Cleveland authorities are working with a nonprofit group to use genetic genealogy to identify body parts left behind by one of America's oldest serial killers, nearly a century after his discovery.
The “Torso Killer,” also known as the “Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run,” killed at least 12 people between 1935 and 1938, according to the Cleveland Police Museum website. However, recent research suggests there may have been more than 20 victims in total, Cleveland.com reported.
Only two of the killer's victims were ever identified. Bodies were rarely found complete, often with heads missing, and were never recovered.
Records show that people whose heads were actually located far away from the rest of their bodies; cleveland police museum, It is believed that they were castaways who were not recognized in the sketches that were circulated.
Mother of girl kidnapped in New York spends 47 hours trying to rescue her, reflects on the year since the horrific ordeal
Cleveland police, puzzled since 1934 about the identity of Cleveland's “Mad Torso Murderer,” were solved when a bridge tender on the murky Cuyahoga River pulled five parts of a woman's body out of the water. I had a new problem to deal with. (Bettman/Getty Images)
According to the museum, two victims associated with the unknown killer have been positively identified as Edward Andrassy and Florence Polillo.
Andrássy was a 28-year-old white man who was found decapitated, disemboweled and drained of blood in July 1939, wearing only socks. His fingertips were used to identify him, the museum said.
House of Horror: Murders leave this house with a terrifying past
When police searched the crime scene, they found the body of an unidentified woman, believed to be in her 40s. Part of Polillo, who was a waitress and bartender, was found carefully wrapped in newspaper in January 1936. The remaining body parts, except for the head, were recovered at another location 10 days later. She was also identified from her fingerprints.
Dental records revealed the “unofficial” identity of the third victim, Rose Wallace. However, the museum said police were unable to make a final determination.
Although no arrests were made, police believe that a surgeon named Francis E. Sweeney was involved in the murder, and would have had the expertise and equipment to dismember the body. According to the Cleveland Police Museum, he was questioned by police for a week but never confessed. However, after he committed himself to the facility, the murders stopped.
The DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit organization that conducts and funds genetic genealogy testing for cold cases, is working to uncover the names of some of the 10 unidentified victims in Cuyahoga County. We are cooperating with the coroner's office.
Killer on the run, crime scene clues could help solve young father's camping trip murder
On August 16, 1938, detectives and medical examiners examine the bones of two murder victims found at the East 9th Street Lakeshore dump in Cleveland. (Bettman/Getty Images)
Genetic genealogist CeCe Moore told Fox News Digital that “the chances that the DNA Doe project will be successful in identifying these individuals are very high.”
Sign up to get it true crime newsletter
“In 1938, there was no such thing as DNA testing. They probably couldn't have even imagined it. So the advances we've seen over almost 100 years are based on the fact that we first tackled DNA testing. “This case definitely is,” she said.
“As you know, DNA started being considered for criminal use in the '80s. DNA actually started being used in the United States in the '90s. But it took a really long time for DNA to be accepted. So, if you look back at the OJ Simpson case, for example, juries didn't really understand DNA enough to really give it the weight they do today. We have made further advances in genetic genealogy research.
“Direct-to-consumer DNA testing was introduced in 2000 by a company called Family Tree DNA. It was the first time we could test our own DNA to learn more about our family tree and genetic heritage. '' Moore explained. “That has now become what we call genetic genealogy, which combines DNA testing with the use of genealogy records.
“So people have been genealogists for decades, hundreds of years, actually using records to build family trees. And today, we're really fortunate that we have dozens of digitized With billions of records online, most of us can build our family tree far back in time, right from the comfort of our homes.”
Get real-time updates directly. true crime hub
Two bodies have been exhumed so far. One of the killer's “most famous” victims, characterized by WOIO-TV, is known as “The Tattooed Man.”
In the summer of 1936, the head of an unknown man was found abandoned near the railroad tracks, approximately 400 feet from his body. His identity was not determined even after police took his fingerprints and widely disseminated photos of his six tattoos, including the names “Helen” and “Paul,” according to the Cleveland Police Museum.
At the 1936 Great Lakes Exposition, more than 100,000 people saw an exhibit featuring a plaster cast of this man's head and images of his tattoos, but no one reported recognizing him. It was.
The second body to be examined was found on a lake in Cleveland in the summer of 1938 and is believed to be the murderer's sixth victim.
On this map, Kingsbury Run is marked with dots marking 10 of the 11 torso murders that occurred there in the 1930s. (Bettman/Getty Images)
DNA Doe told CBS News that one anonymous donor is funding the research. The remains may be contaminated or deteriorated because of their age, but DNA Doe has previously identified older remains, said Jennifer Randolph, the nonprofit's executive director of case management. spoke.
“We figure out who the relative DNA matches are. We build their trees, find their common ancestors, and then, you know, figure out who the unidentified individuals are. Build forward, or in some cases, build back a little bit, to see what happens.'' Randolph told WOIO-TV.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“So there could still be people alive who know that they were people who were missing from their families and no one knew what happened to them,” Randolph said. . “And regardless of their work, they deserve the dignity and justice to be memorialized with their names, especially given how they died.”
Moore told Fox News Digital that scientists will face many challenges working with such ancient sites.
“We're dealing with the potential for deterioration and bacterial contamination. Working with so-called 'ancient sites' is very difficult,” Moore explained. “When you're dealing with very old cases, you're almost certainly dealing with deterioration where you can't analyze all the DNA.
“You're going to lose some of that DNA. And with the contamination, you see the bacteria actually inserting their genome into the human genome. So you need a skilled scientist who can remove that bacterial genome. Before we can do genetic genealogy research, we need to extract it from the human genome.”
Follow the FOX True Crime Team at X
But Moore said the technique was used to identify even older remains, noting that the family of at least one victim of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre was finally notified in July. said.
According to fox 59World War I veteran CL Daniel was identified as one of the victims of the 1921 tragedy and his family was notified 103 years later.
“I have some inside information about it, but it's been really, really difficult to get the DNA that we need to do genetic genealogy research from these very ancient sites,” Moore said. . “But we had some success. It sometimes took multiple rounds before the lab finally had DNA that could be used for our research. It was quite similar and very difficult. It was.”
