Dr. Francis Edward "Frank" Sweeney (1894 - 1964)
BIRTH 5 May 1894
Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, USA
DEATH 9 Jul 1964 (aged 70)
Dayton, Montgomery County, Ohio, USA
BURIAL:
Calvary Cemetery Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio,
Section 81, Lot 801, Grave 1
Cleveland Chief or Public Safety Elliot Ness, earlier famous as the leader of "The Untouchables", investigated the series of murders called the Kingsbury Run Murders or the Cleveland Torso Murders, and he developed as a strong suspect Dr. Francis Sweeney.
Sweeney served in the Army during World War One. He received a severe head injury in France and was subsequently awarded a partial disability pension. He graduated from medical school in St. Louis in 1928 and became a surgical resident at St. Alexis hospital in the Kingsbury Run area.
Overwork and a hereditary tendency towards alcoholism and psychosis began taking an obvious toll on his health. He was admitted to City Hospital for alcoholism, but the treatment was unsuccessful. The drinking worsened and his marriage and career began to disintegrate. He was violent and abusive at home and the hospital severed its relationship with him.
According to his wife Mary J. (Sokol), Dr. Sweeney had begun to drink continuously two years after their marriage in July of 1927 and remained in a state of habitual drunkenness until their separation in September of 1934. Eventually, she filed for divorce in 1936, seeking custody of their children and an order restraining him from "visiting, interfering, or molesting her."
Sweeney's deterioration seemed to reach a climax just about the time that the Lady of the Lake, the probable first victim in the murder series, washed up on the shores of Lake Erie on September 5, 1934.
Dr. Sweeney was born, raised and spent most of his life in the Kingsbury Run area and knew it intimately from his boyhood explorations. He was a large and strong man, certainly powerful enough to carry victims down the steep, rugged embankment of Jackass Hill in Kingsbury Run. He had the medical knowledge to perform so many expert decapitations and dismemberments.
Ness was never able to get the necessary evidence to charge Sweeney with any of the Kingsbury Run murders, but felt certain that Sweeney was the killer. He had investigators watch Sweeney's movements and tail him. Sweeney would play games with them by identifying them and giving them the slip. Often, Sweeney would check himself into a Veterans Administration Hospital to avoid being questioned by investigators. He would often write letters to Ness and to the FBI to taunt them.
By 1955, Sweeney's mental state had deteriorated to the point where he was committed involuntarily to a psychiatric hospital where he died in 1964.
LINK:
Sweeney, Dr. Francis E. (Frank) Date: Jul 13 1964 Source: Plain Dealer; Cleveland Necrology File, Reel #160. Notes: Sweeney. Dr. Francis E. Sweeney (Frank), father of James and the late Francis E., brother of Agnes Baldwin and the late Mary McGreevy, and Martin J., uncle of Edward McGreevy...
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