"Cleveland Butcher": biography. Bloodthirsty serial killers who were never caught

Cleveland Torso Murderer
Nickname

« Cleveland Tearbreaker»
« »

Murders Number of victims: Kill period: Primary kill region: Method of killing:

beheading, dismemberment

« Cleveland Butcher" (also known as The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run listen)) is an unidentified serial killer who committed his crimes in Cleveland, Ohio, during the 1930s.

Murders

The official number of murders assigned to the Cleveland Butcher is twelve, although recent research has suggested that there may have been more. 12 victims were killed between and 1938, but some investigators, including Cleveland Detective Peter Perilo, believe that the total number of victims was around forty, both in Cleveland and in Pittsburgh and Youngstown, Ohio, between the 1920s and 1950 -mi years. The two victims most likely to be added to the list are an unknown body, identified as "Lady of the Lake", found on September 5, 1934, and Robert Robertson, found on July 22, 1950.

Many of the victims have never been identified. Victims numbered 2, 3 and 8 were identified as Edward Andressi, Flo Polillo and possibly Rose Wallace. All of the victims belonged to the lower social class and were therefore easy prey in Cleveland during the Great Depression. Many of them were members of the "working poor" living in the Cleveland Flats area.

The killer-dismemberer always decapitated and often dismembered his victims, sometimes cutting the torso in half; in many cases, death resulted from decapitation. Most of the male victims were castrated, and some of the victims showed signs of chemical exposure. Many of the victims were found a considerable time after death, sometimes a year or more later. This made identification almost impossible, especially if no heads were found.

During the so-called "official" killings, Cleveland's head of public safety was Eliot Ness. His duty was the administration of the police station and the ancillary institutions such as the fire department. Ness's investigation was unsuccessful, and despite his credit for capturing Al Capone, his career as a detective ended four years after the butcher murders ended.

Victims

Most investigators list 12 victims, although new evidence has emerged, such as the body of a female "Lady of the Lake". Only two of the victims were positively identified, the other ten being named as six John Does and four Jane Does.

John Doe, an unidentified male corpse found in the Jackes Hill area of Kingsbury Run County (near East 49th and Prague Avenues) on September 23. Preliminary examination suggested that the first victims were killed 7-10 days before they were found. Later research showed that this man was killed 3-4 weeks before discovery.
Edward W. Andressi was found in the Jackes Hill area of Kingsbury Run on September 23, 1935, about 10 meters from victim number one. It is assumed that by the time of discovery, Andressi had been dead for 2-3 days.
Florence Genivieve Polillo, also known by other nicknames, was found behind stall 2315 on East 20th Street in downtown Cleveland on January 26, 1936. It is assumed that she was killed 3-4 days before the discovery.
John Doe 2, an unidentified male corpse, also known as the "Tattooed Man", was found on June 5, 1936. It is assumed that he was killed 2 days before the discovery. The victim had six unusual tattoos, including the names "Helen and Paul" and the initials "W.C.G." His underwear was stamped with a laundry stamp whose owner's initials were J.D. Despite results from the morgue, the making of a death mask, and a survey of thousands of Cleveland residents in the summer of 1936 at the Great Lakes Exposition, the "tattooed man" was not identified.
John Doe 3, the unidentified corpse of a man found in a sparsely populated area of Brooklyn called Big Creek, west of Cleveland, on July 22, 1936. It was determined that he had been dead for 2 months at the time of discovery. This is the only victim found on the West Side.
John Doe 4, the unidentified male corpse found at Kingsbury Run on September 10, 1936. Was dead for 2 days by the time of discovery.
Jane Doe 1, the unidentified corpse of a woman found near Euclid Beach on the shores of Lake Erie on February 23, 1937. Was dead 3-4 days by the time of discovery. Her body was found in the same place as the one not included in the official list of victims of the Lady of the Lake in 1934.
Jane Doe 2(maybe, Rose Wallace), found under the Lorraine-Carnegie Bridge on June 6, 1937. Since the body was believed to have been there for more than a year, the fact that it belonged to Wallace, who disappeared only 10 months before its discovery, is being questioned. A dental examination conducted by police officers at the initiative of her son showed a close resemblance. However, exact confirmation was not possible because the dentist who performed the dental work had died a few years earlier.
John Doe 5, the unidentified male corpse found in the Cuyahoga River in the Cleveland Flats on July 6, 1937. Was dead for 3-4 days at the time of discovery.
Jane Doe 3, the unidentified corpse of a woman found in the Cuyahoga River in the Cleveland Flats on April 8, 1938. It is assumed that she was dead 3-5 days at the time of discovery.
Jane Doe 4, the unidentified corpse of a woman found at East 9th Street in Lakeshore Dump on August 16, 1938. It is assumed that she had been dead for 4-6 months by the time of discovery.
John Doe 6, the unidentified male corpse found at East 9th Street in Lakeshore Dump on August 16, 1938. It is assumed that he was dead for 7-9 months before the discovery.

Possible victims

Several victims may have the most likely connection to the Flesh Tearer. The first is commonly referred to as the Lady of the Lake, found near Euclid Beach on the shores of Lake Erie on September 5, 1934, virtually in the same location as victim number 7. Some investigators of the murderer-murderer's crimes count the Lady of the Lake as victim number one or "Victim number zero". ".

Headless, unidentified male corpse found in a boxcar in New Castle, Pennsylvania on July 1, 1936. Three headless victims were found in boxcars near McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania on May 3, 1940. All of them suffered damage characteristic of the Cleveland Assassin. It is also indicated that decapitated corpses were found in the swamps of Pennsylvania as early as the 1920s.

Robert Robertson was found in tray number 2138 on Daverport Avenue in Cleveland on July 22, 1950. He was killed 6-8 weeks before discovery and deliberately beheaded.

Suspects

The two main suspects most often associated with the killer-dismemberment, although during the investigation there were significantly more of them.

Researchers believe that the last "canonical" murder occurred in 1938. The prime suspect was and remains Dr. Francis E. Sweeney, who voluntarily went to hospital shortly after the victims were discovered in 1938. Sweeney remained in various clinics until his death in 1964. It is noteworthy that before the Second World War, Sweeney worked in a field hospital that performed amputations. Sweeney was later personally questioned by Eliot Ness, who was investigating the murders in his capacity as Cleveland's head of public safety. During this interrogation, Sweeney, under the codename "Gaylord Sandheim", failed two early polygraph tests. Both tests were confirmed by polygraph examiner Leonard Keeler, who informed Ness that this was the one he was looking for. However, Ness felt he had little chance of successfully prosecuting the doctor, especially since he was a cousin of his political opponent, Congressman Martin L. Sweeney. In turn, Congressman Sweeney, married to a relative of Sheriff O'Donnell, spoke out against Cleveland Mayor Harold Burton and criticized Ness for his inability to catch the killer. After Dr. Sweeney went to a medical facility, there was no way for the police to bring him to justice as a suspect. Thus the killings stopped and Sweeney died at the Dayton Veterans Hospital in 1964. From the hospital, Sweeney harassed Ness and his family by sending them threatening postcards in the 1950s.

Sources

Max Allan Collins; Butcher's Dozen; Bantam Books; ISBN 9780553261516 (paperback, 1988)
James Jessen Badal; In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders; The Kent State University Press; ISBN 0-87338-689-2 (paperback, 2001)
Mark Wade Stone; The Fourteenth Victim - Eliot Ness and the Torso Murders; Storytellers Media Group, LTD;

Serial crimes. Riddles without answers.

"Mad Butcher" from Cleveland.

(online version*)

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On the morning of January 26, 1936, Charles Page, owner of a butcher shop on Central Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, telephoned the police that he had found the body of a murdered woman. According to Page, the body was located at 21st Street and Central Avenue inside an open grain cart; the body was dismembered and belonged to a colored woman.

