In 1921, a woman was nearly beheaded in her own home, which was close to railroad tracks that ran through western Pennsylvania. In July 1923, the decomposed body of a six-year-old girl turned up. That October, a headless nude male corpse was found in a changing shed near the railroad in south Pittsburgh. Then dismembered limbs and a head from another man were discovered in a heap of burning coal in West Virginia, close to Pittsburgh. These murders all went unsolved.
To determine if some or all are linked to a single offender on cases as cold as these, law enforcement records are important. However, Dr. James Jessen Badal, an assistant professor of English and Journalism at Cuyahoga Community College, found a dearth of official records. There was plenty of newspaper coverage, but during this era some reporters weren’t much concerned with the facts.
For a long time, Badal had believed that these murders were unrelated to the "Cleveland Torso" spate of killings during the 1930s, despite the detailed report of a persistent detective, Peter Merylo. This detective thought the killer had traveled by boxcar to elude law enforcement and find victims in other places. However, Merylo's obsession was also his weakness: he dismissed other possibilities too quickly.
Despite the research hurdles, Badal decided to revisit the Murder Swamp stories, and the results are in his latest book, Hell’s Wasteland: The Pennsylvania Torso Murders. He’d previously published two books devoted to the Cleveland Torso murders, In the Wake of the Butcher and Though Murder has no Tongue, so this third book greatly benefits from his prior knowledge.
For forensic purposes, Badal’s coverage provides a solid foundation for pondering these cases. Unless new documents turn up from some as-yet-unknown source, this is it. Not only does Badal cover the gruesome details of each incident, he also shows why Merylo did not see the whole picture. In addition, he considers the most popular suspects offered by armchair detectives and explains how they fit – or don’t fit – the emerging portrait.
So, back to the Murder Swamp. In 1925, just a few days apart, the mutilated bodies of three different men were discovered across the tracks from New Castle. Legend had it that organized crime had deposited many victims in that wasteland of small pools and thick undergrowth. For awhile, an Italian enforcer organization called The Black Hand had operated in the area, but a series of prosecutions had effectively shut it down. (They were also blamed for the ax murders in New Orleans during this era.)
Then, between 1934 and 1938, a dozen assaults and dismemberments were attributed to the "Cleveland Torso Killer," a.k.a., "The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run." Never solved, this series of grisly murders remains one of our country’s enduring crime mysteries. (Badal is writing an update to In the Wake of the Butcher to address more documents that have come to light that confirm his suspicions about his #1 suspect.)
After the Cleveland spree seemed to end, more bodies turned up outside the city. In October 1939, the corpse of a young male surfaced in the Murder Swamp, and soon three dismembered bodies were found in boxcars that had come from Youngstown, Ohio, not far from Cleveland. Pittsburgh had its own headless body, removed from one of the rivers, along with two human legs found later in another river that flowed through the city. Then there was another headless corpse.
Badal provides complete coverage, including maps and those photos he could locate. He also includes a behavioral analysis from a graduate student in a geographic systems information program.
Lest anyone think that an English professor can hardly do a thorough criminal investigation of cold case records, Badal has been on the board of trustees of Cleveland’s Police Historical Society since 2001. He’s had plenty of opportunity to brainstorm these cases with experienced law enforcement officials, and the feedback, he states, has been positive.
So what about the Murder Swamp today? Badal says that you can’t really go see it. “There’s not much left and it’s roped off.” A power plant took over much of the land and dirt fills most of the bogs. How many bodies might have been dumped there, still undiscovered, is anyone’s guess. But the discovered victims total quite a lot for a rural area.
Even if you can't visit the swamp, you can see some of the Mad Butcher locations. An enterprising detective, Chuck Grove, offers "Haunted Cleveland" tours, including a "Mayhem and Murder" bus tour that stops at the Cuyahoga County Coroner’s Office and the Cleveland Police Museum. On some Friday nights, Badal gives talks there about the Mad Butcher crimes and the Murder Swamp victims.
If I were anywhere near Cleveland on one of those nights, given the detailed coverage that Badal put into his books, I’d certainly sign up for a tour and lecture. Mystery and true crime fans will find much to admire in the meticulous research for Hell’s Wasteland. I picked it up on a whim, thanks to a bookstore employee who knows what I like, and I'm glad I did.