Special - Unsolved Murders - Interesting Reads

While homicide detectives in Ohio stalked the Cleveland "torso killer" through the latter 1930s, they were periodically distracted by reports of unsolved slayings from the area of New Castle and West Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. No solid link between the crime sprees was established, but coincidence of timing, the proximity of common railway lines, and the unanimous decapitation of victims in both states have produced some tantalizing theories. No two reports agree upon the number of New Castle victims, and several accounts make surprisingly detailed reference to non-existent crimes. A retrospective survey in the local paper, published in December 1971, refers to eleven victims slain between 1921 and 1940, but a detailed review of newspaper records reveals only five murders, spanning a period of fourteen years.

The first victim, a young man, was found in a marshy area between New Castle and West Pittsburgh - later dubbed the "murder swamp" - on October 6, 1925. Nude on discovery, the man had been dead at least three weeks when he was found, and discovery of his severed head on October 8 provided no clue to his identity. As with the other Pennsylvania victims, he remains unidentified.

On October 17, 1925, a headless male skeleton was found in the swamp. The matching skull was unearthed two days later, along with that of a woman, killed at least a year earlier. Neither victim was identified by authorities, and no trace of the woman's body was ever found.

The local "headless murders" were a fading memory by July 1, 1936, when a man's decapitated body turned up on a slag dump of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad, at New Castle Junction. The victim's head was never found, and he remains anonymous. Newspapers spread beneath the body included issues from Pittsburgh and Cleveland, dating from July 1933.

On October 13, 1939, another headless, decomposing man was fished out of the swamp near West Pittsburgh. Charred newspapers surrounding the body included month-old copies from Youngstown, Ohio, and the victim's head was found nearby, in an abandoned box car, five days later.

Were the Pennsylvania crimes and Cleveland's murder spree connected? Did Ohio's "Mad Butcher" first try his hand in New Castle, taking a decade off before he resumed activities in Cleveland? Detective Peter Merylo, stalking the headhunter into retirement, blamed one man for both sets of murders, plus 20 to 30 more kills, nationwide. The final truth has managed to elude police for over half a century, and it may well lie buried in the Pennsylvania "murder swamp."

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