In the midst of all the articles relating to the Cleveland kidnapping, one can easily find information regarding the victims’ abhorrent captivity, the tearful reunion with their families, a history of the sick-minded captor, but there was also an article titled, “Cleveland Abductions: Do white victims get more attention?” It pointed out that in hostage crises, white, middle class women get more attention than African Americans.
According to the article, only 20% of media coverage for missing children goes to black victims. Moreover it told us to notice how many times Amanda Berry’s pictures are shown compared to Gina DeJesus. Looking back, remember the amount of news coverage and the sophistication the FBI took in their investigation for the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping. Both the Cleveland and Smart cases were horrific, but was there ever a case as big involving a sweet black girl who was abducted?
In comparison to these historical cases, the article would seem to make sense until reading about the hostage scenario in Trenton, New Jersey. It certainly did not receive national media coverage, but the situation was resolved in weeks rather than years.
Let’s look at both cases.
The Cleveland Abductions
(2002-May 2013)
Ariel Castro, age 52 when arrested, kidnapped three girls over the course of 10 years, and chained them in his basement on 2207 Seymour Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. Castro sexually abused all three of them, and induced miscarriages to cover his crimes, although one child was born. Castro would sadistically make the girls watch the media coverage of their disappearances. Once in a while, he allowed them outside, but closely monitored.
The victims were Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight. Knight vanished in 2002, and she was 20. Berry was taken the day before she turned 17, in 2003. DeJesus was kidnapped in 2004 when she was 14. While in captivity, Berry gave birth to a baby girl, Jocelyn, who was six years old when freed.
With the help of a neighbor, Charles Ramsey, Amanda Berry was able to escape, alert the authorities, and the other hostages were liberated. Ariel Castro tried to escape, leaving the neighborhood, and then was apprehended at a nearby McDonalds.
The Trenton Hostage Situation 2013
(April 22, 2013-May 10, 2013)
Gerald Tyrone Murphy, age 38, murdered his girlfriend, Carmelita Stevens, 44, and her 13-year-old son. Then he held the rest of her children hostage within Stevens’s home on 250 Grand Street Trenton, New Jersey. The crisis lasted as long as three weeks. The deceased bodies were in an advanced state of decomposition. The house reeked of rotting flesh and was infested with maggots.
The hostages included an 18-year-old woman, a 16-year-old girl, and a 4-year-old boy. Carmelita’s 19-year-old son was hiding in the basement the whole time. Murphy physically abused the two females and the young boy during the crisis. No names or photos of the victims were submitted.
One of Carmelita’s concerned relatives could not reach her, and called the police. Further investigation revealed that both the daughters had not been to school for 12 days. Logically, that would be over two weeks, since weekends are not schooldays.
The police entered the back door, and questioned the perpetrator who was threatening them with guns and explosives. The standoff lasted three days. Police fired one shot, hitting Murphy, because he was going to hurt one of the children. Murphy eventually died in the hospital.
Analysis
Why was the Cleveland case given more media coverage? Was it because they were missing for a decade, or was it racial bias?
No photos or identities of the survivors in Trenton were given, so their races are unknown. Though statistically, the chances of them being white are very slim. The demographics of the Trenton area are mostly Black and Hispanic. Only 13.5% of the Trenton population is White, 49.8% is Black, 33.7% is Hispanic, and the rest are biracial or other races. Moreover it is possible that they opted to remain anonymous for personal security reasons.
Other factors come into effect in determining what deserves media coverage, such as length of an investigation. A case that lasts a decade is more enduring than a hostage situation that was wrapped up within a month. Perhaps the latter was handled by a better police agency, and the Cleveland authorities were slower in executing their investigation. In negating that, the responsible police force in Cleveland had the trouble of finding where the missing women were, whereas the Trenton hostages were discovered easier because they were held captive in their own home. One more factor that contributes to adding coverage is how the hostages knew their captor. Ariel Castro was the bus driver who drove Amanda Berry to school, and his daughter, Arlene Castro was Gina DeJesus’s best friend. Gerald Murphy was in a relationship for a couple months with his victim, Carmelita Stevens. Abusive relationships are awful, but they are more common than your bus driver kidnapping you and raping you for ten years.
