The Torso Murders: A phantom killer takes victims from the streets of Cleveland

Hello and welcome to Dine with Death, where we discuss infamous death and murder cases that have a food element and then cook or taste the food from the case. I'm Stacie Lee. Let's start when we hear the name Elliot Ness. Immediately think of the famous straight lawman as a hard-charging cop who couldn't be corrupted and who is often credited with finally taking down Al Capone, but after that era of his career, the era that has inspired as many books and movies as The Untouchables Elliot. Neness's career continued and in 1938 he ran into a serious problem: he had been brought to Cleveland, Ohio and hired to be the city's director of security.

His problem: a serial

killer

who terrorized the city and seemed impossible to catch for almost four years. Terrified citizens had gone to the police with gruesome discoveries that left them terrified. Headless bodies constantly appeared under bridges in lakes, beaches, rivers and even in backyards. The murderer was always capable of committing the murder. Dissect the body. Throw it away and disappear without anyone. managing to even glimpse who it could be, many times the

victims

were not identified because there simply were not enough of them left to say who they had been; The worst part was there was almost always evidence that the

victims

had been mutilated while they were still alive, this

killer

enjoyed watching his victims suffer, he enjoyed torturing them and he enjoyed leaving parts of them around the city to make sure his work was witnessed by everyone year round.

After year, body after body turned up and it seemed like there was nothing law enforcement could do. to stop it, I'm sure many of you are familiar with this case and know where it's going. This is one of my favorite true crime stories because I feel like it happened at the beginning of the era where things were starting to get worse. Change and the authorities were beginning to realize the murderers who claimed more than one victim. There is an area in Cleveland called Kingsbury Run. It is on the southeast side of Cleveland, near the suburb known as Shaker Heights.

It runs west across Kinsman Road and due to its elevation there is a large natural waterway that carries stormwater to the Cuyhoga River. In the 1930s the area was inhabited by people who suffered from terrible poverty. It was basically a shantytown that had been built on a landfill. The people who lived there were poor workers. they were people who had come to

cleveland

looking for work and then lost their jobs and their homes during the great depression here is a photo of what the area was like in 1920 and here is a photo from the early 2000s now it is an area industrial, but as you can see in the photo that it was a very dirty and messy area where the people who lived there barely passed through this area that served as the murderer's hunting ground and due to the nature of the people who lived there, they did that the victims would be easier.

Kingsbury Run was often called a hobo jungle due to its many homeless people and many of the people who lived there were seen as disposable and sadly many people did not care what happened to them. Two boys are playing ball in the slums of Kingsbury Run, the ball escaped from them and one of the boys went to look for it and found much more than the lost ball. There lay the body of a man. Well, part of a man. The first victim was found in Jackass Hill. Yes, that is the real name of the area. I think I know some. people living in jackass hill this victim was found on september 23, 1935.

The man was later identified as edward andrusi. he was out in the open and had been there for two or three days before he was discovered. He had been decapitated and his genitals had been severed following the discovery of the first victim, as police walked through the area, they found a second victim lying just 30 feet away from the first. He had also been decapitated and castrated and some type of chemical had been poured on his skin which caused it to turn red and leathery, this victim had been there for much longer, they estimate between three and four weeks, so he was discovered in second place, but he was definitely killed first.

This victim was never identified, the police and public were horrified and thought the men must have been tied together somehow, perhaps this was a mob hit and as gruesome as it was they thought that was the end they were very wrong in the fall of 1935 a man was walking along the canal looking for driftwood and saw a large object that he thought was a log, but as he got closer he knew he was wrong there lay the

torso

of a body that had no head these findings were the beginning of this nightmare in

cleveland

and talk of what was happening would soon spread like wildfire across the country and even the world within a few months.

It happened and then on January 26, 1936, the body of a woman, had been completely dismembered. She was later identified as Florencia Genevieve Polillo and she had been murdered two to four days before she was discovered. Her body parts were wrapped in paper and stuffed in the corner of an alley the next month her head was found in downtown Cleveland now the police were much more concerned there were too many similarities to ignore the way she had been dismembered victim was eerily similar to the way the first two had been torn apart and again the skin was tanned with some type of chemical now I should mention that I found conflicting information in this case some sources say that the two men found on the same day were found first and some sources say that the woman was found first More sources say that the two men were found first, so that is the reason why I chose to report them as victims one and two, but every time there is a discrepancy in the information I find , I would like to let you know also on June 5, 1936 two.

The children who were fishing next to a lake saw a bundle of clothes, they touched it and the bundle rolled a few meters and as it rolled, the clothes came off of their contents. A human head. This man, who was the fourth victim, was never identified, but because he had quite a few tattoos something that was unusual at the time he was nicknamed the Tattooed Man this victim had been decapitated while still alive his head was recovered from his body and had been dead about two days that summer two more bodies were discovered on July 22, 1936 a headless man was found on the west side of town, he had been decapitated while still alive and his body had been there for about two months, approximately six weeks later, on September 10, 1936, another partial body was found, this man was nothing more than half a

torso

, nothing was left below the hips nor his head nor the rest of his body were ever found and none of these two men were identified.

