All language subtitles for Very.Scary.People.S06E01.The.Cleveland.Strangler.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-RAWR_track3_[eng]

He invited me to go
with him to his house.

It seemed like
it was all right.

We finally got to his house.

The air was thick
with just something
not good.

Those eyes went black.

He wasn't there.

He kept telling me,

"You don't deserve
what I'm about to do to you."

I'm thinking...

-"Is this how
I'm gonna die?"

Welcome to very scary people.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

In 2007, women began
vanishing from the streets
of Cleveland, Ohio.

They all had
one thing in common.

They were all last seen
in the city's
Mount Pleasant neighborhood.

In the middle
of this community

was an unassuming house,

The man who lived there
was friendly,

and always ready
to lend a hand.

But behind closed doors,
that friendly neighbor

was actually
a vicious psychopath.

And that
unassuming house,

was his personal
House of horrors.

Home to the worst
serial killer

Cleveland has ever seen.

This is the
Cleveland Strangler.

My sergeant received
a telephone call

from SWAT requesting
that a homicide unit

come to the location
of 12205 Imperial Avenue.

We were informed
at that time,

that detectives had started
an investigation of a suspect

in a rape case by the name
of Anthony Sowell.

And 12205 Imperial
was in fact

the residence
of Anthony Sowell.

Now we were responding
to a suspected homicide,

but Anthony Sowell
was not present.

He was gone upon arrival.

When we arrived
at the outside grass lawn,

the house seemed
to be unkept.

But there was nothing
unusual at this time
that I saw.

Everything changed
the moment we entered
the rear door.

That's when
the smell hit you.

No, it was faint.

You could smell it.
But it didn't reach
this extreme point yet.

I've seen a lot
of dirty houses

and unkept
and untidy houses.

But this was extreme.

Clothing everywhere,
garbage everywhere.

Seemed like the person
whoever lived there

wherever they decided
to discard something.

Whatever it was,
it was discarded
in that location.

Now, you can't see
two feet in front of you

unless you use a flashlight.

So you're not sure

what you're gonna bump into
or what you're gonna feel

Our area of entrance
was the third floor.

And as you
proceeded upward,

the smell became
stronger and stronger.

Then we're following
the SWAT unit

to this locked door,
this closed room.

But we're in a tight hallway.

Now you're
starting to feel

this smell physically,
into your throat.

Into your nose.

Depending on your
gag reflex,

it may make you throw up,
and it may not,

But I'm
a homicide detective.

We have a job to do.

And now we
move into this room...

...and this is not
gonna be good.

The neighborhood
is called Mount Pleasant.

It's a working class
African American neighborhood

where families lived
for generations.

Neighbors hung out
on the porch,

played cards, dice,
chess, checkers.

Everybody knew everybody.

People could walk
to the corner store,

walk to the pizza shop
or sandwich shop.

The people who lived there
for generations and decades.

They loved
the neighborhood.

They weren't leaving.
It was where they were born
and raised in Cleveland.

It was Cleveland.

Oh, my goodness!

We have parties,
street parties.

We knew
all the neighbors.

If somebody
got in trouble,

you know, the neighbor
would call your mom,

and then you would be
in trouble with the neighbor
and your mom.

It's into this
vibrant Cleveland neighborhood

that Anthony Sowell
is born.

Anthony was a good child.

Good in school.

He had a lot of friends.

He used to go out
and play baseball
with his friends

or they would play
basketball right there

in front of the house
or up at the park.

The house that
Anthony grew up in
was large.

Myself, my brother,
my sister,

seven children.

My grandmother
and my mother lived

in the house on page.

Anthony's father had lived
in the house on Imperial.

When my sister
passed away

prior to my mom
getting the house,

The children
were in foster care,

but they weren't
being taken care of

and so they asked my mom
to take the kids in.

At times it was
stressful, definitely.

Because there
was so many of us.

The house was expensive
for a single black mother.

My mother worked
three jobs.

In order to keep it up.

And so it was hard.

With 11 people
under her roof
and a mountain of debt.

Anthony's mother does
what she thinks is right

to keep the house in order.

My mother was raised
the old fashioned way.

You get a whooping period.

One time
he got punched

because she was mad

about not doing
his housework.

Anthony was growing up
in an environment

where physical abuse
likely mental verbal,

emotional abuse
was so common

that it became
part of who he is.

The kid's got the belt
and the switch as well.

Just because someone
is abused doesn't mean

that they're going
to become an abuser.

But many people
who become abusers

have suffered abuse
in their own history.

But young Anthony

is subject to something
more horrific

than abusive punishment.

He was witnessing abuse
constantly in the home.

His niece was raped
multiple times

by the family members.

At 12-years-old,
he was learning

that it was okay to rape
his own niece in the house.

So he also
participated in it.

When Anthony is 18,

he announces he's
leaving home
to join the military.

His mother
kind of mocked him,

said he wouldn't
survive in the military.

And he joined the Marines
to prove her wrong.

Anthony as a child,
was already exposed
to violence,

and now he joins the Marines
where he's learning

how to take his anger
and apply it,

learning how to fight people,

learning how
to take someone down.

In his first
few years as a Marine.

Anthony is the
perfect soldier.

His good behavior
earns him medals

and letters
of appreciation.

Then he's
stationed in Okinawa,

and that's when
things change.

He starts acting out
and getting into bar fights.

He never dealt with the fact
that there was abuse and rape

going on in his household.

So he started drinking,

likely to kind of cope
with some of that

negative trauma
that was revamping
all in his brain.

He was ignoring it,
pretending that
it never happened.

Anthony Sowell
was discharged

from the Marine Corps
in 1985.

He moved back into his home
on Page Avenue.

Anthony
comes home to find

that his old neighborhood,

is very different from the one
that he left behind.

The change
happened in mid '80.

When crack flooded the many
urban cities in America

and Cleveland's
one of them that suffered.

Because of the drugs,

gang activity had increased

in the Mount Pleasant area,

Violent crime
went up,

robberies went up,
burglaries went up.

It was still a good community,
but it was starting to decay

and slowly get worse
and worse and worse.

And it isn't
just the neighborhood
that's changed.

He was totally
different after he came out
of the Marines.

The least little thing
would upset him.

