The Cleveland Torso Murderer, also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, was an unidentified serial killer who was active in Cleveland, Ohio during the 1930s.
The killer, who was never caught, is believed to have murdered at least 12 people, all of whom were found dismembered and mutilated in the city’s Kingsbury Run area.
Despite extensive investigations by local and federal law enforcement, the identity of the Cleveland Torso Murderer remains a mystery to this day.
Here is one of the articles about the finding of yet another headless body in 1936.
Sixth Headless Body Found in Cleveland
Kingsbury Run, a small stream which wanders through the southeast section of Cleveland, Ohio, yielded Saturday the sixth headless body found in the city within the last year.
Like the others, the body – that of a man – had been cut, detectives said, with a skillful hand. The torso had been sliced in two pieces. The head was not found.
Firemen with grappling hooks attempted unsuccessfully to find the missing head in the pond where the torso was found. A blood-stained shirt, wrapped in a Tuesday morning newspaper, was found on a nearby culvert.
Detective Sergeant James Hogan of the homicide squad said the body bore marks familiar to investigators of the five previous decapitations. Three of the other five bodies were found close to Kingsbury run.
The first two victims were found in September, 1935, at the foot of Jackass Hill, near the stream. The heads were buried in sand nearby.
One of the victims was identified as Edward A. Andrasy, 28. No motive for his killing ever was established. The other body, that of a man about 40, has not been identified. Andrasy’s wrists were chafed; apparently he had been tied.
Last January the torso of a woman was found in two bushel baskets in an east side vacant lot, not farm from the downtown area. The body was identified through the fingerprints as that of Mrs. Florence Polilla, 41. Mrs. Polilla was once arrested in a vice raid.
Two boys playing hooky from school in June found the head of a man under a sumac tree in a gully off Kingsbury Run. The torso was found next day in a scrubby spot nearby. The body was never identified.
In July a girl walking through a wooded west side gully stumbled on the nude and headless body of the fifth victim, a man. The head was found 40 feet away wrapped in a coat. The man could not be identified.
Detective pointed to the clean work of decapitation in each instance. All the bodies, expect that of Mrs. Polilla, were found near railroad tracks.
Source: The Skyland post. (West Jefferson, N.C.), 17 Sept. 1936.
