MAD BUTCHER

Most people think of Eliot Ness and immediately associate him with Al Capone. However, the famous American lawman was also involved in one of the most infamous and brutal serial murder cases in United States history, only this time Ness would not get his man. In fact, to this day the Cleveland Torso Murders, perpetrated by a man known as the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, remain unsolved. In fact, his inability to find the murderer is said to have been the cause of his descent into alcoholism.

From 1934 to 1938, the Mad Butcher brutally murdered thirteen people, generally leaving only the torsos of the corpses behind. In all, seven men and six women were murdered, with only two victims ever having been identified. Two men were arrested in suspicion of being the Mad Butcher, but they were never convicted. The first suspect, Frank Dolezal, had originally confessed but later recanted, and died in custody. The second suspect, Dr. Francis Sweeney, failed a polygraph test but was released due to a lack of evidence. Ness’s journal hints that he knew who the killer was but could never prove it. And if the untouchable Eliot Ness was unable to prove who the killer was, that’s probably a pretty good indication that these are murders that will go forever unsolved.

Why Are Thousands of People Disappearing From National Parks?

Thousands of unsolved missing person cases are occurring in National Parks and Forests in the US and around the world, and one researcher has been feverishly looking into the mystery. David Paulides, former law enforcement officer and current private investigator, has published four books detailing these disturbing disappearances, leaving others to speculate about the cause.

Every year, thousands of people go missing. Many of these cases are solved, or at least the cause can be reasonably ascertained. Strangers kidnap kids for ransom or worse, estranged parents kidnap their own children from former spouses, and crimes lead to disappearances of a clearly criminal nature.

Then there are cases that are truly inexplicable, like the ones detailed in Paulides book Missing 411 and the three volumes published since. These cases differ in strange ways from other missing person cases. They are happening in remote areas of National Parks, monuments and forests, and federal agencies are not keeping track or sharing information.

All of the cases that are meticulously documented in the books have happened in 52 clearly defined geographic clusters. The Rocky Mountains and Sierra Pacific range are two areas where cases are concentrated. Colorado, Michigan, Georgia and Arkansas are other hot spots. Other countries are also involved, with many cases documented in Canada and Europe.

High altitude locations, berry patches, swamps and boulder strewn landscapes are typical locations where people are going missing. Many of the victims are physically fit, well equipped with outdoor gear – and even hunting weapons – and are familiar with the area from which they disappear. A large number of cases involve people who vanish suddenly while hiking or camping with family and friends.

A large percentage of victims whose bodies are found are missing their shoes and socks, even though they went missing in cold weather where being shoeless could be a death sentence in itself. The shoes are seldom found. The majority of victims are male, mentally handicapped in some way or in the genius intellectual range.

Bodies are also found at higher elevations than where they were last seen alive, defying explanation as to how they could have gotten to such an inaccessible place. In one case, a physician went hiking to a winter cabin with friends. They had all been there before and were in excellent physical condition and equipped with new snow gear.

The missing man vanished after going ahead on the trail a short distance and was then found two weeks later, miles away, hundreds of feet higher in elevation than when he was last seen, in a steep ravine with all his snow gear and emergency equipment and provisions unused and his shoes nowhere to be found.

The Great Amherst Mystery

Famous poltergeist case which took place in 1878-79 in Amherst, Nova Scotia. The focus of the case was 18-year-old Esther Cox, who lived in the overcrowded Teed home with her sister Jennie, her other sister Olive and her husband Daniel Teed, her brother William, Daniel Teed’s brother John and the two Teed boys.

About a week after Esther’s boyfriend, Bob MacNeal, tried to rape her at gunpoint, scratching noises were heard in Esther’s bedroom and she screamed to her sister Jennie that there was a mouse in the bed with her. As Jennie rushed to her aid, she saw a cardboard box move by itself- and of course, no mouse was found. The next night, Esther’s face turned bright red and her body swelled to twice its normal size. While Esther cried that she was dying, a loud booming noise was heard outside.  A few days later, Esther was still alarmingly swollen. Her bedsheets were torn off her while she was sleeping and thrown at John Teed, who immediately left the home, swearing never to return. The rest of the Teed family sat on Esther’s sheets to try to keep them in place. When the local doctor visited to examine Esther, plaster flew off the walls and chillingly, the words “Esther Cox, you are mine to kill!” appeared on the wall above her bed. When the doctor prescribed morphine the next day, he was hit by a volley of potatoes, which struck so hard that he was actually knocked across the room.

