OK... now we ARE the freak city of the nation.....
Submitted by dbra on November 7, 2009 - 7:45am.
not to mention our CPD is the laughing stock... it seems our mayor's niece lived in the Sowell house until last year. This takes the concept of corruption to a new level:
I found this on the local channel 5 website. The story is two days old. The last sentence sums it up.
CLEVELAND -- The former owner of a convenience store across the street from Anthony Sowell's house told NewsChannel5 he believes Sowell may have dumped some of his victims in a garbage bin outside the store.
Sowell was seen at the Imperial Grocery almost every day, but former owner Assad Tayeh says it's what he thinks Sowell put in the Dumpster that is raising new questions.
"A bag, a big bag stuffed and wrapped with duct tape and there was a very bad smell coming out of it," said Tayeh.
Tayeh said he remembers seeing bags in the garbage bin two years ago after his clerk alerted him.
"I saw the bag and I can't stand the smell of it, so I shut the Dumpster. I told him to get a bottle of bleach and put it in the Dumpster," said Tayeh.
From the same Dumpster you can see across the street where blue tents cover Sowell's back yard where police found bodies buried in shallow graves.
"God knows how many bodies he put in those Dumpsters. And I started, every day, there is something new coming into my head about that person. I believe he was using my Dumpsters and Ray's Sausage Dumpsters," said Tayeh.
Tayeh said he called police two days ago with the information but no one has called him back.
I think this guy did the right thing when he realized what was going on and made the call to police. The question that I have is did the police ever get back to him? If they did not get back to him 2 days after a call when bodies were being found across the street from his dumpster, would they have given him the time of day a while back about smelly packages being put in his dumpster by a neighborhood guy?
and he knew election night that he'd pull in 70+% of the vote but he still choose to spend it with Gilbert at Quicken Arena rather than go out to Imperial where the new body count had gone up that day. If he'd spent election night with the people on the street and the families who wonder if their missing family member was one of the victims, we would say that Jackson had his priories right, that he was where he should have been. We can't say that now.
Submitted by Evelyn Kiefer on November 7, 2009 - 6:04pm.
I am not surprised that things would be kept quiet about a relative of Mayor Frank Jackson. I believe, about three years ago a young female relative of Mayor Jackson (maybe the same girl) crashed a car near our former home on West Clinton and W. 45th Street in Ohio City. Things were kept pretty hush, hush about it then. I never heard if drugs were involved or if anyone was hurt. Our neighbor's car was wrecked though. The incident was hardly mentioned by the local media.
I would not be surprised if this woman had some involvement in the murders -- or at least knowledge of them.
Submitted by lmcshane on November 8, 2009 - 5:54am.
Mayor Jackson called in during Meryl Johnson's It's about Justiceprogram, which airs every Saturday from 1:30-2:30 p.m. Thanks Meryl, for your always insightful programs, and especially for finding a way to get the elusive Mayor Jackson to speak on the record.
Submitted by Lee Batdorff on November 8, 2009 - 12:28am.
Jackson certainly is a man to watch and examine. And who does influence him?
After a multi-year effort by the Cleveland Mayor Campbell administration that determined that the east side lakeshore should become much more people oriented, with a great number of Cleveland citizens partaking in the planning process--Jackson scotched that whole effort and went with the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority that would bury people and creatures, (if Dike 14 is pressed into service by the Port Authority).
Perhaps there has been a break in wrong headedness at the Port Authority now that Adam Wasserman, President/CEO has decamped with $300,000 severance.
And what is Major Frank Jackson thinking by leading the effort to install the "Mayor Jackson Mental Hospital" right on the new Health Bus Rapid Transit Line?
Yes, income tax from most of this hospital's employees will result. A state mental hospital pays no property tax however, and has no capacity to raise property values adjacent and nearby.
Perhaps property taxes have been so compromised by tax exhemptions that going for the income tax only from this property makes sense. Oh, but the damage this incures to the potential of surrounding property values.
Who, other than the Ohio Board of Mental Health, would find it a fine thing to have a regional mental hospital in the middle of Midtown? Who, other than this board, has talked Jackson into depressing the property values along Euclid Avenue?
Submitted by ward14resident on November 8, 2009 - 1:28am.
