AMERICAN DEMON

How a serial killer flummoxed one of America’s most celebrated law enforcement officers.

In his latest true-crime thriller, bestselling popular historian Stashower turns his attention to the so-called “Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run,” aka the “Cleveland Torso Murderer,” a still-unidentified maniac seemingly responsible for a dozen or more murders in Depression-era Cleveland. The author’s focus falls on the investigative role played by Eliot Ness, who was named the city’s safety director after his success in Chicago as the charismatic leader of a mob-busting brigade. Stashower begins with a summary of Ness’ exploits in helping to apprehend Al Capone, then moves on to examine his extraordinary influence in Cleveland as a police reformer and his response, over several years, to the sensation created by a series of grisly murders targeting the homeless. With characteristic skill, the author documents Ness’ involvement in the case and, more broadly, his work combatting systemic corruption as he manipulated newspaper coverage and marshalled political support. Though he did not crack the case of the titular “American demon,” Ness was, as Stashower makes clear, undeniably heroic in confronting injustice. “Ness made a particular specialty of taking down crooked precinct captains,” writes the author, “an effort he likened to cutting off the head of a snake. The campaign climaxed with the shocking downfall of…a captain said to be so powerful that ‘nobody went to the bathroom’ without his permission.” The author deftly sets Ness’ battles against institutional antagonists against an engagingly told, suspenseful account of the search for a notorious killer. Stashower is particularly incisive in his explorations of Ness’ lapses as an investigator and his portrait of the crime fighter’s personal and professional decline. Rather than a simple idealization of Ness’ often uncanny efficiency, we get a nuanced text about a deeply principled and exceptionally accomplished—though all-too-human—reformer.

A riveting and illuminating account of an iconic figure’s involvement in a notorious murder investigation.