Loud noises continued for weeks and the lurid story hit the newspapers. A local minister witnessed a bucket of cold water come to a boil while sitting on the kitchen table. Esther fell into a trance and told that Bob MacNeal had tried to rape her. Jennie proclaimed that the haunting was Bob’s fault and the poltergeist began rapidly knocking on the walls as if in agreement. In future messages the ghost wrote on walls, it would often sign itself “Bob”. 

When Esther caught diptheria, the haunting ceased but it started back up again when she recovered. She got a job at a restaurant owned by a neighbor, but while she was at the restaurant, she was hit on the head with a scrubbing brush, oven doors clanged open and things stuck to her like she was a magnet. She was given special shoes with glass soles in an attempt to reduce some of the phenomena but she said the shoes gave her headaches and nosebleeds. She also began to hear voices in her head which threatened to stab her and burn the Teed home down.Lit matches sometimes rained down on her from the bedroom ceiling and one of her dresses once caught fire while it was hanging in the closet.

When a magician came to Amherst, hoping to make some money exploiting the phenomena, the poltergeist threw carving knives, an umbrella and a chair at him. Pins were jammed into Eshter’s hand, fires broke out in the house and a trumpet was heard playing in the home. Later, a small silver trumpet was found. No one could remember seeing it before. Esther’s brother George found himself forcibly undressed in public three different times by the poltergeist and the family cat was levitated five feet in the air.

Concerned that the poltergeist trouble would affect the property’s value, the Teed’s landlord asked Esther to leave the house. She went to work on a local farm but when items disappeared, she was accused of theft and when the barn burned down, she was accused of arson and sentenced to four months in jail. During her time in the big house, the poltergeist activity stopped entirely and never returned. Esther was able to return to a normal life that included whispers about whether she engineered the poltergeist herself and a lifelong drinking problem. 

The Strange Mystery of the Axeman of New Orleans Murders

An axe-wielding maniac stalked the streets of the Big Easy, and the only way to avoid slaughter was to play jazz.

It was the night of March 19, 1919 and jazz played in New Orleans.

Music poured out of private residences, where wealthy white New Orleanians hired bands to play music popularized in a mixed race Red Light District. Yet the musicians weren’t playing for love or money. These concerts were borne of fear, ordered by an axe-wielding maniac who claimed to come straight from Hell.

For almost a year, the city of New Orleans had been the subject of multiple attacks by a serial killer, an axe murderer who to this day has never been identified. The mysterious figure is known to history as the Axeman of New Orleans. While it is impossible to verify whether he’s responsible for all of the murders ascribed to him, it is a fact that from May of 1918 until October of 1919, 12 people were attacked across greater New Orleans, seven of whom died from their brutal wounds.

In almost every case, a small hole was carved out of a door. The Axeman would crawl through this opening so small that several suspects were dismissed on account of their size and then bludgeon his victims with an axe. Curiously, the weapon employed was often in the house, and left at the scene of the crime along with the chisel used for breaking through the door.

The victims of the Axeman had qualities in common. They were mainly women. Men only suffered blows if they got in the Axeman’s way and never seemed to be the primary target. Many of the victims were Italian Americans, who at the time represented white underclass.

Citizens of Italian descent were no strangers to violence in New Orleans. In a city troubled by its tense race relations, the largest mass lynching in civic history was of 11 Italian Americans outside Parish Prison in 1891. Italians and their descendants lived in crowded slums that lacked the law enforcement presence of other neighborhoods. Many assumed Italian neighborhoods were run by mafia organizations like the Black Hand.

Into this volatile mix stepped the Axeman. His first officially recognized murder was on May 22, 1918. On that late spring day, he used his chisel to remove part of a door and slip into the home of Joseph and Catherine Maggio. When Joseph’s brothers Jake and Andrew, who also lived in the home, went to check on the couple, they found Catherine’s corpse draped over Joseph, whose head and face were gashed. Joseph reacted to the appearance of his brothers, but died from his wounds shortly thereafter. Catherine’s head had almost detached from her body. Her killer had used Andrew’s straight razor to slit her throat so deeply that she had been practically decapitated.

Andrew Maggio was arrested for the attack but released after an investigation turned up no further evidence linking him the crime. What police did find, about a block from the Maggio house, was a message scrawled in chalk which read, “Mrs. Maggio will sit up tonight just like Mrs. Toney”.

