Dexter Mills
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2005
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Hello, everyone. This is my first post on this forum. I wanted to take a moment to greet you all and say Im glad to be here.
My first post is in regards to the unsolved Kingsbury Run killings in Cleveland in the 1930s. This case has fascinated me since I was a child. The mystery, since the perpetrator was never caught, and the unnerving level of violence present in the murders. Ive posted a couple link below in case anyone is unfamiliar with the case.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/unsolved/kingsbury/index_1.html
Heres a good fictional account of the case as well.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/unsolved/diary/index_1.html
The best resource on the case IMO is In The Wake Of The Butcher by James Jessen Badal. He reaches no conclusion about who the Butcher may have been but present several possibilities and lets the reader make their own choice. It was while reading his book that I first became aware of the killings that took place in and around New Castle, Pennsylvania during the same period. The similarities are quite peculiar.
The Cleveland cases featured expert decapitation and dismemberment, in some occasions while the victim may have been conscious. All victims were from the lower rungs of society. Indeed, only two were ever identified, Edward Andrassy and Florence Polillo. The others were given numbers and nicknames (the Tattooed Man) in lieu of names. The series lasted roughly between 1934 and 1938.
In 1921, an elderly woman was attacked in her West Pittsburg, Pennsylvania home and virtually beheaded. Her house was next to some railroad tracks that ran through an empty, swampy no-mans-land. Two years later, pieces of a young girls body were found in a nearby river. Over the years, headless and chopped up bodies would turn up in what New Castle locals called the Murder Swamp. On one occasion, two victims has been arranged in grotesque positions at the edge of the swamp, with their heads partially buried nearby. By 1934, public furor reached a fevered pitch, and a large search party scoured the area for clues. The grisly killings stopped, but then, vivisected corpses began turning up in Cleveland.
Between 1939 and 1942, more bodies were found in and around the Murder Swamp in New Castle. An especially frightening case was when three bodies were found in abandoned railroad cars near McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania in May 1940. Three men beheaded. Only one identified, James Nicholson, a minor criminal and occasional male prostitute. One of the victims had the word NAZI carved into his flesh. The heads were never recovered. The final victim in the New Castle series was found in the fall of 1942 besides some railroad tracks, decapitated and unidentified, like so many others.
The one piece of the puzzle that doesnt fit is Robert Robertson, a derelict was beheaded in Cleveland in the summer of 1950. The victim and murder meet the criteria of the previous crimes. Where was the killer for almost a decade? Was the same person responsible?
Cleveland detective Peter Merylo, chief investigator on the case, became convinced that the same individual was responsible for both series of killings. With the exception of one butchery in the summer of 1936, they dovetailed perfectly. Merylo believed the killer rode the trains, either as a worker or a hobo, and performed the murders in empty railroad cars.
The similarities between the Cleveland and New Castle cases are numerous;
1- Expert decapitation and dissection.
2- Victims from lower rungs of society.
3- Bodies found near railroad tracks and out of the way places.
4- Kingsbury Run and the Murder Swamp are near carbon copies of each other.
5- Some victims heads buried (New Castle in 1920s, Victim No.1 and Andrassy in Cle.)
6- Some victims tossed in pieces into river (New Castle, 1923, Victim No.9, 1937, Cle.)
7- Body parts covered by outdated newspapers in numerous cases in both locales.
8- In both places, the killer arranged some victims in macabre displays (See point 5)
9- Female victims in both cases completely dismembered and casually tossed away.
Much is made of Eliot Nesss secret interrogation of a top suspect in Cleveland, who was in all probability, Dr. Francis Sweeney. He is detailed in the links I provided. The question remains, if Sweeney was the Kingsbury Run butcher, who committed the New Castle murders? Is it possible the doctor did them? Extremely unlikely. He had no known connection to New Castle, PA or the surrounding area, and was in medical school in St. Louis and in practice in Cleveland through the first series. It is possible two different men, unknown to each other, had the same specific psychosis, which entailed such gruesome murder?
The interrogation and surveillance of Sweeney persuades me that Eliot Ness and the rest of the investigators were grasping at straws, fixating on the best possible suspect, a disturbed doctor who lived near Kingsbury Run who probably got great enjoyment out of playing cat-and-mouse with the police for his own twisted reasons. Indeed, he sent strange postcards to Ness for years while a patient in various mental facilities.
Notably, Eliot Ness and Peter Merylo did not get along, probably due to the latters belief that all murders in Ohio and Pennsylvania were done by the same person. Ness and other poo-poohed these theories (as does Crime Library author Marilyn Bardsley.)
My personal opinion is that the Kingsbury Run and New Castle murders were indeed committed by the same person, a person who was not Dr. Francis Sweeney. There are just too many similarities to disabuse the notion for me. What happened to the killer? A man with this warped a pathology doesnt decide to stop. He wont stop until hes locked up or dead. Given the late 1942 cut-off date, its possible he enlisted in the armed forces and was killed in World War II. Possibly he was locked away in prison or an institution.
The clue to his identity may lie with the very first elderly woman, killed in West Pittsburg back in 1921. Did the killer know her? She was murdered in her home, (none of the other victims would be found in a private residence) which suggests she knew the killer. Her head was not quite removed from her head, it hung on by a strand of flesh. This suggests her killer was a novice who had not removed a human head before. Id personally like to know more about her, and about the New Castle murders in general. The only information Ive found on them is in Badals book.
In summation, I think that we have a person who was extremely disturbed and dangerous, who killed far more often than people realize (a body count in the mid-20s in Ohio and Pennsylvania,) and who got away due to the fact that he was before his time, and law enforcement was familiar with the type of criminal we now call the serial killer.
Id love to hear anyones thoughts on this subject, or if anyone knows anything more about the murders in and around New Castle, PA between 1921 and 1942. Thank you for reading.
