Good Kids, Bad City

by Kyle Swenson

  Every bad cop in Cleveland may curse his name, but Terry Gilbert’s relentless fight and dedication to his values have made the city a better place. Mark Godsey has created a truly beautiful and dedicated machine at the Ohio Innocence Project, a place where an attorney like Carrie Wood can have a huge impact. Brian Howe and Jacqueline Greene, both tenacious advocates of the law, were also incredibly helpful in walking me through the legal terrain related to the case. Elizabeth Wang from Loevy & Loevy also deserves thanks.

  This book came about because of my journalism career, and on that front, there are many people to thank. Lute Harmon Sr. at Great Lakes Publishing gave me my first job when I had no business inside a newsroom. Michael D. Roberts taught me to see Cleveland—and any city—not as simply a place but a grand Faulknerian stage. From Pete Kotz I learned that journalism was a righteous big stick you could swing at the bad guys—and that there are bad guys out there worth taking on. I found my writing voice and developed empathy and heart on the page thanks to Erich Burnett, the Cleveland Scene editor who guided me through “What the Boy Saw.” At Miami New Times, Chuck Strouse and Deirdra Funcheon encouraged me to follow my instincts, no matter how weird or unconventional. Fred Barbash at The Washington Post believed in me enough to pluck me out of the alt-weekly underground. Vince Grzegorek, besides being one of my closest friends, was the propulsive editorial engine behind Good Kids, Bad City. A true son of Cleveland, he also kept my bullshit in check.

  I’ve been lucky enough to work alongside many talented reporters, both friends and professional mentors. These include Nate Rau, Ken Whitehouse, Brantley Hargrove, Joe Tone, Michael E. Miller, Terry McCoy, Emily Codik, Tim Elfrink, Allie Conti, Liz Tracy, Francisco Alvarado, Sam Allard, Eric Sandy, Henry Gomez, Rachel Dissell, Andrew Tobias, Eric Heisig, and Peter Pattakos, to name an outstanding few.

  This book’s backstory is a long tale in its own right, full of ups and downs, probably best heard over a beer or many. Like the best kind of cornerman, David Patterson, my agent at the Stuart Krichevsky Literary Agency, was supportive even when the match looked grim. The late PJ Horoszko took a chance on this project when others would not, and it’s my great sadness I will never be able to properly thank him. Anna deVries picked up this manuscript and brought insight, patience, and expertise to the work. The rest of the staff at Picador have been amazing walking me through the process.

  My mother and father have put up with me for three decades, and they deserve all available medals for that. But they’ve also given me the two best gifts parents can—a sense of right and wrong, and the idea that we’re supposed to use our time here making the world better than we found it. My brother Evan has also been a great supporter and friend.

  My wife Kim supported me on all fronts as I was writing this book—spiritually, emotionally, and financially. Unfailingly kind and generous, she pulled me up and kept me going, made me want to be better and work harder. Every word here is dedicated to her.

  I also must thank Ed Vernon—for both sharing his decades of agony, and also finding the courage to confront a past wrong in such a high-pressure setting.

  Finally, Kwame, Wiley, and Rickey: I’ve learned more from each of you than I can put into words right now, lessons I know will stick with me till the end. Whatever part I played in this story has been the great honor of my life. Thank you.

  Notes

  PROLOGUE: BUSTED PAVEMENT

    1.  Samuel R. Gross and Michael Shaffer, “Exonerations in the United States, 1989–2012,” National Registry of Exonerations, University of Michigan Law School, June 2012.

    2.  Norris, Robert J. Exonerated: A History of the Innocence Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2017).

    3.  Allison D. Redlich, James R. Acker, Robert J. Norris, and Catherine L. Bonventre, editors, Examining Wrongful Convictions: Stepping Back, Moving Forward (Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2014), 226.

    4.  Philip Wiley Porter, Cleveland: Confused City on a Seesaw (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1976), 16.

    5.  Rich Exner, “2010 census population numbers show Cleveland below 400,000; Northeast Ohio down 2.2 percent,” Cleveland.com, March 9, 2011, http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2011/03/2010_census_figures_for_ohio_s.html.

