During the early 20th century, Cleveland rode a wave of economic growth to become the sixth largest city in the United States. However, the Great Depression drove many of the 900,0001 residents into poverty. Crime, hunger, and homelessness were a daily reality for thousands of residents after the Market Crash of 1929.
The hardscrabble life of many Clevelanders soon faced a new threat — one not yet seen in the United States. Over the course of four years, a dozen bodies were found around town. Each had been gruesomely dismembered by an assailant who remains unknown to this day. The “Cleveland Torso Murderer” — also called “The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run” by local newspapers — would become the most famous serial killer in the United States.
September 4, 1934
A late summer day took a gruesome turn when body parts washed up on the Lake Erie shore east of Bratenahl. The torso, believed to be from a woman in her thirties, was covered in a chemical preservative which toughened the tissue. Other body parts were found, but never a head. The unidentified woman became known as “The Lady of the Lake.”2 Although not considered by investigators to be an official victim of the Torso Killer, many observers consider this the beginning of the legend.
September 23, 1935
It started as a typical early fall day in the city. However, a pair of teenagers were playing softball at the top of Jackass Hill, located on the south end of Kingsbury Run. They discovered the remains of two murder victims. One victim was a headless body wearing only socks who had been totally drained of blood. The victim was identified via fingerprints as Edward Andrassy, a 28-year-old Cleveland man.
Another victim, believed to be a male in his forties, was found emasculated and decapitated. This victim, who has never been identified, was covered with the same preservative found on “The Lady of the Lake.”
January 26, 1936
On January 26, 1936, a pair of baskets were left next to the Hart Manufacturing Company on Central Avenue near East 20th Street. The baskets contained the neatly wrapped partial remains of Florence Polillo, a 44-year-old server who lived nearby. The body had been decapitated, so police used fingerprints to make the identification. More of Polillo’s remains were found ten days later, several blocks away on Orange Avenue, but her head was never recovered.
June 5, 1936
Two boys found a decapitated head in Kingsbury Run at the East 55th Street Bridge. The next day a decapitated body was dumped between train tracks about a thousand feet away from where the head was discovered. The body was drained of blood and murdered by decapitation. The victim’s face was used to create a “death mask”, which was displayed during the 1936 season of the Great Lakes Exposition. Despite being seen by over 100,000 visitors, the victim, widely known as “The Tattooed Man,” was never identified.
June 9-12, 1936
Amid growing concerns about the Torso Killer, Cleveland hosted the Republican Convention. The event was held at the Public Auditorium, where Kansas Governor Alf Landon won the nomination.
June 27-October 5, 1936; May 29-September 26, 1937
Cleveland hosted the Great Lakes Exposition during the summers of 1936 and 1937. The event, designed to foster civic pride and boost Cleveland’s national image, attracted seven million visitors over the two seasons.3 Concerns over safety and the city’s image created intense pressure from local officials to solve the case. Safety Director Eliot Ness, well known for his efforts to fight organized crime, was forced to become more involved in the case.
July 22, 1936
17-year-old Marie Barkley discovered a naked, headless body while hiking near Clinton Road and Big Creek in Brooklyn Village, just southwest of downtown Cleveland. Police found the victim’s head and his bloody clothing less than twenty feet away. The large amount of blood indicated that the murder happened at that site. The victim, who has never been identified, was believed to have been killed two months earlier, before “The Tattooed Man.”
September 10, 1936
Jerry Harris, a St. Louis native, discovered two halves of torso while waiting to hop a train near East 37th Street in Kingsbury Run. The remains were floating in a nearby stagnant creek. Investigators arrived to discover more body parts; the Fire Department dragged the water in search of more clues. Over 600 onlookers watched the search, further fueling public fears about the murders.
February 23, 1937
Another victim was found by a man who was searching for driftwood. The man found the upper torso of a woman which had washed up near Bratenahl. This was eerily like “The Lady of the Lake,” who was found two and a half years earlier. However, unlike the other cases, this victim was not decapitated until after her death. The lower torso washed up on shore near East 30th Street three months later. The victim was never identified.
June 6, 1937
Russell Lauer, a 14-year-old Clevelander, discovered a human skull beneath the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge. When police arrived, their search uncovered a female skeleton in a burlap bag nearby. Police used dental records to identify the suspect, which they believed to be Rose Wallace. However, that identification was never officially confirmed.
July 6, 1937
Members of the Ohio National Guard – which had been called in by the Governor due to labor strike at Republic Steel—noticed two halves of a torso floating in the Cuyahoga River. The upper half of the torso was wrapped in newspaper and placed inside a burlap bag. Most of the body, except for the head, was recovered over the next two weeks. The victim, a male estimated to be in his 30s, was never identified.
April 8, 1938
Steve Morosky, a Cleveland WPA worker, noticed an object floating near a storm sewer in the Cuyahoga River. Morosky poked the item with a stick and discovered it was part of a woman’s leg. A month later, police pulled a burlap bag containing the torso and other body parts out of the river.
Late May 1938
An unidentified suspect, nicknamed “Dr. X,” was brought to the Hotel Cleveland for questioning. The suspect is widely believed to be Francis Sweeney, a World War I veteran who performed amputations in the field. Sweeney, who lived near Kingsbury Run, fell into alcoholism and depression after the war. Safety Director Eliot Ness led the interrogation, which went on for two weeks. The suspect – who had been on police “radar” since 1935 – never confessed. In addition, no physical evidence was found linking him to the crimes.
August 16, 1938
In the late afternoon, three scrappers searched for material near the newly completed Lake Shore Boulevard at East 9th Street. One of the men noticed what appeared to be a coat covered with rocks. When he moved the rocks, he was overcome with the stench of human remains. Police found the remains of a second victim nearby, in an area visible from Eliot Ness’ office.
August 18, 1938
Ness, increasingly frustrated with a lack of progress on the case, took the most extreme action yet. He and 35 police officers conducted a raid in the Kingsbury Run shantytown, where they burned dozens of structures and left hundreds homeless. No clues were found to help crack the case, and public reaction to the action was negative. However, no murders happened at Kingsbury Run after the encampment was razed.
July 5, 1939
In addition to Cleveland Police, the case was also investigated by Cuyahoga County. Sheriff Martin O’Donnell led this investigation, which eventually identified Frank Dolezal as a prime suspect. Dolezal had once lived with Polillo and was an acquaintance of Andrassy and Wallace. His prior experience working in a slaughterhouse also aroused suspicion. Dolezal, a 52-year-old bricklayer, was arrested for the murder of Polillo.
After what is widely believed to be a violent interrogation, 4 Dolezal’s body was found hanging in a cell at the County Jail on August 24, 1939. Elliot Ness and investigators from the Cleveland Police did not believe that Dolezal was the killer. The investigation by O’Donnell, a Democrat, is widely believed to be a ploy to upstage Ness, a Republican…