The two main foci in this analysis are the perpetrators of each case and the police agencies. If the three Cleveland women were discovered quicker, would they have received as much media coverage? Was Castro just good at covering up his tracks for so long? Was Murphy simply dumb and easy to catch? This is important in determining why some cases get more attention than others. It may or may not be just race.
Perpetrators: Sly vs. Stupid
Ariel Castro
He was very sneaky. After kidnapping Gina DeJesus, he would attend annual vigils for her disappearance. He played music with his band, Grupo Kanon, at a fundraiser for DeJesus. He would even hand out missing person fliers. His son, Anthony, wrote an article for the Plain Press in regards to Miss DeJesus’s disappearance. His daughter, Arlene, was interviewed on “America’s Most Wanted” regarding both DeJesus and Berry’s vanishings. It is unknown if his children were aware of his crimes.
Castro kept a fairly good reputation with his neighbors. Charles Ramsey, who helped save the captives, had previously spent time eating and having a few beers with Castro. Castro had a history of criminal behavior, but having little or no record only helped his reputation.
In terms of executing his crimes, he bound his captives with chains and ropes and kept close watch of them. Berry was only able to escape when he was not home. There were locks on the attic, basement, and garage.
Castro’s main weaknesses were revealed in his work. After 22 years of working as a bus driver, he was fired. Among his citations were leaving a child on the school bus unattended in January 2004. Others included making an illegal U-turn, using the bus for a shopping trip, and leaving the bus unlocked and unattended two blocks from his home. One of his coworkers, Darlene Dos Reis, said he was hateful toward the children on the bus.
Without a job and his house being close to foreclosure, it is possible he would have been caught eventually unless he could use his slyness to relocate his captives.
Although in many ways he was sly, he was not smart enough to outthink the cops’ pursuit in the end. He left a suicide note, blaming his victims for his sex addiction. He may have been a false suicide note to mislead law enforcement. Then he “fled” the neighborhood to evade arrest, and he was caught very quickly at McDonalds.
Gerald Tyrone Murphy
Murphy had a long criminal record that made him stand out. Since 1990, he was arrested for aggravated assault, sexual assault, robbery, child endangerment, criminal conspiracy, and firearms offenses. He spent ten years in a Philadelphia prison for sexual assault and was released in January 2011. More recently, he had an outstanding warrant for not registering as a sex offender in Pennsylvania. It is likely he went to New Jersey to avoid being arrested again.
Claiming to be strapped with explosives and possessing firearms held off police for three days, but only three days. His days were numbered. Other than that, his only strengths were not in slyness but in his “might makes right” mentality. He intimidated his captives enough that they did not attempt to escape, and made them unable to call 911. It is possible that the death of his mother, Carmelita, motivated the 13-year-old boy to attack the perpetrator which could have led to the boy’s murder. From there, the heartless captor could lead by example.
Given that Murphy had an outstanding warrant on him for not registering as a sex offender, the Stevens’s house was a refuge. He needed to hide the murders, and not let the children report it. There was no alternative house to imprison them. Every house is associated with an identity. Since the victim can be traced to her own home, it was not hard to find Murphy and search the house, uncovering everything.
The surviving children did not need to report the murders, since the concerned relative made the call to the police. If he were smarter, he would have answered the phone and lied about Carmelita’s whereabouts. Thankfully, Murphy was dumb and did not think the family member would care or that the police would be as responsive.
With his extensive criminal record and prison time, why wasn’t he more street smart? With that many years in the Philadelphia penitentiary, he should have had a better gauge for police reactions. He did not calculate when the police would find him.
Police Agencies: Vigilance vs. Incompetence
Cleveland
The local authorities conducted shallow investigations after receiving complaints from neighbors. In November 2011, Israel Lugo called the police saying that he saw a girl holding a baby crying for help from a window at Castro’s house. The police arrived, knocked on the door several times, and left simply because no one answered. In 2012, Elise Cintron’s granddaughter told her that there was a naked woman crawling around Castro’s backyard. Cintron called the police who gave an indifferent response.
