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The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run


JonathanVonErich

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Thanks Jon.

I wonder if the Walter Emerick in Ohio is the same one that got caught for the murders. I'm thinking the one in Ohio is older since he has a responsible position as a Treasurer for the subdivision.

I did find too, during the 1930's, they were having death rituals with human sacrifices. In these cases, the blood was drained out of the bodies. Probably a long shot but, although they said the the rituals were active, I couldn't find any victims that were attributed to them. I did read that the victim had to be healthy, which would most likely rule out our prostitutes and homeless population.

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Ness's suspect Sweeney mentioned earlier actually took 2 very early polygraph tests and failed both of them.

i'm convinced this is the guy.

i'm equally convinced he 'got away' with the murders due to his political connections and those political connections political battle with elliot ness.

from wiki:

Significantly, Sweeney worked during World War I in a medical unit that conducted amputations in the field. Sweeney was later personally interviewed by Eliot Ness, who oversaw the official investigation into the killings in his capacity as Cleveland's Safety Director. During this interrogation, Sweeney, whom Ness code-named "Gaylord Sundheim," is said to have "failed to pass" two very early polygraph machine tests. Both tests were administered by polygraph expert Leonard Keeler, who told Ness he had his man. Nevertheless, Ness apparently felt there was very little chance of obtaining a successful prosecution of the doctor, especially as he was the first cousin of one of Ness' political opponents, Congressman Martin L. Sweeney (d.1960) who had hounded Ness publicly about his failure to catch the killer. (in fact Congressman Sweeney was a political ally of and was related by marriage to Sheriff O'Donnell (d.1940), and an opponent of Republican Cleveland mayor Harold Burton who had appointed Ness). After Dr. Sweeney committed himself, there were no more leads or connections that police could assign to him as a possible suspect. The killings apparently stopped after Sweeney voluntarily entered institutionalized care shortly after the last official murders were discovered in 1938. From his hospital confinement, Sweeney would mock and harass Ness and his family with threatening postcards into the 1950s.[citation needed] He died in a veterans' hospital at Dayton in 1964.

i'd like to know where the institution sweeney was committed to was located and also any unsolved murders from around that area during the time he was a patient there.

some great work done on this thread and i don't want to disparage anyone's work but the letter as posted earlier has no physical connection to the case as far as i can see tho if it does it also fits with Sweeneys record of sending mocking letters to Ness..

fascinating case again...anyone have any idea which of the various books about this is supposed to be the most balanced and informative?

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The thing that bothers me the most about Sweeney is that he was a full blown alcoholic and in my opinion, alcoholics would not be able to carry out the murders without leaving a trail of clues. Hell, my ex couldn't even stay upright after a couple of hours of drinking, which at times, started at 6 A.M. He tended to fall down, while knocking things over and would even pass out during conversations. He couldn't take a shower, go to the restroom, eat, work, anything without a beer in his hand.

Although, I would imagine Sweeney could, if he was the killer, function normally for awhile, he would not be able to do it every time as I believe, the alchohol would get the best of him before it was over.

Also, Sweeneys notes to Ness were usually filled with taunts, trying to rub Ness' face in the fact that he (claiming he was the killer) was never caught.

If the note was real, this behavior is totally out of charactor.

Sweeney suffered from mental illness too. In his mind, maybe he started believing he did do the crimes, but I don't think he contained the ability to carry them out.

Just my opinion anyway.

I believe Jon would be the one to tell you which books are the best for facts. I have been googling so many different articles on the case and comparing the facts from each to reach my conclusions, which still haven't gotten us any closer to finding out who the killer really is.

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how old was this walter emerick guy and how old was he at the time the original murders took place? theres about 30 years between them, so he needs to be about 50? to have done both. theres such a long time between those murders and the other ones, its hard to believe that he would stop killing for years and then start again with none imbetween-unless there are other murders somewhere else where the bodies were chopped up and the heads were missing.

there are similarities in the cases though-chopped up bodies, missing heads, and months/years between bodies being found.

maybe he was copying the original murderer?

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The thing that bothers me the most about Sweeney is that he was a full blown alcoholic and in my opinion, alcoholics would not be able to carry out the murders without leaving a trail of clues. Hell, my ex couldn't even stay upright after a couple of hours of drinking, which at times, started at 6 A.M. He tended to fall down, while knocking things over and would even pass out during conversations. He couldn't take a shower, go to the restroom, eat, work, anything without a beer in his hand.

