Episode 172: The Cleveland Torso Butcher Serial Killer
They say Lake Erie is haunted. That’s where the “Lady of the Lake” lives. The bizarre pieces of the puzzle started to come together.
A 14 year old girl came out of the lake screaming, she claimed she saw a hand waving to her at the bottom of the lake. A few fisherman pulled up their line to find it tangled with a chunk of blonde hair. Human hair.
A ferry operator claimed to see a suspicious bobbing object in the water. He said it looked like a head.
What was going on? Why were body parts washing ashore?
The dismembered “Lady of the Lake” turned out to be the first victim of the still free “Cleveland Butcher” serial killer.
Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com
Source notes:
Book: “In The Wake of the Butcher” - James Jessen Badal
(Best deep dive on this case - hands down)
https://www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org/collections/torso-murders/
https://www.cleveland.com/life-and-culture/erry-2018/10/55d2b5ea596983/clevelands-infamous-torso-murd.html
https://clevelandmagazine.com/in-the-cle/the-read/articles/case-closed-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland_Torso_Murderer
DISCLAIMER: Some links are listed in the source material but the material may never be discussed in the podcast (I just wan
https://gazette.com/news/neighbors-slaying-brings-back-memories-of-grisly-1997-murder/article_0381c6b8-2e39-5890-8528-bd566c3ebdb6.htmlted to list them because they gave me a deeper picture of the case in full). If there are un-verifiable sources (ie Reddit) - they are typically referred to as un-verified sources, opinions, and or theories in the podcast and not treated as fact.