Murder, Mystery & Makeup - The Mad Butcher, Cleveland Torso Killer - Still Unsolved ??

Episode Date: June 13, 2023

Hi friends! Today I wanted to talk about the Cleveland Torso Killer, what a wild UNSOLVED story this is. Hope you have a great rest of your week ahead and I will be seeing you very soon. Love you so much and please be safe out there! Hope to be seeing you very soon. x o Bailey Sarian Watch the original video here and don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube @BaileySarian! Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d Discord: https://discord.gg/BaileySarian

Hi friends, how are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian. Today is Monday, which means it's Murder, Mystery, and Makeup Monday! Sa na sa, sa na sa, sa na sa sa sa sa na... Saaaaaa. If you are new here, hi! How are you? My name is Bailey Sarian, and on Mondays I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin, and I'm out of breath.

I do my makeup at the same time. If you're interested in true crime and you like makeup, I would highly suggest you hit that subscribe button because I'm here for you on Mondays. So today I do have to add a warning. Warning, following presentation is intended for mature audiences. It contains graphic descriptions of crime scenes,

adult dialogue and strong language. Viewer discretion is advised. It's about the Cleveland torso killer, today's story. And it is, it's intense. So during the 1930s, Cleveland was a city on the rise, Cleveland, Ohio. The population continued to grow and became a melting pot of laborers

needed to support our steel and manufacturing base. Now, despite the effects of the Great Depression, people were beginning to get on their feet again. But during this time, one of the most prolific and gruesome serial killers of all time carried out acts of horror, which led to one of the biggest unsolved crimes in history. Yeah, unsolved, baby.

So the place, Lake Erie. It's near Cleveland, Ohio. The year is 1934, the month September. What seems to be a woman's body washes up the shore of Lake Erie. What was found was a woman's torso with her thigh still attached, but amputated at the knees. It was believed that she may have been covered in some sort of chemical, which left her skin really red, tough and textured, almost like leather. The authorities searched the area, locating a few other body parts, but her head was never found. It was believed that this woman had been around her mid-30s, but authorities were really unable to identify who she was exactly.

Sadly, she would be referred to as the Lady of the Lake, but with no leads or clues, the case really just went cold. Like where was the head, you know? Jeez. So about a year later, in an area called Kingsbury Run, it's along the east side of Cleveland. Two more bodies had been found in a very similar fashion. Now, Kingsbury Run once contained a natural watershed that drained stormwater into the nearby river. But in the 1930s, it was said to, this area was considered a rough part of town and a lot of crime was happening as well.

During the Great Depression, many families, they had lost everything. One out of four families didn't have any source of income. Many of them ended up living in very terrible conditions. Like just really, really sad. Now this area, the Kingsbury Run, it was said to be covered in just trash and waste. And many people built little homes out of mud and the trash in the area.

Now close by to Kingsbury Run, there was this area called Roaring. Roaring is like one of those words I really can't, Roaring Third. Which this area had a lot of, not a lot, but a few different bars, brothels, and also gambling dens, and also a flop house where people were constantly coming as going because it was really close to a train station out of town. So there would be lots of people coming from all over,

passing by, and then they would stop in this area. In September 1935, two teenage boys, they were walking around in the area, and they discovered what seemed to be a decapitated body of a male. So the authorities go out there, they go out to the scene, right? And what they find is indeed a decapitated male. They see that the body was naked. He's just wearing a pair of socks. There were rope burns around each of his wrists.

Also the victim's body was drained of all blood. Does that not sound familiar? It was drained of all blood. There was no blood on the body. There was no like smudge marks of blood. There was no blood, nothing around the scene. It was clean. It was weird. It was real suspicious.

Okay, where's the blood? Where's the head? Where's the head? Sadly, also the lower area of this victim, you know, it was cut off. So the head and the, the, the wee was missing. Now the coroner determined that the cause of death had been decapitation.