The police visited the house on two occasions; once when he abandoned the child on the school bus and when he reported a fight. The police did not see anything, although they had a limited view of the house’s interior. Castro did not invite people inside.
The only real challenge Cleveland had in finding the missing people was that they were hidden in a remote location. However, both the victims and the neighbors were doing their part in trying to save the hostages, and the police did not act on the people’s suspicions. There was no way both neighbors were hallucinating this incidents.
Furthermore, if the police and the criminal justice system rightfully convicted Castro for all his previous crimes, maybe his record would have raised a red flag quicker. Castro had a history of domestic violence and parental kidnapping. During his marriage, he would beat his wife, break her ribs, knock out a tooth, push her down the stairs, and lock her in a box. In 1993, he was arrested and charged with domestic abuse, but the charge was later dropped.
Trenton
Since Trenton has high crime rates, the police are more vigilant. It only took one phone call from Stevens’s relative, and the Trenton police took it seriously. They noticed the daughters were absent from school. Then they conducted a welfare check. Under probable cause, they forced entry and immediately found out perpetrator’s ill intentions. A standoff ensued, taking 37 hours, rather than a decade complete with annual vigils honoring the victims.
The only part that made this case easier is that the hostages were being held in their own house instead of a mystery location, which would take longer to investigate. Though what if these African American or Hispanic hostages were removed to a remote location? Would the police have given up at some point like in other cases involving non-white victims? That can not be known, but at least the four surviving children were saved.
Conclusion
These abductions are horrific for anyone to endure regardless of race. Long term damage is psychologically inflicted to any victim of a crime this severe.
The media sickly toys with these traumatic experiences as opportunities to further their ratings and their “People Like Us” agenda. It has been said by plenty of people that news agencies think that viewers want to hear stories about “People Like Us.” I am white, and I do not want to hear about people like me. I want to hear about people different than me to gain more perspective of the world; see through other people’s eyes. I already know a lot about myself. I want to learn about other people; different people.
©2013 Caroline Friehs
Originally posted: May 15, 2013
References
Associated Press (2013 May 12). Bodies of woman, 13-year-old son found after NJ standoff; boyfriend killed, 3 kids safe. The Washington Post.com. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/standoff-with-armed-gunman-holding-hostages-enters-3rd-day-authorities-seeking-peaceful-end/2013/05/12/4b523286-baba-11e2-b568-6917f6ac6d9d_story.html
Associated Press (2013 May 12). Gerald Tyrone Murphy: Police kill barricade suspect, find two bodies. Metro. Received from: http://www.metro.us/newyork/news/2013/05/12/gerald-tyrone-murphy-police-kill-barricade-suspect-find-two-bodies/
BBC News (2013 May 8). Ohio women were held with ropes and chains, police say. BBC News – US & Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22453361
BBC News (2013 May 10). Profile: Cleveland abductor Ariel Castro. BBC News – US & Canada. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22444882
CBS News New York (2013 May 12) Trenton Hostage Situation Ends, Suspect Dead. CBS Local.com. Retrieved from: http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/05/12/trenton-hostage-situation-ends-suspect-in-custody/
City Data.com (2012). Trenton, New Jersey. [statistics page] Retrieved from: http://www.city-data.com/city/Trenton-New-Jersey.html
McKelvey, T (2013 May 9). Cleveland abductions: Do white victims get more attention? BBC News – Magazine. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22441124
Robinson, A (2013 May 9). Commentary: 7 creepy things you didn’t know about accused Cleveland kidnapper Ariel Castro. Dayton Daily News Retrieved from: http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/news/state-regional/7-creepy-things-about-accused-cleveland-kidnapper-/nXmjq/
Shookman, S (2013 May 7). Suspect’s son wrote article about missing Ohio teen. USAToday.com. Received from: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/07/castro-son-berry-dejesus/2140721/
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