I'm not saying that the Euclid Corridor is the proper place for a mental health facility, but perhaps it is. Perhaps if such a facility was available Sowell would have received treatment.
Where would you suggest that such a facility be placed?
Submitted by Lee Batdorff on November 9, 2009 - 2:11am.
St. Michael's Hospital has been lugged away and the property is in a somewhat cleared condition. It is 8.4 acres, with a goodly chunk of the land in one level surface parking which still exists in the view through Google Earth. St. Michael's, according to CPL chat librarian had 222 beds with a quarter of St. Michael's property on open lot parking.
I understand that the city is selling or leasing a 14 acre property north of the new E. 59th St. and Euclid Ave. BRT station to the Ohio Board of Mental Health.
It is my understanding that Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is selling it's 2.4 acres to the city of Cleveland. Stated use: for parking dedicated to serving the mental hospital. This comes to over 18 acres to place a hospital that is not a lot larger than a hospital on eight acres.
What is odd about a transit authority selling property in the middle of Midtown for use of parking is that this goes against what RTA needs to develop: sources of pedestrians to use their services. With so much parking and open campus of a mental hospital in the middle of Midtown, why did they build the $200 Health Line?
If I have time I would be interviewing the chief person at the American Transit Association about this move by GCRTA and Jackson. I'd also be checking with neighborhood leaders in Broadway neighborhoods about the potential to place a mental hospital on the old St. Michael's property. The advantage there is that Third Federal Savings might get into the act with a new Broadway area "mental factility," by providing loans to help people who work at the hospital live close enough to walk to work. Neighborhood services can be revived for residents and hospital workers and guests.
The State Board of Mental Health has pitted the midtown site against a greenfield site in a fringe suburb.
One thing that is important in urban commercial real estate is to place a broad spectrum of uses in a small area near transit stations. Read Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
Placing such a property value deadening use as a large state operated mental hospital in the middle of Midtown that pays no property tax and inspires no property value growth is not how to inspire the building of a working city in the middle of Midtown. What is needed along Euclid Avenue are urban place where people want to be. There certainly aren't enough there now.
There are many opportunities being missed in Jackson's decision making. These land use decisions are being made too fast and without public input or public input that has been ignored.
According to one source the new facility in midtown will have perhaps a few new beds. I'm not sure if the 20 new beds are not coming from a ward over at County Metro. The current mental hospital in Sagamore Hills has 280 beds. The new facility will have 300 beds. It is hard to say if Sowell would have had a place in the new facility.
I think it would have still depended on what the parol board at the prison decided. I understand he asked for help and they didn't give it to him. Sowell apparently is very calm on the outside and his demeaner bought his way out.
Submitted by ward14resident on November 9, 2009 - 2:49am.
What you write makes a lot of sense. I am not a city planner so I don't know what goes into the decision making. I wonder if the old St. Michael's lot was considered for the mental hospital? Also wondering what plans are in the works for that area. Good point about RTA and selling space for parking. It doesn't jive, does it.
I had the opportunity to drive down the new Euclid Avenue a few months ago on my way to Severance Hall for a COYO concert, my neice was playing trumpet, and it looks nice. I haven't taken a bus ride there yet so I don't know what that would be like, but it looks nice from a car.
We can only speculate what would have been if Sowell got help when he asked for it. But, these horrible murders at the very least hint at the need for a mental health facility in this area. I wouldn't vote against it if I was asked, but I also wouldn't insist that it be placed on Euclid Avenue either. The St. Michael's lot would probably be a good location. But, nobody is asking me, so my two cents isn't worth much.
Submitted by theo669 on November 8, 2009 - 1:06am.
It's possible she didn't know all these rapes and murders were going on, but the police need to take a hard look at her. Did she help lure women to him? If she didn't know about the murders, did she know about sexual assaults? It does seem strange that she could have lived there for that long a time period and been oblivious to any of the predator activities he was up to. But, I guess it's not impossible. But if she was an accomplice to any of his crimes in any way, that needs to be determined.
I'd also like to know if it has been reported anywhere as to whether or not Anthony Sowell's mother has been located. Do we know if she's even still alive? Maybe I missed that in one of the articles.
