According to police statistics, a huge number of crimes are revealed annually, and the perpetrators are punished for their actions. But in fact, not all criminal cases can be unraveled. The Cleveland Butcher is an unknown killer who committed his crimes in the city of Cleveland (Ohio, USA). Despite the large number of victims and amazing cruelty, the offender was never found.
Why the Cleveland Butcher?
In the 30s of the last century, the small and quiet town of Cleveland in Ohio was shocked by a series of terrible murders. In the most unexpected places of this settlement, heavily mutilated corpses of people began to be found, and the identities of many of them could not be established. The unknown killer dismembered the bodies of the victims, chopped off their heads. According to experts, often the criminal did these manipulations during the life of the unfortunate. During the investigation, the killer was given the nickname Cleveland Butcher. Journalists who covered the story in the media often referred to him as the Crazy Butcher of Kingsbury Run and the Cleveland Dissector. County police literally knocked down, looking for an unknown maniac. However, due to difficulties in identifying the victims and the lack of evidence, the identity of the killer has not been established. Officially, the case included 12 episodes of murders, which, according to the police, were committed by one criminal. But there is reason to believe that in fact there were much more victims.
Unexplained cruelty
Despite the fact that among all the “recognized” victims of the butcher, only three were identified, the investigators involved in this case are sure that the killer dealt exclusively with not the most prosperous members of society. Probably the offender “went out” on his terrible hunt in Cleveland Flats, an area where poor workers and other members of the lower classes lived. Cut off limbs and heads, inflicting severe injuries and causing various injuries - all this was done by a maniac (Cleveland Butcher) with his victims. Photos of the found corpses cannot be viewed without a shudder even today, after so many years. Often, experts found traces of exposure to aggressive chemicals on the bodies, and many male victims lacked genitals. Why the unknown killer showed such cruelty will remain a mystery. But even in our time, Cleveland old-timers remember this whole nightmare of the 30s.
First victims
According to the official version, the Cleveland butcher killed 12 people, of which only three were identified. In the materials of the investigation, each victim has his own serial number. For convenience, unidentified men whom the killer has dealt with are designated as John Doe, and women - Jane Doe. The Cleveland nightmare began on September 23, 1935. On this day, the first corpse of a man who was not identified was discovered (John Doe). Forensic experts concluded that the unfortunate was killed a few weeks before being discovered. On the same day, a corpse was found nearby, which it was possible to identify, and then another one - a few months later. At this time, the first rumors spread that a Cleveland butcher was operating in the city. Photos of the victims are studied in detail, as well as the bodies themselves, but the investigation does not have any unambiguous clues and versions. On June 5, 1936, the fourth corpse was discovered, which was designated in official documents as John Dow-2 (the identity could not be established). There were tattoos on the body of the deceased, and the police asked the morgue officers to make a death mask. But even despite all these measures, the murdered man was never identified.
Identified victims
September 23, 1935 (the day the first corpse was discovered), only 10 meters from victim No. 1, the mutilated body of Edward W. Andressi was found. The deceased was killed 3-4 days before the discovery. A third victim was found in the center of Cleveland on January 26, 1936. This is the first woman killed by a maniac, and her identity was established - it turned out to be Florence Jenivieva Polillo.
Very often, the woman found the eighth in a row is added to the list of identified victims. In investigative materials, she appears immediately under two designations:
Jane Dow-2 or Rose Wallace. The specified woman disappeared 10 months before the discovery of the corpse (June 6, 1937). At the same time, experts who studied the body argue that according to some signs it can be assumed that the murder occurred more than a year ago. A dental examination was carried out to establish the identity of the deceased, but its results cannot be considered 100% accurate, since the doctor who followed Rose’s teeth died a few years earlier.
The killings are ongoing!
