Eliot Ness · Charlie Chaplin · Dick Wolf
Plus Judith Light, the Gentleman Bandit, and stupid title tricks
the true crime that's worth your time
The crime
From The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History:
The TORSO MURDERS, committed between Sept. 1935 and Aug. 1938, were believed to be serial killings. Most of the bodies were discovered in or near the KINGSBURY RUN area—a creek bed that ran from E. 90th St. and Kinsman Rd. SE to the CUYAHOGA RIVER. Torso Murderer Body parts of what was thought to be 7 men and 5 women were discovered; most victims were dismembered and all were decapitated. Most of the victims appeared to be transients or derelicts living in shantytowns on the fringes of society. The murderer was never discovered.
The story
American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper isn’t quite as good as the same author’s work on Mary Rogers and Edgar Allan Poe, which I reviewed last August — but it’s good, a solid “case historical” that’s as much about the time as it is the crime.