BTW, the PD has a FAQ up and it says people didn't know the smell was human bodies because most people fortunately don't know what dead human bodies smell like. But sheriff deputies ought to know the smell, correct? And health officials, right?
Crack heads will do anything for a rock, even kill.
Crack head serial killer, crack addicts and prostitutes were all around some dead and some alive.
Smoking a little crack is like doing a little heroin, its all about addicts.
The one was a serial killer, that’s a bad combination isn't it. He was sloppy and she did not notice...for a rock or because of the drugs?
Did not notice? Did not care? Helped it along?
Degrees of being an accomplice I would say.
If not criminal then very liable for a civil lawsuit, sitting idle while murder and rape is transpiring. Anyone that covered this up obviously not fully understanding are also accomplices. Looking away makes you an accomplice, degrees of complicity some are criminal and some just make you liable for damages within civil law. The families have cases against all involved, including the city of Cleveland.
And I find it less than believable that her uncle, our mayor, had nothing to do with the lack of inquiry. Its also pathetic that it stayed hushed for over a week. And - if you notice, this story posted at 2am on a saturday morning, was not linked or headlined ANywhere, and I'm assuming it was somewhere in the Metro section in the print edition.
Submitted by ward14resident on November 8, 2009 - 3:47pm.
And to think that 77% of Cleveland residents voted for Mayor Jackson. Can we, the citizens, call for drug testing for all our city leaders on a weekly basis?
The 'smell' of 'rotten politicians' is turning my stomach.
Lori Frazier, a niece of the Mayor, Frank Jackson, said that she still considered herself to be the girlfriend of Anthony Sowell, who was released from a 15-year prison sentence in 2005. “He came out from the penitentiary on June 23. Me and him hooked up on July 7, and I have been with him ever since,” she told reporters in Cleveland, Ohio. “I want to know why, why would he do this,” she said. “He took care of me.”
Submitted by theo669 on November 9, 2009 - 6:12am.
But, look, folks, there's so far no evidence that Mayor Jackson should be attacked because his niece was caught up with this monster. I looked at her county court dockets and they look the same as most other crack addict's dockets. And no one got her a private attorney in her cases, either.
So far, I just consider the killer's connection to Mayor Jackson's family a strange fact. Maybe it's not so surprising, though, considering that Cleveland's crack scene is a small world where those living in it in a hardcore way tend to all run into each other because they're buying drugs from the same people, frequenting the same drug houses, smoking the drugs together, spending time in jail together, etc. The Mayor's niece has been involved in the drug scene for 20 years! She probably knows other murderers in addition to this one (the worst one of all).
Anyway, Mayor Jackson probably deserves a lot of criticism for what he hasn't been doing to help our economically depressed inner city neighborhoods. But, I'm not gonna attack him for the sad problems of his niece unless some evidence comes out for why I should. I feel sorry for him that someone in his family has such a terrible problem.
Anyway, we need to hear more about these sex offender spot checks from our sheriff's deputies. Since we know our previous Sheriff (McFaul) was barely ever even at work, did he set a climate where deputies thought they could blow-off doing a proper job in checking on our sex offenders?
from the article: "When a naked woman fell from a window of the house hours later, and was found by neighbours being choked by Mr Sowell, police reportedly arrived late, and again did not enter the building."
Mayor Jackson is not being attacked, and certainly not for having a family member with a drug problem. Mayor Jackson's credibility and veracity is being called into question as he took way too long before reaching out to the community in the Imperial Ave. area and it took him way too long to fess up to his niece's involvement. He runs the City and appoints the heads of the Safety and Police Departments and is not being transparent which only breeds speculation. Should he be exempt from criticism of the police departments' total screw ups and lack of follow through because his niece is a drug user? Did he stay away from Imperial because of his nieces involvement? Did the police not follow through of numerous occasions because the niece of the Mayor loved in Sowell's house?
Lies or stupidity?
The PD writes:
Disrupt IT
I find it typical
that he knew damn well the day this place was discovered that his niece lived here while the murders were taking place.
That was prior to the election.
It explained his silence around this.