So after Sowell
left the military,

he's going back
to Cleveland,

and it's all brought
right back to his brain.

That this is where
I was raised.

This is where I socialized.
This is where abuse happens.

It kind of is going
to be a re-triggering
moment to him.

It's inevitable that
he's going to act out

on those old desires
on his old behaviors.

That violence
that was ingrained into him
at such a young age.

My name
is Melvette Sockwell

I grew up in a domestic
violence situation.

My mom, now that
I look back on it,

God rest her soul,

she was doing the best
that she knew how to do.

So I was a runaway

and I learned
to live on the streets,

so I learned to adjust
to the street life.

I was sitting,
like on a concrete stoop,
and I saw him.

He was talking
to another young lady.

But I didn't care.

I just wanted
to use his phone.

So I'm like,
"Hey, can I use
your phone?"

So he looks at me.

And he was like,
"Yeah, well, I live up here.

We're gonna go
through the back door."

And I'm like, I didn't
think nothing of it.

He says, "Well, come on,
I live upstairs

and I wanted
to disturb my sister."

She was sleep
on the couch.

So, honey,
when we get upstairs.

We gone up there,
he said, "Well, here's
my room right here."

He said "Here you sit here."

Which he had my
back to the door.

And I heard him close it.

So but when he
came back in

he came
from behind me,

he had a knife
as long as my arm.

He put the knife
right here. I said,
"Oh, no."

Honey, he hogtied me
like a pig.

He said, um,

"Say your prayers

Because I'm gonna
feed you.

Then I'm gonna
kill you."

For several days,
Anthony repeatedly assaulted,

raped and beat Melvette

and wouldn't let her leave

and threatened he would
kill her if she didn't leave.

Actually,
how many days
I was in that room?

My hand to God,
I really don't know.

Because I was traumatized.

When he
was a child,

he was learning
from the environment

he was in to rape,
beat, torture, his niece.

And so he was re-enacting
those traumas on Melvette.

Anthony transformed
into the devil.

Because he no longer had

red or white in his eyes.

It was black.

Like he was a demon,

like he was
under possession.

And all I knew
was I don't want
to die like this.

Why did I come here?

And I couldn't
plead with him

because he had me
bound and gagged.

So when he finally
did go to sleep,

like an inchworm.

I got to the window.

I didn't care if I broke
every bone in my body.

I just needed
to get out of that house.

I knew that
I would be safe.

I used my head
to raise that window up,

and what saved me
was a ledge.

So I didn't actually
fall to the ground.

There was like
a a little roof type
that caught me.

I saw two old ladies,

when I said "Mmm,
mmm, mmm."

Then I turned around
and I showed her my hand.

And I could hear
her saying, "My God!"

And I knew
I was saved.

I could hear
the fire truck coming.

I could see the police
because I'm outside
on the roof. But then--

Something grabbed me
back through the window.

I'm thinking it's him
and I'm screaming.

But it was his sister.

When I saw Melvette

she had a rope in her hand,
but her hands weren't tied.

I asked her why
she was on the roof.

She said, "Because he tied
me up and put me out here."

I said, "Well, why would
you not come in?"

She said, "Because I
was scared to."

I just couldn't believe it.

She also said
that he raped her.

I couldn't
believe that, either.

He told his sister Teresa
that Melvette set him up

to steal from him.

I think somebody
tried to break into the house.

I think
it was her friend.

She was working
with somebody else.

God bless her
because she carried that lie.

Like, "Oh, my brother
didn't do that.

She was stealing
from him."

When the police
took me to the hospital,

Yeah, they did their
little routine rape kit.

They didn't give me
anything to put on
but the hospital gown.

I had nobody to call
to bring me clothes

because at this point
I just I want out of here.

So I'm walking down
East Cleveland

with a hospital gown
with my whole derriere
hanging out.

Because just only
hours ago, I'm hogtied,

wondering if I'm gonna
live or die.

They knew
what the man did to me.

They knew.

And I was left
to fend for myself.

Anthony Sowell
was arrested for kidnapping

and raping
Melvette Sockwell.

When Anthony
told the police

that he was paying
for sex with Melvette,

he was trying
to find an excuse

as to why this happened.

Then he could claim
he doesn't remember

because drugs, alcohol,

anything else that might have
kind of cut that memory out.

And he's sentenced
to 5-15 years in prison.

He continued to maintain
his innocence

for the rape of Melvette,
despite pleading guilty to it.

While he was in prison,
he had to fill out
a questionnaire

where you were given a prompt
and you fill in the blank.

One of the prompts
was most women,

and in the blank space,
he wrote, "Just tell lies."

It pissed him off
that he did 15 years
for that rape.

But I didn't believe it.

No.

During his
15-year prison term,

Anthony Sowell is on his
best behavior.

He was released
in 2005 after serving
his full sentence.

He's back on the streets
of Cleveland.

And Melvette
has to hear about it
through the grapevine.

When he got out,

-I called the police
department myself.

Told them who I was

and why wasn't I notified
that he was out of prison?

The snobby, nasty
police officer said

he'd done his time
for what he did to you.

So there was no reason
to notify you.

And I became frightened
all over again.

It was years that
I stayed in the house.

And I didn't come outside

because see,
now I've got this awful thing
that happened to me.

That left me
traumatized, nightmares.

But if they had
listen to me,

and took in consideration

of what this man
was capable of doing.

Women would still
be alive to this day.

Anthony Sowell's life
changed a little bit
when he got out of prison.

Once he was released,
he moved in with his father.

On Imperial.

Because his father
had a whole house

and it had a third floor
and a second floor
that was empty.

After his father
passed away,

it became Anthony's
permanent home.

Friends and family
see a change in Sowell,

this time for the better.

He was doing good.

He was doing real good.

He worked at a factory

he was seeing a counselor.

I actually had talked
to the counselor on the phone.

She said he was doing
really good in his program.

And he was doing everything
he was supposed to.

He talked to people.

He hung out,
shared a beer,

shared a drink
with them on the porch,

play dice, play cards,
checkers, barbecued hot dogs.

The people
within the neighborhood

actually liked him.

He was like a jack
of all trades.

He would help them
with different things.

Painting.

He would cook.

Anything electrical
he would help out with.

He looked like
a normal neighborhood
guy who lived there.

