narrator: On their way
to arrest a suspected rapist,
Cleveland law enforcement
uncover one of the most
gruesome crime scenes
in U.S. history.
- It seemed like
there was bodies everywhere.
They were in different states
of decomposition.
- It was so gruesome,
and it was so shocking.
- So you know
that you're dealing with
a very dangerous individual
at that point.
- Now you're thinking monster.
Now you're thinking
serial killer.
narrator: The house belongs
to a convicted sex offender,
but he is nowhere to be found.
- So the hunt was on
for the city of Cleveland.
narrator: The sister of
the man they are looking for
has witnessed his violence
towards women firsthand.
- Anthony said, "Shut up,"
and she went
to say something else, and bam!
narrator: It's vital police
hunt down the killer
before he strikes again.
- We gotta find this guy.
We gotta put handcuffs on him.
We gotta put him in jail.
narrator: How will
the wanted man's sister
react when she finds out
she'd been living
with a serial killer?
- [voice breaking]
I remember it
like it was yesterday.
[somber music]
* *
Cleveland, Ohio.
September 22nd, 2009.
[tense music]
A woman makes a statement
to police
saying she's been assaulted
and raped.
- Her initial statement
was that she went to party
with this fella in his house
and he began to get physical
with her.
She rejected him.
That made him angry
and he strangled her.
narrator: The victim is
36-year-old Latundra Billups.
The accused:
former U.S. Marine
Anthony Sowell.
- She said
while she was unconscious,
she was raped,
and when she woke up,
Anthony was surprised
she was still alive.
- Somehow she managed
to escape
and ran out of the house,
and she reported the crime
to police.
narrator: Sowell has lived
at the house
on Imperial Avenue
for four years
and is well-known
in the community.
What's less well-known
is that before moving there
in 2005,
he was a convicted rapist.
- Anthony Sowell
was a registered sex offender
who had spent 15 years in jail
for raping a woman.
narrator: Still on parole,
his previous conviction
and jail term is known
to police.
- To know that Anthony Sowell
had been in jail for 15 years
for rape would give you an idea
that he might have
sexually assaulted
Latundra Billups.
- An arrest warrant was made
based on that.
You've got a search warrant
for Anthony's house.
* *
narrator: The house is
in the Mount Pleasant district
of East Cleveland,
an area with a long history
of social problems.
- East Cleveland had been
struggling for decades--
lots of abandoned,
boarded-up buildings.
The crack cocaine epidemic
hit particularly this area
of Cleveland pretty hard,
and there was a lot of poverty.
narrator: Anthony was born
in East Cleveland in 1959.
His sister, Tressa, recalls
a strong sense of community.
- East Cleveland used to be big
on family gatherings,
family-oriented.
Like, we used
to shut our street down
and have a street party,
and when I was younger,
things were very good.
This used to be my home.
It used to have
a white picket fence
all the way up around.
narrator: To Tressa,
her big brother Anthony,
seven years her senior,
was just like any other kid
on the block.
- Anthony growing up
was your normal boy.
Very athletic.
He used to get
with the neighborhood kids
and they would play baseball
all the time.
And he got trophies
for them as well.
[tense music]
narrator: Tressa remembers
that even at a young age,
Sowell had a desire
to be noticed.
- He was an attention-getter.
Like, he was very smart,
very intelligent.
I did look up to him.
I remember Christmases
together.
We were always happy,
always had everything
we needed and then some.
It was nice.
narrator: But things changed
with the sudden death
of Tressa's father
when she was just three
and Anthony ten.
- My mother struggled.
She was hardly ever at home
because she worked
so many hours.
narrator: To help her
look after the children,
Tressa's mother asked
their strict grandmother
to move in.
- My grandmother's firm hand
had a big effect.
She had a cane
that she used to walk with
and we would get whooping
with it.
narrator: But their
grandmother's harsh treatment
only served to bring Tressa
and Anthony closer together.
- It was always us
against the world.
- When young siblings
are abused,
it's not unusual for them
to seek protection
and comfort in each other.
And they form
an even deeper bond.
narrator: Despite
this closeness to his sister,
Anthony left home
at the first opportunity,
joining the marines
after finishing school.
