March 9, 2023 • 27 mins
In the mid 1930s an unidentified killer stalked Kingsbury Run, Ohio. It's a mystery that even Elliott Ness couldn't solve.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Just a heads up. The epilogue to this episode contains
discussion of sexual violence that may be disturbing to some.
Please take care while listening. You're listening to American Shadows,
a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey.
(00:25):
Edward Joseph O'Hare, often called EJ, knew what he wanted
in life. In nineteen twelve, the nineteen year old married
Selma Laut and they had three children, daughters Patricia and Marylyn,
and son Edward Junior, whom they called Butch. Selma's father
allowed the family to live in the apartment above the
family grocery store. Realizing hard work alone wouldn't give him
(00:49):
and his family the best in life, EJ studied to
become a lawyer. In nineteen twenty three, he passed the
bar and found work at a law firm. Through the years,
he worked tirelessly. He eventually bought a new home, complete
with a swimming pool and skating rink, in the affluent
neighborhood of Holly Hills. But EJ's ambition was insatiable. He
(01:12):
wanted only the best for his son. Believing Busch was
somewhat lazy, EJ. Enrolled him at the Western Military Academy.
Most of EJ's wealth had come from his client, Owen
Patrick Smith, the commissioner of the International Greyhound Association. Smith
had created a mechanical rabbit that greyhounds chased on the track,
and when Smith died, EJ bought the rights from his
(01:35):
widow a Sensing an opportunity, EJ took his mechanical rabbit
concept to Chicago's most influential resident, Al Capone. It didn't
take long for Capone to determine EJ's talent and hire
him on as one of his lawyers. With his influence, money,
and team of attorneys, it seemed as though Capone was untouchable.
(01:57):
The government had tried countless times to find something to
stick on Capone, but his lawyers, including EJ, always got
him out of it. Capone and EJ made considerable money
by operating greyhound tracks in Chicago, Boston, and Miami. Soon,
EJ moved his family into a large mansion that filled
an entire block. For security, the whole estate was fenced.
(02:20):
They even had living help. Though he was directly involved
with one of America's most notorious gangsters, EJ tried to
teach Butch right from wrong. Despite his own career path,
EJ wanted a better way of life for his son.
A Butch accompanied his father on many trips, and the
two shared their love of planes. When EJ flew, he
(02:42):
looked for opportunities to allow his son a few minutes
behind the controls. In nineteen twenty seven, EJ divorced Selma
and left her and his daughters in Saint Louis, he
met Ursula Granada, a sister to a state representative with
strong mob ties. For seven years, the will remained engaged
devout Catholics. The two couldn't marry since the Church didn't
(03:05):
recognize EJ's divorce. By nineteen thirty, EJ worried about the
influence his mob ties might have on his son's reputation
and his application to the Naval Academy. The only way
out was to turn on Capone. EJ worked with the
IRS and with a rising talent at the Justice Department,
Elliott ness Ness, headed a group that was finally able
(03:29):
to get Capone on tax evasion and thousands of violations
of the Volstead Act. EJ informed to the government the
Campone had fixed the jury. After his conviction, Capone was
sentenced to Alcatraz for tax evasion. He was released in
nineteen thirty nine. That November, a car sped past Ej
and gunned him down, though he never lived to see it.
(03:51):
EJ's effort allowed his son to join the Naval Academy
and go on to become a World War Two hero.
Butch O'Hare single handedly shot down own five Japanese bombers,
saving the USS Lexington, for which he received the Medal
of Honor. In nineteen forty nine, Chicago changed the name
of Orchard Depot Airport to O'Hare International in his honor
(04:13):
and elliot Ness, the young agent who helped bring down
Capone also rose to fame. But sometimes fame has a
dark side. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows. We
(04:35):
are fascinated with true crime. We have news reports, books,
and whole streaming channels devoted to it, and no category
of crime seems to capture our attention as much as
serial killers. Today, we have advancements in forensics technology and
specialized profilers to solve murders. In the nineteen thirties, though
(04:56):
law enforcement had to rely on other methods September twenty
third of nineteen thirty five was a perfect day for
kids to spend on the perhaps quaintly named Jackass Hill,
a slope near East forty Night Street in the Kingsbury
Run area of Cleveland, Ohio. In the winter, the kids
used the sixty foot slope for sledding, but on autumn days,
(05:19):
when the temperature hovered at a mild seventy one degrees
and the sky was a cloudless blue, kids took to
the hill for games. Sixteen year old James Wagner and
twelve year old Peter Costora took turns catching and tossing
a ball. One of them missed, and the ball rolled
down the slope into the bushes at the bottom. The
(05:39):
boys chased after. Near By, two other boys watched the
ball sailed down the hill with James and Peter in pursuit,
and at the same time both sets of boys came
across something unexpected. Instead of the ball, Peter and James
found a man's decapitated head in the bushes. The other
two boys is found a headless body. All four ran
(06:03):
back home, neither group realizing the head and body belonged
to two different men. Other kids gathered at the top
of the hill as police searched the area. After a
search of the bushes, police found another head and body,
making it a double homicide. Aside from decapitating the men,
the killer had drained the bodies of blood and removed
(06:24):
their genitals. Afterward, the killer had cleaned and washed the
corpses and dumped them in the park where they would
be easily found. One, Edward Andresy, was identified as one
of the victims. The second remained, a John Doe. Reports
estimated that Andressy had been dead for a few days.
