‘Crazy’ rapist arrested after cops find 6 bodies

[malaise]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33572130/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
<snip>
Anthony Sowell regularly reported to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Office, as required since his release from prison after serving 15 years for a rape conviction, authorities say.

Now he is back in custody after four years of freedom, arrested Saturday on new rape charges and after police discovered six decomposing bodies at his home.

Two bodies were identified by county Coroner Frank Miller as black females and one had died of a violent death ruled a homicide.

Teresa Hicks, 48, was among the neighbors who said they were relieved about the arrest but left with a heightened fear of crime. She said she has known Sowell since high school.

"He was crazy," she said from her porch. "Sometimes he would just go off if he didn't have his way."
---------------
If he was crazy since high school, didn't he need mental health care and not prison. The fugging system is a complete waste of time - everywhere. Six women are dead who didn't have to be raped and tortured.
How many more Sowell's are out there.

[jody]

1. Agree. In the meantime we have career white collar criminals who have raped and pillaged our economy

of trillions of dollars and they get billion dollar bonuses for their punishment.

[malaise]

2. That's what happens when the lunatics are running

the asylum. The entire system is now one large casino with the 'mafia' in charge.

[patrice]

4. P.S. This particular case is probably another instance of the effects of Saint Ronny Reagan's policy

known as De-Institutionalization, a cheap-ass excuse to put an acceptable persona on a community's IR-RESPONSIBILITY toward the mentally ill.

[geckosfeet]

23. This guy was not even born when St.Ronnie opened the doors. But his

legacy policies probably kept this guy from ever having a shot at being diagnosed and treated before he raped and murdered.

[corpseratemedia]

27. +1

I remember that! I think our beach community (where I used to live) had more places for the newly homeless and uncared for to wander around un-medicated, what else could they do? Maybe they were dumped there. No home, no supervision, no structure, no meds...no "pulling themselves up by their bootstraps."

reaganism = "I'm Alright Jack!" (just shown on TCM)

[enlightenment]

9. Nah - the casinos worked great when the Mob was in charge.

It wasn't until the corporations took over that they went to hell in a handbasket. ;)

[patrice]

3. And, you know what? The crimes you refer to are no less than those of others, because

what white collar criminals take robs people of things like education and health care, which create other pressures like poor nutrition and un-happy family lives, all of which the Poor, as ill-equipped as they are, are to just bear up under and overcome in a culture that is absolutely and completely HOSTILE toward them and their needs. So, though individuals ARE responsible for their own behavioral "decisions", such as rape and murder, those behaviors ARE potentiated by those who rob a community of its resources. They ARE thus guilty of rape and murder too.

[jody]

5. +1 n/t

[patrice]

32. To be honest, I not only do not see white collar crime as necessarily "less" than some other

crimes, it may, in fact, be much "greater" crime because, compared to some poor sick fuck who got very few decent chances from day one to "choose" to "pull him/herself up by his/her bootstraps", the choice of deciding to make, say, only $500K this year, instead of maybe $700K, is much EASIER, SIMPLER, and much more highly rewarded and FACILITATED by society, than the choices made by those with way way way less and much harder opportunities to do what is right.

[malaise]

6. It's true that the white collar criminals and their cronies affect more people

and I do agree with you that by releasing this convicted rapist from prison with no arrangements for treatment for his real problem - mental illness, the societal failure re the allocation of resources for people with mental problems is as clear as day. Further I'm sure his school had documented his mental health problems from way back when and I'd also bet that he received no treatment for these issues in prison.

That said spare a thought for those six dead women - and who knows how many more bodies will be found. Additionally we don't know if his family ever sought treatment for his mental health issues.

[patrice]

8. Those six+ dead women are part of my motivation for thinking this way. The guy WAS in prison.

Apparently, punishment does not extinguish the problem behavior, especially since the sick are just released into a further punishing culture.

A certain amount of victimization can't be helped, but just as certainly, a certain amount of it COULD be avoided if WE were making the right decisions.

[malaise]

10. I agree with you

Clearly he needed treatment for mental health issues from way back when.

[corpseratemedia]

28. +2

"those behaviors ARE potentiated by those who rob a community of its resources"

Amen!!!

[LisaL]

11. WTF are you even talking about?

What does one have to do with the other?

[jody]

14. Have a blissful day. n/t

[patrice]

30. Please name something, anything, that occurs without a context. nt

[LisaL]

7. Do you have comprehension of the law?

Mental illness (if he has any) is not the same as legal insanity. Plenty of mentally ill are in prison.
Someone has to be legally insane (not know right from wrong) to be found not guilty by reason of insanity.