    6.  Rich Exner, “Cleveland’s poverty is second among big cities; gap between rich and poor grows nationally,” Cleveland.com, September 28, 2010, http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2010/09/clevelands_poverty_is_second_a.html.

    7.  Rich Exner, “Child poverty: ranking every Ohio city, county—Census Snapshot,” Cleveland.com, December 21, 2017, http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2017/12/ranking_every_ohio_city_county_3.html.

    8.  Leah Goldman, “The 25 Most Dangerous Cities in America,” Business Insider, May 23, 2011, http://www.businessinsider.com/most-dangerous-cities-2011-5.

    9.  Kurt Badenhausen, “America’s Most Miserable Cities,” Forbes, February 18, 2010, https://www.forbes.com/2010/02/11/americas-most-miserable-cities-business-beltway-miserable-cities.html#48916eb54ca0; Adam Ferrise, “French government warns citizens to avoid Cleveland Heights, Lakewood, Euclid,” Cleveland.com, November 14, 2013, http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/11/french_government_warns_citize.html.

  10.  Peter Krouse, “Frank Russo, Jimmy Dimora got fake palm tree, tiki hut as bribe, new federal charges say,” Cleveland.com, March 28, 2011, http://www.cleveland.com/countyincrisis/index.ssf/2011/03/money_manager_charles_randazzo.html.

  11.  Rachel Dissell, “The Cuyahoga County corruption case: a who’s who,” Plain Dealer, September 15, 2010, http://www.cleveland.com/countyincrisis/index.ssf/2010/09/the_cuyahoga_county_corruption.html.

  12.  Amanda Garrett and John Caniglia, “Bill Mason’s office went after hundreds of people with little or no evidence,” Plain Dealer, November 21, 2010, http://www.cleveland.com/rule-29/index.ssf/2010/11/bill_masons_office_went_after.html.

  13.  “Facing the foreclosure crisis in greater Cleveland: What happened and how communities are responding,” Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, June 2010.

  14.  Mark Naymik, “Group begins counting every abandoned property in Cleveland by walking every street in the city,” Cleveland.com, June 11, 2015, http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2015/06/group_begins_counting_every_ab.html#incart_river.

  15.  Patrick O’Donnell, “Cleveland schools have highest ranking in years, but still earn mostly F grades on state report cards,” Plain Dealer, September 14, 2017, http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/09/cleveland_schools_have_highest_ranking_in_years_but_still_earn_mostly_f_grades_on_state_report_cards.html; Sally Holland, “Cleveland tries to turn around troubled school system,” CNN, April 19, 2011, http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/19/cleveland.schools/index.html.

  16.  Sam Dillon, “Large Urban-Suburban Gap Seen in Graduation Rates,” The New York Times, April 22, 2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/education/22dropout.html.

  17.  Stephanie Chen, “11 bodies, one house of horrors: Why Cleveland women were ‘invisible,’” CNN, October 26, 2010, http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/26/cleveland.sowell.victims.one.year/index.html.

  18.  Gabriel Baird, “Six-month suspension for officers who mistook body for deer,” Plain Dealer, May 25, 2010, http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/05/six-month_suspension_for_offic.html.

  19.  Jon C. Teaford, Cities of the Heartland: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Midwest (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993), 113.

  20.  Frederick Jackson Turner, The Frontier in American History (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1986), 153–54.

  1. A SPARK PLUS A SPARK PLUS A SPARK

  1.  Kwame Ajamu, interview by author, March 23, 2016.

  2.  Louis H. Masotti and Jerome R. Corsi, Shoot-out in Cleveland: Black Militants and the Police, July 23, 1968 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969), 50. The ac
count of the Glenville shooting is pulled from this exhaustive report.

  3.  Kenneth L. Kusmer, A Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleveland, 1870–1930 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1978), 5.

  4.  Carol Poh Miller and Robert A. Wheeler, Cleveland: A Concise History, 1796–1996 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997), 17.

  5.  James Harrison Kennedy, A History of the City of Cleveland: Its Settlement, Rise and Progress, 1796–1896 (Cleveland: Imperial Press, 1896), 102.

