It will be a long time before people stop talking about Anthony Sowell and the parade of death unearthed in his Imperial Avenue home.  Women - so far all women - met a horrible end at the hands of someone. All indications are that this convicted sex-offender will find his way to the very wrong side of fame.

While the inconceivable evil of the serial killer is an attention magnet, most have been remarkably similar. They all have a level of psychopathy that is the subject of countless studies, scholarly papers and fictional tales. The movies alone that romanticize these men account for billions of dollars. But this mousy little man from the neighborhood of duplexes near the border of East Cleveland is hardly Hannibal Lecter. 

There are many theories as to what sends these men off the edge, and most are men. But if those studying these phenomena were honest, they would admit that it is truly a mystery. 

A friend asked the question that many are asking as this drama unfolds. What if these were white women? Would they have gone so long missing without major attention from the media? Would Greta Van Sustern and Adam Walsh be far behind? But this is Cleveland's east side and the underground fed by drugs and desperation is as large and invisible as the continental shelf. This is nothing new and it is not just about the skin color of the victims. Jeffrey Dahmer killed men of all races and these poor souls went un-missed as far as the nation was concerned.  Sadly there are always people, men, women and teenagers, who live on the tender edge of society. And evil will always find them.  

Sowell and only a handful of other black men have fit the profile of multiple murderers so heinous and methodical as to gain a name. But things are changing quickly.

And there's the question of how neighbors could stand living on a street with decaying bodies stacking up. I have been in these neighborhoods, I know them fairly well. The notion that a meat rendering business sitting on the corner could so foul the air is one of those accepted indignities. Of course there's a drug house over there, an after-hours joint down the block and a sex offender drinking beer on his porch, just a few feet from where our kids walk to school.  We deserve better, got a cousin in the White House, but that change is so, so slow in coming.

My heart breaks for the women kept in this man's chamber macabre. I am very pleased that his journey has come to an end. Mr. Sowell will be tried and the evidence against him seems overwhelming. It will remain a national story for months if not years. Those who study such anomalies will rewrite their books and papers and begin to dismiss the notion that such men are of a certain type. Evil has no color, sex or age. It just might be a law of human physics: for every ten million good people, there is one waking, working monster ready to kill for no reason at all.



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