At 11:25 a.m., the horrific find was reported to the Cleveland Police Department's Homicide Investigation Unit from duty. Lieutenant Harvey Weitzel began to check it, together with him, Sergeant Hogan and Detectives Watchman and Shibli left for the place where the dismembered remains were found.
In the courtyard of the house at the intersection of Central Avenue and 21st Street, a basket with a volume of 1/2 US bushel was indeed found (this corresponds to the volume of 1.7 domestic 10-liter buckets, in other words, it was a relatively small basket) inside which there was a dismembered female body . Its fragments were wrapped in sacks of coarse linen; the blood-stained outerwear and white cotton underwear of the deceased were also there and were wrapped in newspapers.

rice. 1, 2: The site of the discovery of female body fragments in the courtyard of the house at the intersection of Santral Avenue and 21st Street on January 26, 1936.

The lower part of the female torso, two thighs, the forearm of the right hand with fingers were taken from the basket. Other parts of the body were missing. Yes, they could not be placed in the basket - it was full. Her weight reached 25 kg. Already a superficial examination showed that Charles Page, who told the police about the basket with the corpse, was mistaken - the deceased was not a "colored" woman, she clearly belonged to the white race.
The terrible find was made in a rather deserted place: the 20th Street area in Cleveland was occupied by the huge buildings of the Harpts steel plant. The basket stood next to the fence that enclosed the property of one James Marco. When questioning the latter, it turned out that at about 2.30 am his dog began to bark furiously and rush out of the area; he even had to leave the house and drag the dog to the other side of the yard. Directly around 11 o'clock in the morning the basket was discovered by another dog, with which the security guard of "Kharpts" walked around the territory of the plant. The remains had already undergone noticeable post-mortem changes, and the dogs no doubt reacted to the cadaverous smell. Thus, with a high degree of certainty, it could be assumed that the basket with parts of the female body appeared at the place where it was discovered, at about 2.30 am on January 26th.
David Coles, head of the forensic laboratory of the police department, arrived at the scene of the discovery of the body to work with material evidence.

Rice. 3: David Coles. Photo from the 1950s
Without much difficulty, it was possible to trace the path of the basket and bags in which the body parts were wrapped. These were things that had been used and thrown away as dilapidated. They were not able to lead the police into the killer.
Pathological anatomical examination of body fragments turned out to be much more informative. Due to the fact that the anatomists got at the disposal right hand of the victim of the crime, it was possible to carry out her fingerprinting. It turned out that the deceased was a 42-year-old prostitute named Polillo, Irish by nationality. The moment of her death was dated from January 22-24.

rice. 4: Fingerprint card by Florence Polillo. Once a respectable woman, the mother of three daughters, because of her addiction to alcohol, she sank to the very bottom of society. She lost her family and her job, went into prostitution. Ultimately, Polillo became one of the few identified victims of the famous "Cleveland Tearbreaker".

A survey of people who knew Florence Polillo managed to find out that she was a kind person. She loved her three daughters and, in principle, did no harm to anyone. Polillo was repeatedly arrested in Washington and Cleveland, but each time these were minor offenses; she has never been accused of, say, stealing or using drugs.
The police managed to find the former spouse of the murdered prostitute. Andrew Polillo was married to Florence in 1920-26. Last years he lived in the town of Buffalo, New York, worked at the post office and had no contact with his ex-wife. Andrew had a solid alibi for the time of the murder. It seemed unlikely that this man would take revenge on his ex-wife almost 10 years after the divorce.
The police carried out systematic searches of wastelands and slums in the hope of finding the missing parts of the body of Florence Polillo. And on February 7, 1936, these searches were crowned with success: the missing fragments were found in the backyard of one of the abandoned houses, with the exception of Florence's head. She was never found, although the police continued to search for some time.
An attempt to reconstruct the circumstances of the death of Polillo led the police anatomist to a rather unexpected discovery: the woman had no injuries or wounds during her lifetime, the cause of her death was the decapitation. The dismemberment of the body was already posthumous. The killer acted in a very non-trivial way: he did not beat his victim, did not shoot her with a pistol, did not choke her, he began his attack by cutting off her head. The separation of the head was intravital, and the victim was not even previously tied. Moreover, she was most likely fully conscious, in any case, no traces of drugs, sleeping pills or alcohol were found in the blood.
Such a method of action of the criminal should be recognized as very unusual. Decapitation requires great physical strength, self-confidence from the attacker, this is a very impractical way of killing, since significant bleeding will definitely stain the attacker's clothes and surrounding objects. The killer Florence Polillo wielded a knife with a long, sharp blade. His movements were strong, precise and confident. This is how a surgeon or a butcher could act. And at the time of the attack, he was in extreme anger.
Despite the energetic actions of the police, the search did not yield visible results. A thorough check of neighbors and friends of Florence Polillo did not lead to the discovery of a person who could be of interest to the investigation as a suspect. Although in the circle of friends of the murdered prostitute there were quite a few completely degraded personalities, the check convincingly showed that none of them was involved in her death.
Winter ended, then spring passed without much incident. In the early summer of 1936, Cleveland became the center political life countries - On June 5, the National Convention of the US Republican Party opened in the city. Cleveland was filled with numerous party delegations from all over the country, as well as crowds of journalists. All police forces were thrown into maintaining public order.
And it was on this day - June 5, 1936 - that a fragment of another dismembered corpse was found. That's really inopportune, so inopportune!
The find was made quite by accident. On the morning of June 5, two boys went fishing to the small river Kingsbury Run, which flowed, although within the city, but in a fairly deserted area. In the bushes near the water they saw men's trousers; wanting to check the contents of the pockets, the boys tried to pull out their pants with a stick. They managed to hook the trousers and drag them towards them, but the anticipation of the harvest was immediately replaced by horror: a man's head fell out of the trousers. The shocked friends abandoned their fishing gear and rushed home to one of the boys; locking themselves in there, they waited almost three hours for their mother to come home from work. The woman, having heard a strange story from the lips of the frightened children, immediately called the police.
The head was found in the same place where the children saw it. But after carefully searching the shores of Kingsbury Run, the police were convinced that there was no body in this place.
However, the headless body was found the next morning, and not at all where they were looking for. A male corpse without a head was thrown into the bushes, in front of the entrance to the building ... of the transport police. This unit was engaged in patrolling stations, escorting valuable cargo, investigating crimes in transport, etc. Metaphorically speaking, the criminal literally trampled on the reputation of the Cleveland city police ...
The scandal is huge! And just at the very time when the attention of the entire United States was riveted on Cleveland!
Mayor Harold Burton, elected to his office in November 1935, won the election under the slogans of restoring order and restoring the rule of law, which had been noticeably shaken during the Great Depression. One of the points of Barton's campaign program was a guarantee of a doubling of the police budget. Indeed, the opening of a state-of-the-art police academy was financed with money from the city budget, and monetary payments to law enforcement officers were also noticeably increased. And now it turned out that the mayor was trying in vain to restore order in the city, because the mysterious killer calmly cuts off people's heads and throws the bodies of the victims at the doors of the police department!
Harold Barton asked Chief of Police Eliot Ness to personally lead the search for the audacious criminal. From that moment on, the name of the young (Ness was born in April 1903) and promising Republican politician turned out to be inextricably linked with the history of the "Cleveland Dismemberer", largely predetermining the future fate of the police chief.

rice. 5: Cleveland Mayor Harold Burton (left) and City Police Chief Eliot Ness (right). 1938 photograph. Barton promoted the young Ness by providing much-needed political cover for his activities. Ultimately, it was Ness's activity and intransigence as chief of police that predetermined the short duration of his political career.