Although, I would imagine Sweeney could, if he was the killer, function normally for awhile, he would not be able to do it every time as I believe, the alchohol would get the best of him before it was over.

Also, Sweeneys notes to Ness were usually filled with taunts, trying to rub Ness' face in the fact that he (claiming he was the killer) was never caught.

If the note was real, this behavior is totally out of charactor.

Sweeney suffered from mental illness too. In his mind, maybe he started believing he did do the crimes, but I don't think he contained the ability to carry them out.

Just my opinion anyway.

I believe Jon would be the one to tell you which books are the best for facts. I have been googling so many different articles on the case and comparing the facts from each to reach my conclusions, which still haven't gotten us any closer to finding out who the killer really is.

being a full blown alcoholic doesn't mean you staggering about drunk all the time....i have a few friends who are pretty much functional alcoholics tho their 'hobby' doesn't affect their day to day life in any real appreciable way...

lot of serial killers and the like are functional alcoholics too....denis nilsen springs to mind...and jeffrey dahmer if i remember rightly..

as for his mental illness - was he actually mentally ill? i can't find an actual diagnosis anywhere...this strikes me as more 'prison for the rich and the well connected' rather than sweeney being genuinely mentally ill...it's noteworthy that until the police started sniffing around him and ness held him up as a suspect he wasn't, apparently, going to be committed to a mental asylum...and also that the murders (the kingsbury ones at least) ceased once he was 'behind bars'.

how i think it happened:

i think his cousin - the congressman - discovered that ness was suspicious of sweeney...certainly after the failed polygraph tests and so he investigated and discovered his cousin was the killer...now he has a few options - he gives him up to ness and so jeopardises his own political career....he ignores what he knows / suspects and carries on as normal, which risks sweeney 'tripping up' and being caught by ness either via interrogation or by evidence left at subsequent crimes scenes and could again lead to the end of his political career.

or he gets rid of cousin one way or another and takes him out of circulation. and the way to do this and still ensure deniability is to have him committed to a mental home and diagnosed as mentally ill.

another of my 'obsessions' (like true crime) is politics...and this is the exact sort of thing a politician and his coterie would do to alleviate pressure on themselves.

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how old was this walter emerick guy and how old was he at the time the original murders took place? theres about 30 years between them, so he needs to be about 50? to have done both. theres such a long time between those murders and the other ones, its hard to believe that he would stop killing for years and then start again with none imbetween-unless there are other murders somewhere else where the bodies were chopped up and the heads were missing.

there are similarities in the cases though-chopped up bodies, missing heads, and months/years between bodies being found.

maybe he was copying the original murderer?

I'm not sure how old he was as none of the articles contained that information. Not even the article about the funeral.

The time the murders stopped may have been due to the fact he was in the military. I haven't been able to track the dates yet, and have seen no reference as to when he was on active duty or what his reason for leaving the military was.

One of my thoughts early in the thread was that at some point there may have been a conspiracy where more than one person was doing the killings, one master mind and others to carry out the deed. The crimes in Youngstown and the other Pennsylvania murders fit in our timeline, however, they were slightly different.

In one of the murders, can't remember which one, the word NAZI was carved into a mans chest. This may go along with my original suspect as he created quite a controversy by treating the Jewish population and blacks. One of the victims, by the way, was black. My original suspect moved to Florida in the 50's and had ties to Georgia, both states being involved in the butcherings that Emerick was blamed for. Once again, could be coincidence but there are so many other states to choose from. Why those states?.

Yes, there is always the chance that he was a copy cat killer and I am not sure how much of the actual facts were published in the news. There is also the possibility that Emericks victim was simply a victim of passion and nothing more.

I kinda have my doubts about Emerick but decided to check out the facts before ruling him out. The murder that cost him his life was so messy and out of charactor for the Butcher who would clean his victims up before disposing of the bodies. I don't believe the Butcher ever left so much blood laying about, of course, there is the possiblity that he cleaned the messes up or was doing it in a place where it wouldn't have been noticed.

There was no way we will ever know if it was a skilled butchering or messy as none of the body parts were ever recovered.

I don't think the fact that he was 50 was an issue. I believe Gacy was over that age when he got caught and a person could be lured somewhere, given something to put them to sleep, and the deed could be accomplished anyway with no regard to the killers age. The pieces were cut up enough that even a 50 year old could pick up a torso after the blood, arms, legs, head were cut off, there wouldn't be much weight there.

