OH OH - Cleveland, WhtMale 20-30, 121UMOH, decapitated, Jiggs/"Helen-Paul" tattoos, Jun'36

[Mrs. Badcrumble]

Crossposting from the general Kingsbury Run Torso Murders thread in the WS UID forum:
UNSOLVED - OH - Cleveland, Cleveland torso murders case unidentified, 1935-1938


Kingsbury Run John Does #4 ("The Tattooed Man") has been added to DNA Doe Project's page now.

Known as the “Tattooed Man”, John Doe #4 was a victim of a notorious Cleveland serial killer called the Butcher of Kingsbury Run. On June 6, 1936, his decapitated body was found next to an old freight shed near railroad tracks. His head was located fifteen hundred feet away. He had six tattoos on his body: a bird and band and the names “Helen and Paul” on the inner side of his left forearm, a heart and anchor in red and blue on the outside of his right forearm, a flag and the initials “W.C.G.” on the inside of his right forearm, a butterfly on his left shoulder, the comic character “Jiggs” on his left ankle, and Cupid on his right ankle. Clothing found with his body bore a laundry mark indicating the owner’s initials were J.D..
Click to expand...

Kingsbury Run John Doe #4 - DNA Doe Project​

Description: Known as the “Tattooed Man”, John Doe #4 was a victim of a notorious Cleveland serial killer called the Butcher of Kingsbury Run. On June 6, 1936, his decapitated body was found next to an old freight shed near railroad tracks. His head was located fifteen hundred feet away. He had...

dnadoeproject.org

 

[Triss]

Crossposting from the general Kingsbury Run Torso Murders thread in the WS UID forum:
UNSOLVED - OH - Cleveland, Cleveland torso murders case unidentified, 1935-1938


Kingsbury Run John Does #4 ("The Tattooed Man") has been added to DNA Doe Project's page now.

Kingsbury Run John Doe #4 - DNA Doe Project​

Description: Known as the “Tattooed Man”, John Doe #4 was a victim of a notorious Cleveland serial killer called the Butcher of Kingsbury Run. On June 6, 1936, his decapitated body was found next to an old freight shed near railroad tracks. His head was located fifteen hundred feet away. He had...

dnadoeproject.org

Thank you for the update! I'm so happy the tattooed guy is getting the attention he deserves!

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The "Tattooed Man" was found decapitated near railroad tracks in the summer of 1936. His head was found about 1,500 feet away, but an identification was never made even as police fingerprinted him and widely distributed images of his six tattoos. The tattoos included the names "Helen" and "Paul," and the initials "W.C.G.," according to the DNA Doe Project. A plaster recreation of the man's head and images of his tattoos were even featured at the Great Lakes Exposition of 1936, but none of the more than 100,000 people who saw the display could identify the man, according to the Cleveland Police Museum.

Nearly a century after the "Torso Killer" terrorized Cleveland, DNA testing is underway to identify victims

A non-profit has exhumed the remains of two unidentified victims of a notorious serial killer who was also known as the "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run."

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Hausos]

I think it’s highly likely that the killer was homosexual as he appears to have targeted attractive, fit men. Don’t think the victims were but it’s certainly a possibility. Although I lean way more towards the victim being heterosexual men.

I think Helen Paul could be the full name of his mother or girlfriend/wife. Paul is actually a surname from Europe (I think most common in France?). A lot of early settlers had Paul as a surname: Daniel Paul, Timothy Paul, John Paul, etc.

Plenty of Helen Pauls (in fact, too many to count, from Ohio born in the 1890s-1940s).

So I wonder if our victim’s surname was Paul?

People suggested that Helen Paul could also be the names of his mother & father, or daughter and son. Also a very big possibility.

And then… the other initials that don’t include P. The issue is all the different initials make it more complexing, at least for anyone trying to track him down. If WCG are his initials, it’s highly likely that his first name is William. That was the go to name back in that time period. Other possibilities are Walter and Willie.

If the initials on the briefs are his, then that makes it more trickier. Could be James, John, Joseph, Jack, Joe, Jesse. (First 4 much more likely).

For some reason, I think the initials on the briefs are more likely to be his. There was another case back in the early 1900s in which a murder victim’s initials were on her underwear, and because of how unique they were, she was able to be identified.

I also don’t think he’s Slavic or Scandinavian. I think the potential US Navy or sailor connection is a high possibility.

Anyway, just my random opinions regarding the case. Ugh, so unfortunate he still hasn’t been identified!

 

[pixiepixel]

Someone on reddit made an interesting discovery regarding the "Helen/Paul" tattoos. Tattoo artist Paul Rogers and his wife Helen were touring the country and tattooing around the time John Doe may have gotten his tattoos. From this online biography of Paul Rogers:

In 1932 after tattooing all the folks around his home [North Carolina], Paul hit the road with the J.J. Page Show in search of adventure and clean skin. Later that very same year, Paul joined the John T. Rea Happyland Show where he met and married the boss's daughter, Helen Gensamer. For most of the next decade Paul and Helen worked the carnival circuit in the summers and worked in the cotton mills during the winters.

And from the timeline of Rogers' life on the same page, his activity from the time he married Helen to the time John Doe was found deceased:

1933 Paul and Helen marry on October 14, in Kittaning, Pennsylvania and move to Spartanburg, South Carolina where Paul works the Happy Land Shows
1934 Leonard, Helen and Paul's first child is born on October 16; George Burchett begins tattooing the Great Omi
1935 During the winter, Paul works at Drayton cotton mill in Spartanburg, South Carolina; Will Rogers, born in 1879, dies in an airplane crash near Point Barrow, Alaska
1936 Paul is back on the road with the John T. Rea Side Show. Tattoo article featuring Horiyoshi II appears in Life Magazine

Kittaning, PA, where Helen and Paul were married, is about 150 miles east of Cleveland (2.5 hours away by car today). I wonder if John Doe was tattooed by Paul; perhaps he was even a friend of the couple, and let Paul practice on him?

And in this link, you can see a photo of Paul tattooing someone wearing some sort of navy/marines/coast guard uniform - another interesting coincidence, considering speculation about the Tattooed Man's "WCG" tattoo.

Anyway, this may be nothing, but I found it all fascinating to ponder the possibilities.