So, what did the investigation have in the middle of June 1936?
Forensic Research of a decapitated male corpse found at the door of the police department, revealed the following: the deceased was a white male, approximately 25 years old, not registered with the police or the FBI, well-shaven and dressed in brand new expensive clothes. Although the body was thrown into the bushes near the building of the transport police, undressed, wearing only socks, the offender left a pile of bloody clothes next to him. The ground, neither in the place where the head was found, nor in the place where the body was located, did not have traces of blood. This could only mean that the murder was committed in another place and the criminal, due to some considerations, moved the remains. The cut through which the head was separated from the body was the only injury; it was the beheading that caused death. The killer did not bind his victim, did not put her to sleep and did not stun her with a drug. The manner of committing the crime completely repeated how Florence Polillo was killed.
The deceased had 6 tattoos on his body, which predetermined the nickname that the investigators gave him - "tattooed man." They depicted: 1) cupid at anchor; 2) a dove under the words "Helen-Paul"; 3) wave; 4) cartoon duck; 5) a heart pierced by an arrow surrounded by several flags; 6) initials "WCG". Representatives of certain professional groups are usually inclined to applying tattoos: sailors, military personnel and criminals. The presence among the tattoos of images of an anchor and a wave suggested that the deceased could be a sailor, but it was not possible to establish this exactly - the identity of the "tattooed man" was never established.

rice. 6, 7, 8: "Tattooed Man": post-mortem photograph of the face, the location of the tattoos on the body, the location of the discovery of the corpse in the bushes on the lawn in front of the Cleveland Transit Police building.

Killing by decapitation is very specific, especially for a country like the United States, where the population has a huge amount of firearms in the hands of the population. Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the murders of Florence Polillo and the "tattooed man" were by no means the first in recent months. Similar crimes were recorded about four months before Florence's body was discovered.
On September 7, 1935, 14-year-old James Wagner discovered the body of a naked man in the bushes near Kingsbury Run. The victim's head and genitals were severed by the perpetrator and have never been found. Of the clothes on the body of the deceased, only black socks remained. When the police arrived at the scene of the discovery of the corpse, they found the corpse of another man literally ten meters away. His head and genitals were also cut off. Moreover, the offender did not take them with him, but threw them literally a few steps away. At the place where the bodies were found, the ground was not bloody, and there was no blood on the bodies themselves. The perpetrator thoroughly washed the corpses before transporting them to the shore of Kingsbury Run.
The victims of these crimes were killed at different times: the first died about 2-3 days before his body was found near Kingsbury Run (i.e. September 4-5, 1935), the second - about 2 weeks, i.e. e. about 25 August. The identity of the first deceased was established due to the fact that not much time had passed since his death: fingerprinting made it possible to obtain fingerprints of acceptable quality. It turned out that the deceased was well known to the Cleveland police - it was Edward Endrassi, born in 1907, who was detained more than once for pimping and illegal possession of weapons. After the identity of Endrassi was established, the police, during the combing of the area, found his head. She was at a distance of about 80 meters from the torso.

rice. 9, 10, 11: Edward Endrassi in life and after death.

Endrassy was an asocial type, he was aggressive, he liked to fight when drunk, and his penchant for same-sex relationships was known. Post-mortem examination showed that his hands and feet were tied before his death. The deceased desperately tried to free them, as evidenced by abrasions on the skin.
The identity of the second deceased, despite the fact that his head was found, could not be established.
In both cases, the cause of death was decapitation. The deaths of the men whose bodies were found in September 1935 were so reminiscent of the death of Florence Polillo that it seemed incomprehensible why these investigations had not been combined in the winter of 1936.
In June 1936, when Eliot Ness led the search for the killer-dismemberer, all these cases were brought into one proceeding. But for the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that not all police officers considered this justified. James Hogan, head of the homicide division, tried to prove that the Endrassi and Polillo murders were committed by different people. He believed that the manner of the killer's actions in both cases was too different; the same person cannot act so dissimilarly: Endrassi was bound, but Polillo was not; Endrassi simply cut off his head, and Polillo was dismembered into relatively small parts; Endrassi's clothes were hidden by the killer, and Polillo's clothes were left next to the body.
Hogan's opponent was the already mentioned David Coles, head of the crime lab. Coles argued that the change in the behavior of the killer, which was pointed out by the head of the "homicide" department, could be explained in a completely different way, for example, by lack of time. In addition, it was necessary to take into account the fact that Endrassi was a young strong man, moreover, armed; by tying his hands and feet, the murderer simply insured himself against surprises. Florence Polillo, on the contrary, was a fat and weak woman, it was relatively easy to cut off her head. Therefore, the killer acted differently.
Eliot Ness took up the investigation with his characteristic vigor. With a photograph of the head of the "tattooed man," the detectives went around all the hotels, rooming houses, hairdressers and photo salons in Cleveland. The dead man's head was exhibited in the mortuary and all the local newspapers invited the townspeople to identify it. On the first day, 2,000 people visited the morgue. It may seem incredible, but no one has ever been able to identify the "tattooed man."

rice. 12: Wax copy of the head of a "tattooed man" with a wig d.b. help the police identify the deceased, whose corpse was found on June 5, 1936, next to the Cleveland Transportation Police Building.

It was in the summer of 1936, when the city newspapers were animatedly commenting on the course of the police investigation, that journalists put into circulation the biting nicknames of the killer: "Cleveland Tearbreaker" and "Mad Butcher". Under these names, the criminal remained in the history of forensic science.
The police were still actively working on various leads related to the murders of Polillo and the "tattooed man", when on July 22, 1936, another dismembered body was reported. This time, the corpse was found in the southwestern part of Cleveland, not far from the huge "hobo" camp ("hobos" are residents of rural areas of the United States who, during the years of the Great Depression, moved to large cities in search of work. These were the poorest and most dangerous urban areas that can only be compared with the current slums of Latin American metropolitan areas.)
The headless body of a naked man was in the place where he was found for about two months. The head of the deceased, wrapped in his own clothes, was thrown not far from the body, literally 5 meters away. The ground under the corpse was soaked with blood, which meant that the murder had been committed where the body was found.
The remains underwent very strong post-mortem changes. This served as an indication that death occurred long before the discovery of the body, about 4-5 weeks. Postmortem examination provided little information. This was not surprising given the extensive decomposition of the remains. Fingerprinting was not possible. The soft parts of the body were severely gnawed by rodents, and this did not allow us to judge exactly what injuries the deceased received during his lifetime. The anatomist noted professional work the killer, who cut the neck exactly along the cartilage between the second and third vertebrae.
The deceased was about 40 years old, he was of average height. Forensic experts could not say anything more about this person: the face of the deceased was almost unrecoverable, it was not possible to fingerprint him - as noted above. In view of this, there was very little chance of identifying another victim of the "Cleveland Tearbreaker".
His heavily worn dirty clothes indirectly indicated that the murdered man belonged to the very bottom of society. It was logical to assume that this man was from the "hobo" camp, in any case, they could know him there. The inhabitants of the camp were meticulously interrogated, asked to recall cases of sudden disappearance of people, they showed the clothes of the deceased, but everything turned out to be in vain - the identity of the murdered could not be established.
The search for the "Mad Butcher" case took place against the background of a fierce battle between the Cleveland police and organized crime. Eliot Ness publicly swore that he would cleanse the city of the Mafia. He unleashed a hitherto unheard-of attack on organized crime in the city. In July 1936, the police carried out the biggest raid on underground sweepstakes: within one night, 10 illegal bookmakers were seized at once, along with money and owners. It was a blow aimed at the mafia's most vulnerable spot - its source of funding. Underground sweepstakes gave the underworld income even greater than prostitution. Eliot Ness encroached on this "sacred cow" of the mafia, but did not stop there - in early September, he arrested Frank Cullitan, the famous gangster, appointed by the Italian mafia to the position of "looking" for Cleveland. The mafia did not remain in debt and responded with mass strikes of workers, allegedly provoked by economic abuses. The real reason for the unrest lay in the fact that the unions have long been tightly controlled by organized crime. The city authorities picked up the gauntlet he had thrown down and joined in an active struggle against the labor movement. Eliot Ness, along with Cleveland Mayor Harold Barton, became a member of the city government's negotiating team with labor unions.