My opinion anyway.

Edited by iamdee1
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being a full blown alcoholic doesn't mean you staggering about drunk all the time....i have a few friends who are pretty much functional alcoholics tho their 'hobby' doesn't affect their day to day life in any real appreciable way...

lot of serial killers and the like are functional alcoholics too....denis nilsen springs to mind...and jeffrey dahmer if i remember rightly..

as for his mental illness - was he actually mentally ill? i can't find an actual diagnosis anywhere...this strikes me as more 'prison for the rich and the well connected' rather than sweeney being genuinely mentally ill...it's noteworthy that until the police started sniffing around him and ness held him up as a suspect he wasn't, apparently, going to be committed to a mental asylum...and also that the murders (the kingsbury ones at least) ceased once he was 'behind bars'.

how i think it happened:

i think his cousin - the congressman - discovered that ness was suspicious of sweeney...certainly after the failed polygraph tests and so he investigated and discovered his cousin was the killer...now he has a few options - he gives him up to ness and so jeopardises his own political career....he ignores what he knows / suspects and carries on as normal, which risks sweeney 'tripping up' and being caught by ness either via interrogation or by evidence left at subsequent crimes scenes and could again lead to the end of his political career.

or he gets rid of cousin one way or another and takes him out of circulation. and the way to do this and still ensure deniability is to have him committed to a mental home and diagnosed as mentally ill.

another of my 'obsessions' (like true crime) is politics...and this is the exact sort of thing a politician and his coterie would do to alleviate pressure on themselves.

I do see what you are saying about he may be able to function for a time with the alcohol but I believe that when the murders were happening, he was going at it full force.

The political theory is a good one. If I were a relative or had close ties with politicians, I can see where they would want to discretely cover this up. But, if he was placed there to keep embarrassment away from the politicians, why send taunting notes and continue to dig up the embarrassing situation. I would think they would want the whole incident to die down.

Also, I would think that if Sweeney had done it, and knowing a little about how alcoholics are, I would think the lovely wife would not have been safe. Something like a divorce, could very well have sent him over the edge and she could have been another victim, more so than a stranger, since she also had his children and people can get very aggressive when it comes to their kids.

I'll do a little digging and see what else I can find about Sweeney.

Edited by iamdee1
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Ness's suspect Sweeney mentioned earlier actually took 2 very early polygraph tests and failed both of them.

i'm convinced this is the guy.

i'm equally convinced he 'got away' with the murders due to his political connections and those political connections political battle with elliot ness.

fascinating case again...anyone have any idea which of the various books about this is supposed to be the most balanced and informative?

I agree with you Dekk, Sweeney is a very interesting suspect, I should have shared a few words about him in my opening post. I'm not convinced that he was the killer but I agree with you that his story is interesting.

I think the best book available is In the Wake of the Butcher : Cleveland's Torso Murders, written in 2001. What I like about this book is that the author don't push his own theory of who was the Torso murderer, he just give the facts and share the different theories available, and let us decide which one is the more plausible.

AMAZON.COM : In the Wake of the Butcher : Cleveland's Torso Murders

There's also Torso: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run a True Story, written in 1990. The book is not perfect, the author spend way too much time on Ness' rivalry with Capone, but it's still a solid book about the case. Just expect a lot of stories about Ness.

AMAZON.com : Torso: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run a True Story

All I can say is that I wouldn't be basing any conclusions on what I read off Wiki. ;)

True, but the informations shared by Dekk are still accurate. I think the most reliable information about Sweeney can be found here, on TruTV: Dr. Francis Sweeney

Edited by JonathanVonErich
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This may have absolutely nothing to do with the case but I found it and thought I would share.

Two of the victims were found on June 5th, 1936 and June 6, 1936 which is the day the the Republican Conventioner started arriving in Cleveland. Not sure but this could be a lead.

Also, according to the True Crime thread, there was also a man at an embalming college whose name was obtained through an anonymous tip. It didn't give the mans name but he did move his businees from Cleveland in 1938.

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Two of the victims were found on June 5th, 1936 and June 6, 1936 which is the day the the Republican Conventioner started arriving in Cleveland. Not sure but this could be a lead.

Interesting, maybe that's why he was in town. It wouldn't surprise me if this monster was a Republican. :P

However it could just be a coincidence. And remember that the victim was most likely killed days before his body was found.

