Five Reasons the Cleveland Torso Murders Were Mob Hits

Between 1935 and 1938, twelve dismembered, decapitated torsos were found in the Cleveland Flats. A few different suspects were tossed around at the time, but still today, there is no concrete evidence of who committed these crimes or why. After reading up on the case, I see it as a series of mob hits. Here are five reasons why I think so.

1. Unidentifiable Victims

Twelve corpses are considered to be the work of the same man or woman. Of those twelve, ten of them remain unidentified either because parts were never found or because what was recovered was a mess. That sounds like the mob’s MO to me. The mob originated things like cutting off the head and hands so if the corpse was discovered they wouldn’t be identified which would remove the link to the killer and the motive. It’s also a lot easier to transport and dispose of a body one piece at a time.

2. Hidden Pieces

The limbs, heads and bodies were discovered in lakes, swamps, boxcars and trash cans. “Hiding spots” have been used by the mafia for years. It’s a good strategy, make the pieces hard to find so maximum deterioration and decomposition can make a corpse unrecognizable. This is the second part of preventing identification, allowing the murderer to escape without anyone being able to track them.

3. Even More Bodies!

So I mentioned that there were twelve victims credited to this killer above. The truth is, there may be as many as forty victims stretching from Cleveland, through Youngstown and into Pittsburgh, all places where the Cleveland Mob operated during the time of the murders. Detective Peter Merylo says that some of these other twenty-eight victims may be prey of the same killer. Say a bigger man is spotted in the area where some of the corpses were discovered, why not send him to take care of some work in another town for a little while? He wasn’t updating his facebook status that the boss was sending him to take care of some factory workers back east.

4. Mob Problems

1935-1938, the timeframe of the twelve canonical murders of the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run was a very tumultuous time for the Cleveland Mafia. Not only was then current Don, Frank Milano fleeing to Mexico to avoid tax evasion charges, but his successor, Alfred Polizzi ended up being indicted on the same charge by the middle of the 1940’s. Could some of these victims have been used for small errands and hit jobs, then taken care of to avoid any loose lips or snitches?

5. Why Not?

for tours and sell out days in advanceIt’s fun to think everything is mob related. Come on, we live in America. We’re obsessed with the mafia here. Every year movies, television, comics and songs are made glorifying and vilifying the seedy underbelly of America’s Crime Families. If it wasn’t for our infatuation with the mob, Geraldo wouldn’t still be on television and Alcatraz Island wouldn’t charge thirty bucks a tickets .