rice. 13: Photograph taken in the summer of 1937 captures a moment of negotiations between Cleveland union leaders and city government officials. The negotiating team includes Eliot Ness and Harold Burton. The participation of the chief of police in these negotiations was not accidental: in many respects, social tension in the city was caused by the provocative activities of the local mafia.
Looking ahead a little, we can say that it was the fight against trade unions that ultimately ruined the career of Eliot Ness as a professional politician. But that's a completely different story.
In other words, the investigation of the crimes of the "Cleveland Dismemberer" ran into serious difficulties caused by an objective lack of police forces. Even though Ness was in charge of the investigation, there were too many things that distracted him. Therefore, it is not surprising that soon the police received another dismembered corpse.
St. Louis homeless "hobo" Jerry Harris, sitting on the pier at Kingsbury Run on September 10, 1936, saw half a human body floating in an oil stain. The called police showed remarkable resourcefulness and guessed to block the river downstream with a fishing net. The network stood for more than a day. During this time, policemen with rakes passed along both sides of the Kingsbury Run; the coastal thickets of this stream have never seen such a thorough cleaning. In addition, on September 11, divers appeared at Kingsbury Run, who carefully examined the river bottom. Quick action by the police made it possible for important physical evidence not to disappear: two shins were caught in the net, as well as the right thigh, a hat with traces of blood was found on the shore, and a bloody blue shirt wrapped in newspaper was found on the surface of the water.

rice. 14, 15, 16: During September 10, 11 and 12, 1936, the police carefully searched the vicinity of the pier at Kingsbury Run and the river bed. This made it possible to find some of the missing body parts of "Victim N6" of the "Cleveland Tearbreaker".

The lining of the hat showed that it was sold in an expensive fashion store in Bellevue, Ohio (about 90 km from Cleveland).
Post-mortem examination determined that the deceased was a white male, 25-30 years old, of average height and average build. It was impossible to judge his appearance - the head was not at the disposal of the police. There were no hands, which made fingerprinting impossible. The victim, designated "N6", was killed approximately 1.5 days before the discovery of the body in the river.
The police chief demanded from his subordinates the maximum intensification of the investigation. During September 1936, all the inhabitants of the town "hobo" were interviewed, in the vicinity of which the last corpses were found. All vagrants were urged to leave the vicinity of Kingsbury Run. 20 detectives were involved in these surveys. Another 12 police officers worked in archives and hospitals, working out various versions. A special record was taken of all cases of knife attacks (or knife threats) that took place in Cleveland over the past five years. All persons who passed through these episodes (unless they were already in prison) were checked for possible involvement in the crimes of the "Mad Butcher". Lists of clients of psychiatric clinics and privately practicing psychiatrists were checked; in the vast mass of Cleveland psychos and neurasthenics, police officers were interested in people of quite specific professions: slaughterers, doctors and butchers.
Eliot Ness set up an unofficial "hunting room". The chief of police invited specialists of various profiles to a free exchange of views and discussion of incoming information. The "headquarters" included professional police detectives - Lieutenant Coles, Sergeant Hogan; pathologist Ruben Strauss; Attorney Calligan, as well as some psychiatrists, lawyers, etc. Ness's idea was very productive: people who were not connected with each other by relations of official subordination could freely express and defend their point of view. Informal atmosphere, in which the exchange of views took place, allowed the participants in the debate not to be afraid to express too bold or controversial hypotheses.
What conclusions did the members of Eliot Ness' "staff" come to after analyzing the investigative materials in September 1936?
If you look at a map of the floodplain of the Cuyohoga River, which crosses Cleveland from south to north, you can see that several tributaries flow into it: Chippewa Creek, Mill Creek, Bark Branch, Morgan Run, Kingsbury Run, etc. Kingsbury was, although small in length, but full-flowing river, in some places its depth reached 5 m.

rice. 17: Floodplain of the Cuyohoga River. In this diagram, its tributaries are clearly visible. The numbers indicate: 1) Kingsbury Run, the right tributary of the Cuyohog; 2) Cuyohoga River; 3) Lake Erie.
The Cuyohoga flowed through rather deserted places, and the higher upstream, the less populated the area was. The "Mad Butcher" clearly showed a tendency to leave the corpses of the people he killed in the area of the Kingsbury Run River, or throw them directly into this river. Indeed, Edward Endrassi was found in the bushes near Kingsbury Run in September 1935, and the corpse of an unidentified man was also found there and at the same time; On June 5, 1936, the head of a "tattooed man" was found in the bushes near the same Kingsbury Run; On July 22, 1936, another victim of the "Cleveland Tearbreaker" was found in the same area, and, finally, on September 10, another corpse was thrown directly into the water of Kingsbury Run. In fact, only the remains of Florence Polillo were left by the killer away from this river. There was a certain system, a certain order of actions of a maniac. But what could this mean?
First of all, that the killer was connected in some way to the Kingsbury River area. From this it did not follow at all that it was there that he lived, but he could have been born in this area, or often be there due to his professional duties. Experience shows that serial offenders carry out their first attacks in the most comfortable environment, in a place that they know and know well. Their first victims always belong to the same race as the criminals themselves (it is later that the serial killer can increase his "range of acceptability" and then his victims may be representatives of other races and ethnic groups). The first crimes, as a rule, carry the most information about the criminal, in which his personality is revealed, so to speak, in the most "pure" form.
The "Mad Butcher" had no difficulty cutting off the heads of his victims, as well as their arms and legs. He carried massive body parts for considerable distances away from the road, which means that he was strong enough to do this without extreme difficulty. The killer obviously had a car at his disposal, because he could not bring the body of the "tattooed man" to the police department in his arms.
Based on the foregoing, members of the Elliot Ness "headquarters" suggested that the "Cleveland Tearer" is a large white man, endowed with uncommon physical force, having the skill of handling edged weapons and not afraid of blood; by the nature of his occupation, this person could be a butcher, surgeon, cattle slaughterer, veterinarian, orderly. The strength of the criminal was clearly indicated by the fact that he was able to carry significant loads over a long distance; on at least three occasions, the killer moved large body fragments (or the bodies themselves) without the aid of a vehicle. Near one of the bodies was found a distinct boot print in the soft, wet ground; if it really was the killer's footprint, then the "Cleveland Dismemberer" would b. wear shoes in sizes 44-45 (which corresponded to a height of more than 1.85 m.). At the same time, he had a car and a secluded place in which he carried out his manipulations with the bodies (recall, the killer not only dismembered the corpses, but also washed off the blood from them so as not to get dirty during the subsequent transfer. And therefore, in the place where he butchered corpses, there was enough water; it could be the basement of a residential building, some kind of rented storage facility, an industrial facility, etc.). The first victims of the "Cleveland Tearbreaker" were men; the fact that the perpetrator cut off their genitals served as an indirect indication of the sexual background of his actions. The "Mad Butcher" was homosexual, there was little doubt about that. The killer had obvious mental problems and may have been observed by a doctor on this occasion. Most likely the perpetrator could have problems with alcohol or drugs.
The choice of victims was noteworthy: Endrassy - a pimp, a pederast, a criminal personality; Polillo is a prostitute and an alcoholic; the rest of the dead gave the impression of vagabonds (in cases where their clothes could be examined) and the bodies of these people were found not far from the hobo camp. It could be assumed that the killer felt like a kind of "orderly", cleansing the society from the lumpen. If this was true, then the mental pathology of the offender had already taken on severe forms and could be obvious even to non-specialists (relatives, neighbors, work colleagues). Indirectly, this could help identify the killer in the event that it was necessary to find him from among several suspects.
But the specific selection of victims could also mean something completely different: if the "Cleveland Tearbreaker" really had a car and a private house at his disposal, then this could be a very wealthy person. After the Great Depression, the possession of such values meant far from low social status. A wealthy psychopath might kill members of the "social bottom" just for fun, viewing it as a kind of "dangerous hunt". In this case, the choice of the victim was determined by completely different considerations: the killer was mainly concerned that no one would ever look for the disappeared person.
Criminologists from Eliot Ness's "search headquarters" considered both assumptions to be equally probable. The perpetrator clearly took care that his victims remained unrecognized, which meant that he was able to carefully control his actions. It must be emphasized that the ability to control one's actions by no means cancels the assumption that the criminal may be mentally ill.
If the first murders of the "Cleveland Dismemberer" almost did not attract the attention of the press and the public, then with the growing number of victims of the maniac, the local press began to pay more and more attention to the course of the investigation. After the discovery in September 1936 of the sixth corpse, the Cleveland News promised to pay $1,000 to anyone who could provide information relevant to the investigation. Subsequently, proposals of a similar kind from various publications appeared repeatedly.
Among the first truly promising versions of the crimes of the "Cleveland Dismemberer" was the assumption that this man was a professional marijuana collector. The Kingbury Run area and adjacent Garfield Heights were quite deserted in those days, with a lot of wild American hemp growing there. Its collection and subsequent sale fed a whole army of local and visiting drug addicts. Such a stoned addict could kill and dismember people, either for entertainment or in order to fight competition.
Another promising direction of the investigation in September-October 1936 was the development of the assumption about the possible involvement in the murders of the "Mad Butcher" of a certain Jack Wilson. A police informant said that Wilson - the owner of a rich butcher shop on St. Clair Avenue - is known in the criminal environment as a pedophile pederast. Wilson often called homoprostitutes to him; he was prone to aggression and unmotivated cruelty. In addition, it seems that Wilson committed attacks on teenagers with the aim of raping them. The police did not have official statements about such attacks by Jack Wilson, but the report of the informant was of great interest to the investigators. The point was that Wilson perfectly matched the psychological portrait of the "Mad Butcher". The suspect was taken under tight police custody. But it was police surveillance that unequivocally proved Wilson's innocence in the murders of the "Mad Butcher". The further course of events removed all suspicions from him.