The John Doe had been dead for over three weeks.
(06:47):
For months, the investigation went nowhere. People had no clues,
no suspects, no witnesses. A mild September gave way to
a bitter and cold January. The sound of a dog
barking relentlessly urged one resident to bundle up and head
to her neighbor's house to complain. Two baskets sat in
(07:07):
a snowbank outside the home. Inside were packages neatly wrapped
in newspapers. Assuming they were hams from the size and shape,
she knocked on the door to notify the neighbor. Charles
Page followed his neighbor outside, he unwrapped the packages. Inside
were frozen human body parts. Not long after, police converged
(07:29):
on the scene without taking care to preserve it for evidence.
Even though they never found her head, police identified the
victim as Florence Pollillo, a waitress, barkeep, and occasional sex worker.
According to the Corner, Florence died after her throat had
been split. While the community worried about the murders in
(07:50):
their safety, the police took an unbelievable stance. Since they
couldn't find Florence's head, they questioned whether her death had
been homicide. Their lack of investigation only fueled residents growing
distrust of the police force. During Prohibition, news of crooked
cops surfaced frequently. Complaints of incompetency and laziness filled Mayor
(08:15):
Harold Burton's office. Dealing with a serial killer on top
of extensive corruption overwhelmed Burton. While he dedicated his detectives
to the murders, he called the one person he thought
could clean up corruption within the force, Elliott Ness. The
public loved Ness reporters had dubbed him and his group
(08:35):
of agents the untouchables because capone couldn't buy them off.
Dark haired and square jawed, Ness was the perfect example
of what law enforcement should be. He took the job.
Instead of sitting behind a desk, he took to the streets.
Daily headlines were marked on his efforts, from taking down
crooked politicians and cops, to midnight raids on gambling parlors
(08:58):
and busting extortion ring His exploits were legendary. America had
a real life superhero. Not only was Ness untouchable, he
also seemed unstoppable. Yet someone else in the city also
shared those two traits with Ness, the serial killer who
the press began calling the Butcher of Kingsbury Run. And
(09:22):
while the mayor hadn't hired Ness to work on the case,
the two would soon collide. The day was too sunny,
too pleasant to sit in a classroom. It was June
(09:44):
fifth of nineteen thirty six, and with summer vacation just
around the corner, thirteen year old Gomez Ivy and the
eleven year old Lewis Chile decided to skip school. At
eight thirty that morning, the two friends left home with
their fishing poles. The lake erie had a couple of
great fishing spots and They might even get in a
quick swim before heading home if they had time to
(10:05):
avoid being seen. They walked along the railroad tracks for
a while and then cut through the east side of
Kingsbury Run. The strip of land had once been a
boomtown with businesses and refineries owned by the likes of J. D.
Rockefeller and William Halsey. Down prosperity turned into poverty during
the Depression. Instead of people hustling to and from businesses,
(10:27):
they now camped out in doorways and lived in cardboard
boxes in the alleys. Despite lost jobs and banks demanding
that mortgages be paid in full, President Hoover didn't believe
Americans needed the government's help. The unemployment rate reached twenty
five percent. Although people attempted to help each other, and
most families barely had enough to get by, much less
(10:49):
to give aid. People lined up for blocks for soup
and bread. Officials chased the houseless out of the surviving cities.
The east side of Kingsbury Run haven for those without
anywhere to go, often referred to as Hoovervilles, Areas like
these had cropped up across the country. The boys passed
shanty after shanty and some made from scrap lumber, others
(11:13):
from brick and tar. Paper. People lay in covered doorways
for warmth. They used newspapers, often referred to as hoover blankets.
A man in one doorway busied himself with bidding the
worn out soles of his shoes with cardboard. The boys
continued through to a barren stretch of property. Along the tracks,
a ball of fabric under a willow tree caught their attention. Curious,
(11:37):
they decided to take a look. The fabric turned out
to be a pair of discarded pants. Lewis suggested they
rummage through the pockets in case there was a coin
or two. They would likely turn out the pockets and
find nothing more than lint, but didn't hurt to check.
Gomez shrugged and picked up a nearby stick. He prodded
the lump of fabric to be sure a family of
(11:58):
rats hadn't taken up residency in their own hoover shack,
and while nothing stirred or shot out of a pant leg,
the ball of fabric rolled away. More curious than ever,
the boys unfurled the fabric. A man's head rolled out
on to the patch of dirt and grass, Horrified, the
(12:18):
boys grabbed their fishing poles and ran. They took no
notice of the men in the doorways or the families
peeking out of their lean tubes. Gomez and Lewis didn't
stop running until they got back home. The two friends
headed straight to Gomez's house. They no longer cared about
how much trouble they'd be in for ditching school. Unfortunately,
his mother wasn't home. Too afraid to leave the house,
(12:41):
the boys huddled together until she arrived hours later. She
no sooner walked in the door than boat boys began
to blurt out what they'd found. Missus Ivy calmed the
boys down and listened to the story again, as calm
as she could manage. She'd left the boys long enough
to summon a nearby patrolment and relay her son's story.
(13:02):
Patrolman Hendrix asked the boys for the exact location, but
they were so upset that they couldn't recall the precise spot.
Hendrix called for backup. It didn't take officers long to
find the head, along with a white shirt, a striped
dress shirt, underwear, and a belt. Most of the clothing
was torn and bloody, and nearby. They found a pair
(13:24):
of Oxford shoes, still neatly tied and socks stuffed inside.
