Content warning. This episode contains discussion of brutal murders, violence, and dismemberment.

When most of us think of Elliot Ness, we probably recall his work as the leader of the so-called

Untouchables. The group of incorruptible government agents

who helped bring down the infamous gangster Al Capone back in the 1930s.

But of course Ness's career continued after Capone was put in prison.

It did not, though, have quite the same level of success.

In 1935, Ness became the safety director for the city of Cleveland, Ohio.

While in that role, he became involved in the investigation of that city's notorious

torso murders, which were committed by a killer that came to be known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run.

Around 12 people fell victim to that early serial killer.

Their dismembered remains were generally left in the Kingsbury-run neighborhood of the city.

The torso murder case was never solved, and some believe that the failure to identify the killer damaged Ness's reputation.

But perhaps that is not entirely accurate. killer damaged Ness's reputation.

But perhaps that is not entirely accurate.

Writer and journalism professor James Jessen Bedahl spent years researching this case.

His book on the subject, in the wake of the butcher, Cleveland's

torso murders, stands as the definitive account of the killings. He even wrote two

follow-up books that I hold in high regard. Though Murder has no tongue, the lost victim of Cleveland's

Mad Butcher, and Hell's Wasteland, the Pennsylvania torso murders.

But Dahl probably knows more about the torso killings than anyone else now living.

And he maintains the contrary to what we think,

Elliot Ness did solve the case.

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