Media and Society Lack of Compassion Toward Black Female Victims of Serial Killers
"This thing is serious business, until we know women are safe in this community, we will be out here every year," - Activist Kathy Wray of the Imperial Women Coalition
"We all know, if these young women had been white, the whole town would have been shut down, until it was solved."- Commenter Mike at Abagond regarding the Henry Louis Wallace serial killings of 11 young Black women in Charlotte
"The police don’t care because these are black women… . It’s not like Lonnie killed no high-powered white folks. We don’t mean nothing to them. We’re black. What the @@@@. Just another @@@@@ dead. The @@@@ should not have been out there on drugs.”
Pamela Brooks, in “Tales of the Grim Sleeper”
This year will be the 10th anniversary of the Imperial House Murders(Anthony Sowell), the 25th anniversary of Henry Louis Wallace(Taco Bell Strangler), and the 40th anniversary of the Boston Murders.
This will be a three year series on how mainstream media and society disregards the serial murders of Black women in America. Eleven years ago, I wrote a blog post, Crimes Against Black Women: Four Cases regarding the neglect of media and police coverage regarding murders of Black women by people of all races and ethnicities as well as the insensitivity of the general public. I going to discuss the Anthony Sowell murders, along with the Grim Reaper, and of course, Henry Louis Wallace(a.k.a. Bad Henry). There has been other serial murderers of Black women in the past and current centuries. Such as Gary Heidnik who murdered several Black women in the Philadelphia area. Benjamin Atkins in Detroit in 1991-1992 murders of 11 women. East Cleveland killer Michael Madison. Larry Bright killed eight Black women in the Peoria area back during 2004-2005. The Gary Indiana killer back in 2012. The still unsolved serial murder case in Rocky Mount, N.C. in 2009. Now, the unsolved murders of Black Chicago women from 2001 to current. But my focus will be on the five cases at hand. The police should have warned that a murderer in the community and to make sure community has an input in solving murders and to bring the perpetrators to justice. How the media should have had more sensitivity to those who are marginalized.
Bad Henry: Nightmare in Charlotte amid the 1990s prosperity
Here are some of Henry Louis Wallace victims from Bad Henry
Very beautiful young women victims of Henry Louis Wallace from 1994 USA Today's group photo
This Vice News documentary needs to be spread to everyone who is concerned with justice and compassion for the most marginalized groups in America. Especially in a declining, economically depressed cities such as Cleveland, where unemployment is high.
The invisible victims of Anthony Sowell:
The Grim Sleeper Documentary
Here are some of Chester Turner's victims, pretty young women
The invisible victims of Anthony Sowell:
The Grim Sleeper Documentary
There will be at least four parts to this subject. Because this is repeatedly ignored by the general public, society and media. Professor Cheryl L Neely of Oakland(MI) Community College discussed this lack of attention and police indifference in her debut book, You're Dead, So What. She discussed at length how media, law enforcement, and the general public indifference to Black female victims of homicide. She give examples and comparison between the murder of Imette St. Guillen and Stepha Clark. How the media and the police treatment of such women are base upon socioeconomic class and race.
The Missing Beautiful White Woman Syndrome and How Society Treats Victims of Color
Beautiful Miss Theresa Bunn, one of 75 women murdered by unknown serial killer in Chicago back in 2007. To this day, her murder is unsolved.
In 2005, Latoyia Figueroa was the subject of the lack of coverage regarding missing Black and Brown women in contrast to Natalee Holloway. She went missing on July 18, 2005. Her body was found on August 20, 2005, one month after she was reported missing.
Olamide Adeyooye, missing Illinois State University student whose body was found in October 2005
Chandra Levy's disappearance was well documented in the media in 2001. At this
time media pundits term "Missing White Woman Syndrome" because of the intense media coverage regarding missing and murdered upper middle class White women in America.
Everybody knows about how mainstream media often saturate missing and murdered women with stories about beautiful, middle class White and Latina female victims such as Chandra Levy, Mollie Tibbitts, Nixzmary Brown, Laci Peterson, Kate Steinle, etc. There's a term for the aforementioned victims, coined as the "Missing Beautiful White Woman Syndrome." They're also considered victims deserving of sympathy, compassion, and empathy. Sure, the pedestalization of White American women help solidify the idea of young, beautiful White women as worthy of remembrance. They, along with lighter-skinned non black women of Color are the standard of beauty in America today. We Americans still refer to celebrity White women as American Sweethearts who captured the hearts of Americans and others worldwide. They're considered by mainstream America as being sweet, easy on the eyes, and personable. Furthermore, non black women and girls get the assumption of innocence regardless of circumstances.