Further down the tracks, they found the man's naked body.
The newspapers reported the murder the next morning. The coroner
determined capitation as the cause of death, and that the
victim was alive when his killer started to cut into him.
(13:44):
No one knew who the man was, despite six tattoos
they thought might help to identify him. A cast was
made of his face and sent to the Great Lake's Exposition.
Certainly some one there had to recognize him. Sadly, though
many passed through the gates, not one person came forward
with a single clue. A month later, another man's body
(14:15):
and severed head were found in the Big Creek area,
a bit further south of Cleveland. Due to the advanced decomposition,
the corner determined that this victim had been killed sometime
in May. The police had no suspects and few clues.
The killer didn't have a preference when it came to gender.
(14:35):
They had only one clue. The manner in which the
victims were cut suggested a great deal of knowledge about
the human body. Mayor Burton was under pressure once again.
The detectives assigned to the case began leaning on people
living in Hooverville's Those who offered up possible clues were
frequently arrested. Soon no one wanted to talk to the police.
(14:57):
In June, a boy found human remains ball walked under
a bridge. In September, another body was found in Kingsbury Run.
Eliot Ness was finally assigned to the case. In September
of nineteen thirty six, a Ness had detectives bring in suspects.
They ranged from a man living under a bridge who
collected women's shoes to a tightrope walker. Ness came up
(15:20):
with his own suspect, doctor Francis Sweeney. A Ness had
a problem. Though Sweeney was from a prominent family and
his cousin was a congressman in Ohio's twelfth district and
a political rival of Mayor Burton's, Sweeney had once had
addictions to alcohol and barbiturates. According to his ex wife,
his violent outbursts had caused her to question his sanity.
(15:43):
The papers reported that Sweeney had a reputation for being sadistic,
but Ness couldn't find any evidence against him, and Sweeney's
family and connections only made the investigation more difficult. Sweeney
often mocked the detectives assigned to follow him in frequently
managed to ditch them. Once he jumped off a moving
street car onto another passing in the opposite direction, leaving
(16:06):
the detective behind. The department began receiving strange phone calls
and envelopes filled with newspaper clippings about the slayings. They
also received a note with a drawing of the morgue's
front door, and Ness received a letter with a photo
of a tree in an open field. The message read
dig here. In February of nineteen thirty seven, a man
(16:32):
came across a woman's torso on Lake Erie's Euclid Beach.
Her limbs and head were never found. The corner stated
that the killer had begun taking his victim apart while
she was still alive. In August, Ness and the detectives
had had enough without being able to pin anything on Sweeney.
Police raided the Hoovervilles, arresting a few dozen men. Then
(16:55):
Ness ordered the camps burned to the ground. Ness later
said that he destroyed the camps to force the houseless
to move elsewhere. He believed the killer mainly targeted those
living in Kingsbury run shanties. Regardless, the public criticized his
actions and the killer was still on the loose. Ness
felt confident that Sweeney was the killer, but without a break,
(17:18):
he could only watch the body count continue to rise.
He began to drink heavily. Friends recounted the cruel jokes
he played on them. His wife divorced him after finding
out about several affairs. For a short while in nineteen
thirty seven, the murders seemed to stop, but in April
of nineteen thirty eight, a construction worker found part of
(17:41):
a woman's leg on the Cuyahoga River bank. In July,
the head and torso, believed to belong to Rose Wallace,
were found under a bridge. A month later, police recovered
body parts from a male victim found floating in the
Cuyahoga River. In August, scrap collectors found another woman's torso.
They found her head, legs, and arms near by. All
(18:03):
were wrapped neatly in butcher paper. Police found a second
body not far away. Both were in sight of Ness's
office window. The killer was taunting them. Ness's reputation lay
in ruin. He sat down with Sweeney one last time
after failing a polygraph, and Sweeney had himself admitted to
(18:26):
a mental institution. He re entered society in nineteen thirty
nine for a short period before admitting himself again. He
would die in an institution in nineteen sixty four. The
Kingsbury Run murders stopped in nineteen thirty nine. That year,
a letter arrived at the police department. The killer stated
that he had moved out to California, where Pid already
(18:48):
killed a woman and buried her long Century Boulevard, but
police never found a body. A reporter asked Ness about
the murders. Ness, no longer the city's hero, replied that
the case, as far as he was concerned, was closed.
Closed maybe, but to this day the case has never
(19:09):
been solved. Ness and his career never recovered. He worked
as a vice detective for the government on US Bass
during World War Two. After the war, he started a
couple of businesses, but both failed. He unsuccessfully ran for
(19:32):
mayor in nineteen forty seven. His second marriage failed for
the same reason his first did. Ness continued drinking and philandering.
He died penniless in nineteen fifty seven, at the age
of fifty four. Six months after his death, his memoirs
were published, spurring the hit TV show The Untouchables. A
(19:52):
year later, after the murders stopped, the residence of Kingsbury
Run returned to their lives, celebrating the end of the
Great Depression. Cleveland and the rest of America soon forgot
about the butcher of Kingsbury Run. A police estimated there
were twelve victims. However, there's speculation there may have been more.