  6.  Kusmer, A Ghetto Takes Shape, 5.

  7.  Kusmer, A Ghetto Takes Shape, 9.

  8.  Cleveland Leader, March 7, 1865.

  9.  Kusmer, A Ghetto Takes Shape, 38.

  10.  Quoted in Estelle Zannes, Checkmate in Cleveland: The Rhetoric of Confrontation During the Stokes Years (Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University Press, 1972), 6.

  11.  Leonard N. Moore, Carl B. Stokes and the Rise of Black Political Power (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002), 18–21.

  12.  Daniel R. Kerr, Derelict Paradise: Homelessness and Urban Development in Cleveland, Ohio (Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011), 145–166.

  13.  Moore, Carl B. Stokes and the Rise of Black Political Power, 33.

  14.  Cleveland Citizens Committee on Hough Disturbances, Testimony of August 22–25, 1966.

  15.  Kwame Ajamu, interview by author, February 6, 2016; Wiley Bridgeman, interview by author, September 14, 2016.

  16.  Moore, Carl B. Stokes and the Rise of Black Political Power, 20.

  17.  Carl B. Stokes, Promises of Power: A Political Autobiography (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973), 52.

  18.  Stokes, Promises of Power, 47.

  19.  John Skow, “The Question in the Ghetto: Can Cleveland Escape Burning?” Saturday Evening Post, July 29, 1967.

  20.  “Cleveland Little Hoover Commission,” Public Administration Service, November 7, 1966.

  21.  Louis H. Masotti and Jerome R. Corsi, Shoot-out in Cleveland: Black Militants and the Police, July 23, 1968 (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1969), 73–74.

  22.  Stokes, Promises of Power, 146.

  23.  Masotti and Corsi, Shoot-out in Cleveland, xiii.

  24.  “Cleveland Police: What’s on Their Mind,” Plain Dealer, September 30, 1968.

  2. THAT PARTICULAR DAY

    1.  Kwame Ajamu, interview by author, October 18, 2016.

    2.  Kwame Ajamu, Wiley Bridgeman, and Rickey Jackson, interview by author, March 7, 2016; Anthony Singleton and Ed Vernon, interview by author, November 17, 2016.

    3.  James Neff, Mobbed Up: Jackie Presser’s High-Wire Life in the Teamsters, the Mafia, and the FBI (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989), 241–265; John Petkovic, “The Cleveland Mafia: Death of a Don Ignites Bomb City, USA,” Plain Dealer, May 26, 2016, http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2016/05/the_cleveland_mafia_death_ of_a.html.

    4.  Daniel R. Kerr, Derelict Paradise: Homelessness and Urban Development in Cleveland, Ohio (Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011), 188.

    5.  Karen Smith, interview by author, fall 2010; State of Ohio v. Ronnie Bridgeman, Court of Common Pleas, Cuyahoga County, 1975; State of Ohio v. Rickey Jackson, Court of Common Pleas, Cuyahoga County, 1975.

  3. BLACK AND BLUE

    1.  Kwame Ajamu, Wiley Bridgeman, and Rickey Jackson, interview by author, March 7, 2016.

    2.  Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood, Dream City: Race, Power, and the Decline of Washington. D.C. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 64.

    3.  Lyndon B. Johnson, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1968–1969 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1965), 59.

    4.  Elizabeth Hinton, From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2016), 31.

    5.  Ibid.

    6.  Estelle Zannes, Checkmate in Cleveland: The Rhetoric of Confrontation During the Stokes Years (Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University Press, 1972), 152.

    7.  Roldo Bartimole, “Cleveland cops want 50 new machine guns, 170 carbines for growing exotic arsenal,” Point of View, October, 1971.

    8.  Quoted in Estelle Zannes, Checkmate in Cleveland: The Rhetoric of Confrontation During the Stokes Years (Cleveland: Case Western Reserve University Press, 1972), 146.

    9.  “Black police sergeant counters FOP head’s ‘wipeout’ statement,” Call and Post, January 10, 1970.

  10.  Roldo Bartimole, “Cleveland Cops’ White-Hot Racism,” Point of View, January 27, 1970.

  11.  Ronald Turner Deposition, 57, June 13, 2016.

  12.  William Tell Deposition, 161, 187, October 23, 2016.

  13.  Arthur X, “Policeman Tells All,” Call and Post, August 30, 1975.

  14.  Arthur X, “Police Brutality a Reality,” Call and Post, September 13, 1975.

  15.  Maxine L. Lynch, “Gun-Happy or Fair? Leisman Either Liked or Hated as Policeman,” Plain Dealer, February 23, 1980; Susan Q. Stranahan, “M14 Was Not Police Issue, Trial Is Told,” Plain Dealer, October 14, 1972.

