The first body appeared in September 1934.
A young man discovered it while walking along
the shores of Lake Erie, though by the time
he found it, it could hardly be considered
a body.
More like part of one.
The remains discovered were that of a woman’s
lower torso, amputated at the knees.
A chemical was present on the skin that turned
it red and leathery.
The rest of the body was never found, and
the woman was never identified.
She was dubbed the “Lady of the Lake,”
and taken to the morgue, left forgotten until
years later when detectives noticed she fit
almost perfectly into a local serial killer’s
pattern.
One year after the first body had been found,
another corpse was discovered.
Two teenage boys found the decapitated body
of a man, at the bottom of a hill in Kingsbury
Run.
The body was identified as 28-year-old Edward
Andrassy.
He was wearing only a pair of socks.
The discovery of Andrassy was the second in
a long line of bodies discovered in Kingsbury
Run that would be attributed to an unidentified
killer known as “The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury
Run,” and later the “Cleveland Torso Murdærer.”
He is often considered the first official
victim, as the first woman found was not connected
to the spree until later.
To this day, no one has been convicted of
the crimes.
Between Sept. of 1934, and Aug. of 1938, 13
different bodies were found, all in the same
condition — all missing heads and various
limbs, and all hailing from the lower classes
of society.
In most cases, the cause of death was decapitation
or dismemberment itself.
Some of the bodies were found with their dismembered
limbs near each other, and other’s took
days to piece together, like a morbid jigsaw
puzzle.
Some of the body parts were never located.
Only two of the bodies deviated from the usual
MO.
The body of victim nine was found eviscerated,
the abdomen gutted and the heart ripped out.
The body of victim 10 was found with drugs
in her system, though due to the absence of
her arms the possibility that she had been
an addict was not ruled out.
Of the 12 victims, only three were ever identified,
and only two of them positively.
The first was Edward Andrassy, the first body
found.
The third body found was identified as Florence
Polillo.
The eighth body found was thought to be Rose
Wallace, though her identity was only confirmed
through uncorroborated dental records.
The investigation into the murdærs carried
on for five years officially, culminating
in only two major arrests, and no convictions.
In 1936, while the case was still fresh and
bodies were still being discovered, Safety
Director Eliot Ness became heavily involved.
Ness was well known at the time for heading
up “the Untouchables,” a group of federal
law-enforcement agents that worked to take
down Al Capone, and it was believed that his
savviness as a detective would bring fast
closure to the case.
In 1938, the last two bodies to be discovered
were found in a dump site, wrapped in a man’s
double-breasted blue blazer and an old quilt.
It’s believed that the placement of the
bodies was intentional, as the dump site was
clearly visible from Ness’ office window.
Two days later, Ness and a group of 35 police
officers raided Kingsbury Run, home to the
city’s most degenerate residents.
They gathered 63 men and ended up burning
down the shanty town after their raid.
Though Ness was heavily criticized, and though
the public believed that the violent raid
would do nothing to stop the murdærs, no
bodies were found after it.
A few days after the raid, a doctor named
Francis Sweeny was arrested with belief that
he was the Cleveland Torso Murdærer.
Sweeny had been a medical soldier in WWI,
responsible for field amputations.
He was personally interviewed 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 to prosecute him successfully and was
forced to let him go.
The second arrest wasn’t much more successful.
In 1939, Sheriff Martin O’Donnell arrested
a bricklayer named Frank Dolezal for the murdær
of Flo Polillo, the eighth body 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.
Though police initially claimed that Dolezal
had confessed, there was speculation that
he had either been coached or coerced.
Before he could go to trial, Dolezal hanged
himself in his cell.
His autopsy revealed he had sustained six
broken ribs while in O’Donnell’s custody.
Later it was revealed that O’Donnell was
the only one who believed him to be guilty
as the Cleveland Torso Murdærer.
After the authorities ran out of suspects,
and no more bodies were found, the case ran
cold.
Since 1939, no new information has been found
on the Cleveland Torso Murdærer.