In the 1930s.

Murders

The official number of murders attributed to the Cleveland Butcher is twelve, although recent research has suggested that there may have been more. 12 victims were killed between and 1938, but some investigators, including Cleveland Detective Peter Marilo, believe that the total number of victims was around forty, both in Cleveland and in Pittsburgh and Youngstown, Ohio between the 1920s and 1950s. -mi years. The two victims most likely to be added to the list are an unknown body, identified as "Lady of the Lake", found on September 5, 1934, and Robert Robertson, found on July 22, 1950.

During the so-called "official" killings, Cleveland's head of public safety was Eliot Ness. His duty was to manage the police station and the ancillary institutions such as the fire department. Ness's investigation was unsuccessful, and despite his credit for capturing Al Capone, his career as a detective ended four years after the butcher murders ended.

Victims

Most investigators list 12 victims, although new evidence has emerged, such as the body of a female "Lady of the Lake". Only two victims were positively identified, the remaining ten were named John Doe and Jane Doe.

John Doe, an unidentified male corpse found in the Jackes Hill area of Kingsbury Run County (near East 49th and Prague Avenues) on September 23. Preliminary examination suggested that the first victims were killed 7-10 days before they were found. Later research showed that this man was killed 3-4 weeks before discovery.
Edward W. Andressi was found in the Jackes Hill area of Kingsbury Run on September 23, 1935, about 10 meters from victim number one. It is assumed that by the time of discovery, Andressi had been dead for 2-3 days.
Florence Genivieve Polillo, also known by other nicknames, was found behind stall 2315 on East 20th Street in downtown Cleveland on January 26, 1936. It is assumed that she was killed 3-4 days before the discovery.
John Doe No. 2, an unidentified male corpse, also known as the "Tattooed Man", was found on June 5, 1936. It is assumed that he was killed 2 days before the discovery. The victim had six unusual tattoos, including the names "Helen and Paul" and the initials "W.C.G." His underwear was stamped with a laundry stamp whose owner's initials were J.D. Despite results from the morgue, the making of a death mask, and a survey of thousands of Cleveland residents in the summer of 1936 at the Great Lakes Exposition, the "tattooed man" was not identified.
John Doe No. 3, the unidentified corpse of a man found in a sparsely populated area of Brooklyn called Big Creek, west of Cleveland, on July 22, 1936. It was determined that he had been dead for 2 months at the time of discovery. This is the only victim found on the West Side.
John Doe No. 4, the unidentified male corpse found at Kingsbury Run on September 10, 1936. Was dead for 2 days by the time of discovery.
Jane Doe No. 1, the unidentified corpse of a woman found near Euclid Beach on the shores of Lake Erie on February 23, 1937. Was dead 3-4 days by the time of discovery. Her body was found in the same place as the one not included in the official list of victims of the Lady of the Lake in 1934.
Jane Doe No. 2(maybe, Rose Wallace), found under the Lorraine-Carnegie Bridge on June 6, 1937. Since the body was believed to have been there for more than a year, the fact that it belonged to Wallace, who disappeared only 10 months before its discovery, is being questioned. A dental examination conducted by police officers at the initiative of her son showed a close resemblance. However, exact confirmation was not possible because the dentist who performed the dental work had died a few years earlier.
John Doe No. 5, the unidentified male corpse found in the Cuyahoga River in the Cleveland Flats on July 6, 1937. Was dead for 3-4 days at the time of discovery.
Jane Doe No. 3, the unidentified corpse of a woman found in the Cuyahoga River in the Cleveland Flats on April 8, 1938. It is assumed that she was dead 3-5 days at the time of discovery.
Jane Doe No. 4, the unidentified corpse of a woman found at East 9th Street in Lakeshore Dump on August 16, 1938. It is assumed that she had been dead for 4-6 months by the time of discovery.
John Doe No. 6, the unidentified male corpse found at East 9th Street in Lakeshore Dump on August 16, 1938. It is assumed that he was dead for 7-9 months before the discovery.

Possible victims

Robert Robertson was found in tray number 2138 on Daverport Avenue in Cleveland on July 22, 1950. He was killed 6-8 weeks before discovery and deliberately beheaded.

Suspects

The two main suspects most often associated with the killer-dismemberment, although during the investigation there were significantly more of them.

Researchers believe that the last "canonical" murder occurred in 1938. The prime suspect was and remains Dr. Francis E. Sweeney, who voluntarily went to hospital shortly after the victims were discovered in 1938. Sweeney remained in various clinics until his death in 1964. It is noteworthy that during the First World War, Sweeney worked in a field hospital that performed amputations. Sweeney was later personally questioned by Eliot Ness, who was investigating the murders in his capacity as Cleveland's head of public safety. During this interrogation, Sweeney, under the codename "Gaylord Sandheim", failed two early polygraph tests. Both tests were confirmed by polygraph examiner Leonard Keeler, who informed Ness that this was the one he was looking for. However, Ness felt he had little chance of successfully prosecuting the doctor, especially since he was a cousin of his political opponent, Congressman Martin L. Sweeney. In turn, Congressman Sweeney, married to a relative of Sheriff O'Donnell, spoke out against Cleveland Mayor Harold Burton and criticized Ness for his inability to catch the killer. After Dr. Sweeney went to a medical facility, there was no way for the police to bring him to justice as a suspect. Thus the killings stopped and Sweeney died at the Dayton Veterans Hospital in 1964. From the hospital, Sweeney harassed Ness and his family by sending them threatening postcards in the 1950s.