Also, according to the True Crime thread, there was also a man at an embalming college whose name was obtained through an anonymous tip. It didn't give the mans name but he did move his businees from Cleveland in 1938.

Very interesting, where did you find the information ?? I have read nothing about this story in both my Encyclopedia of Serial Killers or Encyclopedia of Unsolved Crimes.

Edited by JonathanVonErich
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This is similar to the paragraph that I found and to be honest, there were several articles that stated this same thing.

"Mutilation of a corpse, whether as a prank or by a **********c, is not a particularly unusual occurrence. It is not even considered a particularly serious crime in Ohio. These bodies presented enough deviations from the Butcher's standard operating mode to bring into question whether they were really homicides at all. On an anonymous tip, the police department investigated a man who operated an embalming college, but charges were never brought and the man quickly moved his business out of town."

I found the above passage at:

http://sites.google.com/site/onamissionrevived/eliotness-catandmouse

Hope the link comes through and I will look again on trutv for the 1938 date.

One article, can't find it now but it was trutv stated that he moved his college in 1938.

Edited by iamdee1
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Cheers JVE - i'll order that first book this evening!

<thumbs up>

You're welcome !

This is the paragraph that I found and to be honest, there were several articles that stated this same thing.

I found the above passage at:

http://sites.google.com/site/onamissionrevived/eliotness-catandmouse

Hope the link comes through and I will look again on trutv for the 1938 date.

One article, can't find it now but it was trutv stated that he moved his college in 1938.

Ok thanks. If my memory is correct I think I once read something about this story, that some people had doubts that it was real, that it could have been a story created by one of the newspapers. But hey, thanks for the link, and if you find something about it on TruTV then the story must be true, TruTV is a very respectable site.

Edited by JonathanVonErich
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Jon,

It wasn't the Trutv link either so I will try to retrace what I have read to see if I can find it again.

The TruTv one stated the same thing as the link I just sent you.

I guess I need to start writing down where I'm finding this stuff and where I read what.

It is highly possible that it was another article I read, as I have read several already today.

Edited by iamdee1
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Jon,

It wasn't the Trutv link either so I will try to retrace what I have read to see if I can find it again.

The TruTv one stated the same thing as the link I just sent you.

I guess I need to start writing down where I'm finding this stuff and where I read what.

It is highly possible that it was another article I read, as I have read several already today.

Ok, thanks DeAnna. Sorry I had to ask a link, it's not that I don't believe you, there's so many myths about this case that sometimes it's difficult to separate the truth from the myths. :tu:

Edited by JonathanVonErich
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Yes, I know and it is OK.

I did re-read the article about TruTv and it said they were investigating a man at the college after the bodies were found in 1938 and that shortly after, the Emballming College left town. That may have been where I picked up the date of 1938 as that date was clearly written with my notes with the College.

Not sure though but still pretty good coincidence.

Also, the victim that was found in April 1938 was decomposed except for her back which was well preserved. That may have been one of the reasons the Emballming College became suspect.

I'm gonna try to google emballming colleges in the 1930's around Cleveland and see if I can determine where it went from there or if it even existed.

Edited by iamdee1
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The Cleveland School Of Embalming was located in Cleveland Ohio. I couldn't find an address or when/if the college left town. It does look like it was there in the 1930's though as I found several references of funeral home directors graduating from there.

Still looking for more information and will let you know if I find anything interesting.

Edited by iamdee1
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The Cleveland School Of Embalming was located in Cleveland Ohio. I couldn't find an address or when/if the college left town. It does look like it was there in the 1930's though as I found several references of funeral home directors graduating from there.

I have found a site where a man, William F. Boyd, say that he went to the Cleveland School of Embalming on Prospect, just below E. 40 th Street, and graduated in 1938. Link to the Article

I searched for Prospect street, and it's located near Euclide, where the first victim was found and where another victim was found on February 23, 1937.

It's also near Kingsbury Run. Just google "Kingsbury Run Cleveland", you'll get a map, you'll be able to see how close these areas were from each other.

Another interesting link. :yes:

Edited by JonathanVonErich
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In 1938 the Cleveland School of Embalming was located on Prospect just south of E. 40th. and the class of 38 had about 100 people in it according to the Vice President of the class, William F. Boyd.

Edit: oops, Jon beat me to it, lol.

Edited by rashore
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Wow, great work guys.

The more I read, the more I'm thinking there is more than one killer.

I looked for the info you just provided but once again, I got sidetracked.