Fit in with the crowd,

didn't draw attention
to himself.

It looks like Sowell
is turning things around

when a new woman
enters his life

and changes his heart.

The day I met
Anthony Sowell,

I was walking down Buckeye

and I wanted
something to drink

and I didn't have
no money.

So Anthony was coming
down the street.

When I first saw him,
I thought he was a nice guy.

He was clean cut,
well dressed.

Well mannered.

Talked real nice.

And he asked me,
did I want to go to the bar
and have a drink?

So I said, I want
to go with you.

So we went in the bar.
We sat down and ate, drank.

I told him
I wanted some crack,

so he picked me up
some crack

and we went to his house.

He never smoked,
I only smoked.

and he was okay with it.

He went to work.

He cleaned the house.
He cooked for me.

And he took care of me.

He was a nice boyfriend.

He was um... gentle.

He did everything for me.

He was a nice guy.

He finds in her
what he's always
kind of been looking for.

Someone to love him.
Someone to care for him.

His mom, you know,
that's the person

that everyone
is supposed

to be able to trust
is their mother.

She failed him.
She didn't protect him.

She didn't save him.
She didn't believe in him.

He meets Lori,
she accepts his past.

Anthony told me that
he had did 15 years
for raping a lady.

But then he told me
that he didn't do it.

And I believe that because
the way he treated me,

I didn't think
nothing else of it.

So she becomes
this perfect person,

this relationship
that he always wanted.

And doesn't ever
want to lose

because she
is someone to trust.

He would refer
to his mother as a bitch.

Sowell didn't tell
anyone about his mother.

It's the trauma
that he just shut in a box

and just kept that
all to himself until
he met Lori.

She was the one person
in his entire life
he could truly trust.

I was happy
with Anthony.

But he started changing
as time went on.

At first, when I met Anthony,
he didn't smoke crack,

and after a little while
we started smoking together.

He was trying to get her clean
and end up started smoking.

Himself.

Anthony was smoking
from sunup to sundown,

Things began
to change for Anthony

when he lost his job.

He started breaking
into houses to steal copper.

He started taking stuff
out of abandoned houses.

Taking it to the junkyard

Getting money
and he just started
looking so nasty.

I didn't want him
to touch me.

When I seen his hands

look like he
was working on cars

and this--
he just turned me off.

2007, my mother
passed away,

so I decided
to stop everything

and go home
with my children.

Yeah, I told Anthony

that I had to get
my life together.

She got clean,
and now he was dirty.

After she left,

I seen that anger
that I had seen

after he was discharged.

He still loved her,

but that probably
was a moment where
he really flipped.

That breakup,

turned into a breaking point
for Anthony Sowell.

Between Lori's leaving him
and his heavy drug use.

A darkness
overtakes him,

and Cleveland will never
be the same again.

In June 2007, 35-year-old
Crystal Dozier went missing.

She was a mother of seven,

In 2008, Tishana Culver
went missing.

She was known
for her kindness,

but she also battled
substance abuse.

Leshanda Long went missing
shortly after.

She was known
as the backbone of her family.

Michelle Mason went missing
in October 2008.

She was a strong woman,
loved by her family,

Many people didn't know
these women were missing.

Unfortunately, they didn't
garner headlines

in the newspaper
or on the TV stations.

It didn't draw the attention
of a wider audience

to realize that
there was a problem

going on in this
neighborhood

and that somebody needs
to intervene. Nobody did.

In the air following
his breakup with Lori,

four women vanished
from the neighborhood
of Mount Pleasant.

Their families
hit the streets

desperately trying to find
their missing daughters,

sisters and mothers.

What no one knew
was that Sowell's
reign of terror

was about to get
much worse.

We responded
to the suspected homicide,

at 12205 Imperial.

Upon arriving
to the house,

we went straight up
to the 3rd floor area,

We moved
into this room

and I observed two bodies
on the floor,

badly decomposed,
to the point that we
can't determine gender,

male or female,
we don't know.

Based upon the size
we think it's an adult.

The victims
were strangled

and the rope or cords
or whatever ligature he used.

He left them
with the body.

The odor from the bodies
was tremendous.

The odors will adhere
to your clothing.

You'll have to wash them
or you'll destroy them.

In this particular
crime scene,

We didn't have any
knowledge of what
was going on.

And it is very important
that we be careful

as to where we walk,
what we touch,

what we pick up,
what we move,

because everything
is considered evidence.

One of the things
that really stuck
in my head

was the amount
of dead flies

in that room.

That degree of insect
infestation tells us

that these bodies
have been here
for a long time.

So now you have
two victims here.

Whoever is committing
what I suspect is a homicide

has no regards for anyone.

Who could put these
bodies there?

And live there under those
conditions of the stench.

It is a stench
that's the worst stench
you can ever imagine.

So that alone is just--
it surpasses what anyone
could think

about what was happening
in that home.

Who was living there?

How was he living there?

That was the question.

I still think about it.

This case, uh,
you can't forget it.

And I was wondering,
were there any more bodies?

Was this it?

By the fall of 2008,

there are four women missing
from Mount Pleasant.

And soon there will be a 5th.

Tonia Carmichael
was a good mom

who was responsible,
caring

But she also liked going out
and having a good time

going to parties
like extravagant events.

She left her house
in the suburb.

Later on, that night,
she ended up in the Imperial
Avenue neighborhood,

and she went missing.

Her truck
was later found

down the street
from Sowell's house.

Tonia was extremely
close with her family

when she didn't come home
and later went missing.

That caused
concern for family

because she always
returned home.

After her family filed
a missing person's report.

They didn't stop there.

They posted missing
flyers and posters
all across the neighborhood.

When Crystal Dozier
went missing,

her family went
to multiple police districts

and police stations.

As they were bounced around
between stations

like a ping pong ball.

Nobody knew which one
should take the report.

Because she lived
outside of the city.

That played into
where she should be
reported missing.

Leshanda Long
was living in East Cleveland

and traveling to the area
of Mount Pleasant.

Mr. Long made
a police report

for his daughter
being missing
in East Cleveland.

But we wouldn't
have never received

that information
in Cleveland.

Unfortunately,
looking back at that,

that was probably
one of the flaws
of missing persons.

They never shared
that information
between departments.

There was at the time,
no network

in regards
to missing persons.