(20:14):
One hot day in July nineteen thirty six, two railway
workers in Newcastle, Pennsylvania noticed an open box car. They
were positive of the car, which hadn't been in service
since nineteen thirty one, had been closed just a few
weeks prior. Inside, they discovered a grizzly murder scene. A
(20:34):
man's naked body lay on the floor. The amount of
blood splatter indicated his heart had been beating when someone
decapitated him. Reporters referred to the scene as the Bloody
box Car, and as gruesome as it was, investigators revealed
another horrific detail. Three newspapers had been found with the body.
(20:56):
One of those papers was the Cleveland Plane Dealer, dated
July nineteen thirty three to investigators. This meant that the
killer had returned to the scene between the time of
death and when the workers discovered the open car. Four
years later, in May of nineteen forty three, more headless
bodies were found on a box car, but the murders
(21:18):
in the rural area of Pennsylvania, referred to as the
Murder marsh had started much earlier. The body of an
unidentified man was found in West Pittsburgh one October sixth
of nineteen twenty five. The cause of death had been decapitation,
and the coroner estimated had been deceased for about three weeks.
(21:38):
Eleven days later, the skeletal remains of another male victim
were found not far from the first. He had also
been decapitated. A woman's joalous skull was also found. Then,
as suddenly as they had started, the murders in Newcastle stopped,
and the killings in Kingsbury began. Nests never stopped. Believing
(22:00):
that Sweeney was the butcher of Kingsbury, run and Detective
Peter Marlowe thought that the killer in Cleveland and the
one in Pennsylvania were the same. Not only were the
victims killed in the same manner, but they were also
people living on society's fringes. Marlowe also noted that the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad connected the two cities and had
(22:21):
two scheduled routes per day. Over eighty years later, we're
no closer to solving the two cases. It seems the
murderer managed to slip into the shadows. There's more to
this story. Stick around after this brief sponsor break to
hear all about it. The terror began in nineteen seventy four.
(22:50):
At first, they were burglaries. Between nineteen seventy four and
seventy five, roughly a hundred homes in Visalia, California were robbed.
The burglar left behind valuables and took small personal items instead.
What made it more unsettling was the thief's signature. He
rummaged through drawers and scattered any women's laundry he found
(23:13):
around the house, and he often killed any dogs in
the house. The press nicknamed him the Vizalea Ransacker. After
one murder was suspected of having been the work of
the Ransacker. The break in stopped not far away. A
rapist began terrorizing the residence of Carmichael Citrus Heights and
Rancho Cordova. No one knew at the time it was
(23:36):
the work of the same man. Initially, he seemed to
stalk women who lived alone, and preferably those who lived
in one story houses near open spaces, making it easy
for him to escape. In the days leading up to
the assault, victims noticed a prowler in the area. Often
he would enter the home quietly. He'd unload any guns
(23:57):
he found and leave ligatures to use on his victims. Later,
the police believed he staked out his victims in advance,
choosing women home alone or with small children. He broke
in at night, waking his victims by shining a bright
flashlight in their eyes, temporarily blinding them, and then he
bound the women and raped them. The press dubbed him
(24:19):
the East Side rapist. When an article pointed out that
none of the attacks happened in homes where men were present,
the attacker took it as a challenge. He'd broken to
homes and bound the men and women. Had leave the
men in the living room with a stack of dishes
on his back while he assaulted the woman, warning the
couple that if he heard plates fall to the floor,
(24:39):
he had killed them. Both In nineteen seventy eight, he
attacked and shot a couple while they were walking their dog.
He also shot and killed the dog. In nineteen seventy nine,
the attacker moved south, but this time after binding a
couple and raping the woman, he had bludgeon or shoot
the couple. Without realizing the same person was emitting the attacks,
(25:01):
a new nickname emerged, Original night Stalker. It's estimated the
between nineteen seventy six and nineteen eighty six, he raped
fifty women and killed twelve people. Often he raped the
victim repeatedly while other family members were bound and gagged nearby,
and sometimes he killed the whole family, including the dog.
(25:22):
Investigators determined that he had planned each attack to the
smallest detail. He also never stayed in one area, choosing
a territory from Sacramento to Irvine. He took a five
year break from nineteen eighty one to nineteen eighty six,
and while the attacks stopped, he continued tormenting one of
his surviving victims, calling her several times. With no leads
(25:46):
and no further attacks, the case went cold. In two
thousand and one, DNA evidence linked the East Area rapist
to the original night stalker. A law enforcement had new information,
but still no suspects and no leads. Then author Michelle
McNamara wrote the best selling novel All be Gone in
(26:06):
the Dark. She poured over the evidence in reports and
named the suspect the Golden State Killer. McNamara's premature death
pushed the case back into the news. Using evidence from
a rape kit, the FBI was able to link the
killer's DNA to a family on an ancestry site. The
FBI contacted a relative who helped in breaking the case
(26:28):
in twenty seventeen. In twenty eighteen, police arrested seventy two
year old James to Angelo. As the tale of the
Golden State Killer emerged, investigators learned through a former girlfriend
that D'Angelo had once pointed a gun at her. He
worked as a mechanic, moving from town to town. Neighbors
said he had a temper. COVID nineteen delayed the trial,
(26:51):
but on August first of twenty twenty, he pleaded guilty
and confessed to twenty six counts of murder, over a
hundred break ends, and several dozen rapes and other violent acts.
Now in his late seventies, he's serving twenty six consecutive
life sentences. American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This
(27:18):
episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed,
and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive
producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn
more about the show, visit grimanmil dot com. From more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(27:38):
wherever you get your podcasts
Just a heads up. The epilogue to this episode contains
discussion of sexual violence that may be disturbing to some.
