Cleveland Torso Murderer
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The Cleveland Torso Murderer, also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, was an unidentified
serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...
who was active in
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
, Ohio, United States, in the 1930s. The killings were characterized by the
dismemberment Dismemberment is the act of completely disconnecting and/or removing the limbs, skin, and/or organs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with regicid ...
of thirteen known victims and the disposal of their remains in the impoverished neighborhood of Kingsbury Run. Most victims came from an area east of Kingsbury Run called "The Roaring Third" or "Hobo Jungle", known for its bars,
gambling Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of Value (economics), value ("the stakes") on a Event (probability theory), random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy (ga ...
dens,
brothel A brothel, strumpet house, bordello, bawdy house, ranch, house of ill repute, house of ill fame, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in Human sexual activity, sexual activity with prostitutes. For legal or cultural reasons, establis ...
s, and
vagrants Vagrancy is the condition of wandering homelessness without regular employment or income. Vagrants usually live in poverty and support themselves by travelling while engaging in begging, scavenging, or petty theft. In Western countries, ...
. Despite an investigation of the murders, which at one time was led by famed lawman
Eliot Ness Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Bureau of Prohibition, Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone while enforcing Prohibition in the United States, Prohibition in Chicago. He was leader of a team ...
, the murderer was never apprehended. In 2024, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office teamed up with the DNA Doe Project to exhume some of the victims and use investigative genetic genealogy to identify them.


Murders

The official number of murders attributed to the Cleveland Torso Murderer is twelve, although recent research has shown there could have been as many as twenty or more. The twelve known victims were killed between 1935 and 1938. Some investigators, including lead detective Peter Merylo, believed that there may have been thirteen or more victims in the
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
,
Youngstown Youngstown is a city in Mahoning County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, 11th-most populous city in Ohio with a population of 60,068 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Mahoning ...
, and
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
areas between the 1920s and 1950s. Two strong candidates for addition to the "official" list are the unknown victim nicknamed the "Lady of the Lake", found on September 5, 1934, and Robert Robertson, found on July 22, 1950. The victims of the Torso Murderer were usually drifters whose identities were never determined, although there were a few exceptions. Victims numbers 2, 3, and 8 were identified as Edward Andrassy, Florence Polillo, and possibly Rose Wallace, respectively. Andrassy and Polillo were both identified by their fingerprints, while Wallace was tentatively identified via her dental records. The victims appeared to be lower class individualseasy prey during the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. Many were known as "working poor", who had nowhere else to live but the ramshackle
shanty town A shanty town, squatter area, squatter settlement, or squatter camp is a settlement of improvised buildings known as shanties or shacks, typically made of materials such as mud and wood, or from cheap building materials such as corrugated iron s ...
s, or " Hoovervilles", in the area known as the Cleveland Flats. The Torso Murderer always
beheaded Decapitation is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and all vertebrate animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood by way of severing through the jugular vein and common c ...
and often
dismembered Dismemberment is the act of completely disconnecting and/or removing the limbs, skin, and/or organs from a living or dead being. It has been practiced upon human beings as a form of capital punishment, especially in connection with regicid ...
their victims, occasionally severing the victim's
torso The torso or trunk is an anatomical terminology, anatomical term for the central part, or the core (anatomy), core, of the body (biology), body of many animals (including human beings), from which the head, neck, limb (anatomy), limbs, tail an ...
in half or severing their appendages. In many cases the cause of death was the decapitation or dismemberment itself. Most of the male victims were castrated. Some victims showed evidence of chemical treatment being applied to their bodies, which caused the skin to become red, tough and leathery. Many were found after a considerable period of time following their deaths, occasionally in excess of a year. In an era when
forensic science Forensic science combines principles of law and science to investigate criminal activity. Through crime scene investigations and laboratory analysis, forensic scientists are able to link suspects to evidence. An example is determining the time and ...
was largely in its infancy, these factors further complicated identification, especially since the heads were often undiscovered. During the time of the "official" murders,
Eliot Ness Eliot Ness (April 19, 1903 – May 16, 1957) was an American Bureau of Prohibition, Prohibition agent known for his efforts to bring down Al Capone while enforcing Prohibition in the United States, Prohibition in Chicago. He was leader of a team ...
, leader of The Untouchables, was serving as Cleveland's Public Safety Director, a position with authority over the police department and ancillary services, including the fire department. Ness contributed to the arrest and interrogation of one of the
prime suspect ''Prime Suspect'' is a British police procedural television series devised by Lynda La Plante. Broadcast on ITV between 1991 and 2006, it stars Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison, one of the first female Detective Chief Inspectors in Greater Lo ...
s, Dr. Francis Sweeney, and personally conducted raids into shantytowns and eventually burned them down. Ness's reasoning for doing so was to catalogue fingerprints to easily identify any new victims, and to get possible victims out of the area in an attempt to stop the murders. Four days after the burning, on August 22, 1938, Ness launched an equally draconian operation where he personally dispatched six two-man search teams on a large area of Cleveland, stretching from the
Cuyahoga River The Cuyahoga River (see ) is a river located in Northeast Ohio that bisects the City of Cleveland and feeds into Lake Erie. As Cleveland emerged as a major manufacturing center, the river became heavily affected by industrial pollution, so mu ...
to East 55th Street to Prospect Avenue, under the guise of conducting city fire inspections. While the search never turned up any new or incriminating information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of the Torso Murderer, it did serve to focus renewed public attention on the inadequate and unsanitary living conditions in the downtown area. Teams uncovered hundreds of families living in hazardous fire traps without toilets or running water. The interests of social reform did ultimately come to light even if those of law enforcement did not. At one point, the Torso Murderer taunted Ness by placing the remains of two victims in full view of his office at
City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...
. The man who Ness believed to be the killer would later also provoke him by sending
postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. In some places, one can send a postcard f ...
s.


