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Anthony
and Nathaniel COOK
Classification:
Serial killers
Characteristics:
Rape - Both brothers
were long-haul truck drivers - Racially motivated
Number of victims: 9
Date of murder:
1973 - 1981
Date of arrest:
October 1981
Date of birth: Anthony: 1949 - Nathaniel: 1958
Victim profile:
Vickie Lynn Small, 22 / Thomas Gordon, 24 / Connie Sue Thompson, 19 / Dawn Rene Backes, 12 / Scott Moulton, 21, and
Denise Siotkowski, 22 / Daryl Cole, 21, and
Stacey Balonek, 21 /
Peter Sawicki
Method of murder:
Shooting - Beating with a baseball bat/a concrete block
Location: Ohio, USA
Status:
Sentenced to life in prison
True story of
killings written by detective
Cooks held Toledo in
fear in early '80s
By Mark Reiter -
ToledoBlade.com
April 7, 2008
For 17 months, Anthony and Nathaniel Cook covered their tracks and
evaded Toledo police as they performed the crimes that would make them
the city’s most notorious serial killers.
The gruesome murders that began in May, 1980, locked the city in fear
as brutally beaten bodies were found in culverts and ditches and young
couples turned up dead in the trunks of cars.
The rampage ended in October, 1981, when Anthony Cook was arrested in
the shooting death of Realtor Peter Sawicki. However, 17 years would
elapse before DNA linked the brothers to the other crimes.
Evil Brothers: A True Crime Story, written by Frank Stiles, a retired
Toledo Police detective who was the lead investigator during the
killings, details the police investigation that ended in 2000 when
confessions made by the Cooks cleared up eight cold-case murders and
other unsolved crimes.
“It was a scary time to be in Toledo,” recalled
Mr. Stiles, who is chief investigator for the Lucas County prosecutor’s
office. “I knew the streets would not be safe until we got these
killers locked up.”
It was eight years ago this week that Anthony
and Nathaniel Cook were convicted in Lucas County Common Pleas Court
for their roles in the murder of Thomas Gordon, 24, and the attempted
murder and kidnapping of his 18-year-old girlfriend.
The couple were abducted May 14, 1980, in North
Toledo and taken to western Lucas County, where Mr. Gordon was shot in
the stomach. His girlfriend was raped and stabbed, but survived.
Anthony Cook, now 59, who was already serving a
life sentence for the murder of Mr. Sawicki, was given an additional
20-years-to-life punishment. His brother, 49, was given a 20-year
sentence and will be released from prison in 10 years, with credit for
time he already had served.
As a detective, Mr. Stiles investigated the
Gordon murder and the next six killings: Connie Sue Thompson, 19, who
was killed by the Cooks after they picked her up hitchhiking on Cherry
Street; Dawn Rene Backes, a 12-year-old Gesu Elementary School student
who was raped and bludgeoned in the basement of a central-city theater;
Scott Moulton, 21, and Denise Siotkowski, 22, who were shot and killed
in a car at an Oregon apartment; and Daryle Cole, 31, and his
girlfriend, Stacey Balonek, 21, who were beaten to death and found in
the truck of Mr. Cole’s car in North Toledo.
It was during the investigation of the Sawicki
murder that Mr. Stiles connected Anthony Cook to the crime through an
informant and eventually developed him and his brother as prime
suspects in the killings.
Anthony Cook also confessed to the 1973 murder
of Vickie Lynn Small, 22, a crime he committed when he was 24 and
before he went to prison for six years for an armed robbery conviction.
Her body was dumped in Ottawa Park after she and some friends had car
trouble and Cook ended up giving Ms. Small a ride.
After Cook was convicted of killing Mr. Sawicki
in the attack of the Ottawa Hills man’s daughter and her boyfriend, Mr.
Stiles and other investigators continued to work on the case.
He retired from the police
department in 1990, but the memories of the heinous crimes never left
him. “I would never give up on this case,” he said. “I still have
nightmares about the murders. No case had ever bothered me like this
one.”
DNA testing was emerging as a
new scientific crime tool in 1997 when Prosecutor Julia Bates
suggested that it be used to link the Cooks to some unsolved crimes. A
search warrant was obtained for the brothers’ blood, and tests
indicated they raped Mr. Gordon’s girlfriend.
Despite being obtained 17
years earlier, the DNA evidence was instrumental in getting
indictments against the Cooks and bringing long-sought resolution to
the cases, Mr. Stiles said.
Mr. Stiles was working as
director of security at a local department store chain when Mrs. Bates
called him in 1997 with the idea of using DNA.