- Anthony did excellent
in the marines.
He has some awards
from the marines.
And my mother
was very proud of him.
He strived to be the best
that he could be.
He really was that type
of person.
* *
narrator: Anthony left
the marines after seven years
and returned home
to East Cleveland.
His sister immediately
saw a change in him.
- It was like
I didn't know him.
His attitude
was more aggressive.
The least little thing,
he would get very,
very agitated.
narrator: Tressa wondered
if his experience
in the elite unit
had left him traumatized.
- No one was there
to show him how to calm down
once he got to that point.
I don't think
they even checked him
to see if he had PTSD.
Because I felt like he did.
narrator: Tressa noticed
how his attitude changed
towards their mother,
who had been so proud of him
when he enlisted.
- It was very brutal.
It was like he was talking
to somebody he didn't know.
And I had to let him know,
"Don't ever speak to my mother
in that manner.
I don't really care
what your issue with her is."
He got very aggressive
with me.
He even tried to strike me,
and so that's when
I really knew he had changed.
* *
narrator:
October 29th, 2009.
After further investigation
into the alleged rape
of Latundra Billups,
police have obtained a warrant
for Anthony Sowell's arrest.
- The assumption was
that we'd make an entry,
locate Anthony
in that residence.
narrator: Around 7:00 p.m.,
law enforcement arrive
at Sowell's house.
- There was no answer,
so they made a forced entry.
narrator:
Sowell is nowhere to be found.
* *
But little does
law enforcement know,
they are about to uncover
one of the most disturbing
crime scenes in U.S. history.
- It seemed like
there was bodies everywhere.
- The body count kept rising.
- Now you're thinking monster.
Now you're thinking
serial killer.
- He said,
"I'm gonna be famous,
but it's gonna be
for all the wrong things."
[tense music]
* *
narrator:
October 29th, 2009.
Cleveland law enforcement
arrive at the address
of Anthony Sowell,
wanted in connection
with an alleged rape.
With no answer,
they force entry.
- The entry team
did a security sweep
of the residence
to locate Anthony.
narrator:
Anthony is nowhere to be seen.
But no one is prepared
for what they do find.
[eerie music]
* *
- In homicide,
there are three smells.
* *
One smell is a death
that just recently occurred.
There's something
about the air.
Then secondly,
there is a odor
where a person has been
in the apartment building
maybe about a week.
But then when you get
to a decomposed body,
that's the worst smell
you could smell.
It adheres to your body.
You can smell it
on your clothing
once you leave the area.
[dark music]
narrator: Two bodies
are found lying on the floor
of a bedroom.
- Imagine taking a box of rice
and throw it
all over the floor
and stepping on it.
That was rat feces
that had fed off the bodies
and the flies, the dead flies.
narrator:
Further investigation uncovers
five more victims
concealed in the property,
making a total of seven.
- It seemed like
there was bodies everywhere.
They were in different states
of decomposition.
In the basement, we discovered
a head in a bucket.
It actually was a skull
in a bucket.
There was a body
in a cubbyhole.
One was situated
in the living room.
Some of them were posed.
- I've seen a lot
of homicides,
but personally, myself,
I had never seen anything
of that nature.
- This is somewhat unusual.
But it is not unheard of.
For whatever reason,
these particular killers
like to keep their victims
close at hand.
- It was obvious
we had a major crime
on our hands.
Plus, you know
that you're dealing with
a very dangerous individual
at that point.
- Now you're thinking monster.
Now you're thinking
serial killer.
Now you're thinking about how
many more victims are there?
- So we gotta find this guy.
We gotta put handcuffs on him.
We gotta put him in jail.
And so the hunt was on
for the city of Cleveland.
narrator:
Identification of the victims
could take weeks
due to the decomposed state
of the bodies.
But with Sowell
still unaccounted for,
law enforcement are aware
that Latundra Billups,
who led police to the house
in the first place,
remains key
to their investigation.
- She was our only
living witness
that we knew of at the time,
so we thought it was essential.
