Nobody's Women: The Crimes and Victims of Anthony Sowell, the Cleveland Serial Killer
Read Nobody's Women: The Crimes and Victims of Anthony Sowell, the Cleveland Serial Killer Online
Authors: Steve Miller
PRAISE FOR
Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender
BY
S
TEVE
M
ILLER
“Wanted: more from this author…[A] classic example of fine journalistic reporting…Simply put,
Girl, Wanted
is a fantastic read.”
—
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A Slaying in the Suburbs:
The Tara Grant Murder
BY
S
TEVE
M
ILLER AND
A
NDREA
B
ILLUPS
“Much more than true crime or another update of
An American Tragedy
. It’s an unflinching look inside a marriage and what led to murder.”
—
Creative Loafing
“Very interesting…Very fast paced, intriguing, well written…Once you pick it up, you won’t be able to put it down.”
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True Crime Book Reviews
“An eventful tale of deceit, jealousy, and the ultimate betrayal.”
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Berkley titles by Steve Miller
A SLAYING IN THE SUBURBS
(with Andrea Billups)
GIRL, WANTED
NOBODY’S WOMEN
N
OBODY’S
W
OMEN
The Crimes and Victims
of Anthony Sowell,
the Cleveland Serial Killer
STEVE MILLER
BERKLEY BOOKS, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
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NOBODY’S WOMEN
A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with the author
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley premium edition / October 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Steve Miller.
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ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Cleveland media did a fantastic job of covering this story, one of the biggest to land in its lap in many years. At the risk of omitting some outlets, I have to give all the props I can to the
Plain Dealer
; the Fox, ABC, NBC, and CBS affiliates; the Associated Press; Reuters; the
Call & Post
; Ohio News Network; and Alfi Scruggs at trueslant.com.
Thanks also to Shannon Jamieson Vazquez; Robert Sberna; the Cleveland Police Department; my parents, Boyd and Julie Miller; the cool folks in the Cuyahoga County District Clerk’s office; Chris Fuller; and Andrea Billups.
Photographer Liz Ledford at www.lizledford.com.
OTABLE
P
EOPLE
ANTHONY SOWELL
—convicted serial killer of eleven women
Anthony Sowell’s Family
CLAUDIA GARRISON
—mother
IRENE JUSTICE
—grandmother
JA’OVVONI GARRISON
—Sowell’s nephew
TRESSA GARRISON
—half sister
PATRICIA DAVIS
—half sister
OWEN “UNCLE JUNIOR” DAVIS
—half brother
THOMAS SOWELL SR.
—father
VIRGINIA OGLETREE
—Thomas Sowell Sr.’s first wife. Mother of Anthony Sowell’s half-siblings Allan, Thomas Sowell Jr.
VELMA CLEMONS
—Thomas Sowell Sr.’s second wife
SEGERNA (HENDERSON) SOWELL
—Thomas Sowell Sr.’s third wife
VIRGINIA OLIVER
—Segerna Sowell’s mother
JERMAINE HENDERSON
—Segerna Sowell’s nephew
TWYLA AUSTIN
—high school girlfriend, mother to Anthony Sowell’s daughter, Julie
KIM YVETTE LAWSON
—ex-wife, fellow Marine
LORI FRAZIER
—former live-in girlfriend, and niece of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson
Sowell’s Victims—Deceased
CRYSTAL DOZIER
—last seen May 2007
TISHANA CULVER
—last seen June 2008
LESHANDA LONG
—last seen August 2008
MICHELLE MASON
—last seen October 2008
TONIA CARMICHAEL
—last seen November 2008
KIM “CANDY” Y. SMITH
—last seen January 2009
AMELDA HUNTER
—last seen April 2009
NANCY COBBS
—last seen April 2009
TELACIA FORTSON
—last seen June 2009
JANICE WEBB
—last seen June 2009
DIANE TURNER
—last heard from September 2009
Sowell’s Victims—Alive
MELVETTE SOCKWELL
—assaulted by Sowell in July 1989
VANESSA GAY
—testified that Sowell raped her in September 2008 and that she saw a headless body in his home
GLADYS WADE
—assaulted by Sowell December 2008, testified against him
TANJA DOSS
—former friend whom Sowell turned on and assaulted when she visited his house in April 2009
LATUNDRA BILLUPS
—assaulted by Sowell in September 2009
SHAWN MORRIS
—claims she was assaulted by Sowell in October 2009
Police Officers and Lawyers
RICHARD BOMBIK
—Cuyahoga County Assistant District Attorney, prosecutor
PINKEY CARR
—Cuyahoga County Assistant District Attorney, prosecutor
RUFUS SIMS
—Sowell defense attorney
JOHN P. PARKER
—Sowell defense attorney
GEORGIA HUSSEIN
—Sex crimes unit, Cleveland Police Department
LEM GRIFFIN
—Homicide Detective, Cleveland Police Department
MELVIN SMITH
—Homicide Detective, Cleveland Police Department
CHARLES LOCKE
—Cleveland police officer, arrested Sowell on Halloween 2009
RONALD ROSS
—Cleveland police sergeant, tried to ID Sowell after he was arrested
MICHAEL BAUMILLER
—Cleveland police lieutenant, investigated Sowell as part of the sex crimes unit, Cleveland Police Department
NTRODUCTION
At the airport for my first visit to Cleveland to research this book, I got my car at Enterprise, and the fellow asked me what I was doing in town. I told him I was writing about Anthony Sowell, and he was fascinated.
“You know Jeffrey Dahmer grew up forty miles south of here,” he said, trying to get some serial-killer cred. “I know people who saw the tortured animal carcasses.”
At the Hampton Inn hotel downtown, the clerk asked me why I was in town. “Business or pleasure?” she asked sweetly.
I told her, and she too was intrigued. She knew every quirk of the story. “You know black serial killers are very rare,” she said. “This all happened just a few miles from here. He’s going to get the death penalty. He thinks he can act all crazy and get off, but no way. He was a smart guy.”
Then she added, “It gave Cleveland some attention that we didn’t want.”
On numerous occasions when I’ve been talking with a group or an individual, the question of criminal motivation comes up. Most people are beside themselves when trying to get inside the head of someone who has committed tragic and savage misdeeds, seeking the ever-elusive
why?
element.
I think of the line from Noah Cross, the character in the movie
Chinatown
played impeccably by John Huston. Cross is explaining to Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson), the private investigator, that there is a reasonable explanation for the most depraved of conduct: “You see, Mr. Gittes, most people never have to face the fact that at the right time and the right place, they’re capable of
anything
.”
Anthony Sowell, like wife-killer Stephen Grant in my first book,
A Slaying in the Suburbs
, and Sarah Pender, the killer in my last book,
Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender
, was indeed capable of anything.
Sowell’s disarming, civilized speaking patterns belie a monster who killed compulsively and violently. He kept the bodies in his apartment, his basement, and his yard. The rotting corpses smelled, but he still kept them close, though he toiled with great attention to detail to keep the odors at bay, buying bags of limestone powder and wrapping the bodies in up to six layers of plastic. He actually
thought
about it deeply. Not that the stench bothered him personally—he had no problem eating McDonald’s
in a room just down the hall from where four dead bodies lay, with maggots and flies crawling on them. To him, the biggest problem was that the smell had the neighbors’ tongues wagging.