In popular culture

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Notes

Literature

Max Allan Collins; Butcher's Dozen; Bantam Books; ISBN 978-0-553-26151-6 (paperback, 1988)
James Jessen Badal; In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders; The Kent State University Press (English)Russian; ISBN 0-87338-689-2 (paperback, 2001)
Mark Wade Stone; The Fourteenth Victim - Eliot Ness and the Torso Murders; Storytellers Media Group, LTD; ISBN 0-9749575-3-4 (DVD video, 2006)
John Stark Bellamy II; The Maniac in the Bushes and More Tales of Cleveland Woe; Gray and Company, Publishers; ISBN 1-886228-19-1 (paperback, 1997)
Steven Nickel; Torso: Eliot Ness and the Search for a Psychopathic Killer; John F Blair Publishers; ISBN 0-89587-246-3 (paperback, 2001)
Rasmussen, William T.; CORROBORATING EVIDENCE II, published by Sunstone Press (2006, softcover) Connects the Cleveland Torso Murders to the murder of the Black Dahlia, ISBN 0-86534-536-8
Bendis, Brian Michael & Andreyko, Marc; Torso: a true crime graphic novel; Image Comics, publishers; ISBN 1-58240-174-8 (Graphic novel format, 2003)
John Peyton Cooke; torsos; Mysterious Press; ISBN 0-89296-522-3 (hardback, 1993)

An excerpt characterizing the Cleveland Butcher

Helen's face became terrifying: she yelped and jumped away from him. The breed of his father affected him. Pierre felt the fascination and charm of rage. He threw the plank, smashed it, and approaching Helen with open arms, shouted: “Out!!” in such a terrible voice that the whole house was terrified to hear this cry. God knows what Pierre would have done at that moment if
Helen didn't run out of the room.

A week later, Pierre gave his wife a power of attorney to manage all the Great Russian estates, which accounted for more than half of his fortune, and left alone for St. Petersburg.

Two months passed after receiving news in the Bald Mountains about the battle of Austerlitz and the death of Prince Andrei, and despite all the letters through the embassy and all the searches, his body was not found, and he was not among the prisoners. The worst thing for his relatives was that there was still the hope that he had been raised by the inhabitants on the battlefield, and perhaps he was recovering or dying somewhere alone, among strangers, and unable to give news of himself. In the newspapers, from which the old prince first learned about the defeat of Austerlitz, it was written, as always, very briefly and vaguely, that the Russians, after brilliant battles, had to retreat and made a retreat in perfect order. The old prince understood from this official news that ours had been defeated. A week after the newspaper that brought the news of the Battle of Austerlitz, a letter arrived from Kutuzov, who informed the prince about the fate that befell his son.
“Your son, in my eyes,” wrote Kutuzov, with a banner in his hands, ahead of the regiment, fell a hero worthy of his father and his fatherland. To the general regret of me and the whole army, it is still unknown whether he is alive or not. I flatter myself and you with the hope that your son is alive, because otherwise, among the officers found on the battlefield, about whom the list was submitted to me through parliamentarians, and he would have been named.
Having received this news late in the evening, when he was alone at. in his study, the old prince, as usual, the next day went for his morning walk; but he was silent with the clerk, the gardener, and the architect, and, although he looked angry, he said nothing to anyone.
When, at the usual time, Princess Mary came in to see him, he stood behind the machine and sharpened, but, as usual, did not look back at her.
- A! Princess Mary! he suddenly said unnaturally and dropped the chisel. (The wheel was still spinning from its swing. Princess Marya remembered for a long time this dying creak of the wheel, which merged for her with what followed.)
Princess Mary moved towards him, saw his face, and something suddenly sank into her. Her eyes couldn't see clearly. She saw from her father’s face, not sad, not killed, but angry and unnaturally working on herself, that now, now, a terrible misfortune, the worst in life, a misfortune that she had not yet experienced, an irreparable, incomprehensible misfortune, hung over her and crushed her. the death of the one you love.
– Mon pere! Andre? [Father! Andrei?] - Said the ungraceful, awkward princess with such an inexpressible charm of sadness and self-forgetfulness that her father could not stand her gaze, and turned away with a sob.
- Got the message. None were taken prisoner, none were killed. Kutuzov writes, - he shouted piercingly, as if wanting to drive the princess away with this cry, - killed!
The princess did not fall, she did not become faint. She was already pale, but when she heard these words, her face changed, and something shone in her radiant, beautiful eyes. As if joy, the highest joy, independent of the sorrows and joys of this world, spilled over the strong sorrow that was in it. She forgot all her fear of her father, went up to him, took his hand, pulled him towards her and hugged his dry, sinewy neck.
“Mon pere,” she said. Don't turn away from me, let's cry together.
- Scoundrels, scoundrels! the old man shouted, pulling his face away from her. - Destroy the army, destroy the people! For what? Go, go, tell Lisa. The princess sank helplessly into an armchair beside her father and wept. She saw her brother now at the moment he was saying goodbye to her and to Liza, with his gentle and at the same time arrogant air. She saw him at the moment when he tenderly and mockingly put the icon on himself. “Did he believe? Did he repent of his unbelief? Is he there now? Is it there, in the abode of eternal peace and bliss? she thought.
– Mon pere, [Father,] tell me how it was? she asked through tears.
- Go, go, killed in the battle in which they led to kill the Russians the best people and Russian glory. Go, Princess Mary. Go and tell Lisa. I will come.
When Princess Mary returned from her father, the little princess was sitting at work, and with that special expression of an inward and happily calm look, peculiar only to pregnant women, she looked at Princess Mary. It was evident that her eyes did not see Princess Marya, but looked deep into herself - into something happy and mysterious that was happening in her.
“Marie,” she said, moving away from the hoop and waddling back, “give me your hand here.” - She took the hand of the princess and put it on her stomach.
Her eyes smiled expectantly, the sponge with the mustache rose, and childishly happily remained raised.
Princess Mary knelt before her and hid her face in the folds of her daughter-in-law's dress.
- Here, here - do you hear? It's so strange to me. And you know, Marie, I will love him very much,” said Lisa, looking at her sister-in-law with sparkling, happy eyes. Princess Mary could not raise her head: she was crying.
- What's wrong with you, Masha?
“Nothing ... I felt so sad ... sad about Andrei,” she said, wiping her tears on her daughter-in-law's knees. Several times, during the morning, Princess Marya began to prepare her daughter-in-law, and each time she began to cry. These tears, for which the little princess did not understand the reason, alarmed her, no matter how observant she was. She didn't say anything, but looked around uneasily, looking for something. Before dinner, the old prince, whom she had always feared, entered her room, now with a particularly restless, angry face, and, without saying a word, went out. She looked at Princess Marya, then thought with that expression of eyes of inward-turning attention that pregnant women have, and suddenly burst into tears.
Did you get anything from Andrew? - she said.
- No, you know that the news could not come yet, but mon pere is worried, and I'm scared.
- Oh nothing?
“Nothing,” said Princess Marya, looking firmly at her daughter-in-law with radiant eyes. She decided not to tell her and persuaded her father to hide the terrible news from her daughter-in-law until her permission, which was supposed to be the other day. Princess Marya and the old prince, each in his own way, carried and hid their grief. The old prince did not want to hope: he decided that Prince Andrei had been killed, and despite the fact that he sent an official to Austria to look for the trace of his son, he ordered a monument to him in Moscow, which he intended to erect in his garden, and told everyone that his son is killed. He tried not to change his former way of life, but his strength betrayed him: he walked less, ate less, slept less, and became weaker every day. Princess Mary hoped. She prayed for her brother as if she were alive, and waited every minute for news of his return.

