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10 Scary Facts About Anthony Edward Sowell

The American serial killer was popularly known as the Cleveland Strangler. He was also a rapist whose crimes spanned from 2007 to 2009. Anthony Edward Sowell considered as one of the most notorious serial killers in the United States killed his victims in different gruesome ways that chille when they hear about his crimes. In this article, we will explore the ten scary facts about serial killer Anthony Sowell to get a deeper knowledge into his crimes and what motivated him. The article can be used by the reader as a reference point to know what usually motivates people to commit crimes.

1 He grew up in an abusive house

Anthony Sowell was born in East Cleveland in 1959 to a single mother.  His childhood was full of abuse as his mother would often beat him while the other children watched. This actions may have heavily affected him psychologically. It is reported that at one instace, Anthony’s mother instructed one of her kids to remove her clothes and went ahead to beat the child with an electric cable until she was bleeding. Two children who lived in that house with Sowell revealed that the home was always full of violence.

2 He attempted to rape a pregnant woman in 1989

A woman who was three months pregnant visited Anthony Sowell at his house. Anthony Sowell retrained and gagged the victim to prevent her from escaping and making any noise that would attract attentionto him.  Fortunately, his victim managed  to escaoe and proceeded to the police station to report he incident. While there, she decribed how Sowell had choked her to the point that she tought she was going to die. Law enforcement authorities proceeded to apprehend him and when he was arraigned in court, he entered a guilty plea for the attempted rape charge. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

3 He has a history of drug abuse

After his release from the Marines in 1985, Anthony Sowell came back and found Cleveland a different place in that it was overrun by drugs. He became a substance user and in no time, he was addicted to them in that he would blackout from time to time because of the drugs. Furthermore, Sowell had a criminal record that showed that during his arrest he was in possesion of hard substances but the type of substances was not indicated. Furthermore, during the time he was released from the Marines and 1989, he was arrested several times for public intoxication, unruly behaviour and DUI.

4 He was on an online dating site and claimed to be a master

A picture of online dating apps. , CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Anthony Sowell was a member of an online dating service and in there, he claimed that he was a master and he was looking for a submissive to train. This may have been a way that he wanted to get his victims as many people would not think to search the trail in an online dating service to find out who the victim was talking to last. However, the motivation behind why he lied that he was a master was not revealed.

5 His Girlfriend smelled decaying flesh but he brushed it aside

After his release from prison for the attempted rape charge, Anthony Sowell got into a relationship with Lori Frazier who was the niece to the mayor of Cleveland Frank Jackson. While at his house, Lori claimed that he could smell decaying bodies but Anthony Sowell brushed it aside and to her that the smell was coming from his stepmother. After his stepmother vacated the house, Sowell changed the narrative and said that the stench was not coming from his house and instead the sausage shop across the street. This shows that had Lori been persistent, then Sowell would have been captured much earlier.

Click here to read on the 35 sinister facts about Jeffrey Dahmer

6 One of his victims escaped and went to the authorities

A picture of a police car rushing to a scene. , , via Wikimedia Commons

Latundra Billups had gone to Anthony Sowell’s house after he had promised her drugs but once she was inside the house, Sowell turned on her and beat her up, raped her and proceeded to choke her with an electric cable until she lost consciousness. Billups later woke up and Sowell let her walk away. Her fear prevented her from going to the police immediately until a month later when she filed a report that prompted the police to obtain a search warrant to search Anthony’s home.

7 He had bodies of his victims all around his house

When local authorities visited his house, they found the bodies of two women buried in shallow graves in the basement and a further search revealed four other bodies of the victims on the third floor of Anthony’s home. There were also three bodies in the backyard and some remains of the fourth body. A big number of his victims died of strangulation.

8 He pleaded not guilty because of insanity

A prisoner cuffed. , , via Wikimedia Commons

After being apprehended, arraigned and charged with eleven counts of murder, 74 counts of rape and abuse of a corpse, Anthony Sowell pleaded not guilty an claimed that he was insane. He then later changed his plea to not guilty. However, his not-guilty plea was of no use as he was convicted of eleven murders and the judge adopted the recommendation by the jury which was the death penalty.

9 He was designated a sexually violent predator

The criminal justice system in the state of Ohio classified Anthony Sowell as a sexual predator after he was convicted with several counts of kidnapping, murder and attempted murder. This means that the state saw him as a person who has a personality disorder and is likely to repeat the same offence. This classification is quite fitting as he had been in prison for 15 years and when he got out he went back to crime and murder.

10 He died while serving his sentence

While serving his death sentence at the Ohio Chillicothe correctional institute he was admitted into the end-of-life care at Franklin Medical Centre where he succumbed to a terminal illness at the age of 61. Many people speculated that he died because of Covid related complications but the authorities at the correctional facility clarified that he died from a terminal illness that he had.

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