Artist Thomas Condon resided in Cincinnati with his wife Kelly where he ran a commercial photography studio. Inspired by the birth of his nephew, Thomas began working on a series of close-up photographs of children being delivered. After exploring the concept of life and birth Condon thought it seemed fit to complete the project with another series of photos that dealt with the issue of death. The combined efforts came to be known as the Cycle of Life project.

Influenced by the work of Andres Serrano, Condon approached Hamilton County coroner Carl L. Parrott Jr. with his idea of photographing the bodies in the morgue, insisting that the final photos would be cropped as to omit any identifiable features. Parrott gave Thomas permission to take photos in return for Condon shooting a new autopsy video for the morgue ( the last one was shot in the 1950’s and autopsy procedures had vastly changed since then).

Thomas visited the Hamilton County morgue on four separate occasions where he photographed numerous bodies in various stages of autopsy. He placed small objects on the bodies that were symbolic to the transition of life such as a key, a piece of sheet music, and a ladder, representing something that had not only been climbed, but something that needed to be climbed. His goal was to soften the concept of death and portray a more positive message.

The first sign of trouble came when the vice squad raided Thomas Condon’s studio. Upon seeing the contents of the film, an employee at the photo lab where Condon normally had his film developed called the police. They tore the studio apart expecting to find bodies stashed away somewhere. The police ignited a storm of controversy and a string of unfortunate events when they released Condon’s photographs to the media along with other standard autopsy photos that were not even taken by the artist.

Since Condon never got to see the photographs, he had no chance to crop them as he intended and some families saw raw images of their deceased loved ones as morgue corpses. One particular photo, an image that Condon didn’t shoot, was of a man who had been accidentally killed by a front loader, a vehicle which picks up dumpsters. The lawyers in the case forced the wife of the victim to go to the prosecutor’s office to view the photo as a way of getting her involved with a civil suit against Thomas and the county. The woman, who was already suicidal, checked herself into a hospital after seeing the photos and later committed suicide.

Thinking that Carl L. Parrott Jr. would speak up and explain the situation to both the police and the media, Condon was horrified to hear Parrott publicly state that he had no idea the photographing took place. In fact the prosecutors sided with the coroner in an effort to spare the County charges of any wrongdoing. In the end it turns out that the Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen told Parrott that families did not necessarily have to be notified before the bodies of their loved ones were photographed or videotaped at the morgue but this crucial piece of evidence wasn’t allowed in court on a technicality.

Condon was represented by H. Louis Sirkin who had won the Mapplethorpe case 10 years earlier. Sirkin’s defense was built around the fact Condon was an artist and therefore cannot be judged because the art was not finished. It was a poor strategy and Condon was sentenced to 2 ½ years in the state penitentiary. This circus was just the type of distraction that officials needed to prevent the people from becoming familiar with the name Roger Owensby Jr.

On November 7th, 2000, Roger Owensby Jr. was murdered by five police officers who jumped on him in a case of mistaken identity after he left a Sunoco mini-mart in Cincinnati. The police were hoping they could cover up yet another case of brutality against an African American but the coroner in the case diagnosed the death as “mechanical asphyxiation.” The officers insisted that Roger Owensby Jr., a Persian Gulf War veteran, died of a heart attack in an ambulance on the way to the hospital despite the fact witnesses had seen otherwise. The coroner, Carl Parrott Jr. said to Roger Owensby Sr., “Your son was murdered.” It was the first time in Cincinnati history that a police officer was indicted for murder. The indictment against the police came within a week of the Condon morgue photos scandal which made a brilliant distraction.

As if these stories needed more scandal, news emerged that Hamilton County Prosecutor, Mike Allen, was having an affair with a woman who then became a prosecutor because he brought her up. The “family values” guy was then sued by his mistress for sexual harassment in a case where she is seeking to collect 3.2 million dollars. Known as one of the most powerful men in Ohio, the mistress told stories to the press of how she and Allen had sex in his office. Allen, who was at the Bush/Cheney campaign in New York City, had to fly home to do damage control. He was immediately dumped as the chair of the Bush/Cheney southwestern Ohio committee just before the 2004 election.

The daunting task of creating a linear documentary about the cases is now in the hands of the filmmakers. Paul Lamarre and Melissa P. Wolf are currently seeking funding to complete the documentary Wide Open. They have spent 18 months conducting over 40 interviews with people involved with the cases.

Lamarre and Wolf won critical acclaim with their last documentary, The NEA Tapes, which explored the controversies involved with the funding of the National Endowment of the Arts. The NEA Tapes argue that a majority of NEA funding goes to artists who enhance the status quo rather than shake it up.

On The Web | www.wideopenproductions.org