Fingerprints, it did help identify the victim as 28 year old Edward Andrasi. At the crime scene, police are kind of looking around the area trying to find any type of clues, evidence, something, right? That will help them put the pieces together as to what happened to this victim. But when they're searching the area, they don't find,

well, they do find something, Bailey. What do they find? They find another body. There was another body. Witch for life. Now this victim also, his head, he was decapitated and his lower area was cut off. So it's clear to the police that, you know,

it was probably done by the same person. Now this is when the police start connecting some dots, because that's when they noticed that on this second victim that they find, it appeared that he had some kind of chemical put on his skin, in the same way the lady of the lake was, because his skin was also red, rough, and super leathery.

It was apparent that this victim had been dead for at least a couple of weeks, whereas the first victim that they found nearby, it seemed like his was more newer. It was like, it wasn't sitting there for as long. Sadly though, they were unable to identify who this victim was, the second one. So that's when police start figuring

that they're probably dealing with a serial killer, a really sick one at that. So then in January of 1936, a lady's out doing her thing, minding her own business, okay? She comes across two baskets that are sitting alongside this manufacturing building she's walking in front of. So she sees these two baskets

and they seem to be filled with like newspaper or something. Like something's wrapped in them, right? So she kind of goes and takes a look inside. Maybe it's money. That's what I would think, you know? And she sees something that's like wrapped in a bunch of newspapers. So she's feeling a look inside. Maybe it's money. That's what I would think, you know? And she sees something that's like wrapped in a bunch of newspapers. So she's feeling a little curious.

She opens it up. What does she see? She sees that wrapped inside the newspaper seemed to be like human body parts. She wasn't sure as to like what she was looking at, but it was clear that it was like skin and just parts. Oh yes, why did I look in there? So authorities come out to the area

and they see that it is indeed, I'm not laughing because of that, I'm laughing because of how like awkward I am sometimes. They see that it's a woman's body parts wrapped up in these baskets, it's a woman. So they search the area and they're not finding anything. Now they have like people going out and searching the area over the next couple of days in hopes to just find something, anything, right? And about 10 days after finding the victim's body, that's when they were able to recover most of her body that was cut up and scattered around.

It was scattered around just in different areas, hidden in like some bushes over here and then in the baskets over here. Like it was very strange. But they were unable to locate her head missing. Yeah, where the hell is that? I don't know. So similar to the other victim we had talked about, Edward, the coroner also determined that this victim had died from decapitation. The cause of death had been decapitation. With this victim though, it was a little different. It was a little odd because

the killer, whoever it was, they waited for the rigor mortis to set in before dismembering the rest of the body, whereas the previous victims, whoever was responsible, didn't do this. They're thinking like, this is gonna sound inappropriate, but it's kind of what they're thinking. It's almost like a little science project going on or something. Like maybe the killer wanted to see what happened,

like trying something new who freaking knows um so fingerprints were taken from this victim as well and they were able to id her as a woman named florence or flo she worked um in the area as a waitress a barmaid and she also worked as a sex worker and she lived right on the edge of the roaring third. So right where a lot of people were coming and going. So it's like, well, shit, could have been someone who just left town. Investigators were feeling like they had to kind of like

work fast because the person in the area could easily flee. So I mean, investigators are doing their thing. They're questioning as many people as they can, but nothing is coming from it. No leads, no clues, nothing. So then in June, 1936, early in the morning in Kingsbury Run, two boys, they decided that they were gonna skip school.

Let's go hang out and walk around because they don't know what else to do. So they're walking around the area and then they come across what seems to be a pair of trousers there's trousers on the floor but that they see that there's something wrapped in it okay so being the little curious cats that they they were they go up and they kind of open up the trousers and they see that it was a head of a male. So okay these boys find the head they reported to police and they take it in they take the victim's head in hopefully find an ID. But the very next day police they they find the body of a man another another man, who seemed to be in his 20s, and he was dumped in front of the police building. Again, the body was super clean. It was drained of all blood, but this time the body was

fully intact, like not cut up like the previous victims, but once again, he was decapitated. The victim's fingerprints were taken, but sadly they were unable to identify who he was. With this victim, he had six very distinct tattoos on various parts of his body. Now, police were hoping that this would help identify who he was, right? So they put out there in the newspapers and stuff like, hey, if you know someone with this tattoo, let me know.