Victims

Most researchers consider there to be twelve victims, although some have counted as many as twenty or forty. Evidence suggests a woman dubbed the "Lady of the Lake" could be included. There was a second victim who was also considered to be a victim of the Torso Murderer in 1950 named Robert Robertson due to the fact that his head was also cut off in a manner very similar to the confirmed victims. Only three victims were positively identified; the other ten were six
John Doe John Doe (male) and Jane Doe (female) are multiple-use placeholder names that are used in the British, Canadian, and American legal systems, when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. In the context of law ...
s and four Jane Does. Exhumations of unidentified victims started in August 2024 after the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office partnered with the DNA Doe Project to identify the victims through
genetic genealogy Genetic genealogy is the use of genealogical DNA tests, i.e., DNA profiling and DNA testing, in combination with traditional genealogical methods, to infer genetic relationships between individuals. This application of genetics came to be use ...
.


Edward Andrassy

Edward Anthony Andrassy, age 29, was discovered on September 23, 1935, in a gully at the base of Jackass Hill where East 49th Street dead-ends into Kingsbury Run. Andrassy's head was discovered buried near the rest of his body, which was found to be emasculated and only wearing socks. The
autopsy An autopsy (also referred to as post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of deat ...
report stated that Andrassy was decapitated in the mid-cervical region with a fracture of the mid-cervical vertebrae. The coroner also noted that he had rope burns around his wrists. The cause of death was decapitation; hemorrhage and shock. He had been dead for two to three days. At one time, Andrassy had been an
orderly In healthcare, an orderly (also known as a ward assistant, nurse assistant or healthcare assistant) is a hospital attendant whose job consists of assisting medical and nursing staff with various nursing and medical interventions. These duties a ...
in the psychiatric ward at Cleveland City Hospital. However, at the time of his death, he was unemployed and had no visible means of financial support.


John Doe I

The decapitated remains of another white male were also located in weeds at the foot of East 49th Street and Praha Avenue next to Andrassy. Evidence suggested that the unidentified victim's body was saturated with oil and set afire after death, causing the skin to become reddish and leathery. It also appeared as though the victim's body hair had either been shaved or burned off. The unidentified male became known as John Doe I.


Florence Polillo

Florence Genevieve Polillo, age 44, was discovered at 2315 to 2325 East 20th Street in Cleveland. Florence was found dismembered and had been wrapped with paper and packed into half-bushel baskets, but her head was never discovered. The autopsy report stated that her cause of death was a slit throat. Due to the lack of the head, the coroner could not definitively rule her death a
homicide Homicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. A homicide requires only a Volition (psychology), volitional act, or an omission, that causes the death of another, and thus a homicide may result from Accident, accidenta ...
.


