A Serial Killer's Free Rein

AP Photo No one cared about Cleveland’s missing black women until it turned out to be the work of a serial killer. Now the cops and the media are all over us—about four years too late.

On November 3, as a Republican electoral insurgency made headlines across the country, all of the media air was sucked out of Cleveland by the apprehension of Anthony Sowell, a convicted sex offender and accused serial killer who it seems has been systematically murdering women in his quiet, stable inner-city neighborhood for as long as four years. The number of victims currently stands at 11 black women, some of whom were reportedly drug abusers. As one local resident said to me, “They seem to only have value in death.”

I graduated from high school with Allen Sowell, the older half-brother of the alleged murderer. He went on to become a social worker and respected member of the community, and recently retired from a local child-welfare agency. I attempted to call him but his voicemail was full; a friend who resides on the same suburban block as he does said he’s fairly sure that Allen and his family packed up and left a few days after the story broke.

The question I wanted to ask Allen I already knew has no rational answer: How can two brothers (albeit, half-brothers) turn out so radically different? Similar questions will haunt Cleveland, and indeed, the entire nation—as they always do when we discover a monster in our midst—for years to come.

“They were both naked, and she was bleeding from the mouth and nose,” says Laster. A former linebacker and a great deal bigger than Sowell, he ordered the accused murderer to freeze.

But perhaps they should have haunted us sooner. The numerous candlelight vigils and prayer sessions held for the victims have taken on an angry tone as community residents accuse the police of doing little, if anything, to alert the citizenry or launch an investigation, despite complaints of a foul odor hanging in the air in the neighborhood for years. After one woman broke free from the alleged killer in September and reported the attempted rape, it still took an incredible 37 days before police finally visited the house of horrors and discovered the first two decomposing bodies.

“Everyone failed these women, and everyone needs to take responsibility for their part of the failure,” said Zack Reed, the city councilman who represents the ward where the crimes occurred. “The only way these families are going to get closure is for all of us to apologize, but the police department is basically saying they bear no responsibility, and this flies in the face of what has transpired here.”

Friction between black communities and police departments certainly isn’t excusive to Cleveland, but there’s a sense here that the strained relations will only worsen as this incident unfolds.

Take the example of Don Laster, who attempted to rescue a woman from Sowell’s clutches on October 20. “I was driving down his street when a young guy flagged me down and rushed me over to a side yard,” Laster told me. When Laster looked into the yard, he saw Sowell and a woman. “They were both naked, and she was bleeding from the mouth and nose,” says Laster. A former linebacker and a great deal bigger than Sowell, he ordered the accused murderer to freeze.

Laster, who is a longtime friend of mine, works on houses in the neighborhood. He knew of Sowell, and says word on the street was that Sowell “was a scrapper,” meaning he’d go into abandoned homes and strip out the valuable copper piping. Laster says he gave Sowell a sweatshirt and told him to cover the woman up. “I said, ‘Put it on her gently,’ then I told him not to move.” He then called 911, and when a fire truck arrived, he says Sowell grabbed the woman and pulled her into the house. The firefighters followed them in, and Laster left the scene.

But he says despite giving his contact information to the 911 dispatcher, the police have yet to call him to follow up. “If you go into a police precinct to make out a complaint they usually treat you like a suspect,” says Laster, “and they’re never going to admit to doing anything wrong.” This apparent official indifference may sound preposterous to many, but black people know it all too well—it happens in our neighborhoods in inner-city Cleveland, and all across the country, every day.