Over the long hot summer that followed, two more attacks yielded four more victims, two of whom died from their wounds. One victim who survived, a Polish immigrant named Louis Besumer. This led to speculation that the attacker was a gangster bent on extortion but if he was affiliated with organized crime, he seemed strangely nonchalant about money. The Axeman’s victims rarely had their values taken.

A strange lull then settled over New Orleans as the summer dragged on. From August 10, 1918, until late winter of 1919, no attacks were reported. Then, on March 10, 1919, in the suburb of Gretna just across the river from New Orleans proper, tragedy struck. The Cortimiglia family. Charles, Rosie and two-year old Mary were attacked in their home after an invader carved out part of their kitchen door. Rosie, found cradling her dead daughter in her arms, was the only survivor.

Fear tightened its grip on New Orleans once again. Three days after the Cortimiglia attack, an ominous letter arrived at local newspapers. The author demanded its publication. The address line, in an eerie echo of Jack the Ripper’s correspondence, was from Hell.

Hell, March 13, 1919

Esteemed Mortal:

They have never caught me and they never will. They have never seen me, for I am invisible, even as the ether that surrounds your earth. I am not a human being, but a spirit and a demon from the hottest hell. I am what you Orleanians and your foolish police call the Axeman.

The writer went on to threaten additional murders, claiming he’d leave no clue except for his bloody axe, smeared with the gore of his victims. Then he offered the terrified citizen of New Orleans a proposition.

Now, to be exact, at 12:15 (earthly time) on next Tuesday night, I am going to pass over New Orleans. In my infinite mercy, I am going to make a little proposition to you people. Here it is:

I am very fond of jazz music, and I swear by all the devils in the nether regions that every person shall be spared in whose home a jazz band is in full swing at the time I have just mentioned. If everyone has a jazz band going, well, then, so much the better for you people. One thing is certain and that is that some of your people who do not jazz it on Tuesday night (if there be any) will get the axe.

It is impossible to know whether the Axeman truly wrote this letter. Nevertheless, New Orleanians took the demand to heart. On March 19, the city resounded with jazz. No attack came that evening.

But the bloodletting wasn’t over quite yet. Three more victims, including one fatality, followed in August, September, and October of 1919. After October, the Axeman murders ceased, though there’s speculation that the killer may have struck earlier in the decade, around 1911 or 1912.

The Axeman murders remain a mystery. The grisly details of the case echo through the years, like the swinging jazz that played on that terrifying night in New Orleans.

The Black Bird of Chernobyl

The Chernobyl disaster in April 1986 is arguably the worst nuclear disaster of modern times. Strangely, if reports uncovered following the end of the Cold War are to be believed, many of the plant workers and residents of the nearby town of Pripyat reported seeing a strange, bird-like figure with red eyes in the air above the town in the days leading up to the tragedy. Even stranger, many of them reported receiving strange phone calls with only mysterious noises on the other end before the line went dead.

Many also spoke of experiencing a sudden onset of nightmares. The firefighters and emergency responders who were sent into the immediate vicinity following the explosion also reported seeing a strange winged creature flying through the air, weaving in and out of the smoke while they did their best to fight the blaze and rescue any survivors.

To add even more intrigue to the alleged strange events, a strange cigar-shaped object was observed almost directly over the disaster site for several hours following the explosion. The creature became known as the Birdman of Pripyat or the Black Bird of Chernobyl. Skeptics argue that it was simply a large bird.

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‘Septic Tank Sam’: A Vicious Murder that Remained a Mystery for 44 Years 

After almost half a century, the identity of a man brutally killed and dumped in a septic tank has been uncovered.

In April 1977, a Canadian couple returned to their abandoned farm just outside the small town of Tofield, Alberta, to retrieve a pump from a septic tank on the property. However, they instead made a gruesome discovery. Protruding from their tank was a human foot, which they noticed was attached to a leg submerged in the murky water.

Immediately alarmed by what they saw, the couple contacted the authorities. After police arrived and the tank was drained, the full extent of the situation was revealed. Wrapped in a bedsheet and tied together by rope was the decomposing body of a man.

The body was fully clothed in a blue shirt, grey t-shirt, blue jeans and shoes. With it being evident that the body had been deliberately dumped there, a murder investigation followed, during which the unidentified male became known as ‘Septic Tank Sam’.

In June 2021, news broke that Sam had finally been identified, bringing an end to the 44-year-old mystery.

You can read the full article here:

‘Septic Tank Sam’: A Vicious Murder that Remained a Mystery for 44 years