John Doe II (The Tattooed Man)

The decapitated torso of an unidentified man was located on June 5, 1936, between the
New York Central The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...
and Nickel Plate Road tracks next to an old freight shed in front of the Nickel Plate Road police building. His head was found near the Shaker Heights Rapid Transit tracks. The victim's body was nude but unmutilated and found only about fifteen hundred feet away from the head. There was no blood on the ground, indicating he had been killed elsewhere. A railroad worker testified that the head was not in the vicinity at 3:00 p.m. that day, and an eyewitness described seeing a late-model
Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...
close to the crime scene at about 11:00 p.m. that same night. The physical evidence of the decapitation suggested it had been done while the victim was alive, and the autopsy report stated that the body was drained of blood. The head had been cut off between the first and second cervical vertebrae. There was no evidence of drugs or alcohol in the victim's body, and nothing to suggest that he had been tortured or bound before being killed. John Doe II had six tattoos, hence the nickname "The Tattooed Man".


John Doe III

On July 22, 1936, the severely decomposed, decapitated remains of a white male were located near a homeless camp in the Big Creek area of Brooklyn, west of Cleveland. This was the only known West Side victim of the Torso Murderer. Police conducted a thorough search of the area and found the man's head, which was a skull at that point. Cheaply made, bloodstained clothing was found nearby. A pathologist discovered a large quantity of dried blood that had seeped into the ground beneath the man's body, indicating he was killed at that location. For the first time the murderer had ventured far away from Kingsbury Run, and instead of transporting the victim, he had killed him in the place he was discovered. The victim's long hair, poor clothing and location near a homeless camp suggested he was one of the many vagrants who rode in and out of Cleveland on the nearby railroad tracks. However, the advanced state of decay of the body made it impossible to get any fingerprints, and the head would have been decomposed and unrecognizable by that point. Searches through
missing person A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as Life, alive or Death, dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accide ...
s reports were unsuccessful. The unidentified male became known as John Doe III.


John Doe IV

A homeless person discovered two halves of a male torso and lower legs floating in a stagnant pool near East 37th Street while waiting for an eastbound freight train. The torso was removed and sent to the morgue, where the coroner noted the body had been severed between the third and fourth cervical vertebrae as well as between the third and fourth lumbar vertebrae. A search was made for the rest of the body. Police found a dirty felt hat labelled 'Laudy's Smart Shop,
Bellevue, Ohio Bellevue ( ) is a city in Erie County, Ohio, Erie, Huron County, Ohio, Huron, Seneca County, Ohio, Seneca, and Sandusky County, Ohio, Sandusky counties in the U.S. state of Ohio, located 61 miles southwest of Cleveland and 45 miles southeast of T ...
', which appeared to have blood spots on the top. A blue work shirt, covered with blood, was found wrapped in newspaper along the bank of the creek where the body was found. A fire crew dredged the water in the creek in attempt to locate more parts of the body. The head was never found, nor the body identified. The victim's
kidney In humans, the kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped blood-filtering organ (anatomy), organs that are a multilobar, multipapillary form of mammalian kidneys, usually without signs of external lobulation. They are located on the left and rig ...
s and
stomach The stomach is a muscular, hollow organ in the upper gastrointestinal tract of Human, humans and many other animals, including several invertebrates. The Ancient Greek name for the stomach is ''gaster'' which is used as ''gastric'' in medical t ...
were removed, as were his genitals. The coroner declared the probable cause of death as decapitation. The unidentified male became known as John Doe IV.


Jane Doe I

On February 23, 1937, the upper portion of an unidentified female victim was found washed up on Euclid Beach on 156th Street. The legs, arms, and head were never found, likely because they were less buoyant than the torso and possibly sank to the bottom of the lake. Three months later the lower half of the torso washed ashore at East 30th Street. The upper extremities were disarticulated at the level of the glenoid fossa, better known as the socket of the shoulder joint. The neck and head were also disarticulated between the seventh cervical and first thoracic vertebrae. Multiple hesitation knife marks at the surface of the skin were present. There was considerable water and gravel found in both pleural cavities. The probable cause of death was officially undetermined via the coroner's case file. The unidentified female became known as Jane Doe I.


Jane Doe II

The eighth victim was located beneath the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge on June 6, 1937. Lying in a rotting burlap bag, along with a newspaper from June 1936, was the partial skeleton of a woman who had been dead approximately one year. The body was decapitated and missing a rib. She was tentatively identified as 40-year-old
prostitute Prostitution is a type of sex work that involves engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-pe ...
Rose Wallace, who had vanished from the same bar Polillo had, but this could not be confirmed. Wallace was known to have disappeared ten months earlier on August 21, 1936, while it was estimated that the victim had been dead for one year when found. Officially the victim remains unidentified and is known as Jane Doe II.