I'd like to know if the fact his niece lived with this man had anything to do with the now well-documented failure to respond.
something stinks, and it ain't just 11 rotting corpses.
still stinks
I found this on the local channel 5 website. The story is two days old. The last sentence sums it up.
CLEVELAND -- The former owner of a convenience store across the street from Anthony Sowell's house told NewsChannel5 he believes Sowell may have dumped some of his victims in a garbage bin outside the store.
Sowell was seen at the Imperial Grocery almost every day, but former owner Assad Tayeh says it's what he thinks Sowell put in the Dumpster that is raising new questions.
"A bag, a big bag stuffed and wrapped with duct tape and there was a very bad smell coming out of it," said Tayeh.
Tayeh said he remembers seeing bags in the garbage bin two years ago after his clerk alerted him.
"I saw the bag and I can't stand the smell of it, so I shut the Dumpster. I told him to get a bottle of bleach and put it in the Dumpster," said Tayeh.
From the same Dumpster you can see across the street where blue tents cover Sowell's back yard where police found bodies buried in shallow graves.
"God knows how many bodies he put in those Dumpsters. And I started, every day, there is something new coming into my head about that person. I believe he was using my Dumpsters and Ray's Sausage Dumpsters," said Tayeh.
Tayeh said he called police two days ago with the information but no one has called him back.
Why didn't this guy
Why didn't this guy investigate what was in the dumpster and/or call the police a long time ago?
I think this guy
I think this guy did the right thing when he realized what was going on and made the call to police. The question that I have is did the police ever get back to him? If they did not get back to him 2 days after a call when bodies were being found across the street from his dumpster, would they have given him the time of day a while back about smelly packages being put in his dumpster by a neighborhood guy?
and he knew
and he knew election night that he'd pull in 70+% of the vote but he still choose to spend it with Gilbert at Quicken Arena rather than go out to Imperial where the new body count had gone up that day. If he'd spent election night with the people on the street and the families who wonder if their missing family member was one of the victims, we would say that Jackson had his priories right, that he was where he should have been. We can't say that now.
Not the first time Jackson's family protected from the media ...
I am not surprised that things would be kept quiet about a relative of Mayor Frank Jackson. I believe, about three years ago a young female relative of Mayor Jackson (maybe the same girl) crashed a car near our former home on West Clinton and W. 45th Street in Ohio City. Things were kept pretty hush, hush about it then. I never heard if drugs were involved or if anyone was hurt. Our neighbor's car was wrecked though. The incident was hardly mentioned by the local media.
I would not be surprised if this woman had some involvement in the murders -- or at least knowledge of them.
a different spin
This sure casts the quietness of the mayor and media in a different light.
Mayor Jackson on WRUW Saturday November 7
Mayor Jackson called in during Meryl Johnson's It's about Justice program, which airs every Saturday from 1:30-2:30 p.m. Thanks Meryl, for your always insightful programs, and especially for finding a way to get the elusive Mayor Jackson to speak on the record.
http://wruw-stream.wruw.org/archives/56/454.mp3
Jackson: Man to watch & who influences him?
Jackson certainly is a man to watch and examine. And who does influence him?
After a multi-year effort by the Cleveland Mayor Campbell administration that determined that the east side lakeshore should become much more people oriented, with a great number of Cleveland citizens partaking in the planning process--Jackson scotched that whole effort and went with the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Port Authority that would bury people and creatures, (if Dike 14 is pressed into service by the Port Authority).
Perhaps there has been a break in wrong headedness at the Port Authority now that Adam Wasserman, President/CEO has decamped with $300,000 severance.
And what is Major Frank Jackson thinking by leading the effort to install the "Mayor Jackson Mental Hospital" right on the new Health Bus Rapid Transit Line?
Yes, income tax from most of this hospital's employees will result. A state mental hospital pays no property tax however, and has no capacity to raise property values adjacent and nearby.
Perhaps property taxes have been so compromised by tax exhemptions that going for the income tax only from this property makes sense. Oh, but the damage this incures to the potential of surrounding property values.
Who, other than the Ohio Board of Mental Health, would find it a fine thing to have a regional mental hospital in the middle of Midtown? Who, other than this board, has talked Jackson into depressing the property values along Euclid Avenue?