A few months passed and then it happened again on February 23, 1937. A second woman was discovered. She had been decapitated again, her head was never found and she was never identified. She became known as the Lady of the Lake because of the place where she was discovered. The public demanded more action. An emergency meeting was called. Dozens of detectives attended this meeting and the public was. Invited to listen to the coroner speak and describe the methods of mutilation and death they were witnessing. It was not common practice back then for authorities to talk to the public and reveal details about the case, but the public was so horrified by what was happening.

It happened that it was almost imperative that the coroner tell the public that the killer was an expert in the use of knives and that he was skilled and definitely had some kind of medical training. The coroner also said that this person had practice dismembering bodies and that he probably had to be quite strong to move as well. Then the press started talking about the killer and calling him things like America's Jack the Ripper and the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. People began to whisper that the man could be a doctor or a butcher or maybe just a man with experience hunting and disguising himself. animals, no matter how many police they put on the case, no matter how many tips came in from the public, they couldn't find the killer on June 6, 1937, another woman was found dead, she was decapitated and was missing a rib, why do I find that particular detail? a rib as strange as it doesn't matter, the other victims had all been Caucasian, but this one was a black woman and her head was found, so photographs were shown around her face, but no one could identify her.

Two of the coroners believe she had been dead for over a year, but others disagreed, so she is officially listed as victim number eight, but if she was dead for a year, she would actually be victim number six, just a few Weeks later a man's body was pulled from the Cuyhoga River, the body was more intact but again his head was missing the man had only been in the water for about two days his head was never found and he was never identified I just wonder what was happening with all the heads that are nightmare fuel a month passed and then three and then six and some people began to believe that the killer was gone or finished, but unfortunately he was not there.

On April 8, 1938, a woman's lower leg washed ashore near the West 3rd Street Bridge after police found her leg. They undertake a massive search of the area and soon discover a burlap sack containing the victim's headless torso cut into two halves, a second thigh and a left foot, neither the head nor the rest of the body were found. This victim was found to have drugs. her system but she was the only victim to do so she had been dead for three to five days on August 16 another woman was found decapitated her head was found near her body while they searched for the head and found it they found another victim dumped no very far from the burlap sack that contained most of the woman, this body was a man, they decapitated him.

His head was also near the body in a large can. Neither the man nor the woman were identified. No one knew at the time that these would be the last two victims of the serial killer the press was now calling the torso killer I need to stop again and say that officially the torso killer only has 12 victims but there are many people who believe there are many more in 1936 a headless body is discovered in a freight car in pennsylvania three headless victims were found in freight cars in 1940 and the bodies of all these victims had similarities with the torso of the murderer's victims there was even one victim found in 1950 in cleveland, robert robertson, 41, who had been decapitated and his body showed other similarities to previous victims, so again 12 official victims, but there are very likely more now that I mentioned Elliot Ness, who is the director city ​​security, but we also need to talk about Peter Merlot, who was the lead detective on the case.

I imagine his frustration and stress level were through the roof. He was known as a solid cop and firmly believed that the killer was among the homeless population or that he pretended to be part of that population so he could move around easily. Peter Mello was under fire, he was outraged that the killer continued to take victims right under his nose and that he could do nothing to stop it. Merlot even spent time riding trains dressed as a hobo to see if he could spot any behavior that might indicate a suspect. So it seems that Peter Merlot was really in the trenches doing the real work, but because of Eliot Ness's fame, he is the lawman that is most often talked about when we talk about this case, but Eliot Ness had a secret that I had not shared.

With anyone except this small group of people that he brought with him from Chicago, he had information and only a few people knew about it for two years. Eliotness had been dragging a man on and off the street, interviewing him, and he was pretty convinced. that he was the killer but he just couldn't prove it, the public was angry and because Eliot Ness was the city's director of security, his reputation as the best lawman in the country began to suffer now Eliot Ness was a powerful man and as history shows us. Time and time again, when powerful men have bruised egos, the powerless suffer praise. ness wanted this case to be solved, as i'm sure peter merlot and all the other detectives who worked the case did. ness had very little to do with the actual investigation, but because of his immense fame as the man who defeated Al Capone he was often named in the press and did not like to be associated with these ongoing and unsolved

murders

on August 24, 1939 a 52 year old cleveland man named frank dolezal was arrested as a suspect in themurder of Florencia Polilo, now the consensus about Frank is that he was not the murderer, he was just a drunk, he was a violent man and they arrested him because he appeased the public for a minute.