My first post is in regards to the unsolved Kingsbury Run killings in Cleveland in the 1930s. This case has fascinated me since I was a child. The mystery, since the perpetrator was never caught, and the unnerving level of violence present in the murders. Ive posted a couple link below in case anyone is unfamiliar with the case.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/unsolved/kingsbury/index_1.html
Heres a good fictional account of the case as well.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/unsolved/diary/index_1.html
The best resource on the case IMO is In The Wake Of The Butcher by James Jessen Badal. He reaches no conclusion about who the Butcher may have been but present several possibilities and lets the reader make their own choice. It was while reading his book that I first became aware of the killings that took place in and around New Castle, Pennsylvania during the same period. The similarities are quite peculiar.
The Cleveland cases featured expert decapitation and dismemberment, in some occasions while the victim may have been conscious. All victims were from the lower rungs of society. Indeed, only two were ever identified, Edward Andrassy and Florence Polillo. The others were given numbers and nicknames (the Tattooed Man) in lieu of names. The series lasted roughly between 1934 and 1938.
In 1921, an elderly woman was attacked in her West Pittsburg, Pennsylvania home and virtually beheaded. Her house was next to some railroad tracks that ran through an empty, swampy no-mans-land. Two years later, pieces of a young girls body were found in a nearby river. Over the years, headless and chopped up bodies would turn up in what New Castle locals called the Murder Swamp. On one occasion, two victims has been arranged in grotesque positions at the edge of the swamp, with their heads partially buried nearby. By 1934, public furor reached a fevered pitch, and a large search party scoured the area for clues. The grisly killings stopped, but then, vivisected corpses began turning up in Cleveland.
Between 1939 and 1942, more bodies were found in and around the Murder Swamp in New Castle. An especially frightening case was when three bodies were found in abandoned railroad cars near McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania in May 1940. Three men beheaded. Only one identified, James Nicholson, a minor criminal and occasional male prostitute. One of the victims had the word NAZI carved into his flesh. The heads were never recovered. The final victim in the New Castle series was found in the fall of 1942 besides some railroad tracks, decapitated and unidentified, like so many others.
The one piece of the puzzle that doesnt fit is Robert Robertson, a derelict was beheaded in Cleveland in the summer of 1950. The victim and murder meet the criteria of the previous crimes. Where was the killer for almost a decade? Was the same person responsible?
Cleveland detective Peter Merylo, chief investigator on the case, became convinced that the same individual was responsible for both series of killings. With the exception of one butchery in the summer of 1936, they dovetailed perfectly. Merylo believed the killer rode the trains, either as a worker or a hobo, and performed the murders in empty railroad cars.
The similarities between the Cleveland and New Castle cases are numerous;
1- Expert decapitation and dissection.
2- Victims from lower rungs of society.
3- Bodies found near railroad tracks and out of the way places.
4- Kingsbury Run and the Murder Swamp are near carbon copies of each other.
5- Some victims heads buried (New Castle in 1920s, Victim No.1 and Andrassy in Cle.)
6- Some victims tossed in pieces into river (New Castle, 1923, Victim No.9, 1937, Cle.)
7- Body parts covered by outdated newspapers in numerous cases in both locales.
8- In both places, the killer arranged some victims in macabre displays (See point 5)
9- Female victims in both cases completely dismembered and casually tossed away.
Much is made of Eliot Nesss secret interrogation of a top suspect in Cleveland, who was in all probability, Dr. Francis Sweeney. He is detailed in the links I provided. The question remains, if Sweeney was the Kingsbury Run butcher, who committed the New Castle murders? Is it possible the doctor did them? Extremely unlikely. He had no known connection to New Castle, PA or the surrounding area, and was in medical school in St. Louis and in practice in Cleveland through the first series. It is possible two different men, unknown to each other, had the same specific psychosis, which entailed such gruesome murder?
The interrogation and surveillance of Sweeney persuades me that Eliot Ness and the rest of the investigators were grasping at straws, fixating on the best possible suspect, a disturbed doctor who lived near Kingsbury Run who probably got great enjoyment out of playing cat-and-mouse with the police for his own twisted reasons. Indeed, he sent strange postcards to Ness for years while a patient in various mental facilities.
Notably, Eliot Ness and Peter Merylo did not get along, probably due to the latters belief that all murders in Ohio and Pennsylvania were done by the same person. Ness and other poo-poohed these theories (as does Crime Library author Marilyn Bardsley.)
My personal opinion is that the Kingsbury Run and New Castle murders were indeed committed by the same person, a person who was not Dr. Francis Sweeney. There are just too many similarities to disabuse the notion for me. What happened to the killer? A man with this warped a pathology doesnt decide to stop. He wont stop until hes locked up or dead. Given the late 1942 cut-off date, its possible he enlisted in the armed forces and was killed in World War II. Possibly he was locked away in prison or an institution.
The clue to his identity may lie with the very first elderly woman, killed in West Pittsburg back in 1921. Did the killer know her? She was murdered in her home, (none of the other victims would be found in a private residence) which suggests she knew the killer. Her head was not quite removed from her head, it hung on by a strand of flesh. This suggests her killer was a novice who had not removed a human head before. Id personally like to know more about her, and about the New Castle murders in general. The only information Ive found on them is in Badals book.
In summation, I think that we have a person who was extremely disturbed and dangerous, who killed far more often than people realize (a body count in the mid-20s in Ohio and Pennsylvania,) and who got away due to the fact that he was before his time, and law enforcement was familiar with the type of criminal we now call the serial killer.
Id love to hear anyones thoughts on this subject, or if anyone knows anything more about the murders in and around New Castle, PA between 1921 and 1942. Thank you for reading.
