The Cleveland Torso Murderer

A body was discovered in September 1934. A young man came across it while he took a walk along the shorts of Lake Erie, but it was hardly a body, it was rather just part of one. The remains were of a woman's lower torso, there was a chemical present on the skin that caused it to turn red and leathery.

The rest of the victim's body was never found and the woman was never identified, she was dubbed the "Lady of the Lake," and transferred to a morgue, where she was forgotten until years later when investigators noticed that she fit perfectly into a pattern of a local serial killer.

A year after the Lady of the Lake was discovered, another body was discovered. This time two teenage boys found the decapitated body of a man, it was at the bottom of a hill in Kingsbury Run. This victim was identified as 28-year-old Edward Andrassy, he was only wearing a pair of socks.

The discovery of Edward Andrassy was the second in a handful of bodies that would be discovered in Kingsbury Run that would be attributed to an unindentified killer that would be dubbed as "The Made Butcher of Kinsbury Run," and later on dubbed the "Cleveland Torso Murderer." Edward is often considered this killer's first official victim, as the first woman wasn't connected to the spree until later on.

Nobody has been convicted of these crimes to this day.

Between September 1934 and August 1938, 13 bodies were discovered and they were all in the same condition. All of them were missing their heads and various limbs, and they hailed from the lower classes of society. And in most of these cases, the cause of death was decapitation or dismemberment itself.

Some of these bodies were found with their dismembered limbs near each other and other's took days to finally piece together, much like a morbid puzzle. And some body parts were never found.

Two of the bodies deviated from the usual MO. The body of victim number nine was found eviscerated. The abdomen was gutted and the heart was ripped out. And victim number 10 was found with drugs in her system, and with the absence of her arms, the possibility of her being a drug addict wasn't ruled out.

Out of the twelve victims, only three were identified, and two of them positively. The first, Edward Andrassy, the third body found was identified as Florence Polillo, and the eighth body was thought to be Rose Wallace, her identity was only confirmed through uncorroborated dental records.

The investigations into the murders went on for five years officially, and there were only two major arrests and no convictions.

In 1936, the case was still fresh and bodies continued to be discovered, and Safety Director Eliot Ness was now heavily involved. Eliot was well known for heading up "the Untouchables," this was a group of federal law-enforcement agents that worked to take down Al Copone. It was believed that his savviness as a detective would bring fast closure to the case.

In 1938, the last two bodies were discovered in a dump site, they were wrapped in a man's double-breasted blue blazer and an old quilt. The placement of the bodies were believed to have been intentional, as the dump site was visible from Eliot's office window.

Two days later, Eliot and 35 officers raided Kingsbury Run, this was home to the city's most degenerate residents. They gathered up 63 men and ended up burning down the shanty town after their raid.

Eliot was heavily criticized and though the public believed that this violent raid would do nothing to stop these murders, no murders were found after the raid.

A few days after this, a doctor named Francis Sweeny was arrested, it was believed that he was the murderer. Doctor Sweeny had been a medical solider in World War 1, he was responsible for field amputations. He was interviewed by Eliot and given two separate polygraph tests. He failed both.

Before he could be tried, it was revelaed that Francis Sweeny was the first cousin of Eliot's political opponent, Congressman Martin Sweeny. Eliot realized that there was zero way that he would be able to prosecute him, so he was forced to set him free.

The second arrest wasn't successful, either.

Sheriff Martin O'Donnell arrested Frank Dolezal, a bricklayer, in 1939, for the murder of Flo Polillo, the eighth body that was found. The sheriff discovered that Frank lived with Flo for a time and that he was also acquainted with Edward Andrassy and Rose Wallace, the only two bodies that had ever been positively identified.

Police claimed that Frank Dolezal confessed, but there was speculation that he could have been coached or coerced. Before he was able to go on trail, he hung himself in his cell.

The autopsy revealed that he had suffered from six broken ribs while he was under Martin O'Donnell's custody. It was also revealed later on that Martin was the only one who believed Frank was guilty.

The authorities were at a dead end, they were out of suspects, and no more bodies were being found. The case ran cold.