The retired detective
identified the crimes he believed the Cooks committed so that evidence
could be tested for DNA.
Mr. Stiles went to work for
Mrs. Bates in 1999 as the first investigator in the office.
“Frank is a great guy to have
working in the office because of his institutional history. He not
only has skills as an investigator, but he has knowledge about old
cases,” Mrs. Bates said.
Mr. Stiles said he put his
spare time to good use about three years ago to work on the book, and
researched the case by combing through police records, court
transcripts, newspaper clippings, and other documents.
He said he met face to face
with family members of the victims and victims who survived attacks to
get their approval for the project and gather more information about
the victims themselves.
“Among the things that I
wanted to accomplish was to write a little about what these kids did
while they were alive,” he said. “In some cases there was not a lot I
could tell about them because they hadn’t lived long.”
Sharon Backes Wright’s
daughter, Dawn, was the youngest victim. She would have turned 40 this
year. Mrs. Wright said she started reading the book, but put it down
when she got to the chapter on her daughter.
“The book is difficult to
read. [The Cook brothers] were the cruelest to her, and I am not
saying that because I am her mother. She was an innocent 12-year-old
girl,” she said.
Anthony and Nathaniel Cook
Anthony Cook, at times aided by his brother
Nathaniel, embarked on a murder spree in the Toledo, Ohio, area that
killed nine people from 1973 until his 1981 arrest for murder. If not
for DNA evidence that had been preserved for twenty years, however,
the scope of his and Nathaniel's crimes would likely never been known.
The best place to begin the tale is with the last
slaying. On September 18, 1981, Anthony Cook assaulted Todd Sabo and
Leslie Sawicki completely out of the blue while the pair sat in a van
in an apartment complex parking lot. While Sabo fought with Anthony
Cook, Sawicki escaped and telephoned police and also her father, Peter
Sawicki. Unfortunately, Peter Sawicki arrived on the scene first and
was shot dead by Anthony Cook. Sabo was shot in the neck and shoulder
but survived.
Anthony Cook was arrested for the attack and
sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. He had been locked up
ever since, just another one of the many murderers in our nation's
prison system. Having long suspected he and Nathaniel may be
responsible for other homicides, authorities in 1997 decided to
compare the brothers' DNA to some of past crimes. They soon found a
match with the murder of Tom Gordon, 24, and the rape and attempted
murder of Gordon's girlfriend on May 14, 1980. The Cook brothers
confronted the couple while they were sitting in a car and forced them
into the backseat, driving them to a secluded area and shooting Gordon
dead. The girl was raped by both brothers and stabbed repeatedly with
an ice pick. She was left for dead but did survive the horrible ordeal.
Arrested for the murder of Gordon and the crimes
against the unnamed girlfriend and under close scrutiny in many other
slayings and attacks, the murderous siblings decided to cut a deal.
Anthony Cook agreed to another term of fifteen years to life for the
murder of Gordon while Nathaniel received twenty to seventy-five years
in prison for the attempted murder of the girlfiend and the brothers
confessed to a startling string of killings and attempted murders over
an eight year period spanning for 1973 through 1981.
The spree began with Anthony Cook working as a solo
act. On December 20, 1973, 22-year-old Vicki Small and some friends
had car trouble and Anthony Cook, posing as a helpful citizen, gave
Small a lift. She was found raped and shot to death later in the day.
Soon after Small's killing, Anthony Cook went to
prison until 1979 on an unrelated robbery conviction but after his
release resumed his killing with a vengeance. Now teamed with brother
Nathaniel, he picked up hitchhiker Connie Thompson, 19 on January 17,
1981. Both brothers raped Thompson until they tired of her, killed her,
and dumped her violated body in a culvert. Just ten days later they
struck again, forcing a young couple into a vacant garage where they
were both shot but survived. Then on February 21 they abducted Dawn
Backes, 12, on her way home from school and took her to an abandoned
building where she was tortured, raped, and then bludgeoned to death
with a concrete block.
After the Backes slaying Anthony Cook went solo
once again. On March 27, 1981, he shot dead Scott Moulton, 21, and
Denise Siotkowski, 22. On August 2 he abducted Daryl Cole, 21, and
Stacey Balonek, 21. They were later found in the trunk of Cole's car,
beaten to death with a baseball bat. Siotkowski and Balonek had both
been sexually assaulted. The next month Anthony Cook was arrested for
Peter Sawicki's murder and the killings were finally over.