Locate Latundra
and get her to a hotel
under some security,
which we did immediately.
narrator: But faced
with such a heinous crime,
an excess
of 40 law enforcement officers
are called in
to help with the manhunt.
Police soon find out
Sowell's sister Tressa
lives in the neighborhood.
- There was a knock
at the door.
And the sheriffs
are at my door.
That's when I'm told
that they were looking
for Anthony.
They found dead bodies
over at his house
and he is a suspect
for killing some women.
- I was so emotionally pulled
that it really didn't
resonate immediately.
narrator: The police
press Tressa to tell them
if she knows
where her brother is.
- I did not have a clue
to where Anthony was.
He went into hiding.
[phone rings]
narrator: But the next day,
Tressa does get a call
from her brother.
- He said, "Tressa,
"you're gonna find out
things about me
that I did."
And he said, "They are true."
He said,
"I'm gonna be famous,
but it's gonna be
for all the wrong things."
[suspenseful music]
* *
I asked him,
"What are you talking about?"
And he said, "You'll soon see."
narrator: Tressa asked Anthony
if he planned
to turn himself in
or go on the run.
- And he said,
"I don't know yet."
He said, "I gotta go."
And that was it.
[somber music]
narrator: Having grown up
close to her brother,
Tressa had the dilemma
of whether
to let the police know
that he'd made contact.
She thought the best way
of protecting him
was to say nothing.
- I was worried
because I thought
they were gonna kill him.
- These two, as children,
sought comfort in each other
from the abuse.
She knew another side
of her brother
and so she was protecting him.
narrator:
She did eventually call police
but had nothing to give them
on Anthony's whereabouts.
- When they questioned me,
I didn't know what was going on
with him.
narrator:
With Anthony still at large,
reporters soon get wind
of the story.
- A gruesome discovery
at Cleveland's
house of horrors on Friday.
narrator: Before long,
media from around the world
descend onto East Cleveland.
- The neighborhood
was just swarmed.
There were SAT trucks
everywhere,
national media,
international media.
narrator:
The press began talking
to people in the community.
One question they have:
just who is Anthony Sowell?
- He was a nice young man.
He used to come over
to our house
and play basketball
with my brothers.
- He was described
as a friendly guy
who was often sitting
on his front porch.
Often he would have neighbors
over for a barbecue.
He was a well-known figure
in the neighborhood.
narrator: But some neighbors
recount noticing
a bad smell in the street.
- People described it as
it smelled like rotting meat
or a dead animal.
People initially blamed it
on a sausage shop
that was next door
to Sowell's house.
narrator: But by now,
the community
was all too aware
of what had caused the smell,
and with Sowell
still at large,
nobody could sleep easy
until he had been apprehended.
- The neighborhood
was in a frenzy, so to speak.
- 'Cause they were concerned.
I think it was like
a state of shock.
* *
narrator: Sowell was sentenced
to 15 years for rape in 1989,
but his sister Tressa
had always doubted
whether he was guilty.
- Anthony said
he didn't rape her,
and so I believed
that the system had set him up.
I really did.
narrator: On his release
from prison in 2005,
Tressa put Anthony up
in her home
to give him a chance
to get back on his feet.
She'd seen how angry
Anthony could get
after leaving the marines.
But to start with,
things seemed to go well.
- I was afraid at first,
but then as he--
time went on,
I got more comfortable
because he was doing everything
he was supposed to do.
narrator: With five daughters,
four sons,
and an elderly mother
to look after,
Tressa was glad
to have extra help.
- He would help me
with dinner.
He would help me watch the kids
when they were outside playing
and I would be in the house
taking care of my mom.
I felt like he was moving
in the right direction,
and so I felt good about it.
narrator: But Anthony
could only keep up the act
for a couple of months
before his aggression
began to surface,
and this time,
it was towards her children.
- I went to Anthony
and I simply told him,
"You don't put your hands
on my kids.
"When you get to putting
your hands on my kids,
we got a problem."
[tense music]
* *
narrator:
The remains of seven women
have been found at a house
in East Cleveland.
Prime suspect, Anthony Sowell,
is on the run
and law enforcement
is desperate to find him.
