The Cumminsville Ripper

Unresolved

Unresolved Productions

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"The girl's head rested in a big pool of blood. Her eyes were wide open. The teeth were missing, and her face completely covered with blood. In one hand was clasped a transfer."

Throughout 1904, a series of assaults and murders would make headlines in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Cumminsville. There, in the area surrounding Spring Grove Cemetery, a beast of a man preyed upon vulnerable women traveling at night.

Three women would fall prey to the killer - Mary McDonald, Lulu Mueller, and Alma Steinway - but dozens of others would report close calls or run-ins with the ripper, who seemed to commit his crimes within close proximity to the area's rail lines...

The map of the locations described in this episode can be viewed at the following Google Earth link. Please request permission if you have knowledge of this case and would like to add or change anything - we'd appreciate the help:

https://earth.google.com/earth/d/16_3lEH22SooBe66O-x0V62lM8ElFvlNK?usp=sharing

Episode researched & written by Troy Larson

Episode hosted & produced by Micheal Whelan

Original music created by Micheal Whelan through Amper Music

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Transcript

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0:00.0	There's something so romantic about winter and I don't know whether that's just because
0:05.4	I'm a bit of a homebody and I love a 5th but I think it's just the holiday period.
0:09.9	It's just for me it's the most romantic period and I think anyone who's listened to my
0:15.5	records will know that I'm quite a big fan of romance.
0:18.8	Joy in every sip with red cups now back at Starbucks.
0:35.0	Mary Mcdonald was a woman facing some challenges.
0:38.6	She was 31 years old and there was plenty of sorrow to drink away.
0:42.8	So on Saturday night, April 30th, 1904, she met up with her sister at the Stagman residence
0:48.8	at 7 Moline Court in the Cumminsville neighborhood of North Cincinnati.
0:53.5	Mary, her sister, and her sister's husband Charles reportedly drank three buckets of beer.
0:59.7	Then at around 10pm, Charles Stagman offered to walk Mary, sometimes known as May or
1:05.3	Mammy to her friends, to catch a street car at Noldtens Corner.
1:10.0	Once there, Mary Mcdonald and Charles Stagman instead visited a number of saloons and
1:15.2	reportedly had five whiskies each.
1:18.0	The barkeep said that they left in the early morning hours of May 1st.
1:22.0	Stagman would later say he put Mary Mcdonald on a street car for home, the college hill
1:27.0	end main street line.
1:29.2	For some unknown reason, Mary Mcdonald left the car just a few blocks later.
1:34.4	At 205am, the engineer on engine number 9 saw Mary Mcdonald near the tracks along Mill Creek,
1:41.6	leaning against a telegraph pole in a hollow in the creek bottom.
1:45.0	It was his opinion that she was in a drunken stupor, this engineer, David Schumaker, passed
1:51.1	Mary Mcdonald near the Luddlow Avenue crossing.
	...

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