No one still alive knows what happened in this. interview with Frank, but we know that Frank wasn't the killer and we know that he died in the county jail under suspicious circumstances, so it's most likely one of those scenarios that you know we're going to beat out that was too much far. back to elliot nessa's big secret elliot ness was convinced that a man named francis edward sweeney was the killer francis was a severe alcoholic he had attended medical school but struggled throughout the process and most likely had schizophrenia paranoid but there was something else about francis he was a veteran of the first world war and his role in the war performing quick and efficient limb amputations in triage units he had medical training and had a lot of experience cutting off people's arms and legs, not only was he mentally ill, but had also been incredibly traumatized by the war and suffered great anxiety and depression due to what he had seen and done in the war, obviously today we would recognize that it is PTSD and hopefully there would be treatment available, but remember this was 1939.

Eliot Ness is convinced this is his man, but he can't seem to prove it. Homeless people had approached saying that a doctor had offered them shoes and food, but when they started to eat they felt dizzy and some of them knew they were being drugged, so they ran. away, the place this doctor had taken them to eat was close to where francis edward sweeney practiced surgery and he also had access to a morgue next door. this is how sweeney becomes elliot ness' prime suspect, so elliot ness, after years of

murders

he decides to go rogue, he and his closest men grab francis edward sweeney off the

streets

of cleveland, they basically kidnap him and take him to a suite at the cleveland hotel francis is such a severe alcoholic that it

takes

him Three whole days sobering up he is under lock and key and he is watched 24 hours a day during those days when he is finally sober the interrogation begins a polygraph and Francis is given several polygraph tests which Eliot Ness claims he failed.

Now we all know we can't really trust polygraph tests, but this is part of the story even though Sweeney is sober, interrogated, polygraphed, and, let's be honest, probably slapped him. Elliot Ness can't get enough. proof that this is his man, but he will not be deterred, these murders will stop no matter what and he decides to take drastic measures, if he cannot find a suspect to arrest, he will destroy the area where the murders are taking place in Elliot Ness Collects. the police force raids kingsbury run and arrests anyone and everyone for anything as these people who already live in desperate circumstances and struggle to get by every day are in the city jail elliot ness sets fire to kingsbury run and kills him burns to the ground.

I think that's absolutely horrible, I mean, full disclosure. I have worked extensively with homeless people and am aware of the complicated nature of that issue. Um, you have the side of the coin of the people who live that way and then If you have the side of the coin of the companies that are affected by these people, it is a very complicated topic and I don't have a lot of patience for the whole process. . Go get a job and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and it's much more complicated. problem than that and I also feel sorry for the business owners who are affected by homelessness, but we don't get rid of homelessness and unsheltered living by destroying what little people have, that's just not a solution, but many times people can't find a real solution to a complex problem they will settle for brutality and it doesn't work, it never works, elliot ness doesn't get the reaction he expects, the public is smarter than he thinks, like is usually the case, and he is not very impressed with this ruthless display of power.

His abject failure is the beginning of the end for him who was once a great man of the law. The Cleveland torso killer is never caught, no one is brought to justice and to this day, the case remains, ironically, unsolved. Due to his work in the prohibition era he becomes an alcoholic and dies almost forgotten at only 57 years of age, Cleveland moves on and the torso killer becomes part of American lore, we will most likely never officially know who it was the mad butcher from Kingsbury Run, although Elliot ness was sure now, as we always do in this particular playlist, we discuss the area where the events took place and cook or try the food from that area.

Cleveland has many very specific regional dishes, but one of the most famous is called brown. sauce Many people have their own version of brown sauce, but the original came from a restaurant called New York Spaghetti House that opened in 1927 and closed in 2001. Someone tried to revive it around 2007, but unfortunately it closed for good. I hate it when those places close but the sauce was so popular that they actually bottled it and sold it in stores finding this recipe you guys I don't even know how many hours I spent trying to find this recipe but I think I might have it after Days and days of researching, I found on Facebook, of all people, a man who claims to have been working on this original brown sauce episode for decades and believes he has it under control.

His name is John Pompe. I sent him a Facebook message a few weeks ago asking him to talk to him, but I never heard back, so if anyone who knows John sees it or sees this, I give him full credit for this. I am very grateful to John and people like him who preserve these old recipes, even if they are not perfectly accurate to the teaspoon, they are very close and I think that is important, so now we are going to make Cleveland brown sauce with the new york spaghetti house while we're going to dine with death we're ready to cook let's make this brown sauce it's a little unusual it's like a bolognese or ragout but it has a lot of meat flavored components so come on make this I hope it's close to the recipe original and john pompe if you're somewhere thanks for this as always we start with our prep work this recipe calls for one cup of shredded carrots it calls for two stalks of celery and it specifically says to include the leaves the leaves taste a little different.

