He’s considered by some to be Toledo’s most notorious serial killer.
Still, by law from the 1980s that Anthony Cook was sentenced under, he will again come up for review by the Ohio Parole Board this month.
Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates said the hearing, set for Feb. 23 or Feb. 24, is perfunctory and not a cause for alarm, but she and others are sending letters to the parole board to remind them of just how dangerous Cook is.
“What people have to understand is that the crimes were committed in 1980 and 1981. We have to sentence, punish, and allow for parole hearings based on the law as it existed at the time, not as it existed when they were sentenced in 2000, and not as it exists today,” Mrs. Bates said.
When Cook, now 65, and his brother, Nathaniel Cook, now 56, committed a series of brutal killings, Ohio did not have the death penalty or a possible sentence of life without parole, both of which exist today.
“For aggravated murder, we had 20 to life, and 20 to life allowed for parole after serving for so many years,” Mrs. Bates said. “Because that’s the sentence Anthony Cook got, he’s entitled to a parole hearing. That doesn’t mean he’ll get it. I have no question that he’s not going to get it. He was not only convicted of two homicides, but he confessed to nine.”
In April, 2000, the prosecutor’s office made an agreement with the Cook brothers to help provide closure to their many victims’ families.
Anthony Cook was serving a sentence of 15 years to life for the 1981 murder of Peter Sawicki, Ottawa Hills real estate agent, when he was sentenced in 2000 for the aggravated murder of Tom Gordon, 24, in 1980.
Nathaniel Cook was sentenced to 21 to 75 years for the attempted murder of Mr. Gordon’s girlfriend and two counts of kidnapping. His plea agreement called for him to be released on Feb. 13, 2018, after 20 years behind bars.
“We made it very clear that we agreed to do this because [Anthony] was willing to confess, and because the families of all those many victims wanted to know what happened to their loved ones, and they were willing to do this because they wanted the answers.”
Mrs. Bates said the resolution to the murders led to the formation of the cold-case unit that as recently as this week continues to obtain indictments in homicide investigations that have gone unsolved for years.
Tom Ross, a cold-case investigator for the prosecutor’s office, said he was writing a letter to the parole board asking that Anthony Cook never be released.
“I believe he would kill again,” Mr. Ross said.
Jeff Lingo, chief of the criminal division for the Lucas County Prosecutor’s Office, said he has fielded numerous calls about Cook’s upcoming parole hearing.
“We are sending all the information we have so that the parole board can make an informed decision,” he said. “We are opposing it adamantly.”
Letters concerning the upcoming parole hearing for Anthony Cook may be mailed to the Ohio Parole Board, 770 W. Broad St., Columbus, Ohio, 43222 or sent electronically by going to http://www.drc.ohio.gov/PBEmail/Default.aspx.
JoEllen Smith, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said correspondence should be submitted at least five business days prior to the hearing.
First Published February 12, 2015, 5:00 a.m.