So they put his tattoos out there in hopes that somebody will come forward and say that's so-and-so. But again, sadly, this victim would just be known as the tattooed man. And he was never identified. Nobody knew who this man was. Oh my gosh, I'm just having like a light bulb moment. Because the train station was so close by, do you think maybe the killer was bringing in people? No, that'd be silly.

It's probably just people from out of town. I feel like that would be too much work. Okay, not a light bulb moment, but it's a thought. So then July, 1936, a teenage girl was walking through the woods and came across a decapitated man. First of all, I'm not sure why all these kids are just walking around alone in the woods and stuff. So this victim seemed to be in his 40s and appeared to be dead for about two months. The previous victims that had been found, they seemed to be killed in different locations, and then they were dropped around the town,

or in the area that the killer left them at. But with this victim it was different. It was believed that this victim was killed on the spot, maybe this person saw something he wasn't supposed to see, because nearby was a pile of bloody clothing, and there was a large amount of blood that had seeped into the ground, which led authorities to believe

that he was killed on the spot. I mean, it was clear as day. His head and the bloody clothing was found nearby, like it was right next to the body pretty much, but it was just different. I personally am leaning towards like, maybe they witnessed something and the killer had to, didn't have to, but you know he felt like,

well I gotta get rid of you now. So then in September 1936, a man is walking to the train, he's gonna catch the train so he can get out of town, right? So he's walking and then he trips, and he looks back to see like what the hell did I just trip over, right? And he's looking and he sees like, what seems to be a man's torso. He tripped over a man's torso.

Yeah, that sounds really weird. But based off of what I was reading and some of the pictures I saw, there seemed to be, or like the area was really bad. And there were just like piles of trash everywhere. And the torso wasn't just like laying out in the open with like nothing around it where you couldn't miss it. It was just kind of like buried or kind of mixed in

with all of the mess that was going on in the area. So yeah, because when I was reading that, I was like, he tripped over a man's torso. So this man, he was just trying to get out of town and is walking, trips, look back, what is that man's torso? Police went out there, they searched the area, right? And nearby is like this large pool.

So it's like when you're walking, there's a lot of the trash and debris and everything, right? And then nearby is like this huge pool, which was said to be nothing more than just a big open sewer. Someone's got to check that. Who's going to check that? Police are thinking this. I'm not checking that. You're checking that. You're going in there. They're like, that's your job. But eventually they got a diver to come out to the area and dive into this large pool that was pretty much a sewer.

Like it's, it was rough. And they're searching this area because they're thinking that maybe, you know, the rest of this man's body parts could be in there, right? Now this brought on a lot of onlookers. People want to know what the heck's going on. Now the media was reporting about the bodies being found and whatnot

and kind of keeping everyone up to date about what was going on. So a lot of the people knew, like nobody knew who this killer was, and these bodies are being found. You get it, okay. When they see people in the area, they see police searching the pool, they're like, oh geez.

So everyone's like huddling around this pool thing, not even huddling because it was a lot of people who came. It was set that up to like 600 people showed up to see what police found, so they're all just like watching. Now in this pool, they were able to recover the lower half of the torso and parts of both legs. Now at this point, they were on to victim number six, who was believed to be in his late 20s, who again was decapitated.