John Doe V

On July 6, 1937, the upper portion of a man's torso wrapped in a burlap sack for chicken feed, plus his two thighs, were discovered floating in the Cuyahoga River in the Cleveland Flats just below Kingsbury Run. The head, as well as the internal organs within the abdominal cavity and the heart, were never found. The unidentified male became known as John Doe V.


Jane Doe III

On April 8, 1938, a woman's leg was located in the Cuyahoga River in the Cleveland Flats. A month later on May 2, two burlap bags containing a woman's nude bisected torso; thighs and feet were discovered floating in the river to the east of the West 3rd Street Bridge. Her head and arms were never found. She was the only victim to have
morphine Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
in her system, estimated at 0.002 gm. per 100 gm. sample. The unidentified female became known as Jane Doe III.


Jane Doe IV and John Doe VI

On August 16, 1938, a dismembered body was found at a dump at the end of East Ninth Street in
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...
, by men combing for pieces of scrap metal. The body of a woman was wrapped in rags, brown paper, and cardboard. Uncharacteristically, the head and hands were found with the rest of the body. The victim's head had been disarticulated at the level of the third intervertebral disc. The unidentified female became known as Jane Doe IV. On the same day, the body of John Doe VI was discovered at a nearby location on the Cleveland lakefront, in plain view of Safety Director Eliot Ness's office at City Hall. Similar to the other victims, the head was severed from the body and the victim remains unidentified. The head was disarticulated at the level of the third inter-vertebral disc and had knife marks on the dorsum of the second and third cervical vertebrae. Extremities at all the major joints were all disarticulated as well. The coroner ruled the cause of death as undetermined though he noted it was probably a homicide.


Possible victims


Lady of the Lake

The lower half of a woman's torso, thighs still attached but amputated at the knees, washed up on the shores of Lake Erie just east of Bratenahl on September 5, 1934. A subsequent search yielded only a few other body parts. The head was never found. She was nicknamed the "Lady of the Lake". She had an abdominal scar from a likely
hysterectomy Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus and cervix. Supracervical hysterectomy refers to removal of the uterus while the cervix is spared. These procedures may also involve removal of the ovaries (oophorectomy), fallopian tubes ( salpi ...
, which was common and made it more difficult to identify her. After she was found, several people reported seeing body parts in the water, including a group of fishermen who believed to have seen a head. The Lady of the Lake was found virtually in the same spot as Jane Doe I. Both victims had on their skin a chemical which was believed to have been lime chloride. It is supposed that the killer meant to use a quickening lime to decompose the bodies quicker, but mistakenly used lime that would preserve the bodies instead.


Robert Robertson

On July 22, 1950, Robert Robertson, age 41, was discovered at 2138 Davenport Avenue in Cleveland. Police believed he had been dead six to eight weeks and appeared to have been intentionally decapitated, fitting the profile of other victims. Robertson was estranged from his family, had an arrest record, and was an
alcoholic Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Hea ...
on the fringes of society. Despite widespread newspaper coverage linking his death to the Torso Murderer, detectives treated it as an isolated crime.


Other possible related murders

Between 1921 and 1942, nine people, eight of them unidentified, were found dead and dismembered in swamps or around train yards near
Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
. The so-called "Murder Swamp Killings" have been theorized to be additional victims of the Torso Murderer. The almost identical similarities between the Pittsburgh victims to those in Cleveland, both of which were directly connected by a
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...
line, were enough to convince Cleveland investigator Peter Merylo that the Pittsburgh murders were related. The headless body of an unidentified male was found in a
boxcar A boxcar is the North American (Association of American Railroads, AAR) and South Australian Railways term for a Railroad car#Freight cars, railroad car that is enclosed and generally used to carry freight. The boxcar, while not the simpl ...
in
New Castle, Pennsylvania New Castle is a city in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. Located along the Shenango River at the mouth of Neshannock Creek, it is northwest of Pittsburgh near the Pennsylvania–Ohio border, approximately so ...
, on July 1, 1936. Three headless victims were found in boxcars near McKees Rocks on May 3, 1940. All bore similar injuries to those inflicted by the Torso Murderer. Dismembered bodies were also found in the swamps near New Castle between 1921 and 1934 and between 1939 and 1942.