It's all happening around
the same neighborhood.

And they're all very
similar life stories.

Very similar back stories.
Very similar people.

A lot of them struggled
with drug addiction.

They were the kind of people
that the police would not
be out looking for.

The streets knew this
a long time before
any of us did.

It's one of the marks
of shame

that we have
as a community here.

That this was such
an open secret
in the community

and people just weren't
working on it.

Missing women
aren't the only thing

that has the community
on edge.

There was a stench.

The stench was the talk
of the neighborhood.

The neighbors were complaining
that the smell was so bad

that they couldn't live
in that neighborhood anymore.

Next door
to Anthony Sowell

was a sausage factory,
Ray's sausage

and everyone thought that
the older that they smelled,

came from this
particular building.

The owner of Ray's sausage
put a lot of money

and invested a lot
of money in cleaning

what he thought
needed to be clean.

But the smell
persisted at times.

It didn't permeated every day,
but certain times

is when it did permeate
the neighborhood

or anything close
to the neighborhood.

I didn't smell
nothing up in the house
when I was there.

After I got clean,

I went to see Anthony
about three or four times.

I tried to tell him
to go to AA
get some help.

We could probably
be together

if he, you know,
get himself together.

But he would
never would go.

The first time I went
to see Anthony,

I get off work.

He was at home.

The house was bad
and everything,

and he was looking
real bad.

Anthony looked
like a monster.

He looked dirty,
not shaved.

Just horrible.

So I wanted to get
something out the room,

a piece of my
clothing that I had.

When I was over there,
I left it there.

I was going up
to this front room

and he jumped up
and ran and stopped
me and said,

"What you want--
What you wanna-- You need
something out of there?"

So I said, "No.
Just leave it right there.
I don't even want it."

I kept going
to visit him.

But every time I go,
there's something
different going on.

One time
I went in one room,

I seen lye bag in the room
on the floor

and I seen cords.

He got
real secluded.

Didn't want anybody
in the house.

Didn't want to be
around nobody.

Just kind of--

Now that I think
back on it

kind of giving up
on himself.

Man, I tried
to talk to him

and asked him what was wrong,
but he didn't tell me.

And then he has
sores on his head.

He had his throat cut.

His face
was scratched up.

I would ask Anthony about it,
but he always had an excuse.

Like he said he was in
an abandoned house

and that something
fell on his head.

Or he was going
through the park

and he asked
somebody for a light

and they slit his throat.

I believe everything
Anthony told me

about the injuries
that he had

because I didn't expect him
to do nothing like this.

There were
two Anthony Sowell,

there was the one that
interacted with his neighbors,

who was described
as affable, friendly,

would shovel their snow,

would help them
run errands,

would have barbecues
with them,

and he would talk to them
about current events.

What's going on
in the neighborhood?

What's that smell
in the neighborhood?

He cut grass,
go to the store

for people and he was--

he did some
good things for people.

And then
there was the other
Anthony Sowell,

the one who only
revealed himself

to these women
when they were alone
in his house.

I do think
he learned from his mom

how to have these
two different personas.

The outside person,
the inside person.

So his mom inside
the home was abusive.

Outside the home,

it was totally
fine and normal
to any observer.

And so through that,
Anthony learned to socialize

inside his
violent tendencies

outside to be
an upstanding citizen

that can get along
with everyone.

Neighborly person.

Everyone likes him.

On the inside
he was committing these
horrible, heinous acts.

Where no one ever
even suspected him.

In the decaying
neighborhood

in which Sowell lived.

It is the perfect
place for him

to commit these
gruesome crimes.

It was a high
crime neighborhood,

predominantly
black community,

and unfortunately,
that was largely
part of the problem

that the police
were ignoring it.

Cleveland didn't have
a missing persons unit.

You just called the detectives
at the Detective Bureau,

and they may or may not
have made time for this.

Officially, we do not look
for people missing

unless there is a official
missing person's report made.

And checking the reports

we did not see any official
missing persons reports

for most of the victims.

I hate to say that,
but that's true.

Me being a black
police officer, detective.

I can understand that
there was mistrust

between the black community

and the police department.

Their thinking
was that they're not
going to do anything

for my loved ones,

so maybe if we
do it ourselves,

then will be more effective
than the Police Department.

He was able to keep
bringing in these victims,

and he keeps
getting away with it.

If you get away with things
over and over again,

why are you gonna get--
think you're gonna
get caught the next time?

This case was really
just a perfect storm

of every the risk factor
you could possibly have.

Take a convicted
sex offender

with a crack,
cocaine addiction

put him in a densely
populated urban area.

Surrounded by people.

Who the police
will not go looking for
once they're missing.

And then you give him

six years of United States
Marine Corps

military training.

And an intense,
misogynistic hatred.

And it's a recipe
for disaster,

and that's exactly
what happened
in this case.

So we found
two decomposed bodies

on the third floor
in the south bedroom.

Now we decided
to check any closet,

in any enclosed area.

We need to make sure

that we leave
nothing unchecked.

Until we make sure
that there's not a body.

What we discovered

was there were two
plastic garbage bags.

We knew one,
it was full of clothing.

But there was another
garbage bag.

It was tied up.

Unfortunately tapping
in the bag and touching it,

we discovered
that it was not clothing.

There was actually another
body in that plastic bag.

And that was located
on the floor

next to the two
victims that we discovered
on the floor.

Now, as a homicide
detective,

you're thinking.

Okay, we discover
another body in the bag.

How many bodies are there?

We need to be
checking everything.

There was a large mound
of dirt in the basement,

And when I say large,

this is extremely
large and unusual

to have this much dirt
under a stairway

leading to the basement.

You stuck the shovel
into the pile of dirt

Immediately,
the decomp smell

would start to emanate
from the dirt.

We felt that this could be
a victim as well.

They uncovered another body

under that dirt.

The ligature
was still there.

He just decided this the way
I'm going to kill you.

And this is the way
I'm gonna bury you.

With it around your neck.

This is the fourth
dead body police
have discovered

in Anthony Sowell
House of horrors.

Further investigating
the basement

We found the skull

in a red bucket.

No flesh on the skull.

But it was a human skull.

What came
into your mind

automatically
was where's the body?

We never
discovered or found the body.