I'm not saying that the
I'm not saying that the Euclid Corridor is the proper place for a mental health facility, but perhaps it is. Perhaps if such a facility was available Sowell would have received treatment.
Where would you suggest that such a facility be placed?
What is the story with the old St. Michael's Hospital 8.4 acres?
St. Michael's Hospital has been lugged away and the property is in a somewhat cleared condition. It is 8.4 acres, with a goodly chunk of the land in one level surface parking which still exists in the view through Google Earth. St. Michael's, according to CPL chat librarian had 222 beds with a quarter of St. Michael's property on open lot parking.
I understand that the city is selling or leasing a 14 acre property north of the new E. 59th St. and Euclid Ave. BRT station to the Ohio Board of Mental Health.
It is my understanding that Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority is selling it's 2.4 acres to the city of Cleveland. Stated use: for parking dedicated to serving the mental hospital. This comes to over 18 acres to place a hospital that is not a lot larger than a hospital on eight acres.
What is odd about a transit authority selling property in the middle of Midtown for use of parking is that this goes against what RTA needs to develop: sources of pedestrians to use their services. With so much parking and open campus of a mental hospital in the middle of Midtown, why did they build the $200 Health Line?
If I have time I would be interviewing the chief person at the American Transit Association about this move by GCRTA and Jackson. I'd also be checking with neighborhood leaders in Broadway neighborhoods about the potential to place a mental hospital on the old St. Michael's property. The advantage there is that Third Federal Savings might get into the act with a new Broadway area "mental factility," by providing loans to help people who work at the hospital live close enough to walk to work. Neighborhood services can be revived for residents and hospital workers and guests.
The State Board of Mental Health has pitted the midtown site against a greenfield site in a fringe suburb.
One thing that is important in urban commercial real estate is to place a broad spectrum of uses in a small area near transit stations. Read Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities.
Placing such a property value deadening use as a large state operated mental hospital in the middle of Midtown that pays no property tax and inspires no property value growth is not how to inspire the building of a working city in the middle of Midtown. What is needed along Euclid Avenue are urban place where people want to be. There certainly aren't enough there now.
There are many opportunities being missed in Jackson's decision making. These land use decisions are being made too fast and without public input or public input that has been ignored.
According to one source the new facility in midtown will have perhaps a few new beds. I'm not sure if the 20 new beds are not coming from a ward over at County Metro. The current mental hospital in Sagamore Hills has 280 beds. The new facility will have 300 beds. It is hard to say if Sowell would have had a place in the new facility.
I think it would have still depended on what the parol board at the prison decided. I understand he asked for help and they didn't give it to him. Sowell apparently is very calm on the outside and his demeaner bought his way out.
Lee Batdorff
What you write makes a lot
What you write makes a lot of sense. I am not a city planner so I don't know what goes into the decision making. I wonder if the old St. Michael's lot was considered for the mental hospital? Also wondering what plans are in the works for that area. Good point about RTA and selling space for parking. It doesn't jive, does it.
I had the opportunity to drive down the new Euclid Avenue a few months ago on my way to Severance Hall for a COYO concert, my neice was playing trumpet, and it looks nice. I haven't taken a bus ride there yet so I don't know what that would be like, but it looks nice from a car.
We can only speculate what would have been if Sowell got help when he asked for it. But, these horrible murders at the very least hint at the need for a mental health facility in this area. I wouldn't vote against it if I was asked, but I also wouldn't insist that it be placed on Euclid Avenue either. The St. Michael's lot would probably be a good location. But, nobody is asking me, so my two cents isn't worth much.
It's possible she didn't
It's possible she didn't know all these rapes and murders were going on, but the police need to take a hard look at her. Did she help lure women to him? If she didn't know about the murders, did she know about sexual assaults? It does seem strange that she could have lived there for that long a time period and been oblivious to any of the predator activities he was up to. But, I guess it's not impossible. But if she was an accomplice to any of his crimes in any way, that needs to be determined.
I'd also like to know if it has been reported anywhere as to whether or not Anthony Sowell's mother has been located. Do we know if she's even still alive? Maybe I missed that in one of the articles.