The coroner takes a look at this victim and had noted that there was a lack of hesitation marks on the body, which made them believe that whoever had done this was very strong, but also a very confident killer who had to be very familiar with the human anatomy, which is really interesting when you think about it, that the coroner was able to tell

that the person who had done this didn't hesitate when they were cutting up the body. I found that really interesting. It may sound morbid, welcome to my channel, I guess, but wow, it's something you just don't think about, or I didn't, I don't know. Anyway, so it was noted that the victim's head had been cut off with just like one bold clean stroke,

which said that is what killed the victim instantly. Sadly though, they were unable to identify this victim as well. Now at this point, they were again at six killings in just one year. Not even just like normal killings, which are still awful, but these were very intense killings, right? Where are the damn heads? They had no clues, no suspects, nothing to go off of. The local newspapers were reporting on the killings

almost daily. And the fact that they had no suspects created a lot of tension in the area. Well, a lot of tension and a lot of fear, I would say. Some sicko was out here just chopping up people. And you guys are lollygagging the police. They're lollygagging, like why haven't they got anyone? The media started referring to whoever was doing this, the killer.

They were calling him the mad butcher. And other than calling him the mad butcher, that's really all they had. They had nothing, nothing. You know, sometimes I think back, not even think back, I'll be like sitting on a toilet, minding my own business, right? And I'm like, well, how did they even solve crimes back then? Unless they caught him right away. You could get away with so much though back then.

Not that that's a good thing, but it just, I don't know how they did it. I really don't. The mayor steps in and he appoints a new safety director named Elliot Ness to get involved into the case. He's gonna be like the lead main investigator guy. He's gonna solve the crime. Together they put this group of people,

the police, the coroner, and a bunch of experts, they come together and they create some kind of profile to who they're looking for. Some of the police also went undercover and started hanging around the roaring third, listening into conversations, they were talking to people, acting like they're gambling, they probably were gambling,

but they were just trying to talk to people and figure out, you know, what's the inside scoop. The police would say over time that they had interviewed up to like almost 5,000 people. Okay, they were talking to everybody and it would soon become, or at least turn into the biggest police investigation in Cleveland history. They were questioning any and everybody and they still came up with nothing. I don't think they were asking the right questions.

I mean, don't you think somebody would have said something? People like to talk. People love talking, especially when they know something. I feel like somebody would have said something. Out of 5,000, nothing? Well, the killings continue and in February of 1937, a man finds the upper half of a woman's torso washed up on the shore. Unlike the previous victims, this cause of death or her cause of death had not been decapitation.

It was believed that she was decapitated after she was dead. See, before it was like the decapitation is what killed the person. Now it was believed that the killer didn't chop off her head until after she was dead. So the torso was found and then three months later, the lower half of this victim's torso had also washed ashore. But again, she was unable to be identified. June 1937, a teenager, a teenage boy, he's out walking and he gets to like under a bridge area.

And under this bridge, that's where he finds a human skull. Next to the human skull was a burlap bag containing skeletal remains. Now, police take in the, you know, the skeletal remains and whatnot, and they are able to determine that this was a 40-year-old woman, and her dental records were able to identify her as Rose Wallace, because they were able to get her name. They were able to, trying to get anything, something, shit, nothing came from it.

I mean, there's bodies everywhere. July, 1937, a National Guardsman saw the first limb of the next victim in the wake of a passing tugboat. Over the next few days, police recovered the entire body from the river, but once again, the head was never located. With this victim, they saw that the abdomen had been gutted, and the heart was ripped out. Also, this victim was never identified.

I don't know what kind of science project was going on, but holy moly, what the hell. What was this person doing? Just keeping a bunch of heads? Oh my gosh. So then for a minute, things just kind of went quiet. Not sure why, but like nothing happened for almost a year. No new victims were being found, which is good,

but it was like, okay, this is finally over. Did the killer leave town? But as the months passed, it seemed like, okay, this is finally over. Did the killer leave town? But as the months passed, it seemed like, okay, I think it's over. Nay nay. No, of course not. Because then in April of 1938, that's right, maybe the killer like went out of town for something,

a business meeting or whatever. I don't know, we don't know, but he was back in town. And I shouldn't say he, but I have a feeling. April, 1938, a man on his way to work saw what he thought was a dead fish along the river banks. Oh, it wasn't a dead fish though. He gets up to it, right? It's not a dead fish.

