American Demon

April 1, 2022

Having brought down Al Capone, Eliot Ness faced a new challenge when he was appointed director of public safety in Cleveland: stopping the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, who left behind more than a dozen cleanly severed and blood-drained torsos over the course of four years in the mid-1930s. The New York Times best-selling Stashower (The Hour of Peril), a winner of the Edgar, Agatha, and Anthony awards, reveals what happened. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

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Starred review from July 4, 2022
Edgar winner Stashower (The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War) provides the definitive look at the case of Cleveland’s Torso Killer, who claimed at least 12 victims in the 1930s. The killings happened on the watch of Eliot Ness (1903–1957), who became the city’s director of public safety in 1935 after his much vaunted, and exaggerated, role in bringing Chicago gangster Al Capone to justice. The killer’s victims seemed to have been randomly selected, and their dismembered remains were left in a poor neighborhood with a large vagrant population. Ness’s failure to catch the killer was devastating to his career and reputation. Stashower presents a warts-and-all portrait of Ness, who achieved some success in combating corruption in Cleveland but was unfaithful to his wife and less than fully engaged in the hunt for the Torso Killer. Despite that, Stashower manages to engender empathy for Ness, who was out of his depth dealing with a kind of murderer law enforcement in general was ill-equipped to handle, and who died at 54 after being reduced to working in a bookstore to earn some money. The combination of a baffling unsolved crime with a nuanced portrayal of an American icon adds up to another winner for this talented author. Agent: Susanna Einstein, Einstein Literary Management.

September 1, 2022
Stashower, an Agatha- and Edgar-winning author of crime fiction and nonfiction (including Teller of Tales, a biography of Arthur Conan Doyle), chronicles a lesser-known episode from Eliot Ness' crime-busting career. In 1930s Cleveland, 12 people were murdered and dismembered over the course of four years. The killer was never apprehended, but that wasn't from lack of trying. Prohibition agent Eliot Ness, who had hired on as Safety Director for the city of Cleveland after his famous pursuit of Al Capone in Chicago, became the front man for the investigation into these grisly crimes. It was not an easy investigation, as Ness was impeded by a lack of evidence and by political infighting. Based on numerous sources, including Ness' own papers, this account is a gripping true-crime thriller that paints a picture of Ness that's significantly different from the version we've seen in The Untouchables: less heroic, more ordinary, more of a working cop. Stashower opens the book with a good recap of the Capone case, for readers who need some backstory. True-crime fans will want this one on their TBR lists.

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Starred review from August 1, 2022
How a serial killer flummoxed one of America's most celebrated law enforcement officers. In his latest true-crime thriller, bestselling popular historian Stashower turns his attention to the so-called "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run," aka the "Cleveland Torso Murderer," a still-unidentified maniac seemingly responsible for a dozen or more murders in Depression-era Cleveland. The author's focus falls on the investigative role played by Eliot Ness, who was named the city's safety director after his success in Chicago as the charismatic leader of a mob-busting brigade. Stashower begins with a summary of Ness' exploits in helping to apprehend Al Capone, then moves on to examine his extraordinary influence in Cleveland as a police reformer and his response, over several years, to the sensation created by a series of grisly murders targeting the homeless. With characteristic skill, the author documents Ness' involvement in the case and, more broadly, his work combatting systemic corruption as he manipulated newspaper coverage and marshalled political support. Though he did not crack the case of the titular "American demon," Ness was, as Stashower makes clear, undeniably heroic in confronting injustice. "Ness made a particular specialty of taking down crooked precinct captains," writes the author, "an effort he likened to cutting off the head of a snake. The campaign climaxed with the shocking downfall of...a captain said to be so powerful that 'nobody went to the bathroom' without his permission." The author deftly sets Ness' battles against institutional antagonists against an engagingly told, suspenseful account of the search for a notorious killer. Stashower is particularly incisive in his explorations of Ness' lapses as an investigator and his portrait of the crime fighter's personal and professional decline. Rather than a simple idealization of Ness' often uncanny efficiency, we get a nuanced text about a deeply principled and exceptionally accomplished--though all-too-human--reformer. A riveting and illuminating account of an iconic figure's involvement in a notorious murder investigation.

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July 1, 2022

Stashower (Teller of Tales) traces Eliot Ness's career with a focus on the media-named Torso Murders, which shook the city of Cleveland. Over a course of three years, citizens discovered bundles of dismembered body parts. Twelve killings in all were ascribed to the unknown assailant, dubbed the Mad Butcher, and only two victims were positively identified. Ness was famous for his work in Al Capone's downfall. After some less prestigious work shutting down moonshine stills in the mountains, Ness landed a job that played to his strengths: Cleveland's safety director. Here he could modernize the police force, use his gang busting skills against the city's organized crime, and ferret out corruption within the ranks. Cleveland needed this, but what the city wanted was a hero who could stop the Mad Butcher. Stashower's Ness is a flawed do-gooder, frustrated by city politics, sullied by personal indiscretions, and taunted by postcards from the man he suspected was the Mad Butcher but couldn't prove. VERDICT Stashower was born in Cleveland, and his personal connection to the city breathes life into this well-researched and chilling account.--Terry Bosky

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.