- Ma bonne amie, [My good friend,] - said the little princess on the morning of March 19 after breakfast, and her sponge with a mustache rose from the old habit; but as in all not only smiles, but the sounds of speeches, even gaits in this house, from the day the terrible news was received, there was sadness, even now the smile of the little princess, who succumbed to the general mood, although she did not know its cause, was such that she even more reminiscent of the general sadness.
- Ma bonne amie, je crains que le fruschtique (comme dit Fock - cook) de ce matin ne m "aie pas fait du mal. [My friend, I'm afraid that the current frischtik (as the chef Fock calls it) would not make me feel bad. ]
What about you, my soul? You are pale. Oh, you are very pale, said Princess Marya in fright, running up to her daughter-in-law with her heavy, soft steps.
“Your Excellency, why not send for Marya Bogdanovna?” said one of who were here maids. (Marya Bogdanovna was a midwife from a district town, who had been living in Lysy Gory for another week.)
“And indeed,” Princess Marya picked up, “perhaps, for sure. I will go. Courage, mon ange! [Don't be afraid, my angel.] She kissed Lisa and wanted to leave the room.
- Oh, no, no! - And besides pallor, on the face of the little princess expressed children's fear inevitable physical suffering.
- Non, c "est l" estomac ... dites que c "est l" estomac, dites, Marie, dites ..., [No, this is the stomach ... tell Masha that this is the stomach ...] - and the princess began to cry childishly, suffering, capriciously and even somewhat feignedly, breaking their little arms. The princess ran out of the room after Marya Bogdanovna.
— Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! [Oh my God! My God!] Oh! she heard behind her.
Rubbing her full, small, white hands, the midwife was already walking towards her, with a considerably calm face.
- Maria Bogdanovna! It seems to have begun, ”said Princess Marya, looking at her grandmother with frightened open eyes.
“Well, thank God, princess,” said Marya Bogdanovna without adding a step. You girls don't need to know about this.
“But why hasn’t the doctor arrived from Moscow yet?” - said the princess. (At the request of Lisa and Prince Andrei, they were sent to Moscow for an obstetrician by the deadline, and they were waiting for him every minute.)
“It’s okay, princess, don’t worry,” said Marya Bogdanovna, “and without a doctor everything will be fine.”
Five minutes later the princess heard from her room that something heavy was being carried. She looked out - for some reason the waiters were carrying into the bedroom a leather sofa that stood in Prince Andrei's office. There was something solemn and quiet on the faces of the carrying people.
Princess Marya sat alone in her room, listening to the sounds of the house, occasionally opening the door when they passed by, and looking closely at what was going on in the corridor. Several women walked to and fro with quiet steps, looked back at the princess and turned away from her. She did not dare to ask, shut the door, returned to her room, and either sat down in her chair, or took up her prayer book, or knelt before the kiot. To her misfortune and surprise, she felt that prayer did not calm her excitement. Suddenly the door of her room quietly opened and on the threshold appeared her old nurse, Praskovya Savishna, tied with a handkerchief, who almost never, due to the prince's prohibition, did not enter her room.
“I came to sit with you, Mashenka,” said the nanny, “yes, she brought the prince’s wedding candles in front of the saint to light, my angel,” she said with a sigh.
“Oh, how glad I am, nanny.
“God is merciful, dove. - Nanny lit candles entwined with gold in front of the icon-case and sat down at the door with a stocking. Princess Mary took the book and began to read. Only when footsteps or voices were heard did the princess look frightened, inquiringly, and the nanny looked at each other reassuringly. At all ends of the house, the same feeling that Princess Mary experienced while sitting in her room was overflowing and possessed everyone. According to the belief that the fewer people know about the sufferings of the puerperal, the less she suffers, everyone tried to pretend to be ignorant; no one talked about it, but in all people, except for the usual degree and respect good manners who reigned in the prince's house, there was one kind of common concern, softening of the heart and consciousness of something great, incomprehensible, happening at that moment.
There was no laughter in the big girls' room. In the waiter's room, all the people sat in silence, ready for something. On the courtyard they burned torches and candles and did not sleep. The old prince, stepping on his heel, walked around the study and sent Tikhon to Marya Bogdanovna to ask: what? - Just tell me: the prince ordered to ask what? and come and tell me what she will say.
“Report to the prince that the birth has begun,” said Marya Bogdanovna, looking significantly at the messenger. Tikhon went and reported to the prince.
“Very well,” said the prince, shutting the door behind him, and Tikhon no longer heard the slightest sound in the study. A little later, Tikhon entered the office, as if to fix the candles. Seeing that the prince was lying on the sofa, Tikhon looked at the prince, at his upset face, shook his head, silently approached him and, kissing him on the shoulder, went out without adjusting the candles and without saying why he had come. The most solemn sacrament in the world continued to be performed. The evening passed, the night came. And the feeling of expectation and softening of the heart before the incomprehensible did not fall, but rose. Nobody slept.

« Cleveland Butcher" (also known as The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run listen)) is an unidentified serial killer who committed his crimes in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1930s.

Murders

The official number of murders attributed to the Cleveland Butcher is twelve, although recent research has suggested that there may have been more. 12 victims were killed between 1935 and 1938, but some investigators, including Cleveland detective Peter Marilo, believe that the total number of victims was about forty, both in Cleveland and in Pittsburgh and Youngstown, Ohio, between the 1920s and 1950s. The two most likely to be added to the list are an unknown body, identified as "Lady of the Lake", found on September 5, 1934, and Robert Robertson, found on July 22, 1950.

During the so-called "official" killings, Cleveland's head of public safety was Eliot Ness. His duty was to manage the police station and ancillary institutions such as the fire department. Ness's investigation was unsuccessful, and despite his credit for capturing Al Capone, his career as a detective ended four years after the butcher murders ended.

Victims

John Doe, unidentified male corpse, found in the Jackes Hill area of Kingsbury Run (near East 49th and Prague Avenues) on September 23, 1935. Preliminary examination suggested that the first victims were killed 7-10 days before they were found. Later research showed that this man was killed 3-4 weeks before discovery.
Edward W. Andressi was found in the Jackes Hill area of Kingsbury Run on September 23, 1935, about 10 meters from victim number one. It is assumed that by the time of discovery, Andressi had been dead for 2-3 days.
Florence Genivieva Polillo, also known by other nicknames, was found behind a stall at 2315 East 20th Street in downtown Cleveland on January 26, 1936. It is assumed that she was killed 3-4 days before the discovery.
John Doe #2, the unidentified male corpse, also known as the "Tattooed Man", was found on June 5, 1936. It is assumed that he was killed 2 days before the discovery. The victim had six unusual tattoos, including the names "Helen and Paul" and the initials "W.C.G." His underwear was stamped with a laundry stamp whose owner's initials were J.D. Despite results from the morgue, the making of a death mask, and a survey of thousands of Cleveland residents in the summer of 1936 at the Great Lakes Exposition, the "tattooed man" was not identified.
John Doe #3, the unidentified male corpse found in a sparsely populated area of Brooklyn called Big Creek, west of Cleveland, on July 22, 1936. It was determined that he had been dead for 2 months at the time of discovery. This is the only victim found on the West Side.
John Doe No. 4, unidentified male corpse found at Kingsbury Run on September 10, 1936. Was dead for 2 days by the time of discovery.
Jane Doe #1, the unidentified corpse of a woman found near Euclid Beach on the shores of Lake Erie on February 23, 1937. Was dead 3-4 days by the time of discovery. Her body was found in the same place as the one not included in the official list of victims of the Lady of the Lake in 1934.
Jane Doe #2 (possibly Rose Wallace), found under the Lorraine-Carnegie Bridge on June 6, 1937. Since the body was believed to have been there for more than a year, the fact that it belonged to Wallace, who disappeared only 10 months before its discovery, is being questioned. A dental examination conducted by police officers at the initiative of her son showed a close resemblance. However, exact confirmation was not possible because the dentist who performed the dental work had died a few years earlier.
John Doe #5, unidentified male corpse found in the Cuyahoga River in the Cleveland Flats on July 6, 1937. Was dead for 3-4 days at the time of discovery.
Jane Doe #3, the unidentified corpse of a woman found in the Cuyahoga River in the Cleveland Flats on April 8, 1938. It is assumed that she was dead 3-5 days at the time of discovery.
Jane Doe #4, the unidentified corpse of a woman found on East 9th Street in Lakeshore Dump on August 16, 1938. It is assumed that she had been dead for 4-6 months by the time of discovery.
John Doe No. 6, unidentified male corpse found on East 9th Street in the Lakeshore Dump area on August 16, 1938. It is assumed that he was dead for 7-9 months before the discovery.

According to police statistics, a huge number of crimes are solved every year, and the perpetrators are punished for their deeds. But in fact, not all criminal cases can be unraveled. The Cleveland Butcher is an unknown killer who committed his crimes in a US city). Despite the large number of victims and amazing cruelty, the perpetrator was never found.

