NetGalley ARC | American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper

I received a free digital ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Untouchables is one of my all-time favorite movies - even with the inaccuracies. Yet I never knew what hapened to Eliot Ness or his career after the case against Capone was closed. I knew vague things about him becoming an alcoholic and maybe some kind of non-glorious retirement, but that was it.

This read is about the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Road, but it is just as much about Ness and his career after Capone. He was appointed the Director of Public Safety (thus overseeing the police, fire, and sanitation departments) in Cleveland, a post he would hold until 1942. Initially his focus was cleaning up a very corrupt Cleveland police departent. We also geta detailed picture of Cleveland at the time, a city devastated by the Depression, as well as corruption in politics. It would not be wrong to say that this issue of said corruption is the main reason the case was never officially solved. By the end, Ness felt like he knew who the killer was, yet his hands were tied. The evidence was circumstantial and Ness knew he would not be able to get a convicton - in part due to one of the two lead suspects being the first cousin of Ness's own political rivals.

There are generally believed to be thirteen victims in Cleveland between 1934 and 1938. Only two of the thirteen were ever positively identified - a third has a possible id but could not be confirmed for sure due to the length of time between her murder and discovery. However, Pittsburgh is only about 130 miles away, and also had a spate of nearly identical killings between 1921 and 1942.

The murders themselves were horrific. Body parts were literally scattered across the city once the killer moved beyond the confines of Kingsbury Run. They'd been expertly dismembered and completely drained of blood. Torsos were usually severed at the waist and all were decapitated - some beheaded and/or dismembered while they were still alive. The majority of male victims were castrated as well. Given that most of the heads were never found, it is easy to understand why so many went to their graves unknown. If there is anything positive to find here, it's that victims started being exhumed in August of 2024 in an attempt to identify them through genetic genology. Despite the fact that any immediate family members are long gone, these men and women deserve the dignity of their names.

Cleveland's mayor turned to Ness to try to track down the monster stalking the streets of Cleveland, preying on the poorest citizens who lived in shantytowns and were the most vulnerable. Ultimately, Ness would not be successful despite his best, albeit some misguided, efforts. Given the fact that the term serial killer wasn't even coined until the '70s, and forensics were very much in their infancy, Ness and his team were fighting a losing battle from the start.

This kind of crime was something Ness could not have prepared for, so different from what had made him a hero in Chicago. He excelled at finding and rooting out corruption, cleaning up the police force. But this was different, and would ultimately lead to his disgrace. The city seemed to turn on him when the killer was never caught, and he resigned from his post in 1942 after getting into a car accident while drinking.

That term of hero in regards to Ness is also addressed, as we know that the tv show and movie were not completely accurate. Some consider him a fraud, that his heroism was made up entirely by the media. I think both things can be true. Ultimately, yes Al Capone was not taken down for the dozens and dozens of murders, but for tax evasion. But Ness lead the team that was able to put the case together, and as leader, it makes sense that he is the most identifiable. No one has ever suggested that he worked alone, we know that isn't true. And that's just how history works sometimes - there's one face to the story as a whole, Ness vs. Capone.

This is an incredibly well-researched and well-written book. The focus is not solely on the murders however, so if that is your main interest, you may have to look elsewhere. Instead, the author weaves together a tale of a city and a man doing the best he can to protect it. Unfortunately, sometimes the bad guys win.

Highly recommended.