I think he buried it
somewhere different.

And then the crew
went back to the third floor

because now
we have daylight hours.

We're gonna do
further investigation.

We're gonna look
for more evidence.

There was a crawl space
in there, saw a bedroom,

and there was a large mound
of dirt in the crawlspace.

So we organized a dig party
for that as well.

And we discovered
another body
in the crawl space.

And during that process,

Anthony Sowell
is still missing.

Police discover multiple
decomposed bodies

at the House of horrors.

And they're not even
done searching.

How many women
has Anthony Sowell killed?

And how many
more will die

before they can
track him down?

I was in homicide
for about eight years.

So I've seen
some crime scenes

that was really terrible.

But the number of bodies
I've never seen that before.

And the way they were
hidden and buried.

Never seen that before.

Most of the victims
were killed through
ligature strangulation.

When the police arrive
on the scene,

people come out.

They want to know
what's going on.

The media,
they're reporting it

It had spread
panic throughout the city.

They're seeing us
pull our bodies

on carts going
to the coroner's office.

Who are the bodies?

What's going on?

Why are all these
bodies here?

Because of the stage
of decomposition

of their bodies,

we could not make
proper identification.

Multiple people
showed up

holding photos
and it became,

Oh no. Could these women
be in the house?

They were holding
candles, flowers,

but they stood silent
and you're seeing tears.

I stayed
right down the street,

I wouldn't have
never thought

nothing like that
being in one house.

I got a knock
on the door.

It wasn't the police.

It was somebody
that had been at the house.

And all they said was
they found somebody
dead in the house.

Now my kids
are crying.

Everybody is hysterical

because we're thinking

it's Anthony
in the house dead.

No one
would ever think

Anthony was capable
of doing this.

He was smooth with people.

He was so smooth
and clever.

I went over there,
but they wouldn't let me in.

They just said we found
somebody dead in the house.

We'll come
and we'll talk to you.

You have two
decomposed bodies

that was taken out
the first day.

the three decomposed
bodies that was taken out
the next day.

And a skull that
was in a red bucket.

Could there be bodies
in the backyard as well?

I had walked outside

and walked
to the backyard.

What made this backyard

particularly different
was it was lumpy.

There were areas in which

where you would
suspect the lawn
to be leveled,

or smooth, even though
the grass is high,

We had mounds
in which there was dirt.

No grass growing there.

Why is this mound here?

We had a K-9 come

and the handler
took the dog throughout
the backyard.

There was a spot
closer to the house,

the bush right
at the back stairs.

The dog had sort of hit
on that spot,

so we broke ground.

And now we found
there was an additional body.

In the yard.

Two o'clock,
the 19 action news
chopper arrives

over Anthony Sowell's house
after sources told us

they found more bodies
in the backyard.

The rest
of the bodies

were found
in the rear yard.

And it was
escalated gingerly.

Because 15 inches
on the ground.

That's how deep they were.
Only 15 inch.

We found five
more in backyard.

It was very personal.

I live southeast
of that location.

You have girls.
You spoil them.

You want to be
their protector.

I felt that way.

And so, seeing these
women become victims

of a person like this,

I felt like man,
It's just too close.

You could see
the panic

in everybody's eyes

that how bad is this
going to get?

Kyana Hunt
has not seen her mom,

Nancy Cobbs,
in six months.

I called a top
law enforcement official

at the Cleveland
Police Department

who was inside the scene.

And I said,
"If I report right now

is the number 11,
is that accurate?"

He says, "It is accurate.
God help us."

I sat on
the porch watching

when that
story published

the screaming
and wailing occurred

Mothers broke down.

They fell
to their knees.

People ran around.

They were just in
shock and fear.

I've never seen anything
like that and never
want to see it again.

As police remove

one body after another
from Sowell's house.

One question hangs
over everything.

Where is Anthony Sowell?

He got the name
the Cleveland Strangler

from the news media.

And once everything
started getting out

into the media,
it was chaos.

People were
seeing him everywhere.

I was telling my guys.

It's like the
Michael Myers effect.

From the movie Halloween.

Everybody saw him
everywhere.

There was reports that
he was at his sister's house,

walking down the street
with a beer in his hand.

But they were all
dead ends,

and Halloween
was the next day.

And there was concern
amongst many mothers

should they cancel
Halloween because this man
was on the loose.

Police searched
for this monster
on the eve of Halloween,

but they had a chance
to zero in on him

a year earlier in 2008,

when one of his
surviving victims

told her horrifying story
to Cleveland investigators.

I never knew
Anthony Sowell

before that day.

I didn't grow up
in Mount Pleasant,

and I just became
an honorary member.

I was a happy
mother of four.

well balanced children,

you know, we sat down
to dinner together.

We played together.

We learned together.

We worshiped together.

I was working
a full time job,

and then started
my own business.

I met my husband,

and that's how I got
introduced to drugs.

I started off going down
to Mount Pleasant,

probably about
once a week,

to purchase drugs,

and it just
got to the point

where I didn't
go back home.

When I first met Anthony,

I was standing
near the bus stop,

and he comes
walking past

And he says,
"It's my birthday.

Ain't nobody
celebrating my birthday."

And I said, "Happy birthday."

He invited me
to go with him to his house,

celebrate his birthday.

He said he had

some crack and some drink
and some weed at the house.

He said, and, um...

He asked me,
did I want to come?

We started to walk
to his house.

And as we were walking,

there were people,

you know, waving to him.

He got a lot of respect

as we walked to the house.

It seemed like
it was all right.

We finally got to his house.

When he opened the door,

I could just feel the...

I could feel
the eeriness, the...

the air.

It was thick with just

something not good.

And...

by that time,

it's too late to turn around.

As we went

to where he stayed,
in the third floor,

you could smell

a smell.

And he explained
the smell away.

He said,
"That's the smell coming
from the sausage factory."

So...

we're sitting there.

He was talking about
a relationship

that he was in...

where the girl
did him so wrong.

How he hated her for that.

Those eyes went black.

He... He was...

He wasn't there.

I see them eyes.

That's the most...

Empty, lifeless...

evil I've ever seen.

Ever.

I ain't never seen
nothing like that before.

He turned around
and punched me in my face.

For the next hours and hours,

it was all bad.

And he kept...