BTW, the PD has a FAQ up and it says people didn't know the smell was human bodies because most people fortunately don't know what dead human bodies smell like. But sheriff deputies ought to know the smell, correct? And health officials, right?
she was living amidst rotting corpses...
i mean i know she was doing drug, but jeezuz christ......
hummm...the smell of rotted flesh
if it is from a meat factory, dead animals or human IMO would all be the same sickning smell.
It is terrible that this happens, and now the long expensive trial, housing, lawyers and defense start.....
Poor families, Betty
The problem is, America is NOT a Democracy - it is a Republic! As our Founding Fathers established, can we keep it?
The papers say that
The papers say that decomposing human bodies have a distinct smell. I guess that's why they can train cadaver dogs to locate human remains.
Crack heads
Crack heads will do anything for a rock, even kill.
Crack head serial killer, crack addicts and prostitutes were all around some dead and some alive.
Smoking a little crack is like doing a little heroin, its all about addicts.
The one was a serial killer, that’s a bad combination isn't it. He was sloppy and she did not notice...for a rock or because of the drugs?
Did not notice? Did not care? Helped it along?
Degrees of being an accomplice I would say.
If not criminal then very liable for a civil lawsuit, sitting idle while murder and rape is transpiring. Anyone that covered this up obviously not fully understanding are also accomplices. Looking away makes you an accomplice, degrees of complicity some are criminal and some just make you liable for damages within civil law. The families have cases against all involved, including the city of Cleveland.
Degrees of being an accomplice
thank you, Oengus - for once we agree.
And I find it less than believable that her uncle, our mayor, had nothing to do with the lack of inquiry. Its also pathetic that it stayed hushed for over a week. And - if you notice, this story posted at 2am on a saturday morning, was not linked or headlined ANywhere, and I'm assuming it was somewhere in the Metro section in the print edition.
I gave the reporter at NYTimes a heads up to it.
And to think that 77% of
And to think that 77% of Cleveland residents voted for Mayor Jackson. Can we, the citizens, call for drug testing for all our city leaders on a weekly basis?
The 'smell' of 'rotten politicians' is turning my stomach.
The Mayor's niece actually
The Mayor's niece actually still considers herself the Cleveland Strangler's girlfriend! When was the last time they were together?
From the British papers:
But, look, folks, there's so
But, look, folks, there's so far no evidence that Mayor Jackson should be attacked because his niece was caught up with this monster. I looked at her county court dockets and they look the same as most other crack addict's dockets. And no one got her a private attorney in her cases, either.
So far, I just consider the killer's connection to Mayor Jackson's family a strange fact. Maybe it's not so surprising, though, considering that Cleveland's crack scene is a small world where those living in it in a hardcore way tend to all run into each other because they're buying drugs from the same people, frequenting the same drug houses, smoking the drugs together, spending time in jail together, etc. The Mayor's niece has been involved in the drug scene for 20 years! She probably knows other murderers in addition to this one (the worst one of all).
Anyway, Mayor Jackson probably deserves a lot of criticism for what he hasn't been doing to help our economically depressed inner city neighborhoods. But, I'm not gonna attack him for the sad problems of his niece unless some evidence comes out for why I should. I feel sorry for him that someone in his family has such a terrible problem.
Anyway, we need to hear more about these sex offender spot checks from our sheriff's deputies. Since we know our previous Sheriff (McFaul) was barely ever even at work, did he set a climate where deputies thought they could blow-off doing a proper job in checking on our sex offenders?
uh.... yea...
from the article:
"When a naked woman fell from a window of the house hours later, and was found by neighbours being choked by Mr Sowell, police reportedly arrived late, and again did not enter the building."
theo669
Mayor Jackson is not being attacked, and certainly not for having a family member with a drug problem. Mayor Jackson's credibility and veracity is being called into question as he took way too long before reaching out to the community in the Imperial Ave. area and it took him way too long to fess up to his niece's involvement. He runs the City and appoints the heads of the Safety and Police Departments and is not being transparent which only breeds speculation. Should he be exempt from criticism of the police departments' total screw ups and lack of follow through because his niece is a drug user? Did he stay away from Imperial because of his nieces involvement? Did the police not follow through of numerous occasions because the niece of the Mayor loved in Sowell's house?
i couldn't
have said that better - thank you.