Here is where I am now.

I googled Cleveland College of Embalming with Wikipedia, I know, not the best source, just to look for an address. What came up astounded me and distracted me from my original goal.

According to Wikipedia, there was no link for the Embalming College, however, at the bottom of the page, I came across a link that had the Palmer School of Chiropractic and the words, embalming fluid, so curiosity got the best of me and I clicked on the link.

What it brought up, amazed me.

It seems that Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, located in Seattle Washington had a mummified body that was purchased in 1955 along with a female mummy.

2001 and 2005 tests on the male mummy, named Stanley, revealed he was human and was injected with a large amount of embalming fluid shortly after death. I think they believe it was from the 1800's but they didn't say this.

In the shop is also a mummified mermaid head that looks terribly human to me. Another female mummy known only as Sylvia, was purchased with Stanley, and has a terrified look on her face that stayed with her after death.

There is also the mummified remains of a baby, several shrunken skulls that have been determine to be human, and also mention of a hanged man with only the legs sticking out.

I should also mention that the international trafficing of human skulls was stopped in the 1930's and reference was made that it was believe that some of the rarer items inside the shop were probably stolen.

It seems that "Daddy" J.E. Standley, founder of the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop, was born in Steubeville Ohio in 1854. He provided unusual and obscure artifacts to clients all over the country including museums in Cleveland Ohio. He bought and sold the items he had on display.

The Palmer School of Chiropractic was also a customer of the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop in the early 1900's and may have continued to do business with them after that time period.

Edited by iamdee1
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Jumping around here for a bit.

It appears that Elmer F. Boyd (1878-1944) changed the name of his Cleveland Embalming College to E. F. Boyd & Son in 1938. Boyd would have been close to his 60's at the time. The new business was moved in 1938 to 2165 E 89th Street in Cleveland. I couldn't find a month of the move but there were references that the suspected college did move around the 1938 time frame so this could very well be the one that was mentioned.

After his death in 1944, his son, William, carried on the business. It doesn't look like there is any hard evidence to say that the Embalming College was responsible. At this point, we are just discussing this topic.

If I remember right, wasn't 1938 when the last Butcher body was found.

Dang, too much information on the internet and too little time.

Edited by iamdee1
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I typed in the address for the Cleveland School of Embalming and the link that was brought up was for the Boyds. However, after re-reading the thread, I discovered that it was not a street address but more like a general vicinity so now, I do not believe that they actually owned the School of Embalming, only that they were in the same area and looks like I was wrong about them owning it.

William Boyd did go to the School of Embalming in Cleveland and was the Vice President of his class. He stated in one of the articles that his father developed ill health in 1938 and that is why they say the funeral parlour was moved from the area it was in. The father died in 1944 so it is a possibility that is what happened. I also found reference that the family funeral parlour was moved several times before they finally settled so the fact that they moved in 1938 may have just been a coincidence.

I do believe that someone at the embalming college could possibly have been a suspect, whether it was someone on the inside or a student, but I do not believe that the Boyds owned it, after realizing that it was not an address I typed in.

I just wanted to clarify that I did make an error and wanted it to be corrected with my apologies.

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I think this is a very interesting story. In 1993 a man claimed he solved the case. Thanks to DeAnna for the info.

Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)

July 25, 1993

A TRUCK DRIVER TURNS AMATEUR SLEUTH AND TRIES TO SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF 12 GRUESOME MURDERS THAT SHOCKED CLEVELAND MORE THAN 50 YEARS AGO

Author: BRIAN E. ALBRECHT

The man with no head sits in a Pennsylvania swamp so dank and desolate even the locals call it Hell's Half-Acre.

For nearly a month, he's sat astride one of the few paths into the swamp, as if intentionally put there to greet anyone with enough guts to venture into this bog of horrors. His head - perfect teeth, hair neatly clipped from a recent haircut - lies buried just under his feet, which point due north.

Not far away, a long strip of weathered human flesh flutters in the breeze, draped over a bush.

It's not his. It belongs to the headless skeleton of another man; also seated, feet facing north.

There is a head, a woman's, nearby. The rest of her is scattered across the swamp, mingled with the skeletal remains of a third man - he, too, hacked to pieces.

A thousand outraged volunteers take the swamp apart, searching for clues, but succeed only in bringing a temporary halt to the grisly discoveries of this backwoods charnel house. Two more corpses will later surface in the area.