Why Cleveland Butcher?

In the 30s of the last century, the small and calm town of Cleveland, Ohio, was shocked by a series of horrific murders. In the most unexpected places of this settlement, severely mutilated corpses of people began to be found, and the identity of many of them could not be established. An unknown killer dismembered the bodies of the victims, chopped off their heads. According to experts, the criminal often performed these manipulations during the life of the unfortunate. During the investigation, the killer was given the nickname Cleveland Butcher. Journalists covering the story in the media often referred to him as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run and the Cleveland Tearbreaker. The county police literally knocked off their feet, looking for an unknown maniac. However, due to difficulties in identifying the victims and the lack of evidence, the killer was never identified. Officially, the case includes 12 episodes of murders, which, according to the police, were committed by one criminal. But there is reason to believe that in fact there were many more victims.

inexplicable cruelty

Despite the fact that among all the "recognized" victims of the butcher, only three were identified, the investigators involved in this case are sure that the killer dealt exclusively with not the most prosperous members of society. Probably the perpetrator "went out" on his gruesome hunt in the Cleveland Flats, an area inhabited by poor workers and other members of the lower strata of society. Severed limbs and heads, inflicting grievous injuries and causing various injuries - all this was done with his victims by a maniac (Cleveland Butcher). Photos of the found corpses cannot be viewed without a shudder even today, after so many years. Often, experts found traces of exposure to aggressive chemical substances, many of the male victims were missing genitalia. Why the unknown killer showed such cruelty will remain a mystery. But even in our time, the old-timers of Cleveland remember the whole nightmare of the 30s.

First casualties

According to official version, Cleveland butcher killed 12 people, of whom only three were identified. In the materials of the investigative case, each victim has its own serial number. For convenience, the unidentified men who were killed by the killer are referred to as John Doe, and the women as Jane Doe. The Cleveland nightmare began on September 23, 1935. On this day, the first corpse of a man who could not be identified (John Doe) was discovered. Forensic experts concluded that the unfortunate man had been killed a few weeks before discovery. On the same day, a body was found nearby, which was identified, and then another - a few months later. At this time, the first rumors spread that the Cleveland Butcher was operating in the city. Photos of the victims are being studied in detail, as well as the bodies themselves, but the investigation does not have any unambiguous clues and versions. On June 5, 1936, a fourth corpse was discovered, which was designated in official documents as John Doe-2 (the identity could not be established). There were tattoos on the body of the deceased, and the police asked the mortuary staff to do it. But even despite all these measures, the victim was never identified.

Identified victims

On September 23, 1935 (the day the very first corpse was discovered), the mutilated body of Edward W. Andressi was found just 10 meters from Victim #1. The victim was killed 3-4 days before discovery. The third victim was found in downtown Cleveland on January 26, 1936. This is the first woman killed by a maniac, and her identity was established - she turned out to be Florence Geniviev Polillo.

Very often, a woman found eighth in a row is added to the list of identified victims. In the investigative materials, she appears under two designations at once: or Rose Wallace. The specified woman disappeared 10 months before the discovery of the corpse (June 6, 1937). At the same time, experts who studied the body claim that, according to some signs, it can be assumed that the murder took place more than a year ago. To establish the identity of the deceased, a dental examination was carried out, but its results cannot be considered 100% accurate, since the doctor who monitored Rose's teeth had died a few years earlier.

The killing continues!

The fifth victim of the Cleveland Butcher was found in Brooklyn. The corpse, discovered on July 22, 1936, in addition to serial number 5, was nicknamed John Doe-3. The next in the terrible list of the killer was also a man whose identity could not be established. It was discovered on September 10, 1936, identified in the investigation file as John Doe-4. The ninth victim of the serial killer is again a man, found July 6, 1937 in the Cuyahoga River. Unidentified, filed as John Doe-5. On April 8, 1938, the body of a mutilated woman was found in the same river, which also could not be identified - Jane Doe-3. Eleventh on the list of the killer was another unidentified representative of the fair sex, designated in the investigation materials as Jane Doe-4, found on August 16, 1938. On the same day, the corpse of a man, John Doe-6, was found very close to the body of a woman - it was not possible to identify the deceased. This is where the official list of victims of the Cleveland Dismemberer ends, but it is worth noting that in the district the bodies of people killed and mutilated in this way were found both earlier and later than this high-profile case.

Likely casualties

On September 5, 1934, a dead woman was found on the shores of Lake Erie, who was quickly posthumously named the Lady of the Lake. It was not possible to establish the identity of the murdered woman, since the corpse was too badly mutilated, and the killer was not found. According to many experts, this is the first victim of the Keveland Butcher's list. On July 1, 1936, the corpse of an unknown man was found in a shopping car in New Castle, Pennsylvania. And in 1940, three decapitated bodies were found at once, not far from McKee's Rocks, Pennsylvania. Interestingly, they were also in trading wagons. Another decapitated man in Cleveland was found in 1950 and identified as Robert Robertson. The Cleveland butcher always dismembered his victims, often cutting off their heads. An interesting fact is that decapitated corpses in Pennsylvania were found in swamps back in the 20s of the last century.

Progress of the investigation

The Cleveland Butcher case was dealt with by Eliot Ness, then the head of Cleveland Security.

The detective was a true professional in his field and had a number of significant professional achievements in the past. However, even such a specialist could not figure out the chain of sinister killers and find out who the criminal is, better known as the Cleveland Butcher. The biography of the maniac was replenished with new victims, the murders either stopped, then several corpses were found again at once. The investigation, however, practically stood still. And yet, during the investigation, two people were included among the suspects. However, their involvement in the killings could not be proven. Eliot Ness himself ended his career as a detective after this high-profile case.

Suspect #1: Frank Dolezel

On August 24, 1939, Frank Dolezel, a man who lived in Cleveland, was arrested on suspicion of the murder of Florence Polillo. During interrogations, he confessed to committing a crime, but later retracted his testimony and stated that they were literally “knocked out of him” by police officers. Then the unexpected happened: Frank Dolezel died in his cell under unclear circumstances. The official cause of death - suicide - is being questioned, as numerous injuries were found on the body of the deceased, including broken ribs.

Suspect #2: Francis E. Sweeney

Dr. Francis E. Sweeney became the second and main suspect in this high-profile case. During the Second World War, he was at the front, saving the lives of the wounded, successfully conducting operations. In the field of view of the police came in 1938, after the discovery of the next victims of the Cleveland maniac. Francis E. Sweeney underwent two polygraph examinations, and experts concluded that he was the killer. Interrogations with the suspect were conducted personally by detective E. Ness. However, due to a number of reasons, it was not possible to prove the guilt of F. E. Sweeney, and the doctor voluntarily went for a long-term treatment. In 1964, the suspect died in a Daytona hospital.

Maniac Cleveland Butcher: interesting facts and the use of his image in contemporary art

Tragic stories from real life often inspire creative people. Based on the real-life Cleveland nightmare, Brian Michael Bendis, with the help of several other authors, created a comic book published in Image Comics under the sonorous name "Torso". Director David Fincher is known for making a feature film based on real history about the serial killer Zodiac. He wanted to dedicate a similar tape to the butcher from Cleveland.

But to date, this idea has not been implemented. However, in the movie Seven Psychopaths, the Cleveland Butcher is mentioned in an episode. The photo of the actor in the image of this character is too much like the photos of Francis Sweeney. In David Fincher's film "Seven" the name of the main negative character is John Doe. It is believed that the Cleveland Butcher committed his last murder. Ohio, however, for a long time was shaken by all sorts of rumors and legends about a brutal killer. Children were scared with this character, and if one of the respectable citizens disappeared, the public immediately prepared to find a new headless body. But today the nightmare is in the past, and people remember it infrequently. Let's hope that our contemporaries really can not be afraid of the next return of the dismemberer from Cleveland.