Skcentral.com
FBI to check
killers' history
By John Seewer - The Associated Press
Saturday, April 08, 2000
TOLEDO,
Ohio — Federal authorities want to know if two brothers who admitted
to a Toledo killing spree had any involvement with unsolved slayings
outside Ohio.
FBI agents will meet Lucas County officials Monday to
look at information from the investigation into Anthony and Nathaniel
Cook.
The brothers this week acknowledged taking part in the
slayings of nine people during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Anthony Cook, 51, said he was involved in all nine
slayings, meaning he either killed the victims or encouraged his
brother to do so. Nathaniel Cook, 42, admitted he had a role in three
killings.
Both brothers were long-haul truck drivers and spent
time in several states, said Frank Stiles, an investigator with the
Lucas County Prosecu tor's Office.
Anthony Cook spent time driving through Ohio, Illinois,
Indiana, Michigan and Texas before he was sent to prison in 1981, Mr.
Stiles said.
Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates said she also
suspects there were more victims outside of Toledo.
The brothers were to stand trial Thursday in the
killing of a man 20 years ago, but as part of a plea agreement, they
admitted to playing roles in the nine killings.
Anthony Cook pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated
murder in the 1980 shooting of Thomas Gordon. Mr. Cook was sentenced
to life in prison for that killing and already is serving a life
sentence without the chance of parole in a 1981 slaying.
Nathaniel Cook pleaded guilty to two counts of
kidnapping and one count of attempted murder of Mr. Gordon's
girlfriend. He will be eligible for parole after 18 years.
During yesterday's hearing, the Cooks gave short
statements about their brutal attack on Mr. Gordon and his girlfriend,
who had just kissed goodnight in front of her Utica Street home after
returning from a date on May 14, 1980.
The
passenger-side window of Mr. Gordon's 1973 Nova was shattered by one
of the brothers and the young couple was forced into the backseat at
gunpoint. They were driven to a field off Raab Road in western Lucas
County, where the Cook brothers shot Mr. Gordon and took turns raping
his girlfriend.
Afterward, she was stabbed repeatedly with an ice-pick until she
feigned death. Mr. Gordon was placed in the trunk and his girlfriend
was left in the backseat of the car, which was abandoned off McLean
Street in North Toledo. The girl was able to make it to a nearby house
for help and survived the ordeal.
[...]
The
Gordon murder was thought by police to be the first of the killings.
But this week, Anthony Cook told police about a young woman he killed
in 1973, which marks the oldest case the plea agreement was able to
resolve.
On Dec.
20, 1973, Vicky Lynn Small, 22, and some friends had car trouble
during a bad snowstorm. Anthony Cook, then 24, stopped to help and
ended up giving Ms. Small a ride. Police said she was sexually
assaulted and fatally shot. Her body was found the same day in Ottawa
Park.
It
appears there was a lull in the homicides committed by one or both of
the Cook brothers from 1973 until Mr. Gordon's death in 1980. Police
said that's likely because Anthony Cook was in prison on an armed
robbery conviction from 1974 to 1979. When he got out, his brother,
Nathaniel, joined him in three of the killings.
[...]
The
Cooks' next victim after Mr. Gordon and his girlfriend was Connie Sue
Thompson, 19, who was hitchhiking on Cherry Street near St. Vincent
Medical Center on Jan. 17, 1981, when she was picked up by the
brothers. They drove her to western Lucas County, where she was
sexually assaulted and murdered. Her body was discovered in a culvert
under a road, police said.
A young
couple was targeted by the brothers just 10 days later. They have the
distinction of surviving their attack. Arnold Coates, then 21, and
Cheryl Bartlett, then 18, were walking in an alley behind Segur Avenue
when the Cooks forced them into a vacant garage at gunpoint. Because
they had just one bullet, they made the couple embrace and shot them,
but not fatally.
Dawn
Rene Backes wouldn't be so lucky. On Feb. 21, 1981, Anthony Cook was
driving home from work when he saw the 12-year-old Gesu School pupil
walking near the University of Toledo.
He
grabbed her by the neck and forced her into his truck. He stopped at
an apartment to pick up Nathaniel, and the two took Dawn to the former
State Theater, 2460 Collingwood Blvd., and tortured and raped her in
the abandoned building. Afterward, they smashed her skull with a
concrete block.
Hardened detectives were as horrified as the citizenry by the girl's
brutal killing.
A little over a month later, on March 27, 1981, Anthony Cook noticed a
couple in a car in the parking lot of the Fountain Circle Apartments
in Oregon. Scott Moulton, 21, and Denise Siotkowski, 22, were friends
who worked together at the Centre Supermarket on Navarre Avenue.
