Book on Anthony Sowell, Cleveland Serial Killer, Hits October 2

It was an interesting ride, writing a true crime slasher book, Nobody’s Women: The Crimes and Victims of Anthony Sowell, the Cleveland Serial Killer. The book hits October 2. Between 2007 and 2009, Sowell murdered 1 women, luring them off the streets and into his three-story house in the middle of one of Cleveland’s most squalid neighborhoods. He kept their bodies in his house and buried them in his basement and back yard. I talked with Sowell a few times while writing the book and will be sure to send him a copy. It was quickly apparent that he had no guilt over his actions. When he realized that I was not going to pay him for a conversation, nor would I treat him with any respect, he stopped calling and writing me. I’ll print some of his letters here after the book is released. For the necessary evil, the hardest part of any book, I’ll be in Cleveland for a week in October. On Saturday, October 6, a performance of The Violence of One, a performance/play about the sagas of Sowell and fellow Clevelander Jeffrey Dahmer will take place at Baldwin Wallace College, then again on October 11 at the east campus of Cuyahoga Community College. I’ll be at both of them; Tom Sutton and his crew at Baldwin Wallace do some ambitious work.  

Cleveland Serial Killer Book out October 2 - Read About Anthony Sowell

Blue Oyster Cult Lyric Sheet from 1973

Lester Bangs, graced with an audience one night at his house on Brown Street in Birmingham, proceeded to play Raw Power and Tyranny & Mutation over and over. Bob Mulrooney, aka Bootsey X, who would become one of Detroit’s most prolific musical Men About Town, was working at a college radio station in 1974 and headed over to Lester’s after obtaining an obscure Velvet Underground tape from a NY collector with instructions to give a copy to Bangs.

“Dave Marsh lived there and so did Ben Edmonds,” Mulrooney said. “I went there with a couple friends. I wasn't even a drinker at the time, and Lester's hands were shaking. It was the early evening, but he was shaking when we met, and he goes, ‘let's go get some beer.’ I said, ‘whatever,’ so we got loaded. We put on the tapes for a minute and Lester goes, fuck this shit, let's put on Raw Power. So we played Raw Power like, over and over and over, for hours. Only that and Blue Oyster Cult, Tyranny & Mutation. Lester, his whole room was all albums, you couldn't even sit on the floor, and he had these huge speakers but only one of them worked.”

Yea, the second BOC album was part of that trio of greatness the band produced in the 70s, starting with the self-titled first one and ending at Secret Treaties. Like so many New York-area bands, BOC pounded Detroit, playing anywhere and everywhere, from the Michigan Palace to Pine Knob. The band always had this futuristic trip going, and was among the first bands to use lasers in its light shows, run by a trippy dude they affectionately called Larry Laser.

For Tyranny, it was possible to send a letter to an address provided to obtain the lyrics. This was before the days that every corporation sought to track everyone, and I can only imagine there was a mailing list angle. I sent for the lyrics and was never contacted by the Cult people again. I did get the lyrics, which are presented here. I dig the early 70s IBM printout, back when those crazy punch cards were the epitome of progress. Better yet, though, I got to read along to “OD’d on Life Itself.”

Funk Brother/Royaltone Bob Babbitt - Outtakes From a Recent Conversation

This morning on Detroit’s WJR radio, there were several mentions of the passing of Funk Brother Bob Babbitt. It seemed a bit tardy that one of Detroit’s recently passed top studio musicians was being noted in Detroit eight days after his death.  Read a surprisingly complete obit here.

I spoke with Babbitt last year for the book I am now completing, Detroit Rock City: The Uncensored History of Five Decades of Rock ‘n Roll in America’s Loudest City.

He was a terrific interview, speaking of growing up in Pittsburgh, coming to Detroit and joining Dearborn rockabilly outfit the Royaltones in 1962, playing for the Mob and finally making it as a studio musician at Motown.

“All the stuff that happened to most of the guys in Detroit, in music overall, no one thought that it would have a lasting impression,” Babbitt said. “People weren’t thinking like that then. And it was easy to think that what was happening in Detroit was happening everywhere. But it wasn’t.”

Then there was his pro wrestling career, which he was surprised to hear in a question.

“I started wrestling wrestled in the minor leagues in Pittsburgh,” he said. “Before I left I heard about Killer Kowalski in Detroit. I got there and then I heard this Kowalski guy had bit someone’s ear off, and I said ‘no, I think I’ll play music.’

Babbitt had a lot more to tell me, and everyone – Hendrix at Motown?  -  that will make the cut for sure. 