[siren wails]
- The uniformed officers,
strike forces, the vice units
had mug shots of Anthony.
Everybody in the city
wanted to nail this guy.
narrator: A wide-scale sweep
of the area is begun.
- We knew that
a lot of the people
Anthony dealt with
were drug users,
and the drug users in that area
liked to use
the abandoned houses
as crack houses.
They go in there and get high.
So we began
a systematic search
of some of the abandons
in the fourth district.
narrator: But no one
has seen Anthony.
Police fear
he may have left town.
- We knew that Anthony
was an ex-marine.
He'd been overseas.
He wasn't a stranger to travel.
So yeah,
we had no idea where he was.
narrator: Word soon spreads
in the community
that Anthony's sister
is living locally.
As more horrific information
comes to light,
some wrongly feel that Tressa
could be protecting
her missing brother.
- The community was angry.
They then threw their anger
toward myself and my family.
I began to get death threats.
narrator:
Fearing for her life,
Tressa took matters
into her own hands.
- My children and their safety
was at the top of my list.
And so we had to, overnight,
leave most of our things
and pick up and move.
That's not very easy
with nine children
and a disabled mother.
narrator: Tressa's life
had been turned upside down
by the discovery of the bodies
in her brother's house.
But just who were the victims?
And could identifying them
lead police to the killer?
- The scientific
investigation unit
from the Cleveland
Police Department
and the coroner's office
arrived on scene
and they began
to process the scene.
That means DNA swabs,
fingerprint samples,
photographs.
narrator:
With this data in hand,
police get to work,
checking through lists
of persons reported missing
in the greater Cleveland area.
- Each body that you find,
you know
that you have family members.
- Finding family members
of these victims,
that's critical
because those are the folks
the detectives
have gotta get to
to start asking the questions.
We need to know
what their circumstances were,
when they last saw them,
and so forth.
And it is gonna
be time-consuming.
These detectives are gonna
be working around the clock
to get these folks identified.
narrator:
While police are working
to identify the victims,
they come across a report
from a woman
who claims Sowell has tried
to strangle her.
One year before the discovery
of the other victims,
39-year-old Gladys Wade
notified police Sowell
choked her at his house.
She managed to escape,
but no charges
were brought against Sowell
due to insufficient evidence.
- Sad to say,
there are many cases
where there is not evidence,
and in this case,
there was not evidence
to pursue prosecution.
This is very frustrating
not only for the victim,
but for the detectives
involved.
narrator:
Sowell had had a lucky escape.
But now police were
building a profile
to help them figure out
his whereabouts.
- What we did know
at the time
was Anthony
had a drug problem also,
so he didn't have
a lot of means.
He didn't have a lot of money.
narrator: Without money,
police suspected
it was unlikely Sowell
had means to travel far,
and they were right.
[suspenseful music]
On Halloween 2009,
two days after the bodies
had been found
in Sowell's house,
the breakthrough came.
[siren wails]
A patrol was alerted to a man
fitting Anthony's description
just a few blocks
from the crime scene.
- A passerby had seen him
walking down the street.
[dramatic music]
narrator: When law enforcement
approached him,
Anthony admitted
he was the person
they were looking for.
- We were notified
by our commander
that Anthony had been arrested
in the fourth district
by fourth district
strike force.
narrator: Police couldn't
believe their luck.
- Doing homicide,
you usually have
a lot of people
fleeing the area,
but this guy was found
within the neighborhood,
which was surprising.
- It's possible that Sowell
just didn't have the means
to go far.
But it's also possible
that he knew time was up,
that he was about
to get arrested,
and that soon his name
was going to be known
across the country, so if it's
attention that he wants,
he's about to get it.
narrator: When Sowell
spoke to his sister,
he had chillingly told her
he would be famous,
but for all the wrong reasons.
* *
With those words vivid
in her memory,
the news that police
had apprehended her brother
hit Tressa hard.
- The day of his arrest,
my thoughts pivoted
onto my children and my mother.
narrator:
When the story broke,
Tressa moved house
to try and escape the anger
of the community.
But the plan didn't work.
She was harassed by people
appalled by the crimes.