He kept telling me...

"You don't deserve
what I'm about to do to you."

I'm thinking,
"What that mean?"

He kept telling me,

he gonna throw me
in the closet

for three days
and not let me out. I mean...

What do that mean?

But...

as...

as he hit me
and raped me and whatever,

I'm thinking,

"Is this how I'm gonna die?"

Ain't nobody gonna
know where I'm at. I'm...

My family ain't gonna know.

I finally asked,
"Could I use the bathroom?"

So he said, "Yeah."

And when he went to
walk me to the bathroom,

there was a space

where there was a tarp.

The tarp was pinned back.

And out the corner
of my eye...

I look at...

I know I don't see
what I'm seeing.

Looked like a body.

It ain't had no head on it.

It was wrapped up

in plastic.

I've never

seen nothing

like that in my life ever.

Never.

I didn't even

let him know that I seen it,

or that I acknowledged it,

or I think he would have...

I don't know
what he would have did.

Most likely, Anthony knew

she was gonna see that body.

He knows where it was.

Why would you just leave
a headless body there

if not to cause fear?

It was the next day.

He was contemplating on

what he was gonna do with me.

And I said, "Say, um,

it was just rougher
than I'm used to.

But I'll come back
or whatever."

And whatever the words were

convinced him to...

let me go.

He gets off by making

these women uncomfortable,

by hurting them.

By making them scared.

And using that to

get off.

And so by her saying,

"Actually,
I kind of liked it,"

he's no longer aroused by her.

He's got to have that fear.

He opened the door
and it was like...

like birth.

The sun was out.

Everything was alive and...

And I'm walking

as fast as I could
to get away.

And people

are looking at me like I...

like I'm some kind
of piece of trash.

And nobody helped me.

So, made it to the corner,
called the police.

The police told me

to come to them.

Told me to come to them.

I couldn't come to y'all.
I couldn't even walk.

So I laid on the bus stop.

I just laid there...

until somebody I knew

walked me down the street.

Sex Crimes detectives
did not have

cell phones issued to them.

They did not have
email accounts issued to them.

So if you needed
to get in touch

with a detective who worked
at the Sex Crimes Unit,

you had to
physically go downtown

to the Sex Crimes Unit.

Any expert in this field

will tell you that's
an absolutely terrible way

of handling sex assault cases.

People don't want to go
into the police station.

They don't feel comfortable
doing that.

You have to be able
to meet people
on their own ground.

And the Sex Crimes Unit,

which was already understaffed
and underfunded at that point,

just wasn't
getting the job done.

On different occasions,

I've tried to tell the police
what happened.

They never wanted
to listen, you know.

It's just
appalling levels of failure

over and over and over again.

I think a lot of women
did try to come forward

about Anthony Sowell.

Every time they were ignored.

Um,

there was no urgency.

We have policies
and procedures

and ways in which
we perform certain duties

as the law enforcement,

and it needed to be revised.

So many people
have dropped the ball

and not done
what they were supposed to do.

In 1997,

while Anthony Sowell
was in prison

for the rape
of Melvette Sockwell,

Ohio created
a statewide database for DNA.

So they took
Anthony Sowell's DNA,

and it was sent to a lab
in Fairfax, Virginia,

where it was to be tested,

logged, entered
into the system.

It got lost in the mail.

So it was very easy for him
to continue to do what he did

long after

he should have been arrested.

We went back to the house

the next morning,

first sign of daylight.

I can recall we were
digging the backyard

for other victims.

One of
the uniform officers came

and told me that

there was a lady that
requested to see me.

She was a grandmother,

and she wanted to make

a missing persons report
at that point in time.

Later on, it turned out

it was her granddaughter,

Tishana Culver,

who was actually
one of the first victims.

She disappeared in 2007.

Forensic evidence identifies

Tishana Culver

as one of the women found
on the third floor house,

along with Nancy Cobbs,

Diane Turner,

and Telacia Fortson.

The woman discovered
in the basement

behind the stairs

is identified as Janice Webb.

The skull found
in the bucket nearby

is Leshanda Long.

And the five women
discovered in the yard

are Tonia Carmichael,

Crystal Dozier,

Michelle Mason,

Amelda Hunter,

and Kim Smith.

Investigators identify
all 11 victims.

Anthony Sowell,

The Cleveland Strangler,

is officially

the most notorious
serial killer

in the city's history.

The day
that I found out

that this stuff was going on,

somebody had called my phone.

They were screaming
and hollering, saying,

"We thought you were
one of the bodies in the house
that's dead."

And I'm like, "What?"

They was like,
"Turn the TV on."

It's the case
that broke open

a suspected serial killing
house of horrors.

Everything started
coming back. Why was this...

Oh, I was doing this.
He was doing...

Oh, everything
came back. Everything.

I was shocked.

I got a psychiatrist.

They say I'm diagnosed with
antipsychotic schizophrenic.

All kinds of stuff. I'd be
looking over my shoulder.

I just had a lot going on.

And I cried
because them ladies
didn't deserve that.

Even though Anthony Sowell

is the most wanted man
in Cleveland,

police make
another huge mistake

and let him slip away.

A zone car had him
the night before,

and he lied his way out of it.

And they let him go.

We're out there looking,

and we probably

searched

well over 100 vacant houses.

There are hundreds
and hundreds of officers
out there

searching for this guy.

While police are
going house to house,

an interesting call
comes into 911.

They were locking down
the bus station,

the airport,

the train station.

I was like,
"He's not gonna be there.

He's a person
of the neighborhood.

You know,
he's somewhere here."

The detectives had me
riding all around the city,

asking me what I know.

I kept telling them,
"No, I don't know where he at,
I haven't seen him."

I feel like I was a suspect,

but I knew
in my mind, in my head,

that I didn't do anything.

Anthony called me.

He said,

"The police are gonna tell you
some things that I did."

He said, "I did them."

And that was it.

When I found out
what Anthony did,

I couldn't believe it.

All I can say is

that was very selfish.

During most of
his murderous rampage,

Sowell is never a suspect.

Partly

because Cleveland police

barely bother to investigate
reports from women

about his violent attacks.

Women like Gladys Wade,

who was attacked
in December of 2008.

I think a lot about

how many times

Anthony Sowell
should have been caught

during this
serial murder spree.

