Charles Ramsey shares story
about rescuing abducted girls
Just over a year ago, three women escaped from a Cleveland house where they had been held captive for a decade. Their unaware next-door neighbor, Charles Ramsey, was vaulted into a frenzy of media appearances, and clips from a TV interview were autotuned into a viral video using his words “dead giveaway.”
Ramsey now fills in the rest of the picture in Dead Giveaway: The Rescue, Hamburgers, White Folks, and Instant Celebrity … What You Saw on TV Doesn’t Begin to Tell the Story.
The first third of the book, “The Rescue” and “Media Madness,” are Ramsey’s account of how he came to be in the right place at the right time to assist in the women’s escape. He was in the right place — at home — because he had been suspended from his job as a dishwasher and kitchen assistant at a tony Cleveland restaurant. It was the right time because Ariel Castro, the kidnapper, had left the house, giving Amanda Berry the opportunity to scream for help.
Ramsey then tells his own story, as the older son of a Cleveland civil servant who had, according to Ramsey, a lifestyle far grander than his salary could account for. The senior Ramsey was friendly with racketeer Anthony Liberatore, and did not have any trouble winning bids as a private contractor. He also was a harsh disciplinarian, causing his son resentment and an overwhelming urge to make trouble.
Charles Ramsey was a troublemaker of the first rank, determined to create havoc at every opportunity. Expelled from Brush High School, he would earn a GED at age 15 and a 0.00 grade-point average at Knoxville College, having spent $20,000 of his father’s money in one semester. He got thrown out of the Army and sabotaged a lucrative contract his father had acquired to remove asbestos in a Cleveland building, and all that was before he started selling crack.
Reflecting on a previous conviction for domestic violence, Ramsey, a self-identified “hardened street thug,” delivers a thorough, credible caution about domestic violence awareness. Is he sincere? Does it matter? In an early interview, Ramsey told a reporter he “figured [Berry’s call for help] was a domestic violence dispute.” Nevertheless, he came to the rescue.
Unfiltered and funny, with near-constant cheerful profanity, including liberal use of the n-word, which he considers a “term of endearment,” and for which he invites critics to “just shut it,” Dead Giveaway (162 pages, softcover) costs $14.95 from Gray & Co. Randy Nyerges is a resident of Berea and also worked with Hanford Dixon on his memoir Day of the Dawg. Ramsey will sign his book from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday at 252 Tattoo, 11721 Bellaire Road, Cleveland.
Footnote
Registration is underway for Breaking Genre: In the Context of Others, a writing conference to be held May 31 on the campus of Case Western Reserve University.
The sessions include classes in teen literature, poetry, historical fiction and more, with opening speaker Thrity Umrigar, whose novel The Story Hour will be released in August. Other guests include Mary Biddinger, Cinda Williams Chima, Joyce Dyer, Michael Grant Jaffe, Philip Metres, Lynn Powell, Jim Sheeler, S. Andrew Swann and Sam Thomas.
The cost is $125. See www.case.edu or call 216-368-1508.
Events
Akron-Summit County Public Library (Highland Square branch, 807 W. Market St.) — Cleveland novelist Nick Shamhart talks about his novel The Fog Within, about a woman with autism, 6 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Visible Voice (1023 Kenilworth Ave., Cleveland) — Los Angeles television writer Lauren Miller reads from and signs her novel Free to Fall, 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.
Hudson Library & Historical Society (96 Library St.) — Gail Ghetia Bellamy signs Cleveland Summertime Memories: A Warm Look Back at 7 p.m. Wednesday, an appearance that was postponed by a February blizzard.
Cuyahoga County Public Library (Chagrin Falls branch, 100 E. Orange St.) — Jesse Weinberger talks about Internet security for children and her new book The Boogeyman Exists, and He’s in Your Child’s Back Pocket, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Mac’s Backs (1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights) — Poet Robert Miltner reads from and signs his debut collection of short stories, And Your Bird Can Sing, and poet Molly Fuller (All My Loves) reads from her work, 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday.
Learned Owl Book Shop (204 N. Main St., Hudson) — Joe Murray, a Kent State journalism professor and author (with Ron Siwik) of Lost in Oscar Hotel: There is Something in the Air, a book about their 2012 project to touch down restored 1946 Piper Cub J3s in every Ohio county in eight days, appears at 1 p.m. Saturday.
— Barbara McIntyre
Special to the Beacon Journal
Send information about books of local interest to Lynne Sherwin, Features Department, Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309 or lsherwin@thebeaconjournal.com. Event notices should be sent at least two weeks in advance.