Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher: Hunting America's Deadliest Unidentified Serial Killer at the Dawn of Modern Criminology

by Max Allan Collins, Malcolm Hillgartner (Read by), A. Brad Schwartz, TBD (Read by)

Overview

"The thrilling history of the torso murderer. The tale of the ‘Untouchable’ who got Al Capone but failed to solve his goriest case." —Dan Jones, The Sunday Times

In the spirit of Devil in the White City comes a true detective tale of the highest standard: the haunting story of Eliot Ness's forgotten final case–his years-long hunt for "The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run," a serial killer who terrorized Cleveland through the Great Depression. 

“After helping to put Al Capone behind bars, lawman Eliot Ness came to Cleveland, where he did battle with a vicious killer. ... Even Ness was stumped trying to apprehend the ‘torso murderer’ responsible for a series of ghoulish killings. ... The authors have done Ness justice." —Wall Street Journal

In 1934, the nation’s most legendary crime-fighter–fresh from taking on the greatest gangster in American history–arrived in Cleveland, a corrupt and dangerous town about to host a world's fair. It was to be his coronation, as well as the city's. Instead, terror descended, as headless bodies started turning up. The young detective, already battling the mob and crooked cops, found his drive to transform American policing subverted by a menace largely unknown to law enforcement: a serial murderer.

Eliot Ness's greatest case had begun. 

Now, Max Allan Collins and A. Brad Schwartz–the acclaimed writing team behind Scarface and the Untouchable–uncover this lost crime epic, delivering a gripping and unforgettable nonfiction account based on decades of groundbreaking research.

Ness had risen to fame in 1931 for leading the “Untouchables,” which helped put Chicago’s Al Capone behind bars. As Cleveland's public safety director, in charge of the police and fire departments, Ness offered a radical new vision for better law enforcement. Crime-ridden and devastated by the Depression, Cleveland was preparing for a star-turn itself: in 1936, it would host the "Great Lakes Exposition," which would be visited by seven million people. Late in the summer of 1934, however, pieces of a woman’s body began washing up on the Lake Erie shore–first her ribs, then part of her backbone, then the lower half of her torso. The body count soon grew to five, then ten, then more, all dismembered in gruesome ways.

As Ness zeroed in on a suspect–a doctor tied to a prominent political family–powerful forces thwarted his quest for justice. In this battle between a flawed hero and a twisted monster–by turns horror story, political drama, and detective thriller–Collins and Schwartz find an American tragedy, classic in structure, epic in scope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781094168951
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	08/04/2020
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 5.70(h) x (d)

About the Author

Max Allan Collins is the New York Times best-selling author of Road to Perdition and multiple award-winning novels, screenplays, comic books, comic strips, trading cards, short stories, movie novelizations, and historical fiction. He has scripted the Dick Tracy comic strip, Batman comic books, and written tie-in novels based on the CSI, Bones, and Dark Angel TV series; collaborated with legendary mystery author Mickey Spillane; and authored numerous mystery series including Quarry, Nolan, Mallory, Eliot Ness, and the bestselling Nathan Heller historical thrillers.

Malcolm Hillgartner is an accomplished actor, writer, and musician. Named an AudioFile Best Voice of 2013 and the recipient of several Earphones Awards, he has narrated over 175 audiobooks.

A. Brad Schwartz, author of Broadcast Hysteria, cowrote an episode of the award–winning PBS series American Experience on the War of the Worlds broadcast.