Of course it's not a dead fish. It was the lower half of a woman's leg. Not even the full leg, just like the shin and the calf and whatnot. Jeez. And then about a month later, Not even the full leg, just like the shin and the calf and whatnot, geez. And then about a month later, police pulled two burlap bags out of the river containing both parts of the torso and most of the legs.

But this time the coroner was able to detect drugs in the victim's system, drugs. So this could provide some answers, okay? Because they're thinking like, did the victim take the drugs themselves? Were the drugs given to her? Maybe that could kind of give some clues. The coroner thought if they could find the victim's arms, it might give further answers.

But unfortunately, the victim's arms were never located and she was never identified. So August 18th, 1938. a victim's torso was found wrapped in a man's blue blazer. It's wrapped in a blue blazer, and then it's wrapped again in like an old quilt. The legs and the arms were discovered in a makeshift box. It was wrapped in like brown butcher paper, and it was held together with rubber bands.

Kind of more creative than the other bodies, right? Or the other victims. Like, I wonder what that's about actually. This victim was also decapitated and the head, it was wrapped on its own separately, but it was wrapped up in the same way. Now it was noted on this victim that some of the parts look like

as if they had been refrigerated or put in like a refrigerator. But while searching for more evidence, that's when police discovered the remains of another freaking body. Yeah, bodies on bodies on bodies, like just a lot of bodies going on. But there was another body just yards away. Now these two victims were never identified. Now do you remember Elliot Ness? I like mentioned him earlier today. Now, Elliot Ness was the one who was like the main guy, the main investigator on this case. Elliot was famous himself.

And he was most famous for bringing down Al Capone. Yeah. So he was pretty known, especially by criminals. But it seemed like the killer was definitely taunting Elliot at this point. It was in plain view, another body. Elliot, at this point, was was in plain view another body. Elliot at this point was like okay game on bitch. No I'm just kidding he didn't say that. But Elliot round yeah he probably did actually because he pulls the douchiest move of all time. Elliot deserves douche of the year because he rounded up about 35 police officers and detectives. And his plan was for them to go search for the killer

in the hobo jungles. That's what they called this area where all the rundown houses were out and all the homeless people are living. Elliot was believing that this is where the killer was living. So all these police officers, they raided through the run. They were going from place to place,

arresting around 63 men, while police and firemen searched the deserted shanties for evidence or clues. Elliot at this time was seeing red. Whoever this killer was, was taunting him. And his ego is probably just a little bruised. What does an angry man do? Well, he's like, let me call police

and tell them really quick to set the shacks on fire and burn down the town to the ground. So Elliot calls for police and firemen to go out there and set these shacks on fire and just burn the whole section down. This is where like all the homeless people are living. And you know, the Great Depression had happened happened years a couple years prior people are not really fully back on their feet um a lot of them are just living in these little shacks because it's really all they could do they can't go anywhere they don't have money to go anywhere

this is where they're living and elliott has them burn it all down like these people already had nothing they do it they burn it down the whole thing gets burned down to the ground and then elliott's like yay fixed it so the newspapers are reporting on all this, right? The people of the town were angry. A lot of them were very angry with Elliot for what he had done. He was heavily criticized for his actions. People knew that the raid would do nothing

to solve the murders. Burning down people's homes did nothing. If anything, you just burned down evidence that may have been there. Now, many were saying, or at least thinking, they were thinking that whoever was responsible for these murders had to be someone who was familiar with the human anatomy, right? That's what the coroner said.

Well, in order to be familiar with the human anatomy, you would think this person may be a doctor or something along those lines, right? So many thought that like if this were to be true, what are the odds that the killer would be living in one of the rundown homes in that area? Whoever was responsible needed more room to drain the bodies of their blood, right? Cut them up, et cetera, et cetera.

