Halloween Special: The Cleveland Torso Killer, with Richard MacLean Smith from Unexplained

Murder always makes an imprint in the lives of the people around it. But when a murder goes unsolved—or multiple murders—the imprint is even darker. It can linger through years, even decades. It can stain the history of an entire city. In the mid-1930s, there was a series of murders like that in Cleveland, Ohio. Gruesome, brutal murders that shocked the conscience of everyone who followed the story. We know for sure of 13. We suspect there were many more. Those murders have still never been solved. There are victims who have never been identified, never given back their names or their dignity. But a wealth of tantalizing clues remain, and there are some compelling theories on who the killer may have been.

Sources:

Cleveland Magazine, Erick Trickey: https://clevelandmagazine.com/articles/solving-the-cleveland-torso-murders/ https://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/collections/torso-murders/ "Unsolved Mysteries" with Robert Stack, S5, E13 (1992)

Cleveland.com, Laura DeMarco: https://www.cleveland.com/life-and-culture/erry-2018/10/55d2b5ea596983/clevelands-infamous-torso-murd.html

Buzzfeed Unsolved, episode "The Ghastly Cleveland Torso Murders"

Various interviews and articles, James Badal

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