Table of Contents

Coauthor's Note xiii

Prologue: Untouchable 1

Part 1 Public Safety

Chapter 1 The Dark City 9

Chapter 2 An Impossible Mission 21

Chapter 3 Showdown 35

Chapter 4 The Mad Butcher 51

Chapter 5 This Is a Raid! 63

Chapter 6 The Butcher's Meat 75

Chapter 7 Perfect Victims 89

Part 2 The Unknowns

Chapter 8 Hero of the Hour 103

Chapter 9 A Modern Dracula 121

Chapter 10 Who Will Be Next? 141

Chapter 11 Doctor X 155

Chapter 12 Butcher Paper 169

Chapter 13 Good Riddance 183

Chapter 14 Mystery Man 197

Chapter 15 Right-Hand Man 213

Chapter 16 A New Suspect 229

Chapter 17 The Right Man? 237

Chapter 18 That's the Man 247

Chapter 19 Whatever Became of Eliot Ness? 263

Chapter 20 The Heat Is On 275

Chapter 21 EN-3 285

Part 3 Private Sector

Chapter 22 Social Evil 301

Chapter 23 The Old Restlessness 319

Chapter 24 Vote Yes for Ness 327

Chapter 25 Head Man Ness 339

Chapter 26 You Should Write a Book 355

Chapter 27 Valuable Citizen 363

Epilogue: A Modern Myth 377

An Informal Afterword 397

Acknowledgments: A Tip of the Fedora 401

Abbreviations 409

Source Notes 413

Bibliography 527

Index 543

Editorial Reviews

06/22/2020

This meticulously researched but often gloomy account of the life and times of Eliot Ness from Collins and Schwartz (Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago) focuses on the legendary lawman’s career starting at the end of Prohibition when he became Cleveland’s Safety Director (essentially, police chief). In this position, Ness led the hunt for the Mad Butcher, a serial killer who terrorized Cleveland by killing and dismembering mostly indigent men and women and leaving their heads and other body parts around town. But the killer, who was never apprehended, ceased his attacks in 1938—less than halfway through the book. The rest is less true crime than a catalogue of Ness’s far less dramatic endeavors as a bureaucrat: his destruction of Cleveland’s shantytown, which displaced thousands of homeless people; labor racketeering probes that detoured into bingo and pinball gaming; and even crackdowns on traffic congestion and jaywalking. Ness’s move into the private sector in 1945 begins a chain of foolish decisions that eventually cost him his reputation, his sobriety, and his solvency. Readers will wish that the authors had consigned Ness’s post–Mad Butcher career to an epilogue. Agent: Ross Harris, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"The thrilling history of the torso murderer. The tale of the ‘Untouchable’ who got Al Capone but failed to solve his goriest case. ... A deeply researched book which reads like a thriller and sheds new light on a poorly understood modern American icon. Crime history doesn't get a lot better than that." — Dan Jones, The Sunday Times (London)

“After helping to put Al Capone behind bars, lawman Eliot Ness came to Cleveland, where he did battle with a vicious killer. ... The authors have done Ness justice. ... Deeply researched." — Wall Street Journal

"A careening read that’s full of surprises. ... Collins and Schwartz deliver a nimble, taut tale. More importantly, they offer a portrait of a complex crime fighter who believed in science and reason at a time when most officers smacked suspects around with a blackjack, a portrait set against a backdrop of ethnic and class collisions, labor unrest, and political intrigue Catnip for true-crime buffs." — Kirkus Reviews

"An excellent biography that reads like a thriller. ... A worthwhile, entertaining reading experience." — New York Journal of Books

“Collins and Schwartz bring their usual novelistic chops...laying out a compulsive and insightful story.” — CrimeReads

“Thoroughly researched and well paced. … A successful blend of history and suspense.” — Library Journal

“Meticulously researched.” — Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

Collins and Schwartz bring their usual novelistic chops...laying out a compulsive and insightful story.

CrimeReads

"The thrilling history of the torso murderer. The tale of the ‘Untouchable’ who got Al Capone but failed to solve his goriest case. ... A deeply researched book which reads like a thriller and sheds new light on a poorly understood modern American icon. Crime history doesn't get a lot better than that."

Dan Jones

After helping to put Al Capone behind bars, lawman Eliot Ness came to Cleveland, where he did battle with a vicious killer. ... The authors have done Ness justice. ... Deeply researched."

Wall Street Journal

"An excellent biography that reads like a thriller. ... A worthwhile, entertaining reading experience."

New York Journal of Books

After helping to put Al Capone behind bars, lawman Eliot Ness came to Cleveland, where he did battle with a vicious killer. ... The authors have done Ness justice. ... Deeply researched."

Wall Street Journal

"A deeply researched book which reads like a thriller and sheds new light on a poorly understood modern American icon. Crime history doesn't get a lot better than that."

Sunday Times (London)

07/01/2020

Collins and Schwartz (Scarface and the Untouchable) reunite to continue the story of law enforcement agent Eliot Ness, known for leading the Untouchables, the group famous for bringing down Al Capone. Ness moved on to serve as Cleveland's public safety director during a tumultuous time in the city's history following the Great Depression. He confronted various crime and political challenges, which are detailed within the book. The story is anchored by Ness's efforts to identify the Mad Butcher, a serial killer who terrorized Cleveland and whose actions followed Ness until the end of his career. The book is thoroughly researched and well paced, a feat considering the breadth of Ness's work. VERDICT A successful blend of history and suspense, this volume will appeal to readers interested in true crime and law enforcement. Readers intrigued by the Mad Butcher may also enjoy James Jessen Badal's In the Wake of the Butcher.—Kate Bellody, State Univ. of New York, New Paltz

Library Journal

2020-05-10
A sharp history of crusading detective Eliot Ness (1903-1957), a man who was vastly more complicated than the square-jawed hero of The Untouchables.

Ness began his career as a hard-charging special agent tasked with enforcing Prohibition in gangster-ruled Chicago. As crime writer Collins and historian Schwartz chronicle, he ended up a heavy drinker with a heart condition, thrice-married and unhappy. Having moved to Cleveland to take the post of head of public safety, he’d been broken by “one case he could never publicly close—the monster who emerged to prey on the city’s weakest and most vulnerable even as Eliot Ness began cleaning up their town, a killer who made Capone seem benign by comparison, branded in the press a ‘Butcher’ for what he did to his victims.” And what he did to his victims—most of them marginal people whose disappearances didn’t excite much interest from the police—was horrific: The Butcher, “a killer who preyed on strangers, for reasons incomprehensible outside his own twisted pathology,” cut off heads and genitals, eviscerated and dissected, left torsos and arms scattered along the shore of Lake Erie. Finally, upon Ness’ arrival, the police began to take notice, but they never could quite piece together the serial killer’s pattern until a resident of a veterans’ convalescent home in Sandusky voiced his suspicion that the killer was a resident there. The cat-and-mouse game that ensued makes for a careening read that’s full of surprises, especially once the killer decided that he ought to take the opportunity to taunt his pursuer. Collins and Schwartz deliver a nimble, taut tale. More importantly, they offer a portrait of a complex crime fighter who believed in science and reason at a time when most officers smacked suspects around with a blackjack, a portrait set against a backdrop of ethnic and class collisions, labor unrest, and political intrigue.

Catnip for true-crime buffs.

Kirkus Reviews