Sarah Pender Begs Edgar Committee to Reconsider Girl, Wanted

Sarah Pender Envelope Art

Sarah Pender, the gift that keeps on giving. I called the Mystery Writers of America the other day to renew my membership and the woman answering asked my name and immediately asked if I was the Edgar nominee. I thankfully couldn’t deny it.  Then she referenced a letter she received from Sarah Pender, who was the subject of the book that garnered the nomination, Girl, Wanted: The Chase for Sarah Pender. The letter, read it here, asks the committee to reconsider the nomination.

“How would you fee is someone accessed and published your medical records, including the prescription for Viagra, the treatment for anal warts and the procedure to extract that raisin from your nasal passage?” Sarah asks in the letter.

I did a word search of the manuscript and could find no mention of any of these items. She goes on to talk of how I accessed her presentence report “which is clearly marked confidential on its cover” and the usual criticizing of the veracity of much of the story.

Yes, I did gain access to the report. It’s what reporters do, we get stuff.  And the book is 100 percent factual.

It’s a good letter, as usual, even if she has some kind of alternative reality going on in there.

There may be more to come for her; she may get another shot at freedom, although this time it will be in a courtroom. Come back and visit and you can read about it here first. 

Chasing Linkletter Ghost, Salvation and Manson Victim Eatery

Salvation Mountain

There’s some average Joe gag from decades ago about people being subjected to the movie reels or slide show from someone’s latest vacation. I always thought it was pretty cool, actually. Any time people go places is a good time, be they tourists or travelers.

I came back a few days ago from a trip that took me from Imperial Valley up to Death Valley. Naw, I won’t burden anyone with details of how great 117 degrees feels or how standing on a rock in the middle of Titus Canyon with no one within 25 miles feels incredibly liberating and alone.

I hit Salvation Mountain, a couple miles east of Niland, Calif., which is a hillside covered in a painted tribute to the faith of Leonard Knight. I visited the place in 1998 and talked with Knight for some time. I was just traveling then as now, no story or anything. Just wanted to get his deal. We talked about some hassles he was getting from some of the locals at Slab City, which begins about 100 yards south of Knight’s little compound, which is composed of a couple trailers and a lot of paint cans, along with the beaming hill.

Knight is now in a nursing home and he has a friend looking after the place. It’s still popular – the day I was there, at least a half dozen folks were poking around, climbing up the sides of the hill, checking out the art.

Slab City is just as compelling as Salvation Mountain. It’s a village of folks living off the grid in the middle of the desert. Some of them have solar panels now, which is a change from the last time I was there. There’s also a place for bands to play called the Range. It’s a stage with a little bar, and I’d say that any band wanting to shoot a cool-ass video and play for a crowd they would never encounter elsewhere, this would be the way to go. Haul the gear out there, bring some folks, stock the bar with $1 cans of beer, and have at it under the desert sky.

I spent the last couple days of my trip in LA, which is always fine and never long enough.  Had much tequila and beer at El Coyote, where Sharon Tate, Jay Sebring, Abigail Foster and Wojciech Frykowski dined before the Manson clan visited their place up the hill.

Where Diane Linkletter took a dive

One thing I also had to do in LA is check out the building that Diane Linkletter was supposed to have taken a dive from under the influence of LSD in 1969. Imagine my disappointment when I found out the cause of death was a ruse by her dad, talk show/wholesome entertainment icon Art Linkletter, to push an anti-drug agenda. The guy had a few burdens and I dug him when I was little, at a time that some entertainment figures were still pretty pure.  I’d say he was one of the good guys. And his daughter’s death came a couple months after the Manson slayings went down, so he was probably thinking he was doing some good by talking about acid being the cause and all. Still…I walked over to her apartments, Shoreham Towers, and grabbed a shot of the nameplate. For some reason, reading that she took a jump because she was depressed made me feel much worse than if it was just a lofty notion of flying on acid.  

Woodshock – People Still Pay Hundreds of $$ to Hang Out in the Mud

"Dude, this so rocks"

It doesn’t sound fun but for most people, gathering in a field or parking lot with thousands of others to hear music is a great way to check out some bands. Ever since I learned that a perk of digging the din that few others do is that you get the venue to yourself, I have been spoiled. No line at the bar. You can stand right in front without being hammered by overzealous fans “getting into the tunes.”

I wrote this piece on music festivals for Revue as information. I was surprised to find the Milwaukee music event, Summerfest, was such a hit. But I was even more interested in learning that the Doors played there one year, and Sly and the Family Stone another. That’s some pretty progressive booking for that time.  This Wiki entry is pretty damn good, and I had to dig a bit in Nexis to verify anything I repeated. Don’t trust Wikipedia, even with the notations.

This was one of those articles that was a real pleasure to write, maybe because it wrote itself. The only thing I thought of later on that I might have touched on is the OD tent, which is a fixture at all such events. I’d like to talk with a couple of medics who have staffed those over the years and get some stories. Maybe next year.