In four years, the Cleveland Torso Murderer killed, dismembered and castrated 12 different victims, and was never identified.
Bettman / Getty ImagesInvestigators look at the dismembered nous of one of the victim .
The first bodyappearedin September 1934 .
A young mandiscoveredit while walking along the shores of Lake Erie , though by the meter he come up it , it could hardly be considered a soundbox . More like part of one . The remains discover were that of a woman ’s depleted body , amputate at the knee . A chemical was present on the skin that turned it red and leathery .
Bettman/Getty ImagesInvestigators look at the dismembered head of one of the victims.
The repose of the dead body was never found , and the char was never identify . She was dub the “ Lady of the Lake , ” and take to the morgue , left forgotten until years later when tec noticed she fit almost perfectly into a local serial killer ’s pattern .
One yr after the first body had been find , another clay was discovered . Two teenaged boys found the beheaded body of a humans , at the bottom of a mound in Kingsbury Run . The organic structure was identified as 28 - year - old Edward Andrassy . He was wear down only a pair of socks .
The discovery of Andrassy was the second in a recollective air of bodies notice in Kingsbury Run that would be attributed to an unknown killer do it as “ The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run , ” and later the “ Cleveland Torso Murderer . ” He is often considered the first prescribed dupe , as the first char found was not tie in to the fling until later on .
Bettman/Getty ImagesInvestigators examine the bones of one of the victims.
To this day , no one has been convicted of the offense .
Between Sept. of 1934 , and Aug. of 1938 , 13 dissimilar bodies were institute , all in the same condition — all missing headway and various limbs , and all come from the lower classes of society . In most cases , the cause of death was decapitation or dismemberment itself .
Some of the eubstance were found with their dismembered limbs near each other , and other ’s get hold of twenty-four hour period to piece together , like a pathologic jigsaw puzzle . Some of the body parts were never located .
Wikimedia CommonsEliot Ness
Bettman / Getty ImagesInvestigators test the bones of one of the victim .
Only two of the body deviate from the usual MO . The dead body of victim nine was found eviscerated , the abdominal cavity gutted and the heart rend out . The organic structure of dupe 10 was found with drug in her system , though due to the absence seizure of her arms the theory that she had been an junky was not ruled out .
Of the 12 dupe , only three were ever identified , and only two of them positively . The first was Edward Andrassy , the first organic structure found . The third body found was name as Florence Polillo . The 8th body ground was guess to be Rose Wallace , though her identity was only confirmed through uncorroborated dental record .
Wikimedia CommonsDeath masks created in the hopes that members of the public could identify the victims. They were not successful.
The investigation into the murders carried on for five eld formally , culminating in only two major arrests , and no convictions .
In 1936 , while the case was still fresh and bodies were still being give away , Safety Director Eliot Ness became hard involved . Ness was well know at the fourth dimension for heading up “ the Untouchables , ” a radical of Union legal philosophy - enforcement agents that worked to take down Al Capone , and it was believed that his savviness as a police detective would land fast closedown to the subject .
Wikimedia CommonsEliot Ness
In 1938 , the last two body to be discovered were found in a dump situation , wrapped in a man ’s double - breasted depressed blazer and an old quilt . It ’s conceive that the placement of the body was intentional , as the dump land site was clearly visible from Ness ’ berth window .
Two days later , Ness and a group of 35 constabulary officers raided Kingsbury Run , home to the city ’s most dissolute residents . They get together 63 men and terminate up burning down the shanty townspeople after their raid .
Though Ness was intemperately criticized , and though the world believed that the fierce raid would do nothing to hold on the slaying , no bodies were receive after it .
A few days after the raid , a doctor named Francis Sweeny was arrested with opinion that he was the Cleveland Torso Murderer . Sweeny had been a aesculapian soldier in WWI , responsible for field amputation . He was personally interview by Ness , and given two separate polygraph tests . He failed both of them .
However , before he could be tried , it was revealed that Sweeny was the first cousin of Ness ’s political opponent , Congressman Martin Sweeny . Ness realized there was no way he would be able-bodied to prosecute him successfully and was forced to let him go .
The 2d arrest was n’t much more successful .
In 1939 , Sheriff Martin O’Donnell stop a bricklayer advert Frank Dolezal for the execution of Flo Polillo , the eighth torso to be found . O’Donnell had discovered that Dolezal had lived with Polillo for a time and that he was acquainted with Edward Andrassy and Rose Wallace , the only two bodies to be positively identified .
Wikimedia CommonsDeath masquerade created in the hopes that members of the public could name the victims . They were not successful .
Though police initially claimed that Dolezal had confessed , there was speculation that he had either been coached or coerced . Before he could go to test , Dolezal hanged himself in his cell .
His postmortem examination divulge he had substantiate six broken rib while in O’Donnell ’s custody . afterwards it was revealed that O’Donnell was the only one who believe him to be shamefaced as the Cleveland Torso Murderer .
After the authorities ran out of suspects , and no more body were find , the case black market cold .
Since 1939 , no new information has been found on the Cleveland Torso Murderer .
bask this article on the Cleveland Torso Murderer ? Next , read about the sixcreepiest unresolved murders in history . Then , read about theworld ’s worst successive killers .