Please take care while listening. You're listening to American Shadows,
a production of iHeartRadio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey.
(00:25):
Edward Joseph O'Hare, often called EJ, knew what he wanted
in life. In nineteen twelve, the nineteen year old married
Selma Laut and they had three children, daughters Patricia and Marylyn,
and son Edward Junior, whom they called Butch. Selma's father
allowed the family to live in the apartment above the
family grocery store. Realizing hard work alone wouldn't give him
(00:49):
and his family the best in life, EJ studied to
become a lawyer. In nineteen twenty three, he passed the
bar and found work at a law firm. Through the years,
he worked tirelessly. He eventually bought a new home, complete
with a swimming pool and skating rink, in the affluent
neighborhood of Holly Hills. But EJ's ambition was insatiable. He
(01:12):
wanted only the best for his son. Believing Busch was
somewhat lazy, EJ. Enrolled him at the Western Military Academy.
Most of EJ's wealth had come from his client, Owen
Patrick Smith, the commissioner of the International Greyhound Association. Smith
had created a mechanical rabbit that greyhounds chased on the track,
and when Smith died, EJ bought the rights from his
(01:35):
widow a Sensing an opportunity, EJ took his mechanical rabbit
concept to Chicago's most influential resident, Al Capone. It didn't
take long for Capone to determine EJ's talent and hire
him on as one of his lawyers. With his influence, money,
and team of attorneys, it seemed as though Capone was untouchable.
(01:57):
The government had tried countless times to find something to
stick on Capone, but his lawyers, including EJ, always got
him out of it. Capone and EJ made considerable money
by operating greyhound tracks in Chicago, Boston, and Miami. Soon,
EJ moved his family into a large mansion that filled
an entire block. For security, the whole estate was fenced.
(02:20):
They even had living help. Though he was directly involved
with one of America's most notorious gangsters, EJ tried to
teach Butch right from wrong. Despite his own career path,
EJ wanted a better way of life for his son.
A Butch accompanied his father on many trips, and the
two shared their love of planes. When EJ flew, he
(02:42):
looked for opportunities to allow his son a few minutes
behind the controls. In nineteen twenty seven, EJ divorced Selma
and left her and his daughters in Saint Louis, he
met Ursula Granada, a sister to a state representative with
strong mob ties. For seven years, the will remained engaged
devout Catholics. The two couldn't marry since the Church didn't
(03:05):
recognize EJ's divorce. By nineteen thirty, EJ worried about the
influence his mob ties might have on his son's reputation
and his application to the Naval Academy. The only way
out was to turn on Capone. EJ worked with the
IRS and with a rising talent at the Justice Department,
Elliott ness Ness, headed a group that was finally able
(03:29):
to get Capone on tax evasion and thousands of violations
of the Volstead Act. EJ informed to the government the
Campone had fixed the jury. After his conviction, Capone was
sentenced to Alcatraz for tax evasion. He was released in
nineteen thirty nine. That November, a car sped past Ej
and gunned him down, though he never lived to see it.
(03:51):
EJ's effort allowed his son to join the Naval Academy
and go on to become a World War Two hero.
Butch O'Hare single handedly shot down own five Japanese bombers,
saving the USS Lexington, for which he received the Medal
of Honor. In nineteen forty nine, Chicago changed the name
of Orchard Depot Airport to O'Hare International in his honor
(04:13):
and elliot Ness, the young agent who helped bring down
Capone also rose to fame. But sometimes fame has a
dark side. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum. Welcome to American Shadows. We
(04:35):
are fascinated with true crime. We have news reports, books,
and whole streaming channels devoted to it, and no category
of crime seems to capture our attention as much as
serial killers. Today, we have advancements in forensics technology and
specialized profilers to solve murders. In the nineteen thirties, though
(04:56):
law enforcement had to rely on other methods September twenty
third of nineteen thirty five was a perfect day for
kids to spend on the perhaps quaintly named Jackass Hill,
a slope near East forty Night Street in the Kingsbury
Run area of Cleveland, Ohio. In the winter, the kids
used the sixty foot slope for sledding, but on autumn days,
(05:19):
when the temperature hovered at a mild seventy one degrees
and the sky was a cloudless blue, kids took to
the hill for games. Sixteen year old James Wagner and
twelve year old Peter Costora took turns catching and tossing
a ball. One of them missed, and the ball rolled
down the slope into the bushes at the bottom. The
(05:39):
boys chased after. Near By, two other boys watched the
ball sailed down the hill with James and Peter in pursuit,
and at the same time both sets of boys came
across something unexpected. Instead of the ball, Peter and James
found a man's decapitated head in the bushes. The other
two boys is found a headless body. All four ran
(06:03):
back home, neither group realizing the head and body belonged
to two different men. Other kids gathered at the top
of the hill as police searched the area. After a
search of the bushes, police found another head and body,
making it a double homicide. Aside from decapitating the men,
the killer had drained the bodies of blood and removed
(06:24):
their genitals. Afterward, the killer had cleaned and washed the
corpses and dumped them in the park where they would
be easily found. One, Edward Andresy, was identified as one
of the victims. The second remained, a John Doe. Reports
estimated that Andressy had been dead for a few days.
The John Doe had been dead for over three weeks.
