James Jesse Badal

The Fourteenth Victim: Eliot Ness & the Torso Murders

James Jesse Badal

For Eliot Ness, Al Capone was old news in 1935. It was Ness’ stint as Safety Director of Cleveland, and his face off with Cleveland’s Torso Murderer, that was plainly the defining episode in his career. The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run tore through the headlines of Cleveland’s daily papers for years, and this serial killer -perhaps America’s first of its kind- left behind a bloody birthright that haunts the city still.