Years pass. Then, the same railroad tracks adjoining Hell's Half-Acre - traveling from New Castle, Pa., to Youngstown, Akron and Cleveland - bring the butchery to our doorstep.

Twelve headless, savagely mutilated bodies and human pieces are littered across the city; gruesome souvenirs of an unknown killer dubbed the Torso Murderer.

Terror stalks Cleveland for three years, then abruptly ends; again, in the wake of a massive, frenzied manhunt.

A year later, the mangled bodies start reappearing in Pennsylvania. The Torso Murderer has come back home.

A t least that's how Robert Mancini has it figured. For more than a year, this Austintown, O., truck driver has attempted to answer a question that has stymied police - including legendary lawman Eliot Ness (Cleveland's former safety director) - for more than 50 years:

Who was the Torso Murderer? He was the Midwest's "Jack the Ripper" of the 1920s and '30s; equally anonymous but exceedingly more prolific and savage.

Both killers quickly became the subject of numerous theories and debate as to their motives and identity. Nor has that interest diminished with the passage of time.

Rarely does a month go by that someone doesn't call Anne Kmieck, curator of the Cleveland Police Museum, where a Torso Murder exhibit is prominently displayed.

"There's still a big interest in this," she says. "We get a lot of calls from out-of-town authors, people writing screenplays, students ..."

One caller contacted the museum because she thought one of the Cleveland victims may have been her grandfather, who had disappeared during the murder years and had tattoos that might match those found on the body. (Only three of the 12 victims found here were identified.)

Mancini, 35, ran across the story while killing time at the library after he was laid off. The swamp murders, located not too far from where he used to live in Hubbard, hooked his imagination. He waded through old newspaper clippings, reference books, public records and police reports, gradually nailing together a theory: The New Castle killer and Cleveland's Torso Murderer were one and the same.

Granted, the same connection was explored years ago when headlines screamed bloody murder and the Cuyahoga River became a floating butcher shop of severed limbs.

But Mancini has come up with a suspect, plus a few intriguing possibilities never raised before. He believes police initially were on the right track in looking for a "territorial" killer - someone familiar with the areas here and in New Castle where the bodies were dumped, someone who could move around those areas without arousing suspicion. So he dug a little deeper into New Castle history. He found that in 1923, two years before the first swamp victim was discovered, the torso of a dismembered girl had surfaced in a river not too far from Hell's Half-Acre. Two years before that, an old woman had been decapitated by an unknown killer in her house - located near the same railroad tracks that ran alongside the swamp. The start of a bloody trail? Mancini isn't sure: "There comes a point where you just have to say, `I don't know.'

He started to compile a list of coincidences shared by the first six New Castle swamp murders (1925-34); the dozen Cleveland killings (1935-38); and the six bodies found back in Pennsylvania (1939-42). Nearly all were brown-haired males, less than 6 feet tall (implying a larger assailant who could overpower them).

Most of those murdered were vagrants, drifters or social outcasts; many who may have lived in hobo camps adjoining railroad tracks near where the bodies were found.

All were found nude, the majority decapitated, dismembered and mutilated with what was described as "surgical" skill (or the knowledgeable hand of a hunter or butcher). Body parts often were wrapped in newspaper, or paper of the sort used in railroad boxcars.

Railroads.

Again and again it surfaced as Mancini's list grew: Nearly all the victims were found near railroad tracks; in waterways leading from or near the tracks; or, in four cases, inside abandoned boxcars. A railroad engineer's lantern was left beside the first Cleveland victim.

The last two of the 12 bodies found here appeared to have been frozen for a time before being dumped. Because most of the victims had not been killed where they were found, the original investigators searched in vain for a local "murder laboratory." Mancini says an empty freezer meat boxcar could've served as both a rolling butcher shop and refrigerator, with no one who'd question any telltale bloodstains.

Mancini gradually sketched the portrait of a killer - a railroad employee who lived in New Castle and worked the line running between that city and Cleveland. He'd be someone who'd have easy access to boxcars, and could move around trackside areas and rail yards without drawing undue attention.

The railroad theory had been considered before. Cleveland detectives disguised as tramps once rode the rails between New Castle and Cleveland, offering themselves as Torso bait. Mancini believes it was a halfhearted effort: "If they couldn't solve 12 of their own murders, they certainly didn't want to handle 24 unsolved murders." Mancini, however, kept digging.