I think a lot
about Gladys Wade.

Gladys Wade lived on
the east side of Cleveland.

One night
she was walking home.

She walked past
Anthony Sowell's house
on Imperial Avenue.

And he was outside
and he said "Merry Christmas."

She said "Merry Christmas"
back to him.

And he invited her
into his house.

And she said no,
she wasn't interested.

She kept on walking.

And then
the next thing she knew,

he grabbed her from behind.

He physically dragged her
inside the house.

She did not go willingly.

And she passed out.

He took her up
to the third floor

where he was
living at the time.

The same place where police
would later find the bodies.

And that's where she woke up.

She was lying on

the front room
of the third floor

on the south side
of the house.

He came back into the room,

closed the door behind him.

Then he said
something to the effect of,

"You can scream
but no one's gonna hear you."

Will Gladys Wade end up
like so many other victims

of The Cleveland Strangler?

Dead and buried
in his house of horrors?

Or will she somehow escape

and live to tell the tale?

Gladys Wade decided to fight.

She grabbed his testicles.
She gouged his eyes.

She gouged his face.

She was able to get past him

and run down the stairs
down to the first floor.

He chased her, he struggled
with her in the front lawn,

and she was able
to fight him off again.

After Gladys Wade
came forward,

Anthony Sowell was arrested.

But the arresting officer

incorrectly labeled
the incident as rape

in his incident report.

Gladys had been very clear,

a rape didn't actually
take place.

There was a kidnapping,

there was an assault,

but she fought him off
before the rape could happen.

So the city doesn't charge it

because the arresting officer

checked the wrong box
on his incident report.

This shocking act
of police incompetence

lets Anthony Sowell
off the hook again.

And that incompetence
costs lives.

Sowell murdered six more women

after Gladys Wade
escaped from his house.

He leaves behind
another witness

less than a year later.

In September 2009,

he attacks Latundra Billups.

Latundra Billups met Sowell.

He lured her
in the house to party.

While in the house,
she told Anthony Sowell

about a rumor
that he had raped

a woman prior.

That set Sowell off.

That was
a triggering moment for him

because he didn't want

to be found out.

And so she's
calling him out on this.

As he's bringing in
these women,

there's part of him
that's probably just hoping

maybe this is the new Lori.

Maybe this is
someone I can love.

But as he talks to them,

as he's interacting with them,

something probably clicks
and he goes, "No,

this is not Lori."

And that's when he starts,
you know, harming them.

And so by making
that single statement,

Latundra changes
the whole dynamic

as someone who is
his mother, not the Lori.

He attacked her brutally.

He strangled her
with an electrical cord.

He thought she was dead.

But she woke up.
And that surprised him.

And he let her go.

Maybe at that point,
he felt some sort
of excitement that, "Oh,

she knows that I've done this
and yet she's still here."

Maybe he wanted

to see what would happen
by letting her go.

A friend brings
Latundra to the hospital

where police take a statement.

But after
that first interview,

Latundra vanishes.

Police have no way
to follow up.

And they
never questioned Sowell
about the attack,

leaving him free to continue
raping and murdering

whenever he wants.

And in Sowell's twisted mind,

he believed he was doing
some kind of public service.

These were women
he thought deserved to die.

He saw it as helping society,

removing drug-addicted mothers
from the streets.

Sowell definitely was aware

he was committing
these crimes.

The question is whether or not
he thought they were crimes,

as opposed to
appropriate behavior.

When you can blame a victim,

someone that you murdered,

for their own death,

then

you have no feeling whatsoever

for anyone.

One month
after he attacks Billups,

Sowell strikes again.

Shawn Morris went
to Sowell's house to party.

After partying with Sowell,

Shawn Morris left the house.

On the way to somewhere else,

she realized she left her ID.

She went back to the house
to retrieve her ID.

He attacked her.

Anthony seemed to have

a ritualistic approach
to all of these attacks.

By targeting certain women,

bringing them into his home,

getting them comfortable,
before he then

went on to the rampage attack.

We'll start with the beating,
we'll strangle them,

make them fearful.

As he was
assaulting Shawn Morris,

he was screaming,
"I hate bitches."

She fell out of a window

from the third story
of his house.

And Sowell came
out of the house naked,

trying to pull her
back into the home.

He doesn't fear being seen.

The neighbor called
the ambulance.

While Shawn Morris
recovers in the hospital,

police finally track down
Latundra Billups.

This time, she gives them
a full statement.

And enough for a warrant
to search Sowell's house.

Two days after
the first bodies were found,

a call comes in to 911.

A citizen called and said,

"Hey, there's a guy that looks
like this Anthony Sowell

that you're looking for
over on Mount Auburn."

We were close by,
and I told my guys,

"We're gonna get him today."

We got there,
and I'm looking at him,

and he didn't look
like the picture that I had.

But there's just
something that told me

that...

I gotta look
a little bit further.

He had a scratch on his face,

like somebody scratched him.

So I said,
"Hey, we're looking for a guy.

You're pretty close
to who we're looking for."

I said, "I'll make
a deal with you."

I said, "We've been out
running around.

If you're not the guy
we're looking for,

you can go
to breakfast with us,
'cause we're hungry."

He was relaxed. He was

cool as a cucumber.

And...

For a fleeting moment there,
I said,

"Well, maybe this isn't him."

And he goes, "I'm Anthony.
I'm Anthony Sowell.

I'm the guy
you're looking for."

And he goes,
"I just want to die."

We were all standing around
looking at each other, like,

wow.

We just got

the biggest serial killer
in Cleveland history.

We didn't know what to say.

There was like
a really weird silence

the whole time.

So after Anthony Sowell
was arrested...

...my partner and I,
we conducted an interrogation.

This is my partner,
Detective Griffin.

I'm Detective Smith
with the Homicide Unit.

Our thought process
at this time is,

you have

to work for the victims.

And you have to figure out
why are they there,

how did they get there,

and what happened to them.

Anthony Sowell's
answers mostly were

nonspecific answers.

Wouldn't give us anything,
any details.

But what he started to do

was to relate things

to dreams.

So we thought maybe we could
get these answers,

pull these answers from him

by talking about his dreams.

We understand that

doing interviews
and interrogations,

it's gonna be hard
to get to the details.