- People believing
that I allowed my brother
to do these horrendous things,
but I had nothing
to do with it.
I would've tried to stop him
had I known.
* *
narrator: With her youngest
then aged just six,
Tressa chose
to shield her children
from the details of her
brother's alleged crimes.
- They became more aware
once they got to school
and the children were talking,
and there was a big backlash.
narrator:
Tressa and Anthony's mother
was also struggling
to accept her own son
was potentially capable
of such terrible acts
of violence towards women.
- My mother changed.
Her health went down.
She was becoming depressed
and I could see it.
* *
narrator: Sowell is taken in
for questioning.
But will he admit
to killing the seven women
that have been found?
And are there more victims
to be discovered
at his house of horrors?
- City of Cleveland
had a backhoe,
and lo and behold,
more bodies came up.
[tense music]
narrator:
October 31st, 2009.
Anthony Sowell is in custody
at Cleveland
police headquarters.
narrator:
Police are working hard
to identify the seven victims,
but are there more bodies
to be discovered?
If they are
to secure a confession,
law enforcement
must employ all their skills
in interrogation.
- What you're doing
is you're selling to a person
the fact that you want them
to admit to something
that's probably gonna put them
in the electric chair.
And that's
a pretty difficult sell,
but, you know,
if you're good at it,
it's possible.
- Anything to keep
the person talking
is what you want
because we had a lot to lose.
We had all these families
that was affected.
- It's an artful skill
in that interview room
with a homicide detective.
You have to listen
and you have to be patient.
You know, God gave us two ears
and one mouth.
That's so we can hear
twice as much as we say.
narrator: The patient approach
was working
and Sowell seemed
ready to talk.
- He disclosed having dreams.
In these dreams,
he hurt these people
with his hands.
- Okay.
- He tells the detectives
that he is having dreams
choking people.
That's the open door.
Now we have this admission.
Now we just need
to bring it back
into the realm of reality.
And so
this is a great opportunity
for those detectives
in that interview.
- Eventually he would admit
he had females
that would come over
and get high.
- He would admit
of where he found the girls,
where he met the girls.
It's like he wanted to tell us.
It's like he wanted
to get it off his chest.
- Once a person starts
to confess,
it's actually common
to see that they feel
sort of relieved
at unburdening themselves
from these dark secrets
they've been harboring.
Think about that.
narrator: Lemmy Griffin knew
they had enough
to charge Sowell,
but it was vital
they continued
to press him on whether
there were more victims.
- And he slipped and said ten.
[dramatic music]
narrator:
So far, seven victims
had been discovered.
The next day,
the investigation team
went back to the property
with an excavator
to dig up the backyard.
- City of Cleveland
had a backhoe
and we systematically digged
section at a time,
and low and behold,
more bodies came up.
* *
- Over the course
of several days,
the body count kept rising.
narrator: Four more bodies
are discovered,
bringing the total to 11.
- He killed so many people
he forgot
where he buried them at.
narrator:
Autopsy reports reveal
how the victims have died.
- Many of them
had been strangled
with household objects
like a belt,
the strap of a shoulder bag,
and many of them
still had the ligatures
wrapped around their necks when
their bodies were discovered.
* *
narrator:
Now that Sowell is in custody,
more families
of missing persons
come forward.
Within six weeks,
the coroner has the identities
of all 11 victims.
[somber music]
* *
All were
African American women,
most in their 30s or 40s.
* *
All except one were mothers.
* *
- It was hard not knowing,
but it's even worse
knowing now
that she got killed violently.
* *
- Her laughter.
The love we all had
for each other.
* *
- My thoughts about her
is that how much I love her
and how much I miss her.
You know, that was my baby.
* *
[tense music]
narrator: In the four years
that Sowell lived
at Imperial Avenue,
his sister Tressa
often visited him.
With the 11 victims
now identified,
she began questioning
whether she ever noticed
anything strange.
- It was one day
I went over his house...
went upstairs
and immediately...
smelt an odor.
He rushed down the stairs
to where I was at.
[ominous music]
I asked him,
"What is that smell?"
