The Torso Murders are infamous in Ohio, and have intrigued and inspired true-crime buffs across the country for 80 years. The bodies of most of the victims were found in Kingsbury Run, an east side slum which itself has a long and interesting history. Delve into the dark history of Kingsbury Run…
To give some background to this story, here is a photo of Kingsbury Run, ca. 1920
The residents of the slums were mostly the working poor - people who were drawn to the city for work, and/or pushed into poverty and consequently out of housing during the Depression.
The Torso Murders are often referred to as the US's answer to Jack the Ripper - a prolific, violent killer preying on the most vulnerable. Another commonality is that neither killer was ever caught or even identified. Here, police officers inspect some remains.
The official number of victims is 12, between 1935 and 1938, although some claim that there were as many as 20 between 1920 and 1950. This photo shows police officers examining a body of water where some body parts were found.
The Cleveland Police Museum now has a permanent exhibit on the murders, with original case files, documents, photos, and death masks. Only three victims were ever identified, and only two of those identifications were ever official.
Rose Wallace was identified as one of the victims, but the coroner never agreed with the identification, which was based on potentially unreliable information. It is assumed that all of the victims were working poor who lived in the slums, and therefore had little to no medical or social records which could posthumously identify them. The killer likely chose their victims knowing this.
The one thing the bodies of the victims certainly had in common was that they were always beheaded and dismembered. Some of the male victims had their genitalia severed, and many victims died as a direct result of beheading or dismemberment.
This photo shows the arrest of a suspect, Mike Borich, in 1936. Like every other suspect who was arrested or questioned, he was later cleared of the murders.
Eliot Ness, who was famous for being an incorruptible and stalwart crime-fighter, was made (in)famous by what many saw as his inability or unwillingness to solve the murders. His presence in the Torso Murders investigation, and his unsuccessful run for Mayor of Cleveland, made him a Cleveland legend.
Some even accused him of deliberately stifling the investigation either to protect the murderer or his own political career. This case has inspired films, TV series, books, and this graphic novel (pictured, Torso: a True Crime Graphic Novel by Brian Michael Bendis).
It’s a classic whodunnit, which will likely remain forever unsolved, at least in the official records. Despite many plans over the years to completely redevelop the area, and many actual redevelopments, Kingsbury Run will always be remembered for being the site of these gruesome and tragic murders.
Do you have a pet theory about the Torso Murders?
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