(06:47):
For months, the investigation went nowhere. People had no clues,
no suspects, no witnesses. A mild September gave way to
a bitter and cold January. The sound of a dog
barking relentlessly urged one resident to bundle up and head
to her neighbor's house to complain. Two baskets sat in
(07:07):
a snowbank outside the home. Inside were packages neatly wrapped
in newspapers. Assuming they were hams from the size and shape,
she knocked on the door to notify the neighbor. Charles
Page followed his neighbor outside, he unwrapped the packages. Inside
were frozen human body parts. Not long after, police converged
(07:29):
on the scene without taking care to preserve it for evidence.
Even though they never found her head, police identified the
victim as Florence Pollillo, a waitress, barkeep, and occasional sex worker.
According to the Corner, Florence died after her throat had
been split. While the community worried about the murders in
(07:50):
their safety, the police took an unbelievable stance. Since they
couldn't find Florence's head, they questioned whether her death had
been homicide. Their lack of investigation only fueled residents growing
distrust of the police force. During Prohibition, news of crooked
cops surfaced frequently. Complaints of incompetency and laziness filled Mayor
(08:15):
Harold Burton's office. Dealing with a serial killer on top
of extensive corruption overwhelmed Burton. While he dedicated his detectives
to the murders, he called the one person he thought
could clean up corruption within the force, Elliott Ness. The
public loved Ness reporters had dubbed him and his group
(08:35):
of agents the untouchables because capone couldn't buy them off.
Dark haired and square jawed, Ness was the perfect example
of what law enforcement should be. He took the job.
Instead of sitting behind a desk, he took to the streets.
Daily headlines were marked on his efforts, from taking down
crooked politicians and cops, to midnight raids on gambling parlors
(08:58):
and busting extortion ring His exploits were legendary. America had
a real life superhero. Not only was Ness untouchable, he
also seemed unstoppable. Yet someone else in the city also
shared those two traits with Ness, the serial killer who
the press began calling the Butcher of Kingsbury Run. And
(09:22):
while the mayor hadn't hired Ness to work on the case,
the two would soon collide. The day was too sunny,
too pleasant to sit in a classroom. It was June
(09:44):
fifth of nineteen thirty six, and with summer vacation just
around the corner, thirteen year old Gomez Ivy and the
eleven year old Lewis Chile decided to skip school. At
eight thirty that morning, the two friends left home with
their fishing poles. The lake erie had a couple of
great fishing spots and They might even get in a
quick swim before heading home if they had time to
(10:05):
avoid being seen. They walked along the railroad tracks for
a while and then cut through the east side of
Kingsbury Run. The strip of land had once been a
boomtown with businesses and refineries owned by the likes of J. D.
Rockefeller and William Halsey. Down prosperity turned into poverty during
the Depression. Instead of people hustling to and from businesses,
(10:27):
they now camped out in doorways and lived in cardboard
boxes in the alleys. Despite lost jobs and banks demanding
that mortgages be paid in full, President Hoover didn't believe
Americans needed the government's help. The unemployment rate reached twenty
five percent. Although people attempted to help each other, and
most families barely had enough to get by, much less
(10:49):
to give aid. People lined up for blocks for soup
and bread. Officials chased the houseless out of the surviving cities.
The east side of Kingsbury Run haven for those without
anywhere to go, often referred to as Hoovervilles, Areas like
these had cropped up across the country. The boys passed
shanty after shanty and some made from scrap lumber, others
(11:13):
from brick and tar. Paper. People lay in covered doorways
for warmth. They used newspapers, often referred to as hoover blankets.
A man in one doorway busied himself with bidding the
worn out soles of his shoes with cardboard. The boys
continued through to a barren stretch of property. Along the tracks,
a ball of fabric under a willow tree caught their attention. Curious,
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they decided to take a look. The fabric turned out
to be a pair of discarded pants. Lewis suggested they
rummage through the pockets in case there was a coin
or two. They would likely turn out the pockets and
find nothing more than lint, but didn't hurt to check.
Gomez shrugged and picked up a nearby stick. He prodded
the lump of fabric to be sure a family of
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rats hadn't taken up residency in their own hoover shack,
and while nothing stirred or shot out of a pant leg,
the ball of fabric rolled away. More curious than ever,
the boys unfurled the fabric. A man's head rolled out
on to the patch of dirt and grass, Horrified, the
(12:18):
boys grabbed their fishing poles and ran. They took no
notice of the men in the doorways or the families
peeking out of their lean tubes. Gomez and Lewis didn't
stop running until they got back home. The two friends
headed straight to Gomez's house. They no longer cared about
how much trouble they'd be in for ditching school. Unfortunately,
his mother wasn't home. Too afraid to leave the house,
(12:41):
the boys huddled together until she arrived hours later. She
no sooner walked in the door than boat boys began
to blurt out what they'd found. Missus Ivy calmed the
boys down and listened to the story again, as calm
as she could manage. She'd left the boys long enough
to summon a nearby patrolment and relay her son's story.
(13:02):
Patrolman Hendrix asked the boys for the exact location, but
they were so upset that they couldn't recall the precise spot.
Hendrix called for backup. It didn't take officers long to
find the head, along with a white shirt, a striped
dress shirt, underwear, and a belt. Most of the clothing
was torn and bloody, and nearby. They found a pair
(13:24):
of Oxford shoes, still neatly tied and socks stuffed inside.
