"Because if there's one bad apple, they say we're all like that," said the Rev. Larry Sowell, who is a fifth cousin of the accused serial killer, although the two have never met.
Larry Sowell found solace at the East Side church where he preaches -- until two months ago. That's when a boy who worships there threatened the Reverend over the phone.
"He says 'you're crazy, you're just like him, you're a child abuser, a pedophile. You're just like your cousin,'" Larry Sowell said.
Then the boy showed up days later at Larry Sowell's house, demanding to be let in at 1:30 a.m.
"I wasn't sure what he was going to do next," he said. Larry Sowell tried to report it to police but they referred him to the city prosecutor, who sent him to juvenile court, which said he needed to file a police report first.
He suspects the reason he got the runaround involves the Sowell family name.
"It's like I've got to hide my head and hide my face and don't say my last name," said Larry Sowell.
Then there's the time he called the office of Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, looking for help in a family matter.
"They told me, because of your last name, they're going to have to send a trooper or a whole lot of people with you," Larry Sowell said.
Jones' aide, who spoke with Larry Sowell, denied the allegations.
"I didn't say anything about a police escort going to his house," said executive assistant Monica Hines. "I did not even divulge his name to the agency."
The backlash has forced Larry Sowell to move his three kids -- one of whom is autistic -- from Cleveland.
"So far, we're not having any problems there, but I try to get my mail before anybody notices my last name."
WKYC-TV