And he says, "Oh,
that's the sausage factory.
That's the sausage factory."
But now that I look back,
there was something
in his eyes.
It wasn't right.
But I didn't
pay attention to that
because I was agitated
by the smell,
and I took Anthony
for his word.
It never dawned on me
that something
of that magnitude
was going on.
[dramatic musical sting]
narrator:
More victims raped by Sowell
but somehow survived
his brutal attacks
come forward.
- A common story emerged
among women
who had been attacked
by Anthony and survived
to tell the tale.
They would be drinking
or smoking
and then, all of a sudden,
Anthony would become violent.
They described it as he would
get a crazy look in his eyes
and he would just snap.
[tense music]
* *
narrator: Former marine
and convicted rapist
Anthony Sowell
has been charged
with the murder of 11 women
and is awaiting trial.
But police have yet
to establish a motive.
What had driven Sowell
to rape and murder
so many women
in such a brutal manner?
Clues have emerged during
the initial police interviews.
[siren wails]
- As you peel back the layers,
he'd start talking about
his girlfriend
who he believed did him wrong.
- He had helped this girl
through some
substance abuse problems,
and then
as soon as she got clean,
she dropped him.
That angered him towards women.
narrator:
Sowell's sister Tressa
remembers
how Anthony felt used
by this former lover.
- Now that I look back,
that was a turning point
for him.
He was upset and felt betrayed
that she dismissed him
after he helped her get clean.
- Being wronged
by a former partner
could spark these feelings
of wanting to take out revenge
on other women,
especially, if like Sowell,
he's already got a history
of violence against women.
narrator: This history
of violence towards women
had been witnessed
by Tressa firsthand.
- We're speaking
to this young lady,
and Anthony says, "Shut up."
He said it once,
and she went to say
something else, and bam!
Her nose was gushing.
We thought it was broken.
narrator: It showed Tressa
how quickly Anthony
could become angry and how
violent he could be to women.
- That switch flipping,
it was out the blue.
* *
narrator: Fast forward
to June 6th, 2011.
* *
At the Cuyahoga County
courthouse,
Sowell stands trial
for 11 counts of murder
and 74 other counts,
including rape,
attempted murder,
tampering with evidence,
and abuse of a corpse.
[dramatic music]
- Seeing Anthony Sowell
in person was chilling.
He had almost
a vacant expression.
He didn't show emotion.
- His demeanor was just bland
and no sign of remorse
whatsoever.
narrator: Key witnesses
for the prosecution
included Latundra Billups,
whose testimony
prompted police
to visit Sowell's property,
and Gladys Wade,
who'd reported being attacked
by Sowell in 2008.
- The most disturbing aspects
of the trial
were the women who came forward
who had survived being attacked
by Anthony Sowell.
narrator: One victim
brave enough to take the stand
was 37-year-old Vanessa Gay.
- He turned around
and punched me in my face.
He told me
to take my clothes off.
narrator:
For the families of victims,
it was horrendous to imagine
how their loved ones
must have suffered.
- Yeah, it was one
of the most emotional trials
I had been in.
How this monster
Anthony Sowell
affected each family,
that was really emotional.
narrator: Yet Sowell continued
to show no empathy or regret.
- He didn't display
any remorse
and he just seemed
to have a deep-seeded
hatred of women.
- His lack of remorse
and empathy
isn't really surprising
'cause if he was capable
of feeling that, he probably
wouldn't have killed 11 women.
This lack of remorse
is characteristic
of narcissists and sociopaths.
He's incapable
of feeling responsible
for what he did.
He can't feel the carnage
that he's left behind
and all those broken families.
- I can't think
of any serial killer
that I've ever studied,
looked at,
that has ever shown
any remorse.
If they had any remorse at all,
it was only about
their own situation.
narrator: Arguments attempting
to mitigate his crimes
by reason of poor mental state
were withdrawn.
- Insanity defenses--
you can bet that the defense
is going to play on that.
That will be their defense.
Really, if you think about it,
Anthony has got
no other way to go.
But to prove
an insanity defense,
it's a very, very high bar
to get to.
narrator:
His initial plea of not guilty
by reason of insanity
was later changed
to simply not guilty.
