing worked and thesmell would not go away.
Tressa, anthony Sowell's sister, said she'd smelled the awful
smell too when she was in herbrother's house.
The horrible smell evenpermeated his clothes.
(36:11):
Anthony Sowell just blamed iton Ray's Sausage.
The family of Anthony Sowell'smurder victim, crystal Dozier,
filed a claim against the cityof Cleveland.
The family was paid $2,500.
The city of Cleveland also paida combined $1 million to the
families of six women who fellvictim to Anthony Sowell, citing
(36:35):
a botched investigation whichallowed Anthony Sowell to remain
free to go on and murder thosesix women.
The families of Nancy Cobbs,tlacia Fortson, amelda Amy
Hunter, lashonda Long, dianeTurner and Janice Webb split the
$1 million settlement equally.
Two surviving victims ofAnthony Sowell also sued the
(37:00):
city of Cleveland.
The city paid $260,000 tosurviving victim Latundra
Billups and $40,000 to survivingvictim Gladys Wade.
On a very happy note, survivorLatundra Billups went on to earn
a master's degree in socialwork at Cleveland State
University in 2016.
(37:23):
On Saturday, november 6, 2021, amemorial called the Garden of
Eleven Angels was unveiled thathonors the victims of Anthony
Sowell.
Inscribed on the plaque are thewords quote in honor and memory
of the survivors, the victimsboth known and unknown, and the
entire community impacted by theviolent acts that transpired on
(37:45):
Imperial Avenue.
End quote the memorial honorsthe women whose bodies were
found hidden in and around hishome located at 1205 Imperial
Avenue.
The women honored ArtanyaCarmichael, nancy Cobbs,
tashanna Culver, crystal Dozier,tlacia Fortson, amelda Amy
(38:06):
Hunter, lashonda Long, michelleMason, kim Yvette Smith, diane
Turner and Janice Webb.
According to an article by HopeSloup on wkyccom, quote the
Garden of Eleven Angels alsoincludes more than 30 different
varieties of trees, plants andflowers to breathe life into the
(38:28):
space once occupied by Sowell'shome.
End quote.
I wanted to mention thedocumentaries that cover this
case again in case you guyswanted to go and check them out
the 2016 documentary that wasmade about him and his victims
and survivors.
It's called Unseen and you'llbe able to see some of the
survivors and hear them telltheir stories in their own words
(38:51):
.
So it's called Unseen.
It's free on Amazon Prime ifyou have a membership Amazon
Prime membership and also theones on Oxygen.
They put out two episodes andthen the one on Vice, so that's
on YouTube.
So thank you so much forlistening to this episode of
(39:14):
Tell Me a True Crime Story.
Please follow or subscribe tothe podcast and tell your
friends and coworkers and familyabout it and share the podcast
or just share an episode thatyou loved.
Follow the podcast on socialmedia.
Facebook, instagram and TikTokare at Tell Me a True Crime
(39:36):
Story.
Please write a review for thepodcast and give it five stars.
If you listen on Spotify, thathelps me out so much.
Guys.
Remember I'm trying to reach 50reviews on Apple and 30 ratings
on Spotify by Halloween andI'll give you a shout out on the
podcast and read your review.
(39:58):
So this podcast is growing andit's thanks to all of you guys
and it's really inspiring me andmaking all this work really
worth my while, and I justreally appreciate you guys so
much and I hope that you andyour family are happy, healthy
and together forever.
Thank you for being here.
(40:19):
I truly appreciate and loveeach and every one of you, and
join me in episode 33 when I'lltell you another True Crime
Story.
Big hugs to all of you.
Bye, bye.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!