The fifth Cleveland Butcher victim was found in Brooklyn. The corpse, discovered on July 22, 1936, in addition to serial number 5, was nicknamed John Dow-3. Next on the scary list of the killer was also a man whose identity could not be established. It was discovered on September 10, 1936, designated in the materials of the investigation as John Dow-4. The ninth victim of a serial killer - again a man, was found on July 6, 1937 in the Kayahoga River. The identity has not been established; it was introduced as John Dow-5. On April 8, 1938, the body of a mutilated woman was discovered in the same river, which also could not be identified - Jane Dow-3. The eleventh in the list of the killer was another unidentified representative of the fair sex, designated in the investigation materials as Jane Dow-4, was found on August 16, 1938. On the same day, a corpse of a man was discovered very close to the woman’s body, John Dow-6 - failed to identify the deceased. On this, the official list of victims of the Cleveland dismemberment ends, but it is worth noting that in the district the bodies of those killed and mutilated in this way were found both earlier and later this high-profile case.
Probable victims
On September 5, 1934, a dead woman was found on the shore of Lake Erie, who was quickly enough posthumously called the romantic nickname Lady of the Lake. It was not possible to establish the identity of the murdered woman, since the corpse was too badly mutilated, and the killer was not found. According to many experts, this is the first victim of the Cleveland Butcher list. On July 1, 1936, a corpse of an unknown man was discovered in a commercial carriage in New Castle, PA. And in 1940, they immediately found three decapitated bodies, not far from McKeez Rocks, Pennsylvania. Interestingly, they were also in trading cars. Another headless man in Cleveland was discovered in 1950, his identity is established - Robert Robertson. The Cleveland butcher has always dismembered his victims, often cutting off his heads. An interesting fact is that decapitated corpses in Pennsylvania in the swamps were found in the 20s of the last century.
Investigation progress
The case of the Cleveland butcher was dealt with by Eliot Ness, at that time - the head of the Cleveland security service.
The detective was a true professional in his field and had a number of significant professional achievements in the past. However, even such a specialist could not figure out the chain of sinister killers and find out who the criminal is, better known as the Cleveland Butcher. The maniac’s biography was replenished with new victims, the killings either ceased, then several corpses were re-discovered at once. With all this, the investigation practically stood still. Nevertheless, during the investigation, two people were included in the list of suspects. However, their involvement in the killings could not be proved. Eliot Ness himself ended his career as a detective after this high-profile case.
Suspect No. 1: Frank Dolezel
On suspicion of the assassination of Florence Polillo, Frank Dolezel, a man living in Cleveland, was arrested on August 24, 1939. During interrogations, he confessed to a crime, but later refused his testimony and stated that they were literally “knocked out” of him by the police. Then the unexpected happened: Frank Dolezel died in his cell under unclear circumstances. The official cause of death - suicide - is questioned, since numerous injuries were found on the body of the deceased, including rib fractures.
Suspect No. 2: Francis E. Sweeney
Dr. Francis E. Sweeney became the second and main suspect in this high-profile case. During the Second World War, he was at the front, saving the lives of the wounded, successfully conducting operations. The field of vision of the police came in 1938, after the discovery of the next victims of the Cleveland maniac. Francis E. Sweeney went through two polygraph examinations, and experts concluded that he was the killer. Detective E. Ness personally conducted interrogations with the suspect. However, due to a number of reasons, F.E. Sweeney could not be proved guilty, and the doctor voluntarily went for long-term treatment. In 1964, the suspect died in one of Dayton's hospitals.
Maniac Cleveland Butcher: Interesting Facts and the Use of His Image in Contemporary Art
Tragic real-life stories often inspire creative people. Based on a real Cleveland nightmare, Brian Michael Bendis, with the help of several other authors, created a comic strip published in Image Comics under the sonorous name of “Torso”. Director David Fincher is known for making a feature film based on a real story about the serial killer Zodiac. He wanted to devote a similar ribbon to the butcher from Cleveland.
But to date, this idea has not been implemented. However, in the movie “Seven Psychopaths,” the episode mentions the Cleveland Butcher. The photo of the actor in the image of this character is too much like the photos of Francis Sweeney. In David Fincher’s film “Seven,” the name of the main negative character, the
serial maniac, is John Doe. It is believed that in
1938 the Cleveland Butcher committed his last murder. Ohio, however, has been shaken for a long time by all kinds of rumors and legends about a brutal killer. This character frightened children, and if someone from respectable citizens disappeared, the public immediately prepared to find a new headless body. But today the nightmare is a thing of the past, and people rarely remember it. Let's hope that our contemporaries really can not be afraid of the next return of the disintegrator from Cleveland.