They
planned to meet co-workers for drinks that night but never showed up.
They were found in the car's trunk at the apartment complex in Oregon.
Mr. Moulton had been shot four times and Ms. Siotkowski five. Police
said Ms. Siotkowski had been sexually assaulted.
Stacey
Balonek, 21, and Daryle Cole, 21, had dated for about a year when
Anthony Cook murdered them on Aug. 2, 1981, shortly after they had
returned from a trip to Daytona Beach, Fla.
Anthony
Cook told police he saw them parked near Ms. Balonek's home on Doyle
Street when he forced them at gunpoint into the trunk of Mr. Cole's
1979 Pontiac Grand Prix and drove to the railroad tracks beneath the
Central Avenue overpass. Ms. Balonek was sexually assaulted and both
were beaten to death with Mr. Cole's aluminum baseball bat.
The
next murder is the one that put Anthony Cook in prison for life.
On
Sept. 18, 1981, Anthony Cook attacked Todd Sabo and Leslie Sawicki,
who had been drinking in the back of a van parked at an apartment
complex in the 4100 block of North Terrace View Drive near Richards
Road.
Ms.
Sawicki managed to escape while Mr. Sabo fought with Anthony Cook. She
found a phone and called her father and then she called the police.
The Ottawa Hills police station was 0.2 of a mile from the scene, but
they didn't send officers because it was out of their jurisdiction.
They referred the call to Toledo police, but Peter Sawicki arrived at
the apartment complex first.
Anthony
Cook fatally shot Mr. Sawicki in the throat. Mr. Sabo was shot in the
neck and shoulder, but survived.
The
arrest of Anthony Cook for the murder halted the killing spree.
Tom
Ross, an investigator for the prosecutor's office and a retired Toledo
police detective who worked on some of the murder investigations when
they occurred, said the crimes may have a racial element.
Mr.
Ross said all the victims were white, which prompted investigators to
wonder about racial motivations.
"[Anthony Cook] didn't look for black victims, and I'm sure there had
to be plenty of opportunities to grab black victims out there," Mr.
Ross said. "That's a heavy accusation without him coming out and
saying that, but he's out selecting his victims. Why are all the
victims he selected white? I think you have to ask that."
Sergeant Forrester and Frank Stiles, an investigator for the
prosecutor's office and a retired Toledo police detective sergeant who
has worked on the cases for years, said they believe race was a factor
in the crimes.
Anthony
& Nathaniel Cook (killed: 9)
2 admit
9 Toledo slayings in '80s
By John Seewer - The Associated Press
Friday, April 07, 2000
TOLEDO — Two brothers admitted Thursday to being
involved in a killing spree more than 20 years ago that left nine
people dead and terrorized Toledo during the early 1980s.
The brothers primarily preyed on young couples in
parked cars, raping the women before killing them.
Anthony Cook, 51, acknowledged in Lucas County Common
Pleas Court he was involved in all nine slayings, meaning he either
killed the victims or encouraged his brother to do so. Nathaniel Cook,
42, admitted taking part in three killings.
“They created an atmosphere of fear and terror in our
community,” said Judge Charles Wittenberg.
The brothers were to stand trial Thursday in the murder
of a man 20 years ago, but as part of a plea agreement they admitted
to roles in the nine killings.
Anthony Cook pleaded guilty to aggravated murder in the
1980 shooting of Thomas Gordon. He was sentenced to life in prison for
that killing and already is serving a life sentence without the chance
of parole in a 1981 slaying.
Nathaniel Cook pleaded guilty to two counts of
kidnapping and one count of attempted murder of Mr. Gordon's
girlfriend. He will be eligible for parole after 18 years.
The Cooks avoided standing trial in Mr. Gordon's death,
and Nathaniel Cook avoided a possible life sentence. They will not
face punishment in the other cases.
Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates said she accepted
the plea deal because it gives the nine victims' families some peace
of mind.
Investigators long had suspected the Cook brothers were
involved in the killings, but lacked evidence.
The break came in 1998 when Ms. Bates used blood
samples and DNA evidence to link Mr. Gordon's girlfriend, Sandra
Podgorski, and the Cook brothers. A match was made, putting the Cooks
at the scene of Mr. Gordon's death. Charges were filed against them.
Retired police Detective Tom Ross said he believed the
murders were racially motivated, adding that several of the victims
were stalked. All of the victims were white, and the Cook brothers are
black.
Nathaniel Cook, left, and his brother Anthony Cook appear
in Lucas
County Common Pleas Court in 2000.
