First Blood

African American women in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood of Cleveland were vanishing. Their families were desperate for help, but no one seemed to know what was happening to them, no one except the helpful resident of 12205 Imperial Avenue, Anthony Sowell. From a young age, Anthony was desperate for some sort of control and ultimately found it when he overpowered his first vulnerable victim, a woman only hoping to connect with a friendly face.

The articulate and boastful killer, known for his intelligence and charm, is remembered for terrifying the coastal town of Santa Cruz where he picked up and dismembered hitchhiking college students in the early 1970s. But his desire to kill started when he much younger, as a child fantasizing about murdering members of his own family.