Further down the tracks, they found the man's naked body.
The newspapers reported the murder the next morning. The coroner
determined capitation as the cause of death, and that the
victim was alive when his killer started to cut into him.
(13:44):
No one knew who the man was, despite six tattoos
they thought might help to identify him. A cast was
made of his face and sent to the Great Lake's Exposition.
Certainly some one there had to recognize him. Sadly, though
many passed through the gates, not one person came forward
with a single clue. A month later, another man's body
(14:15):
and severed head were found in the Big Creek area,
a bit further south of Cleveland. Due to the advanced decomposition,
the corner determined that this victim had been killed sometime
in May. The police had no suspects and few clues.
The killer didn't have a preference when it came to gender.
(14:35):
They had only one clue. The manner in which the
victims were cut suggested a great deal of knowledge about
the human body. Mayor Burton was under pressure once again.
The detectives assigned to the case began leaning on people
living in Hooverville's Those who offered up possible clues were
frequently arrested. Soon no one wanted to talk to the police.
(14:57):
In June, a boy found human remains ball walked under
a bridge. In September, another body was found in Kingsbury Run.
Eliot Ness was finally assigned to the case. In September
of nineteen thirty six, a Ness had detectives bring in suspects.
They ranged from a man living under a bridge who
collected women's shoes to a tightrope walker. Ness came up
(15:20):
with his own suspect, doctor Francis Sweeney. A Ness had
a problem. Though Sweeney was from a prominent family and
his cousin was a congressman in Ohio's twelfth district and
a political rival of Mayor Burton's, Sweeney had once had
addictions to alcohol and barbiturates. According to his ex wife,
his violent outbursts had caused her to question his sanity.
(15:43):
The papers reported that Sweeney had a reputation for being sadistic,
but Ness couldn't find any evidence against him, and Sweeney's
family and connections only made the investigation more difficult. Sweeney
often mocked the detectives assigned to follow him in frequently
managed to ditch them. Once he jumped off a moving
street car onto another passing in the opposite direction, leaving
(16:06):
the detective behind. The department began receiving strange phone calls
and envelopes filled with newspaper clippings about the slayings. They
also received a note with a drawing of the morgue's
front door, and Ness received a letter with a photo
of a tree in an open field. The message read
dig here. In February of nineteen thirty seven, a man
(16:32):
came across a woman's torso on Lake Erie's Euclid Beach.
Her limbs and head were never found. The corner stated
that the killer had begun taking his victim apart while
she was still alive. In August, Ness and the detectives
had had enough without being able to pin anything on Sweeney.
Police raided the Hoovervilles, arresting a few dozen men. Then
(16:55):
Ness ordered the camps burned to the ground. Ness later
said that he destroyed the camps to force the houseless
to move elsewhere. He believed the killer mainly targeted those
living in Kingsbury run shanties. Regardless, the public criticized his
actions and the killer was still on the loose. Ness
felt confident that Sweeney was the killer, but without a break,
(17:18):
he could only watch the body count continue to rise.
He began to drink heavily. Friends recounted the cruel jokes
he played on them. His wife divorced him after finding
out about several affairs. For a short while in nineteen
thirty seven, the murders seemed to stop, but in April
of nineteen thirty eight, a construction worker found part of
(17:41):
a woman's leg on the Cuyahoga River bank. In July,
the head and torso, believed to belong to Rose Wallace,
were found under a bridge. A month later, police recovered
body parts from a male victim found floating in the
Cuyahoga River. In August, scrap collectors found another woman's torso.
They found her head, legs, and arms near by. All
(18:03):
were wrapped neatly in butcher paper. Police found a second
body not far away. Both were in sight of Ness's
office window. The killer was taunting them. Ness's reputation lay
in ruin. He sat down with Sweeney one last time
after failing a polygraph, and Sweeney had himself admitted to
(18:26):
a mental institution. He re entered society in nineteen thirty
nine for a short period before admitting himself again. He
would die in an institution in nineteen sixty four. The
Kingsbury Run murders stopped in nineteen thirty nine. That year,
a letter arrived at the police department. The killer stated
that he had moved out to California, where Pid already
(18:48):
killed a woman and buried her long Century Boulevard, but
police never found a body. A reporter asked Ness about
the murders. Ness, no longer the city's hero, replied that
the case, as far as he was concerned, was closed.
Closed maybe, but to this day the case has never
(19:09):
been solved. Ness and his career never recovered. He worked
as a vice detective for the government on US Bass
during World War Two. After the war, he started a
couple of businesses, but both failed. He unsuccessfully ran for
(19:32):
mayor in nineteen forty seven. His second marriage failed for
the same reason his first did. Ness continued drinking and philandering.
He died penniless in nineteen fifty seven, at the age
of fifty four. Six months after his death, his memoirs
were published, spurring the hit TV show The Untouchables. A
(19:52):
year later, after the murders stopped, the residence of Kingsbury
Run returned to their lives, celebrating the end of the
Great Depression. Cleveland and the rest of America soon forgot
about the butcher of Kingsbury Run. A police estimated there
were twelve victims. However, there's speculation there may have been more.
(20:14):
One hot day in July nineteen thirty six, two railway
workers in Newcastle, Pennsylvania noticed an open box car. They
were positive of the car, which hadn't been in service
since nineteen thirty one, had been closed just a few
weeks prior. Inside, they discovered a grizzly murder scene. A
(20:34):
man's naked body lay on the floor. The amount of
blood splatter indicated his heart had been beating when someone
decapitated him. Reporters referred to the scene as the Bloody
box Car, and as gruesome as it was, investigators revealed
another horrific detail. Three newspapers had been found with the body.