Possible link to Black Dahlia Murder

In December 1938, the Torso Murderer allegedly sent a letter to Ness, claiming that he had moved to
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
and killed a woman there and had buried the head in
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. In the letter, the killer referred to himself as a "DC" or
Doctor of Chiropractic Chiropractic education trains students in chiropractic. The entry criteria, structure, teaching methodology and nature of chiropractic programs offered at chiropractic schools vary considerably around the world. Accredited Doctor of Chiropractic p ...
. An investigation uncovered animal bones. A decade later, this "confession" resulted in authorities considering the possibility that the Torso Murderer had some connection to the Black Dahlia case, in which the bisected remains of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short were found in the unfinished Leimert Park housing development of Los Angeles on January 15, 1947. Both Short and the Torso Murderer victims had been thoroughly cleaned after death, and a butcher knife was believed to have been used in both cases. However, Short was not decapitated, as was a signature for the Cleveland victims. Furthermore, the murder took place a near-decade after the letter was received. Aside from circumstantial evidence and sheer speculation, there is nothing connecting Short to the Torso Murderer.


Suspects

Authorities interrogated around 9,100 people during the search to find the Torso Murderer. There were only two main suspects: Frank Dolezal and Francis Sweeney. On August 24, 1939, a 52-year-old Cleveland resident named Frank Dolezal (May 4, 1887 – August 24, 1939), who at one point lived with Polillo and also had connections to Andrassy and Wallace, was arrested as a suspect in Polillo's murder; he later died under suspicious circumstances in the Cuyahoga County jail while in the custody of Sheriff Martin O'Donnell. Dolezal was later posthumously exonerated of involvement in the Torso slayings. The other lead suspect, Dr. Francis Edward “Frank” Sweeney (May 5, 1894 – July 9, 1964), was a veteran of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
who was part of a medical unit that conducted
amputation Amputation is the removal of a Limb (anatomy), limb or other body part by Physical trauma, trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as cancer, malign ...
s in the field and at one point suffered nerve damage from a gas attack. After the war, Sweeney became an alcoholic due to pathological anxiety and depression derived from his wartime experiences. His heavy drinking began in 1929; by 1934 his alcoholism led to a separation from his wife. Sweeney was personally interviewed by Ness. Before the interrogation, Sweeney was found to be so intoxicated that he was held in a hotel room for three days until he sobered up. Under questioning, he is said to have "failed to pass" two very early polygraph machine tests. Both tests were administered by polygraph expert Leonarde Keeler, who told Ness that Sweeney was the culprit. Ness apparently felt there was little chance of obtaining a successful
prosecution A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the adversarial system, which is adopted in common law, or inquisitorial system, which is adopted in Civil law (legal system), civil law. The prosecution is the ...
, however, especially as Sweeney was the first cousin of one of Ness's political opponents, U.S. Congressman Martin L. Sweeney, who had hounded Ness publicly about his failure to catch the killer. After Sweeney committed himself to an institution, there were no more leads or connections that police could assign to him as a possible suspect. From his confinement, Sweeney sent threatening postcards and harassed Ness and his family into the 1950s; the postcards only stopped arriving after his death. Sweeney died in a veterans' hospital in
Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...
, on July 9, 1964. While Sweeney was considered a viable suspect, the evidence against him was purely circumstantial. In 1929, Sweeney was a surgical resident at St. Alexis Hospital in the Kingsbury Run area. He also had an office on the same street where a man named Emil Fronek claimed a doctor had tried to drug him in 1934. Fronek's story was ultimately discounted as he could not relocate the building with police the following day. Upon finding a victim with drugs in her system and looking through buildings, it was found that Sweeney did have an office next to a coroner, in the area where Fronek had suggested he had been drugged. Sweeney would practice in their
morgue A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cu ...
, which would have been a clean and convenient location to kill victims. In addition to Dolezal and Sweeney, authorities also considered Willie Johnson, an
African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...
male who committed a similar murder in June 1942. Johnson had been spotted by a young girl while disposing of a trunk, which was later found to contain the torso of 19-year-old Margaret Frances Wilson. Wilson's head and arms were found in nearby bushes, while her legs would be found at Johnson's home two weeks later. Charles Sadoti, who operated a bootleg joint, identified Johnson in a line-up as being the partner of Rose Wallace, who had allegedly entered his store in August 1936, and had physically assaulted Wallace that night. Links to Flo Polillo have been speculated, an informant claimed Polillo argued with an African-American man nicknamed 'one-armed Willie' the day before her murder, a man of the same nickname was alleged to have been in a relationship with Wallace. Although Coroner Samuel Gerber touted Johnson as a suspect, he was never conclusively linked to the Torso Murders. Johnson was tried and convicted of Wilson's murder and, after a lengthy
psychological evaluation Psychological evaluation is a method to assess an individual's behavior, personality, cognitive abilities, and several other domains. A common reason for a psychological evaluation is to identify psychological factors that may be inhibiting ''a p ...
, executed by
electric chair The electric chair is a specialized device used for capital punishment through electrocution. The condemned is strapped to a custom wooden chair and electrocuted via electrodes attached to the head and leg. Alfred P. Southwick, a Buffalo, New Yo ...
on March 10, 1944. On August 11th 1937, Merylo dubbed a suspect as, "A likely and best suspect in the murders". A stream of tips about a man, led to his identification at the West 23rd. This unnamed individual was alleged to have been an
alcoholic Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Hea ...
and was described as a sadist, and was known to pay prostitutes to cut off chicken's heads, at which the individual would masturbate to the sight of. Merylo took fingerprints and photographs of him in an interview, where Merylo also displayed crime scene photographs which made the suspect complain: 'he could never watch or permit any human hurt'. In 1997, another theory postulated that there may have been no single Torso Murderer—that the killings could have been committed by different people. This was based on the assumption that the autopsy results were inconclusive. Merylo believed that the Torso Murderer could have been a transient who was riding the rails, as most of the murders occurred near railroad tracks, and believed this was why there were murders in other states that were similar to the killings in Cleveland. Merylo went undercover as a hobo to investigate this idea.


