Anthony Sowell, who terrorizes the city of Cleveland with a macabre series of murders and hides the decomposing bodies of 11 black women at his home, died Monday of an unknown terminal illness, a correctional agency spokesman in Ohio said. He was 61.
Mr. Sowell, who has been on death row since 2011, was admitted last month to a care unit at Franklin Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio, a facility run by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, the spokeswoman said. JoEllen Smith, said in an email Monday night. She did not elaborate on the medical diagnosis of Mr. Sowell not, except to say that it was not Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
Mr. Sowell was identified by the Ohio criminal justice system as a “sexually violent predator” after being convicted in 2011 of 11 counts of murder, as well as attempted murder, kidnapping, rape, assault and assault of corpses.
The decomposing bodies of the victims were found in Mr. Sowell’s home and found in his garden on the city’s East Side.
At the time of his arrest in 2009, relatives of his victims had expressed anger that Mr. Sowell, who previously spent 15 years in a state jail because he lured a 21-year-old woman into his home and then strangled and raped her. went unnoticed. He was released from prison in 2005 in the case.
They also complained that their attempts to get the police to open cases for missing persons were not successful.
When Sowell was arrested, he pleaded not guilty to insanity. But that could not have prevented him from being sent to death.
Over the years, advocates for Mr. Sowell, the most notorious serial killer in Cleveland’s history, made several unsuccessful attempts to destroy his death sentence.