Tonia Carmichael's son Jonathan and his children.
By contrast, society have very little compassion for Black women victims of crime, let alone serial killers. As a matter of fact, Black female victims are labeled in American society and media as being "loose", "fast", "crackheads", "runaways", drug users, "sluts","whores", "thots", mentally unstable, "baby-making machines", "fast tailed girls", and "welfare queens". Likewise, the mainstream American media and the general public tendency to label Black females as "street women", "Chickenheads","prostitutes", "ghetto","junkies", "ratchet" and so on.
For much of American history, Black women academics long contended that controlling images of Black women(Jezebel, Mammy, Sapphire, Welfare Queen, Crackheads, etc.) are employed to stigmatize an already marginalized group of women. The jezebel stereotype especially. That stereotype justified abuse of Black women by White and Black men since slavery.
Miss Brandi Henderson,
R.I.P.
R.I.P.
In 2015, Professor Kimberle Crenshaw, the pioneer of intersectional feminism, started the hashtag #sayhername to bring awareness of violence against Black women in America and around the world.
The abuse of Black women rarely invoke outrage from the public. From unacknowledged rapes of Black women during slavery and Jim Crow, to police brutality such as the Sandra Bland case, to the discrediting of Anita Hill by Senate Judiciary Committee, to R. Kelly and his many victims. That attitude needs to change.
The Madonna/Magdalene Ideology in how society view victims of serial murder in America
Iconography of Mary and Magdalene, stereotypically depicted as the "madonna/magdalene by Italian Renaissance artists, Fra Filippo Lippi and Carlo Crivelli. Most men and women have dualistic view toward women, then and now. Today, we use the terms good women and bad women.
In the 1990s depiction of serial murder victims, the media used photos of murder victims and how the media uses such photos either to elicit sympathy and compassion or sensational and scorn. The Madonna/whore complex is used in such depictions of women, victim or not.
In the 1990s depiction of serial murder victims, the media used photos of murder victims and how the media uses such photos either to elicit sympathy and compassion or sensational and scorn. The Madonna/whore complex is used in such depictions of women, victim or not.
Miss Betty Jean Baucom, beautiful young lady victim of serial killer Henry Louis Wallace. Her graduation photo is used to evoke sympathy and compassion. She's depicted in blue, the traditional color of the Madonna.
Rest in peace, Miss Betty Jean.
Ms. Jenny Soto, very attractive Black Latina murder victim of serial killer Joel Rifkin. This
photo was used to exploit her in the media. Her mother, Margarita Gonzalez, complained about the mainstream media's portrayal of her daughter after Joel's confession in June 1993. May Ms. Soto rests in peace.
American society have a Madonna/whore ideology when it comes to women. From historic times, societies in general always label women as either good, chaste women, wives, mothers, nuns or they're loose women, prostitutes, and mistresses/courtesans. Renaissance artists reflected societal views of women through the Madonna paintings by famous artists Lippi, Botticelli, Raphael, etc., or nude paintings such as the Venus of Urbino by Titian.
In American society, the Madonna/whore ideology is strong, tinged with class and race components. White and other non black women, especially East Asian women are considered the "sacred Madonna" while Black, Native American, and Latinas, especially Caribbean Latinas are labeled as "bad women" deserving of their fate. This view is far more widespread as the lack of coverage, the disparaging remarks in and out of cyberspace, and general indifference on the part of law enforcement to solve murders of Black women in America and Indigenous women in Canada.
The Madonna/whore mythology were used in how the public reacted to murders of Black women, the Heidnik, the Larry Bright, Gary Ridgeway, the Sowell case and the Henry Louis Wallace cases in particular.
For example, the Cleveland convenience store owner showed sympathy to Anthony Sowell, whom he said in the Unseen interview that "he took out the garbage". That's a blatantly hateful remark. He saw the victims, living and dead, of Anthony Sowell as being "worthless" and "undeserving" to him. He labelled the victims as worthless drug addicted and prostitutes.
Sowell himself justified the murders by labelling the women as being less than perfect.
Again using the Madonna/whore ideology was at work in connection to the inaction on the part of Charlotte police in connection with the Henry Louis Wallace serial murder case, a concerned young woman named Angala Grooms in East Charlotte stated that the police did not care because they viewed the pretty young Black female murder victims of Henry Louis Wallace: "I feel like they wrote us all off as some fast little black girls who didn't really matter."