(20:56):
One of those papers was the Cleveland Plane Dealer, dated
July nineteen thirty three to investigators. This meant that the
killer had returned to the scene between the time of
death and when the workers discovered the open car. Four
years later, in May of nineteen forty three, more headless
bodies were found on a box car, but the murders
(21:18):
in the rural area of Pennsylvania, referred to as the
Murder marsh had started much earlier. The body of an
unidentified man was found in West Pittsburgh one October sixth
of nineteen twenty five. The cause of death had been decapitation,
and the coroner estimated had been deceased for about three weeks.
(21:38):
Eleven days later, the skeletal remains of another male victim
were found not far from the first. He had also
been decapitated. A woman's joalous skull was also found. Then,
as suddenly as they had started, the murders in Newcastle stopped,
and the killings in Kingsbury began. Nests never stopped. Believing
(22:00):
that Sweeney was the butcher of Kingsbury, run and Detective
Peter Marlowe thought that the killer in Cleveland and the
one in Pennsylvania were the same. Not only were the
victims killed in the same manner, but they were also
people living on society's fringes. Marlowe also noted that the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad connected the two cities and had
(22:21):
two scheduled routes per day. Over eighty years later, we're
no closer to solving the two cases. It seems the
murderer managed to slip into the shadows. There's more to
this story. Stick around after this brief sponsor break to
hear all about it. The terror began in nineteen seventy four.
(22:50):
At first, they were burglaries. Between nineteen seventy four and
seventy five, roughly a hundred homes in Visalia, California were robbed.
The burglar left behind valuables and took small personal items instead.
What made it more unsettling was the thief's signature. He
rummaged through drawers and scattered any women's laundry he found
(23:13):
around the house, and he often killed any dogs in
the house. The press nicknamed him the Vizalea Ransacker. After
one murder was suspected of having been the work of
the Ransacker. The break in stopped not far away. A
rapist began terrorizing the residence of Carmichael Citrus Heights and
Rancho Cordova. No one knew at the time it was
(23:36):
the work of the same man. Initially, he seemed to
stalk women who lived alone, and preferably those who lived
in one story houses near open spaces, making it easy
for him to escape. In the days leading up to
the assault, victims noticed a prowler in the area. Often
he would enter the home quietly. He'd unload any guns
(23:57):
he found and leave ligatures to use on his victims. Later,
the police believed he staked out his victims in advance,
choosing women home alone or with small children. He broke
in at night, waking his victims by shining a bright
flashlight in their eyes, temporarily blinding them, and then he
bound the women and raped them. The press dubbed him
(24:19):
the East Side rapist. When an article pointed out that
none of the attacks happened in homes where men were present,
the attacker took it as a challenge. He'd broken to
homes and bound the men and women. Had leave the
men in the living room with a stack of dishes
on his back while he assaulted the woman, warning the
couple that if he heard plates fall to the floor,
(24:39):
he had killed them. Both In nineteen seventy eight, he
attacked and shot a couple while they were walking their dog.
He also shot and killed the dog. In nineteen seventy nine,
the attacker moved south, but this time after binding a
couple and raping the woman, he had bludgeon or shoot
the couple. Without realizing the same person was emitting the attacks,
(25:01):
a new nickname emerged, Original night Stalker. It's estimated the
between nineteen seventy six and nineteen eighty six, he raped
fifty women and killed twelve people. Often he raped the
victim repeatedly while other family members were bound and gagged nearby,
and sometimes he killed the whole family, including the dog.
(25:22):
Investigators determined that he had planned each attack to the
smallest detail. He also never stayed in one area, choosing
a territory from Sacramento to Irvine. He took a five
year break from nineteen eighty one to nineteen eighty six,
and while the attacks stopped, he continued tormenting one of
his surviving victims, calling her several times. With no leads
(25:46):
and no further attacks, the case went cold. In two
thousand and one, DNA evidence linked the East Area rapist
to the original night stalker. A law enforcement had new information,
but still no suspects and no leads. Then author Michelle
McNamara wrote the best selling novel All be Gone in
(26:06):
the Dark. She poured over the evidence in reports and
named the suspect the Golden State Killer. McNamara's premature death
pushed the case back into the news. Using evidence from
a rape kit, the FBI was able to link the
killer's DNA to a family on an ancestry site. The
FBI contacted a relative who helped in breaking the case
(26:28):
in twenty seventeen. In twenty eighteen, police arrested seventy two
year old James to Angelo. As the tale of the
Golden State Killer emerged, investigators learned through a former girlfriend
that D'Angelo had once pointed a gun at her. He
worked as a mechanic, moving from town to town. Neighbors
said he had a temper. COVID nineteen delayed the trial,
(26:51):
but on August first of twenty twenty, he pleaded guilty
and confessed to twenty six counts of murder, over a
hundred break ends, and several dozen rapes and other violent acts.
Now in his late seventies, he's serving twenty six consecutive
life sentences. American Shadows is hosted by Lauren Vogelbaum. This
(27:18):
episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed,
and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive
producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn
more about the show, visit grimanmil dot com. From more
podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(27:38):
wherever you get your podcasts
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