Convicted serial killer and death row inmate Anthony Sowell, 56, who murdered 11 Black women at his since demolished home on Imperial Avenue on Cleveland's largely Black east side, and raped three other Black women. October 29, 2015 marks the 6th year, since 2009, that the first bodies were removed by authorities from the gruesome home.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, Cleveland Urban News. Com and the Cleveland Urban News.Com Blog, Ohio's Most Read Online Black Newspaper and Newspaper Blog. Tel: 216-659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Coleman is a 22-year political, legal and investigative journalist who trained for 17 years, and under six different editors, including Connie Harper, at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) / (www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).
CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio- Local community activist groups and Black elected officials, led by the grassroots activist group the Imperial Women Coalition, will host the 6th Anniversary of the Imperial Avenue Murders rally and vigil on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 5:15 pm on Imperial Avenue in Cleveland in front of the since demolished home of serial killer and death row inmate Anthony Sowell. The day marks the 6th anniversary since 2009 when authorities began pulling dead bodies from the home on the city's largely Black east side.
(Contact persons are community activists Kathy Wray Coleman of the Imperial Women Coalition at (216) 659-0473, Lavitta Murray of the Million Women March Cleveland at (216) 410-9830, Minister Gwen Pitts at (216) 233-4781, Activist Tammy Kennedy at (216) 703-2402, and Art McKoy of Black on Black Crime Inc. and the Black Man's Army at (216) 253-4070. Please bring protest signs against violence against women and children). (For directions to the rally/vigil take Kinsman Rd from downtown Cleveland to East 123rd Street. Turn left, and go three blocks to Imperial Avenue).
Sowell, 56, was convicted in 2011 on 82 of 83 counts, including 11 counts of aggravated murder as to the 11 Black women that he strangled to death at his home, and three counts of rape as to the rape of three other Black women, also at his home.
His convictions, including the death penalty imposed by a Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas jury, are on appeal before the Ohio Supreme Court.
Other issues of public concern relative to the rally, say activists, are the at large purported
serial killer that killed four women between early March and the middle of May in 2013, three Black and one White, along a strip at E. 93rd Street in Cleveland, also on the city's east side, and suspected East Cleveland serial killer Michael Madison, who is
custody on a $6 million bond.
Madison is accused of killing three Black women in 2013 and wrapping their bodies in Black trash bags.
Black elected officials are slated to speak, along with community activists, Black clergy, and some family members of murdered Black women).
Participating activist groups include the Imperial Women Coalition, the Million Women March Cleveland, Sister to Sister, the Oppressed People's Nation, Black on Black Crime Inc., the Black Man's Army, the Carl Stokes Brigade, Peace in the Hood, the Cleveland African-American Museum, and Stop Targeting Ohio's Poor. (www.clevelandurbannews.com) /(www.kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com).