Why? Even Mancini initially is at a loss to explain what kept pushing him to try to solve a case long buried in the dust of history. The passage of years, lack of physical evidence and utter failure of several hundred lawmen in two different states should've convinced any amateur detectives they were sleuthing down a blind alley. "It's hard to say. At first it was just something to consume a lot of spare time," Mancini says. "In the beginning, I actually thought I might solve this. Every time I'd find a new piece of something, I'd get all excited and think, `I'm moving in on this guy.' It was like the ultimate big-game hunt.'

In stalking a local New Castle connection, Mancini concentrated on one of the last victims - found with the word "Nazi" (the "z" reversed) carved into his chest. These were tumultuous times in Europe, when Adolf Hitler was just coming to power, launching his own campaign of murder on a much larger scale.

That got Mancini thinking. Maybe the killer had an intense hatred of Nazis. Maybe strong enough for him to quit killing people here and join the military so he could kill Nazis over there. The timing would be about right - the last killing came not long after America's entry into the war.

So Mancini started working backward, looking for a serviceman from New Castle who'd worked for the railroad before the war.

Bingo. The pieces locked into place with the discovery of a man who'd lived in New Castle, worked as a railroad conductor for 20 years and enlisted in the Army in 1942.

Mancini says the man was born and raised in rural West Virginia; possibly a skilled hunter, handy with a knife.

The man's father had been an American soldier who, by varying accounts, was either killed or wounded by the Germans during World War I.

But if vengeance for his father was the man's goal in enlisting, he never got his chance. Mancini says the man was killed in a training accident shortly after joining the service. An ignominious end for the notorious Torso Murderer? Maybe. Maybe not. That's why Mancini, though willing to provide The Plain Dealer with the man's name, prefers that it not be published. Plus, there's still-living relatives of a man he'd be accusing without a shred of evidence.

"Even if I could somehow put this guy at the scene, on the right dates, it wouldn't prove anything," Mancini says. "Unless you have some witnesses, you can't prove it." Not that he hasn't tried.

In recent months he's tried to locate the man's work record, death certificate (for height), and other telltale clues.

It even occurred to Mancini that because many of the victims' heads were never found, he'd visit the house in New Castle where the man lived. "I believe he saved them, but what he did with them, who knows?" Mancini says of the missing heads. "That's why I was hoping to find a big old house with an attic, or a back yard with a patch of grass that was a little greener than the rest ..." The house, however, has long since been razed. Hell's Half-Acre is now part of a power-plant complex, and most of the Cleveland sites have similarly long been buried by progress.

The railroad tracks - that recurring constant in Mancini's theory - still tie New Castle to Cleveland in a steel ribbon. But Mancini figures he's taken this theoretical train about as far as it'll go. It's been a good ride, though. "I got something out of it - an education in research," he says. "People are pretty impressed by the amount of work I've done, for a guy who never went to college or did research before. "But I won't miss it," he adds. "I'm satisfied with the results, and I'm pretty sure I'm right ... unless I find out the guy was only 4 feet tall, or missing an arm, to prove I'm wrong." He gets a vote of confidence from Steven Nickel, author of the 1989 book "Torso," a detailed examination of the Torso murders. Nickel says Mancini's theory is "really plausible. I congratulate this guy. He did a hell of a job digging this up. "I always thought New Castle was just too close, geographically, and too close in the way the bodies were dismembered, to really disregard it," he adds.

But like Mancini, Nickel doubts we'll ever really know for sure. "Whoever the killer was, it's probably something he took to the grave with him," he says. "It'd be nice to come up with a solution after all these years, but I don't think we will - or that we necessarily should. "Maybe it should just stay this way. It always seems when you find a solution for something like this, the mystery kind of loses its appeal. "And perhaps as long as there's an unsolved mystery, there'll be people like Robert Mancini out there - with a little time and a lot of imagination - ready to take their shot at solving it.

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I'm not convinced, but I still think that this is a very interesting story. I have many Encyclopedia about crimes and serial killers, and in none of them I was able to find something about this story, I'm wondering why.

One thing is for sure: This case will never be solved.

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Well that's an interesting addition to the case Jon.

If that scenario is correct, and if the letter was from the killer... Would that make D.C a directing conductor or controller? I'm not well read of RR terminology, lol. But I would imagine it would surprise the heck out of the medical community that a RR guy was able to do what the killer did.

Wow, at this point the what if's tidbits that might connect to the case are almost more interesting than the case itself.

I gotta agree that I doubt the case will ever be solved.

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