Theories About Killer

Because the Torso Murderer appeared to have an advanced understanding of anatomy and considerable skill at dismemberment, the popular theory at the time was that the killer was either a doctor or a butcher. And since doctors were respectable members of society, he became popularly know as “the Mad Butcher of Cleveland.” (The same thought process was employed almost fifty years earlier concerning Jack the Ripper, and now a prominent doctor is one of the most popular suspects with Ripperologists.)

Given what is now known about serial killers, it is doubtful that the Torso Murderer had to be a doctor or a butcher, though that is definitely possible. The main problem that confronted Eliot Ness, Peter Merylo, and the other people working on the case, as discussed in the next section, is that they simply did not have the knowledge of psychosexually driven serial killers that we have now, primarily due to the efforts of the Behavioral Sciences Department of the FBI. In 1935, no one had ever seen anything like these crimes before.

Homicide Detective Peter Merylo’s pet theory was that the killer was a male nurse. A nurse might have the requisite anatomical knowledge, and a male nurse would have the great strength needed, not only to decapitate the corpses, usually in one swoop of an axe, but also to carry to the corpses to the remote locations on Kingsbury Run where they were often deposited. One of the victims, Andrassy, had worked for a time in the psych unit of a Cleveland hospital. Although Merylo interviewed many people there, he never uncovered a workable suspect.

In the 1950s, during his interviews with Oscar Fraley, the man who wrote the book The Untouchables, Ness briefly referred to the torso murders, saying that he had interrogated a subject they called “Gaylord Sundheim,” an obvious pseudonym. Ness refused to say more about it; the unsolved case was obviously a sore subject he did not want mentioned in the book. Many people have tried to deduce who “Gaylord Sundheim” really was and why Ness was unable to arrest or convict him, but until now, no one has been able to determine his identity. The graphic novel Torso, by Brian Michael Bendis, acts as if Sundheim was the killer’s real name—even his lawyer uses it—and never makes any attempt to identify the killer’s true identity. The comic book also suggests that Ness ran for mayor three months after the last murder (he in fact did not run until 1947, after WWII) and that the files of the case have “mysteriously disappeared,” which is simply untrue.

The only man ever charged with any of these crimes was Frank Dolzeal. A county sheriff—a political opponent of Mayor Harold Burton, the man who appointed Ness--conducted a private investigation using private operatives. Dolzeal was known to Peter Merylo and had been rejected by him as a suspect. Nonetheless, in what was probably a political move, the sheriff arrested and charged the alcoholic Dolzeal, who appeared at a press conference dazed and, in all likelihood, beaten into submission. The sheriff claimed Dolzeal had confessed to the murder of Flo Polillo—though none of the other murders—and Dolzeal later recounted that confession. (The interrogation lasted two days during which Dolzeal was given neither food nor rest. Merylo demonstrated that Dolzeal’s description of the murder was inaccurate and even impossible. A later ACLU investigation found that Dolzeal acquired three broken ribs during the interrogation.) Shortly after his arrest, while supposedly on “suicide watch,” Dolzeal was found hung by the neck from a hook in his jail cell. Many investigators have speculated that he was murdered to prevent the sheriff’s case from falling apart at trial. According to James Badal, in his excellent book, In the Wake of the Butcher, “Today, no one familiar with the case believes that Frank Dolezal was guilty.”








	Theories About Killer Because the Torso Murderer appeared to have an advanced understanding of anatomy and considerable skill at dismemberment, the popular theory at the time was that the killer was either a doctor or a butcher. And since doctors were respectable members of society, he became popularly know as “the Mad Butcher of Cleveland.” (The same thought process was employed almost fifty years earlier concerning Jack the Ripper, and now a prominent doctor is one of the most popular suspects with Ripperologists.) Given what is now known about serial killers, it is doubtful that the Torso Murderer had to be a doctor or a butcher, though that is definitely possible. The main problem that confronted Eliot Ness, Peter Merylo, and the other people working on the case, as discussed in the next section, is that they simply did not have the knowledge of psychosexually driven serial killers that we have now, primarily due to the efforts of the Behavioral Sciences Department of the FBI. In 1935, no one had ever seen anything like these crimes before. Homicide Detective Peter Merylo’s pet theory was that the killer was a male nurse. A nurse might have the requisite anatomical knowledge, and a male nurse would have the great strength needed, not only to decapitate the corpses, usually in one swoop of an axe, but also to carry to the corpses to the remote locations on Kingsbury Run where they were often deposited. One of the victims, Andrassy, had worked for a time in the psych unit of a Cleveland hospital. Although Merylo interviewed many people there, he never uncovered a workable suspect. In the 1950s, during his interviews with Oscar Fraley, the man who wrote the book The Untouchables, Ness briefly referred to the torso murders, saying that he had interrogated a subject they called “Gaylord Sundheim,” an obvious pseudonym. Ness refused to say more about it; the unsolved case was obviously a sore subject he did not want mentioned in the book. Many people have tried to deduce who “Gaylord Sundheim” really was and why Ness was unable to arrest or convict him, but until now, no one has been able to determine his identity. The graphic novel Torso, by Brian Michael Bendis, acts as if Sundheim was the killer’s real name—even his lawyer uses it—and never makes any attempt to identify the killer’s true identity. The comic book also suggests that Ness ran for mayor three months after the last murder (he in fact did not run until 1947, after WWII) and that the files of the case have “mysteriously disappeared,” which is simply untrue. The only man ever charged with any of these crimes was Frank Dolzeal. A county sheriff—a political opponent of Mayor Harold Burton, the man who appointed Ness--conducted a private investigation using private operatives. Dolzeal was known to Peter Merylo and had been rejected by him as a suspect. Nonetheless, in what was probably a political move, the sheriff arrested and charged the alcoholic Dolzeal, who appeared at a press conference dazed and, in all likelihood, beaten into submission. The sheriff claimed Dolzeal had confessed to the murder of Flo Polillo—though none of the other murders—and Dolzeal later recounted that confession. (The interrogation lasted two days during which Dolzeal was given neither food nor rest. Merylo demonstrated that Dolzeal’s description of the murder was inaccurate and even impossible. A later ACLU investigation found that Dolzeal acquired three broken ribs during the interrogation.) Shortly after his arrest, while supposedly on “suicide watch,” Dolzeal was found hung by the neck from a hook in his jail cell. Many investigators have speculated that he was murdered to prevent the sheriff’s case from falling apart at trial. According to James Badal, in his excellent book, In the Wake of the Butcher, “Today, no one familiar with the case believes that Frank Dolezal was guilty.”