In popular culture

The 2018 film ''The Kingsbury Run'' was based on a modern copycat of the murders. The murders and the hunt for the perpetrators were also covered in an episode of '' Unsolved Mysteries''. The award-winning graphic novel ''
Torso The torso or trunk is an anatomical terminology, anatomical term for the central part, or the core (anatomy), core, of the body (biology), body of many animals (including human beings), from which the head, neck, limb (anatomy), limbs, tail an ...
'' written by
Brian Michael Bendis Brian Michael Bendis (; born August 18, 1967) is an Americans, American comic book writer and artist. Starting with crime fiction, crime and hardboiled, noir comics, Bendis eventually moved to mainstream superhero fiction, superhero work. While a ...
tells the hunt for the killer by Eliot Ness. March 19, 2012 February 20, 2013 American author John Peyton Cooke wrote a fictionalized account of the murders in his novel ''Torsos'', which was a finalist for the
Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary Foundation, Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ+ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ+ literatur ...
for Best Gay Men's Mystery for 1993, and was noted by
Marilyn Stasio Marilyn Stasio is a New York City author, writer and literary critic. She has been the "Crime Columnist" for ''The New York Times Book Review'' since about 1988,The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...
'' for its atmospheric depiction of
Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...
, during the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
.Badal, James Jessen (2001). In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders . The Kent State University Press. . ''The Unknown Beloved'' by Amy Harmon is a fictionalized treatment of the Cleveland Torso Murders. ''American Demon,'' written by author Daniel Stashower, details the murders and the subsequent investigation by Eliot Ness. '' Trail of Cthulhu'', a
tabletop role-playing game A tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG or TRPG), also known as a pen-and-paper role-playing game, is a kind of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech and sometimes movements. Participants d ...
inspired by the works of horror writer
H. P. Lovecraft Howard Phillips Lovecraft (, ; August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was an American writer of Weird fiction, weird, Science fiction, science, fantasy, and horror fiction. He is best known for his creation of the Cthulhu Mythos. Born in Provi ...
, contains an introductory
adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...
in the first edition rulebook entitled ''The Kingsbury Horror'' which is based on the Torso Murders.


See also

* Orley May – detective who worked on the case. * Thames Torso Murders – another series of murders in which the torsos of victims were left behind. General: *
List of fugitives from justice who disappeared This is a list of fugitives from justice, notable people who disappeared or evaded capture while being sought by law enforcement agencies in connection with a crime, and who are currently sought or were sought for the duration of their presumed ...
* List of serial killers in the United States


References


Notes


Citations


Bibliography

* * * Paperback. * * Hardback. * Paperback. * * * * Paperback. * Paperback, second edition 2002. * Paperback * * * Paperback. * *


External links


Cleveland Torso MurdersGoogle Map of the Torso Murders
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleveland Torso Murderer 20th-century American murderers Cleveland Division of Police Serial killers from Ohio Unidentified American serial killers Unsolved murders in the United States Year of birth unknown