Where: Cleveland, Ohio

When: 1935-1938

How many: 12-20

The Cleveland Torso Murderer (also known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run) was a Great Depression-era serial killer who terrorized Cleveland, Ohio between 1935 and 1938. The killer beheaded and dismembered multiple male and female victims, often dumping their bodies in the impoverished Cleveland neighborhood known as Kingsbury Run. The official number of victims attributed to the Cleveland Torso Murderer is twelve, although some researchers suggest the total body count may be as high as twenty.

The killer preyed upon drifters and the working poor living in the makeshift homes of the Kingsbury Run area. As a result, many of the Torso Murderer's victims remain unidentified. The first confirmed Torso Murderer victims were discovered on September 23, 1935. They were Edward Andrassy and an unidentified male. Andrassy's body was found some 30 feet away from the remains of the unidentified male. Both were castrated, with their heads missing. The heads were eventually recovered. More grisly slayings of mutilation followed suit. A number of the bodies were discovered long after the killings had occurred, further complicating efforts to track down and stop the murderer.

Authorities suspected Dr. Francis E. Sweeney of being the culprit, but they didn’t have enough evidence to convict him. Another man, Cleveland resident Frank Dolezal, was arrested in August 1939 as a suspect in the slaying of Torso victim Florence Polillo—only to die under mysterious circumstances while in police custody. In 2010, researchers from Cuyahoga Community College released evidence that cleared Dolezal’s name. To this day, the Cleveland Torso Murderer case remains unsolved.

10 Serial Killers Who Were Never Caught

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