We are going to cut a medium white onion into small cubes, six cloves of garlic and chop them very finely. I should say that it also says to include some fresh Italian parsley because Due to the shortage we are experiencing, my store did not do well. There are a couple of unusual things in this recipe that you'll see as we go, but the first thing we're going to do is make a medium dark roux which those of you who cook Italian food know is not how a sauce starts. Generally, we're going to need a cup of olive oil, but we're going to start with half a cup for the roux and the other half cup to use later in that olive oil on the heat, we're going to add a cup of flour.

Now I'm following the tea recipe in this case because I want it to be as close to the spaghetti house recipe as possible. The recipe says to cook this roux until it is the color of peanut butter. A roux is always fat and flour and is used as a thickening agent or base. Whenever you are making a roux, you want to make sure even if it is a blonde roux. a light roux that cooks until the raw flour flavor disappears, so it's always a couple of minutes, this one will last much longer. Okay, the roux is now the color of peanut butter like the recipe says and let's set it aside, okay, next step, get you a pot, we'll add the rest of the olive oil to the pot, to your hot olive oil, you will add the vegetables that we prepared before, start with the onion that we have. the celery with the leaves and we have the grated carrots so basically we have made a mirepoix now we are going to add the garlic in a minute but I like to add the garlic at the end of the cooking or the sweating process. because I don't like it when it browns, okay, the vegetables have sweated a little bit, so I'm going to add the garlic, okay, it says cook until the garlic starts to toast slightly.

In total, it will be about 10 minutes for the The vegetables are good, the vegetables are soft and the garlic is starting to toast and brown, so we go to the next step: you add a 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes that I held so far away to that the camera could catch it and it just splashed all over. on top, so wait a second, I had a tomato facial, you add a liter of beef broth and here come the spices, two tablespoons of Italian seasoning, two teaspoons of basil, a teaspoon of thyme and half a teaspoon of crushed red pepper, two teaspoons of salt, two bay leaves and one teaspoon of sugar, okay, here comes some of that unusual meaty flavor.

I'm talking about two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, we need a cup of red wine, okay, this is where this sauce becomes very different from most of the sauces you are used to. It says to add raw meat in pieces, not to brown the meat. raw to the sauce, but we are more used to browning it. Okay, I have three quarters of a pound of ground pork and three quarters of a pound of ground beef. and it specifically says to use 85 15 ground beef, that means it has 15 fat, add it in chunks, another very unusual item for the sauce, it says to take a can of cannellini or northern beans, mix them into the water they are in and add them.

Well, those beans are blended, I'll add them to the sauce. The recipe says to bring the mixture to a boil and let it simmer for 45 minutes, so I'll see in a moment that our sauce has simmered for 45 minutes and you. You can see inside the pan where it shrinks by about an inch. The next step is to add the roux we made at the beginning. You can see that it looks like peanut butter and if you're worried about lumps in the sauce, don't be. It's not necessary because there is another unusual step after adding all the roux.

You'll let it cook for 15 more minutes and then that way the room melts and gets incorporated into the sauce, which will definitely help with the lumps. but after it cooks for 15 minutes, it is incorporated. The recipe says to take an immersion blender and blend halfway, so again this is an unusual step. The recipe actually says not to overmix; you still want some meat granules to give the sauce some texture. I can really see why this needs the roux because even after simmering for 45 minutes it was still quite runny, the roux will really tighten it up, thicken it a lot, it has thickened considerably and is now the consistency of a very thick chili, OK?

I'm going to remove it from the heat and we're going to blend it. Any time you use an immersion blender, you should make sure it is completely submerged in the liquid before turning it on. You don't turn it on. and then put it in because it's going to splatter everywhere it's hot you're going to hurt yourself you can see there's still some texture in the sauce but it's relatively smooth I have a plate of cooked spaghetti we have our brown sauce let's prepare this and let's try it get a ladle big and beautiful of this sauce, it is very unusual, I know I keep saying that, but I don't know if it is the most appetizing thing I have ever seen, but let's try it, sometimes the best dishes are not so pretty.

I'm a little interested because this recipe doesn't call for black pepper, which is something you don't normally see in New York spaghetti house brown sauce, which is unusual, it's good. It tastes more like meat sauce than any type of marinara, ragù, or bolognese. You can definitely tell there's a roux in there, the texture has that roux-like texture to it. I'm going to try just the sauce, it doesn't taste like I can. I'm not comparing it to anything, it just doesn't taste like anything I've ever had before it's a little cold it's some kind of sauce it's some kind of roast beef juice it's some kind of spaghetti sauce it's definitely brown it's brown sauce thanks for joining me today in this episode of dining with death, I appreciate you spending a few minutes of your day with me, like the video and subscribe to the channel if you haven't, as I always say, it helps me a lot to stay safe and Be kind on with each other and see you next time dining with death, goodbye.