10 Brutal and Disturbing Facts About the Cleveland Torso Murderer

The Cleveland Torso Murderer, also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, was a serial killer who tormented Cleveland, Ohio, citizens between 1934 and 1938. The murders were compared to Jack the Ripper, as neither killer was captured, despite a large number of suspects. There are some differences, however: Jack the Ripper preyed on prostitutes and "ladies of the night," while the Cleveland Torso Murderer killed transients, hobos, and other victims of the Great Depression who lived in local shantytowns. Another difference lies in the fact that the Butcher of Kingsbury Run dismantled his victim's bodies before dumping them in various places on Cleveland's East Side.

During the 1930s, Eliot Ness, fresh from his success in dealing with Chicago's mafia problem, became the safety director of Cleveland. He was tormented by the Torso Murderer, both literally and figuratively, and the unsolved case essentially destroyed his career. To this day, the Cleveland Torso Murderer case remains open. 

The first few of the Torso Killer's victims had red leathery patches of skin that looked as though they had been subjected to chemical burns. It is unknown whether this occurred before or after their deaths. Parts of the last two victims had the hallmarks of refrigeration, and were wrapped in butcher paper before being placed in a box. This makes it tough to tell exactly when those last two people were killed, as they might have been butchered earlier in the timeline and had their bodies preserved.

Two of the known victims - Flo Polillo and Edward Andrassy - were beheaded while they were alive. This was the case with several of the unidentified victims, as well. Autopsy resulted proved this, and in the case of a few of the killer's later casualties, the victims had been drugged with an unknown substance. This is proof that the Torso Murderer's M.O. changed over time. 

The Torso Murderer did not pick up random victims off of the street as they walked home; instead, he preyed on transients, hoboes, and prostitutes - all down on their luck due to the Great Depression. Some of them lived in an area of Cleveland near the railroad tracks off Broadway known as Kingsbury Run. There was a shantytown set up there, and several victims were found in the area. 

Flo Polillo was a local waitress, bar maid, and prostitute. Parts of her body were found near the intersection of Central Avenue and East 20th streets. Roughly half of her body was wrapped in newspaper and stuffed into a basket. Ten days later, the rest of her body - minus her head, which was never found - was recovered in a vacant lot a few blocks away. She was identified by her fingerprints, and beheading was her official cause of death. 

While there were a few suspects, including Frank Dolezal, who was put before a grand jury in the 1930s for the crimes, the Torso Murderer was never caught. Dolezal hanged himself in prison after he rambled out a confession in the courtroom during the grand jury proceedings. It was believed that he was coached, forced to confess by the Cleveland police force, and that he did not commit the crime. To this day, no one truly knows who did it. 

Dr. Frank E. Sweeney, a Cleveland physician, sent Cleveland's Safety Director, Eliot Ness, at least five postcards after the Torso Murders ended in 1938. According to oral histories, Sweeney was obsessed with Ness, and certainly had the surgical skills to match the butchery conducted by the killer. The postcards taunted Ness incoherently about the killings, making it clear that the writer might have known more than he let on. 

The first official victim of the Torso Murderer is known as the Lady of the Lake. Her headless torso and thighs appeared on the shores of Lake Erie back in 1934. Part of her skin had chemical-like burns on it that had caused it to become red and leathery. Because her head and arms were never found, she remains unidentified. At the time, the police thought the body was an isolated incident and processed the scene accordingly. 

The most brutal of the Torso Murderer's killings was that of Edward Andrassy. He was found in Kingsbury Run, naked, except for a pair of socks. His blood had been drained from his body, and his head and genitals were surgically removed. The autopsy showed that he was alive when the decapitation took place. Another body was found nearby, also butchered, although this one was burned in the same manner as the Lady in the Lake. This victim was never identified. 

The Torso Murderer left the bodies of his victims in various places around Cleveland, including dumps, sewers, and Lake Erie. There wasn't one single location that he favored. This, and the fact that many of the sewers and dumps weren't fully explored at the time (not to mention the possibility that body parts in the lake sunk to the bottom or floated away), means that there might have been more than the 12 official victims. 

Also, a thirteenth body appeared at a worksite in 1950. The body of Robert Robertson was headless, dismembered, and bloodless - all hallmarks of the Torso Murderer. However, he was found to have died recently, more than a dozen years after the official killings stopped. His murderer was never found, and the similarities were enough to place him tentatively with the others that fell prey to the killer in the 1930s. 

Overall, there are 12 victims attributed to the Torso Murderer, beginning with the Lady of Lake in 1934 and ending with the last discovery on August 16, 1938. Two days after that, Eliot Ness had a bunch of officers dismantle and burn down the shantytown in Kingsbury Run. Although this might have been a coincidence, the murders stopped.

However, 1926 remained the killer's bloodiest year, as six of his 10 victims were killed and discovered during that year. The murders that year began with Flo Polillo in January, then followed with two unknown men in June, another in July, and two more in September, all chopped into pieces. Most of these victims remain unidentified.