[AllentownJake]

12. We use 19th century brittish law

To determine punishment and treatment of the mentally ill. Meanwhile we have a 21st understanding of the illnesses.

[LisaL]

13. "Crazy" is not a diagnosis.

"He would go off if he didn't have his way," as somebody who knew him says in the OP article, doesn't indicate he had any sort of mental illness, just a bad temper.
And by the way, we don't have a 21st century understanding of mental illness.
Name a mental illness we can actually cure, not just treat.

[AllentownJake]

21. 21st century understanding

is what the understanding is at this point in the 21st century. Just because you don't have a cure for something doesn't mean you have less knowledge than previous centuries.



We don't have a cure for AIDS but we understand more about what causes AIDS and how to treat it than we did in 1985. We don't think that witches or bad air is causing illness.

I was making a point on the law and mental illness, not this particular case.

[LisaL]

22. I agree have a better understanding of mental illness.

What good does it do when you are talking about someone accused of a violent crime?
We clearly aren't at the stage where you can cure someone to ensure public's safety.
So what good does the "understanding" do us in a case like this?
By the way, again, "crazy" is not a diagnosis.

[AllentownJake]

26. I know that

Member of NAMI.

:hi:

A lot of this is a health care problem. Without my COBRA I would be paying $191 for a generic. If I wasn't unemployed I wouldn't be on the Generic because at least I know if I can't pay the $531 for COBRA $191 is a heck of a lot easier to cough up.

That being said, I've never been violent in my entire life, nor does my particular psychological situation ever lead me to a case where I would be violent unless I was physically attacked in self defense.

Some people are psychologically more prone to violent behavior, the psychiatric illness if one exists is no help to that situation.

Some people are prone to violence with no mental illness.

[malaise]

16. Given that there are more lawyers in my clan than

any other profession, I think I understand, the law but the law is often an ass.
Legal insanity is not the issue here. He was sent to prison for rape, released and then raped and murdered six (so far) women. So how did that sentence work again?

Until we speak to mental health issues, we will not reduce crime anywhere.
You stick to the letter of the law while we discuss the possibility that with treatment for mental health issues those six women might still be alive today.

[LisaL]

17. Well at least it worked for the time he was in prison, don't you think?

[malaise]

18. Spare me please

Good now execute this one and your problem is solved - fugging NOT.

[LisaL]

19. How do you propose to solve the problem?

Even assuming the guy is mentally ill (and crazy is not a diagnosis, by the way) we can't cure mental illness, we can only treat it, so even if the guy was getting treatments day in and day out, what is your evidence this could have been prevented?

[patrice]

29. Since there is no proposal for a specific pathology to be sampled and a specific methodology to test

I'd say his/her evidence that it could be prevented is about the same as yours that it could not be prevented.

[dysfunctional press]

15. i do know one thing for sure...

that house is going to be demolished.

just like gacy's was.

if it were a nice house in a decent area- it wouldn't bother me to live in a house where murders took place, but a lot of people ARE creeped out about it. if someone died in a house, it has to be disclosed when the house is being sold, or the sale can be voided.

it's bizarre to me what some people can get hung up over.

[NYC_SKP]

20. So, Six is the Number of Dead Bodies that Gets You Arrested. Not Five or Four..

That's just my nutty read of the the headline.

:P

:donut:

[rrneck]

24. He was never considered human.

He was a problem student, then he was a public nuisance. Before long he graduated to public menace and when they started locking him up he became inventory for the private prison system. At every step oe the way he was a captive audience of one, and the system missed a ton of chances to help him - and by extension help those dead women.

[malaise]

25. 100% correct

and until we see society differently we will continue to produce many more like him across the globe.

sp

[Gwendolyn]

31. There's no real alternative to the system. We're not at Minority Report capacity yet.

The morality versus practicality of keeping certain offenders locked up after their sentences have been served has been discussed for decades. There's no easy solution.

[moobu2]

33. He should have never gotten out of prison on the first rape charge.

He was mentally ill, yeah, but we cant treat that sort of illness at this point and the risk these violent sexual offenders pose to society is to great. Anyone who sexually assaults a woman or a child has crossed a line that we shouldn’t tolerate because they will always be a danger, maybe even more so AFTER they've been incarcerated for years and years, and decided next time NOT to leave witnesses.

Society failed them when they were younger, definitely, but we cant help them after a certain point.