Most of the time,

they want to give us a story.

My philosophy is,

as long as you
tell me a story,

I'm gonna listen.

And I'll ask questions
from your stories.

So, fortunately for us,

his stories
happen to be his dreams.

No.

When Anthony was
talking with the police,

he was the Cleveland neighbor,

that upstanding, good citizen.

But when he was in his house,

he was well aware
of what he was doing

when he was
talking to the police.

He's most likely seeing it
in that dreamlike state,

because he's

completely separated
these two personas

and created that
outside-inside person.

He was frightening
in the sense that

he would trick
these individuals

to come to a location,

knowing all
what he had plans on doing.

You would never think

that he would do
those things that he did...

from talking to him.

He's a monster
in sheep's clothing.

Police keep
pushing Sowell for answers.

He claims he can't remember
important details.

But his contempt
for vulnerable women

comes through loud and clear.

So, for Anthony,

his crimes

and these violence
against these women

is playing out the violence
he learned from childhood.

Where he learned
to physically harm women.

They are women
who he doesn't think
deserve to live.

He divided women
that he met on the street
into two categories.

The good ones
and the bad ones.

The good ones are the ones
who were doing something
with their lives.

And the bad ones were
just walking the street.

He connected that

to his experience as a child

where he watched his mom...

...beat, torture,
really mistreat the children.

And he was able to associate
those two things in his mind,

that the women
that he met on the street,

they were the bad ones.

And that's the way
he treated them.

From the moment he met them
until their bodies were found,

they didn't matter.

Detectives press Sowell.

They believe he might have
even more victims.

Emotionally, I'm...

I'm a little more extreme
on this case, particularly.

Mm. Mm. Mm.

So yeah,
I'm a little emotional.

But I'm also a detective.

I need to know
before I leave here

that we have all the victims,

because there could be
possibly more.

I looked into the eyes
of Anthony Sowell

and I saw

a person who did not care

about anyone but himself.

Anthony Sowell

never admits
to having more victims.

What still haunts me
about this case?

That there's more bodies.

I truly believe there are
more bodies out there

that are attached
to Anthony Sowell.

How do you have that much hate

to do that to people,

and just keep doing it?

To me, that is the,

like, epitome of all evil.

What did you have
to kill them for?

I didn't understand it.

I still don't understand it.

Despite a staggering amount
of evidence against him,

Anthony Sowell
pleads not guilty

and goes to trial.

Sowell faces
85 criminal counts

in connection with
attacks on women.

I was there
for the whole duration
of the trial.

I think the strongest
piece of evidence

are the testimonies from
the females who got away.

I was the prosecution's
star witness in the trial.

She got on that stand,

and I knew what was coming,

and I just felt like
the pressure

in that courtroom
was just turned up to 100.

I wouldn't have had
problems with testifying,

but it was about me, too.

I'm still alive,
dealing with this every day.

Every day.

I answer questions.

Anthony was over there
smiling, giggling,

and everything.

He was acting like
nothing ever happened.

I didn't want to be there.

I didn't want to see him
ever in my life again.

"We, the jury, being
duly impaneled and sworn...

On July 22nd, 2011,

the jury reaches a verdict.

Guilty of all 11 murders.

Deputies came in
and handcuffed him,

and as he was being lead out
of the courtroom, he put

his hands up, handcuffed,

in a show of defiance
for the cameras

as he's being lead out
of the courtroom.

I always wondered what was
going on in his mind
when he did that.

If he was saying, like,

congratulations, you got
your pound of flesh,

but look at
all the things that I was able
to accomplish beforehand.

You could just tell

there was
a vacuum there where,

uh, a soul would normally be,

where his empathy
for other people
would normally be.

"We therefore unanimously find
that the sentence of death

should be imposed
upon the defendant,
Anthony Sowell."

Today my sister
can rest in peace now.

That's all.
She can rest in peace,

along with
all the other ladies.

It feels good.

It feels really good.

I really don't want
to say this out,

but Anthony needed
the death penalty
after what he did,

because them 11 women
didn't deserve that.

The house was
eventually torn down.

It's now a memorial
to the victims.

But I don't think
Anthony Sowell

will ever disappear
in Cleveland.

I still think the lore

of a serial killer
in this quiet,

working-class neighborhood
won't ever go away.

I still think

his crimes will haunt
that corner for eternity.

To me, he turned
into a monster,

didn't care about
nothing but his self.

Nobody.

He wanted what he wanted.

And he wanted to hunt,
and he got it.

What is so frightening
about this case is

that he embedded himself

within the community,

and they would never believe

that he would be the culprit.

Never.

He is scary
because nothing
was gonna stop him.

He was gonna continue
targeting women.

He was going
to continue acting out

exactly as he did.

It's how he got off sexually.

It's how he coped
with his childhood trauma.

Without any intervention,

it would have
continued onward.

Is it justice
or is it just us?

And I think it's just us,

'cause he got away with it.

They let him slip through
the crack, you know?

He was allowed to kill women.

Anthony Sowell
was never executed.

His case was
under appeal until 2021,

when he died in prison
at the age of 61.

But the shocking revelations
of his case

still resonate
throughout the city.

If disappearances
hadn't been ignored,

if survivors' accounts
hadn't been shrugged off,

lives could have been saved.

Today, there is
a Garden of Eleven Angels
on Imperial Avenue,

where
The Cleveland Strangler's
house of horrors once stood.

It's a tribute to the memory

of the 11 women
Sowell murdered.

But it also serves
as a painful reminder

of a damaged man

who preyed on the city's
most vulnerable women,

in a system that failed to
protect them from a monster.

I'm Donnie Wahlberg.

Thanks for watching.
Good night.

Coming up on season 6
of Very Scary People...

Scott Lee Kimble has multiple
parts to his identity.

At my house in the freezer is
a dead body

and Marjorie Diel Armstrong
killed him.

I'm a good person and I didn't
do anything wrong.

We had no idea what Pandora's
box we were about to open up.

Doerbal is trying to remove
their heads with this chainsaw

but it keeps getting stuck in
Christina's hair.

That's what he did to me.

Turned me into a monster.

I knew they wouldn't stop til
they had my sisters.

The woman is begging
for her life.

We're dealing with
a psychopath.

Evil happened that day.