People are thinking you just burned down a whole area and ruined all these people's lives for what? There's no way the person could live in there. I think Elliot just used this opportunity to get rid of the homeless population. That was probably like an eyesore for him or something. That's just my own personal opinion, not a fact. After the area had been burned down,

the killings had stopped completely. So maybe he did live in the area? No, I don't think so. But I also forgot to mention that eventually the, not eventually, yeah, eventually, the media gave this killer the name the Cleveland Torso Killer. So the Cleveland Torso case ends with a letter addressed to the chief of police on December 21st, 1931. Let me tell you what this letter said. It's very, it's typed out. It's typed, not written or anything.

And it says, chief of police, you can rest easy now as I have come out to sunny California for the winter. I felt bad operating on those people, but science must advance. Just laboratory guinea pigs found on any public street. No one missed them when I failed. Right now, I have a volunteer who will absolutely prove my theory. They called me mad and a butcher.

But the, quote, truth will out, end quote. The body has not been found and never will be, but the head minus features is buried in a gully on Century Boulevard between Eastern and Century Crenshaw. I feel it is my duty to dispose of the bodies I do. It is God's will not to let them suffer. That's the last they had heard of this Cleveland torso killer, right? From this letter. Now, right? From this letter. Now, eight years after this is when Elizabeth Short,

the Black Dahlia is found dead in sunny California with the same markings of the Cleveland torso killer. She, like if you remember in my last video, was drained of all blood. She was cut in half, similar to the victims out in Cleveland, Ohio, and this is why a lot of people believe that the Cleveland torso killer is the final suspect in this case. Who knows? Who really knows? In July of 1939, a 52-year-old man named Frank

confessed to the murder of Flo. Frank said that he had lived with Flo and had been acquainted with two other victims, Edward and Rose. But his confession turned out to be all over the place. His story was flip-flopping and almost seemed rehearsed, practiced. They took him in, they booked him, and he sat in jail waiting for his trial.

But before he would appear in court, Frank was found dead in his jail cell. He hanged himself, or did he? What appeared to be a suicide left people with more questions, a lot more questions, okay? Because during the autopsy, it was revealed that Frank had six broken ribs, and Frank was five foot eight, but hanged himself from a hook only five foot seven inches off of the floor with six broken ribs. Like that's a little weird. and Frank was 5'8", but hanged himself from a hook only 5'7",

inches off of the floor with six broken ribs, like that's a little weird. Many people did not think Frank was the killer, okay? That police forced him to confess because people wanted, you know, someone in jail for all these murders, so Frank is the one that got hit with it, and then maybe they killed him before trial? Because like the broken ribs had to happen while in police custody, but why? So these murders, they just remain one big mystery.

Nothing has been solved from it. I mean, nobody knows what the hell was going on. There are so many rumors out there as who the killer may be, but there's been no solid leads as to who it was. Elliot Ness believed whoever the killer was continued to taunt him for years after the killings had stopped. He would get letters, he would get pictures, it led him nowhere. The biggest bummer of all is that all official police records on this case

have been destroyed or they were lost. Never been solved and all of the files are gone. So it's like, that's it, you know? Many believe that the Cleveland torso killer moved out west and then that's when this person may have killed Elizabeth Short. We may never know who this person was and what the hell they were doing exactly.

That my friends is a story about the Cleveland torso killer, whoever the hell that was. If you know, or if you have any information, maybe you were related to this person, let us know. Well, don't let me know. Let the police know first, okay? And then come back and let me know. But no, tell the police.

But yeah, I mean, it just remains one big mystery, man. This one is so wild. Do you think the Cleveland torso killer may have been the one who killed the Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short? Thank you guys so much for hanging out with me today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day ahead. Please be safe out there.

Have a good rest of your day, make good choices, and I'll be seeing you guys later. Bye.