During the 1996 Wallace capital murder trial, the defense lawyers tried to taint the young womens' reputation but the witnesses, friends, family, co-workers, colleagues, and the prosecutor vigorously countered the defense by bolstering the virtues and even saintliness of the young victims of Wallace. The jury didn't buy the defense and voted for the death penalty for the nine first-degree murders and rapes of young Black women.
Ms. Dee Sumpter, Shawna Hawk's mother and founder of Mothers of Murdered Offspring(left) and Miss Shawna D. Hawk, R.I.P.(right)
Miss Shawna's Graduation Photo
Miss Shawna Denise Hawk
In the December 2014 issue of Vanity Fair article covering the Grim Sleeper and how law enforcement turned a blind eye to the serial murder of Black women, Franklin’s son Christopher describes meeting L.A.P.D. officers who asked if they could shake his hand, aware that he was the son of the Grim Sleeper. Broomfield was dumbstruck by the revelation. “Christopher told me his father had a lot of fans in law enforcement. Some police officers actually admired Lonnie for ‘cleaning up the streets.’ That seemed, to me, too incredible—that a serial killer could be a person who was respected within certain sections of law enforcement.” Unfortunately, those attitudes are widespread in society, seeing poor, Native American, Latina, and Black women as being of lesser value than other American women.
Margaret Prescod, founder of the Black Coalition Fighting Back Serial Murders
Enietra Washington, the only survivor of the Grim Reaper Slayer
Media Bias In The Coverage of Black Female Serial Murder Victims
There's a deeply troubling disparity in reporting the disappearance and homicides of female victims reflects racial inequality and institutionalized racism in the social structure. Oftentimes when reporting, there's a considerable bias when it comes to Black American female murder victims. The reporters always want probe into the backgrounds of such women, their sexual histories, criminal records, the neighborhoods where they reside, their work/education backgrounds, history of drug/alcohol addictions, and whom their associations were as if they done something wrong to cause their demise.
Miss Valencia Michele Jumper
R.I.P.
They were rarely described in the media as being attractive, beautiful, smart, intelligent, serious, wonderful wives, good mothers, or pretty. Those descriptions are reserved for middle/upper class and/or famous non black victims. With precious few exceptions, there are very few media outlets cover Black female homicide/serial murder victims with sympathy and compassion.
Nobody's Women by Steve Miller
Ms. Telacia Fortson
Miss Kim Smith
Ms. Diane Turner and her children
Ms. Michelle Mason
Michelle Mason at her baptism in the Catholic Church as a child
Miss Leshanda Long as a child
Ms. Amelda Hunter
The Cleveland victims of Anthony Sowell received coverage and even some compassion from local newspaper journalists. Writer Steve Miller wrote a compassionate book focusing on the victims and their lives in the book, Nobody's Women: The Crimes and Victims of Anthony Sowell. They didn't focus too much on the victims' drug/alcohol addictions, criminal records, poor family lives, etc. Instead, they discuss about their lives before circumstances took them away. Even the Grim Sleeper victims are rehabilitated by author Christine Pilasek in her book, The Grim Sleeper: Lost Women of South L.A. Of course, the beautiful victims of Henry Louis Wallace. Although they didn't get much coverage outside of Charlotte, they were written sympathetically as well.
Investigation Discovery's Bad Henry. Premiered in July 2018
Evidence from Investigation Discovery's Bad Henry
My Perspective on How Societal Disregard for Black Women Victims of Crime
Ten years ago, I wrote a blog post about violence against Black women. I wrote this in an attempt to get America and the world to acknowledge the violence done to Black women in America. So many people, lurkers, scholars, crime experts came to this website for knowledge and information. However, I will discuss the various serial murders of Black women in full detail and to bring more awareness to the public. Here's the link to my old blog post:
A few years ago, Mikki Kendall, a well-known feminist author, began noticing a pattern in dead bodies that were dumped on the South Side — women who were stripped naked, stuffed in dumpsters and burned. In 2007, two women were found strangled in burning dumpsters near Washington Park. And an investigation by VICE News found four more instances of women who died in the same way over a ten year period.
None of those murders were solved.
Analysis and Perspective Using Intersectionality In Discussing Black Female Victims of Serial Murders
Six young victims of the Roxbury(Boston) Murders .
Their murders galvanized the Black feminists community.