- It tells you that he knew
what he was doing.
Everything was precalculated
from the simple way
how he disposed the bodies.
narrator: After seven weeks
of hearing evidence,
the jury are unanimous
in their verdict:
guilty on 85 charges,
including the rape and murder
of 11 women.
The jury must now decide
if they award Sowell
life in prison
or the death penalty.
Called to testify at this
life-or-death sentencing trial
is Sowell's sister Tressa.
Tressa thought back
to the strong bond
she and Anthony had had before
he had joined the marines
and how much the big brother
she loved and looked up to
had changed
after seven years of duty.
- I always felt like
the marines showed him
how to become a killer.
But they never showed him
how to turn it off.
- Those closest
to a serial killer
may look to the outside
to lay blame somewhere.
For the family,
it's just really hard
to accept that their loved one
is this cold-blooded killer.
I mean, it's hard
to wrap their head around.
narrator:
Tressa also felt that Anthony
should've been watched
more closely by authorities,
considering that
he had already served
15 years for rape.
- Not that I wanted him
to get out of jail,
not that I did not
find him guilty,
it was that there were
lapses in the system
that let him down.
He was not the only one
at fault.
[tense music]
* *
narrator: At the Cuyahoga
County courthouse,
Anthony Sowell
has been found guilty
of 11 counts of murder.
The death penalty
is on the table.
But as part
of the sentencing phase,
his sister Tressa
has been called to testify.
- I made the decision
to ask the court
to spare my brother's life.
* *
narrator: The jury disagreed.
Anthony was given the sentence
of death by lethal injection.
- When I heard that Anthony
got the death penalty,
I was fine with that.
Some people object
to the death penalty,
but Anthony had done 15 years
before on another rape.
- I felt that was
the most likely outcome
given the magnitude
of his crimes.
- When you think
of the families,
and you wanna bring closure
to the families,
you think that that--
that was appropriate.
narrator:
Having heard all the evidence,
Anthony's sister Tressa
managed to accept
what she'd hoped
would never be the truth--
that her own flesh and blood
was a serial killer.
- After the trial,
my feelings changed.
I feel differently because
I know exactly what happened.
I know that he did
for a fact
do these crimes,
and so I could never
feel okay
about what he'd done.
I have five daughters.
That could've been
one of my daughters.
How could I be okay
with that...
As a human being?
* *
narrator: For Anthony's mother
who'd once been so proud,
knowing her son
was a serial killer
was more than she could take.
- I felt like he killed
my mother, basically.
Because she literally--
I watched her give up
when she found out
exactly what happened.
The look in her face...
[voice breaking]
I remember it
like it was yesterday.
[sniffles]
And I seen that pain
of knowing
your son had did something
so disrespectful
and so indignant
to a woman.
- It's difficult
for many families
to believe
that one of their own
is a serial killer.
They knew a different person.
- Anthony Sowell,
in everyday life,
he presented himself
as an affable,
bright, articulate guy,
was very helpful,
but the fact was,
he's a vicious serial killer.
Thank God
he was taken off the street
'cause he wouldn't
have stopped killing.
There's just no doubt about it.
[somber music]
- What he did,
that was
ligature strangulation--
strangling someone
with a rope, wire, belt.
To actually feel
the person die--
that's a monster.
It takes
a hell of a human being
to go through
that continuously.
* *
And wanting to do it
again and again and again.
He was a total monster.
It's really astonishing to know
that he got away with that
all that time.
* *
[tense music]
narrator:
Sowell's house of horrors
was demolished
in December 2011.
In its place, a memorial
to the 11 innocent women
he murdered.
* *
But Anthony Sowell
was never put to death
by the state of Ohio.
Ten years after
the death sentence ruling,
he died of natural causes
while on death row.
* *
- As far as remembering
my brother,
there's nothing good...
to remember after that.
Like, you can't think
of the good times
just because it's been
such a horrifying ordeal
with what he's done.
Like, the good times
are kinda, like, gone.
You only remember
the horrifying experience
of just being a family member
to someone that's committed
a horrifying crime.
* *