What's everyone's thoughts on this area? Who's familiar with the infamous "Torso Slayer of Kingsbury Run" from the 1930's that Eliot Ness tried to capture but never did? Does anyone know if the murders happened where today's Kingsbury Run parkway exists, or did it happen further down near Woodland? Today, Kingsbury Run is located Between E. 93 and MLK Parkway, parallel to Kinsman (422) and is nothing but suburban styled houses built within in the last 5 years. What used to be here? I believe the area was modified thru time and that a good part of Kingsbury Run was actually destroyed by Eliot Ness.

 

If anyone is not familiar with this historical story, do a google on it.. I asked some family members who were alive when it happened and even they have remember this famous story which happened when most senior citizens were just children. Does anyone know any good websites that offers maybe a detailed history on the incident with pictures/maps? Oh well, I find the whole thing quite interesting even though it happened 80 years ago!

 

~john

  I believe it happend a little farther West off of Kinsman Ave.  From what I have been told, it was closer to where approx E68th and Kinsman would be.  Right around where the walkway bridge crosses over the rail area just Southwest of Kinsman.  And a sidenote, that walkway bridge is the only suspension bridge in the City of Cleveland.

http://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/torso1.htm Some info here, reguarding locations.

http://www.deadohio.com/Kinsbury.htm This one also has some locational info, and some pictures too.

http://www.cuyahogavalley.net/kingsburyrun.html This one has a tiny map (google map) with the route of Kinsbury run.

 

I was facinated by the area too, conceptually what it could be if they actualy bothered to restore the area to nature again.

And a better map of the river.

Theres an awesome graphic novel about the torso killer, not only does the novel offer some insight on what that area may have looked like back then, but its especially interesting that Elliot Ness buckled under the pressures of the Cleveland media, I guess Al Capone was a walk in the park compared to our media. Anyways I believe the name of this graphic novel is Torso- check it out.

Not only that, but the graphic novel is being made into a movie with David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) directing.  Here is a little blurb about it.

 

http://movies.about.com/od/moviesinproduction/a/torso011306.htm

The torso murders weren't restricted to Kingsbury Run, though that's where most of the bodies (or parts thereof) were found. I've written a few articles about Eliot Ness over the years and most recently interviewed the producer of a documentary called "The 13th Victim." The producer makes a valid argument that the 13th victim of the torso murderer was Ness himself. And it wasn't just the Cleveland media putting pressure on Ness, but Ness putting pressure on himself to solve the crime. Ness was an effective safety director, but he was no investigator. Even when he was in Chicago, his alcohol-tax unit of the Treasury Department was more of a nuisance to Capone and the other bootleggers. The real legwork was being done by others, but Ness claimed he did more than he really had. His autobiography that led to the TV series the Untouchables was a fiction. Also, every movie done about the Untouchables were merely Hollywood fables.

 

In the early 1990s, I did a series of articles about Cleveland-area speakeasies, and was tipped off to a man who used to work with Ness in Chicago and had relocated to Cleveland about the time Ness did. This guy was in his 90s, but his mind was still sharp. He said Ness was an honest guy (in that he wasn't corrupt) but was very insecure about himself. No matter what he did, it wasn't enough. I also interviewed a retired PD reporter who started there in the 1930s who said Ness was a real ladies man and quite the party hound. But he said Ness was always trying to find acceptance but apparently never found it.

 

When Ness couldn't solve the torso murders, it ate him up inside and he couldn't stand the public criticism. After he lost in his post-war mayoral bid (which followed the suspicious car accident he fled, probably because he was drunk), he retreated to Coudersport, PA a small town in the remote North-Central part of Pennsylvania. He suffered money problems and drank himself to death. On the 40th anniversary of his death (I think it was 1997), a ceremony was held at Lakeview Cemetery to give him a proper send off, and a thank you for his excellent service as a safety director. He had turned one of the nation's most corrupt police departments into one of its best in just a few years. That was the most crowning achievement of his public life.

 

I also encourage you to read "Eliot Ness - The real story" by Paul W. Heimel. It's available on Amazon.