This will be at least ten segments regarding media and societal disregard for Black women and girls who are victims of serial murder. They're not in the media and the general society don't care in the least about them unless they're passing judgment regarding Black serial murder victims like the owner of a Cleveland convenience store featured in the 2016 documentary, Unseen.
Vanessa Gay from Unseen
Black women and girls were devalued both in life and death. That attitude needs to change.
During the four-year long series, I will be discussing at length the Anthony Sowell murders and his victims, living and dead. How the city of Cleveland neglected impoverished Pleasant Hill neighborhood, the failings of the police, the residents, and business owners in detecting the murders and the smell of death along with it, the fallout of the Sowell case, and of course, the survivors of Sowell. Their voices matter as well.
In another series, I'll do a lengthy series on the victims of Henry Louis Wallace as well as the Grim Sleeper. Also, the 1979 Boston murders and how feminists and Black groups organized to bring awareness of the murders of Black women in Boston. The unsolved murders of Black women in Chicago, Dayton, and Detroit will be discussed in later series.
I Anthony Sowell: The Imperial House Murders
A. The Victims and Survivors of Anthony Sowell
Deceased Victims
1. Tonia Carmichael
2. Tishana Culver
3. Leshonda Long
4. Crystal Dozier
5. Michelle Mason
6. Kim Y. Smith
7. Amelda Hunter
8. Nancy Cobbs
9. Diane Turner
10. Janice Webb
11. Telacia Fortson
Survivors
1. Latundra Billups
2. Vanessa Gay
3. Shawn Morris
4. Gladys Wade
5. Vernice Crutcher
6. Melvette Sockwell
B. Media Coverage and Trial
1. Trial
2. Witness testimonies
3. Testimonies from Survivors
4. Sentencing Phase
C. Legacies
1. Documentaries
a. Unseen
b. Vice's Right Red Hand: The Cleveland Strangler
c. Investigation Discovery Killer Instinct
d. Serial Killer Anthony Sowell
2. Books
a. Nobody's Women by Steve Miller
b. House of Horrors by Robert Sberna
3. Memorials
a. Proposed 11 Angels Memorial
4. The Victims' families' continued pain
a. Lawsuit and subsequent settlement with the City of Cleveland
b. Lack of counseling for the victims' families
c. Survivors of Sowell and their perspectives
5. Activism
a. Kathy Wray of the Imperial Women
6. Podcasts
II Henry Louis Wallace: The Taco Bell Strangler, a.k.a Bad Henry
A. The Victims and their lives
1. Tashanda Bethea
2. Sharon Lavette Nance
3. Caroline Love
4. Shawna Denise Hawk
5. Audrey Ann Spain
6. Valencia Michele Jumper
7. Michelle Denise Stinson
8. Vanessa Little Mack
9. Brandi June Henderson
10. Betty Jean Baucom
11. Debra Ann Slaughter
B. Media Coverage and Trial
1. Venue change and jury selection
2. Trial and Sentencing
C. Legacies and Memorials
1. Mothers of Murdered Offspring
a. Dee Sumpter- Shawna Hawk's mother
2. Documentaries and Movies
a. Investigation Discovery Bad Henry
b. Southern Fried Homicide: Too Many Women
3. Academic Case Studies
a. Lives Interrupted: A Case Study of Henry Louis Wallace
b. Henry Louis Wallace: A Calamity Waiting to Happen
4. The Victims' families' legacies
a. Tribute To The Victims of Henry Louis Wallace
5. Memorials
6. Podcasts
a. The Henry Louis Wallace Podcasts
7. Sheriff Gary McFadden
III The Grim Sleeper Murders/South Side Murders in Los Angeles
A. Why So Long?
B. Police and Public Apathy
C. Victims
D. Arrest and fallout of the LAPD
a. Labeling of victims: NHI(no human involved)
b. Troubling support of the serial murderer by the LAPD
E. Trial and Sentencing
F. Media and Academic Studies
1. Book: The Grim Sleeper: The Lost Women of South Central L.A.
2. Only Good Victims Need Apply: Tales of the Grim Sleeper
G. Activism
1. Margaret Prescod
IV The Boston Murders
A. The media coverage of victims
1. Criticism
B. Feminists and Black community criticism of the handling of the murders
1. Six Black Women: Why Did They Die?
a. Combahee River Collective
1. Barbara Smith
b. 2. The Estuary Project Commemorating the women
V Chicago Serial Murders
A. Why So long?
B. Activism
C. Victims
1. Theresa Bunn
D. News coverage