  16.  “Policemen to Answer Rape Charges Today,” Plain Dealer, February 19, 1972.

  17.  James Nelson Coleman, “Victims Outraged by Shock Probation,” Call and Post, December 23, 1972.

  18.  Richard Klein, Cleveland Mayor Ralph J. Perk: Strong Leadership During Troubled Times (Cleveland: MSL Academic Endeavors, 2013), 51.

  19.  Daniel R. Kerr, Derelict Paradise: Homelessness and Urban Development in Cleveland, Ohio (Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2011), 189.

  20.  Todd Swanstrom, The Crisis of Growth Politics: Cleveland, Kucinich, and the Challenge of Urban Populism (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1985), 108–115.

  21.  “City Police Tied to Burglary Ring,” Plain Dealer, March 7, 1974; “Cheat Spot Payoff Alleged,” Plain Dealer, March 8, 1974; “Police Drinking After Bar Hours,” Plain Dealer, March 9, 1974; “Police Shut Eyes to Prostitution,” Plain Dealer, March 10, 1974.

  22.  “2 Patrolmen Cite Police Vice,” Plain Dealer, March 11, 1974.

  23.  Joseph L. Wagner, “Perk picks clergy for police probe,” Plain Dealer, March 15, 1974.

  24.  Leslie Kay, “Grand Jury Blasts Police Laxity,” Plain Dealer, May 31, 1974.

  25.  Robert H. Holden, “Do Police Give Money’s Worth?,” Plain Dealer, May 19, 1975; W. Joseph Campbell, “Homicide Rate Here Matches U.S. Spiral,” Plain Dealer, October 30, 1974.

  26.  Holden, “Do Police Give Money’s Worth?”

  27.  Robert G. McGruder and Karl R. Burkhardt, “Lack of Control Jeopardized Police, Injured Two Hostages, Witnesses Say,” Plain Dealer, June 2, 1974.

  4. X-RAY EYES

    1.  Wiley Bridgeman, interview by author, June 29, 2016; State of Ohio v. Wiley Bridgeman, Court of Common Pleas, Cuyahoga County, 1975.

    2.  “‘Odd Couple’ of jurisprudence impress their peers,” Palm Beach Post, September 22, 1985.

    3.  Tom Feran, “Daniel R. McCarthy, lawyer oversaw Cleveland schools desegregation,” Plain Dealer, October 21, 2011.

    4.  State of Ohio v. Rickey Jackson, Court of Common Pleas, Cuyahoga County, 1975.

    5.  Leslie Kay, “20-Year-Old Guilty in Robbery-Slaying,” Plain Dealer, August 13, 1975; Andrea E. Naversen, “Jackson Guilty in Robbery, Slaying of Salesman,” Plain Dealer, August 14, 1975.

    6.  James F. McCarty, “Law & Disorder with Rumpled Suits and Befuddled Ways, Thomas Shaughnessy Has Managed to Become the Matlock of Cuyahoga County,” Plain Dealer, October 23, 1994.

    7.  State of Ohio v. Ronnie Bridgeman, Court of Common Pleas, Cuyahoga County, 1975.

    8.  “17-Year-Old Guilty of Murder, Co
uld Get Death Penalty,” Plain Dealer, September 28, 1975.

  5. WE YET EXIST

    1.  “Report of the Joint Finance Subcommittee on the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville,” Ohio General Assembly, July 28, 1976.

    2.  John Perotti, “Lucasville: A Brief History,” Prison Legal News, December 1993, https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/1993/dec/15/lucasville-a-brief-history/.

    3.  John Perotti, “Lucasville: A Brief History”; Staughton Lynd, Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising (Oakland: PM Press, 2011), 15–21, 214.

    4.  “48 on Lucasville Death Row React Quietly,” Plain Dealer, July 3, 1976.

    5.  “Death Row Inmates Stage Hunger Strike,” Call and Post, August 21, 1976.