One storm, four tornadoes and too many homes without power to count: the havoc of Tuesday night. Today in Ohio (2024)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Four tornadoes tore through Northeast Ohio suburbs Tuesday, and we could be out of power for more than a week.

We’re talking storm aftermath on Today in Ohio.

Listen online here.

Editor Chris Quinn hosts our daily half-hour news podcast, with editorial board member Lisa Garvin, impact editor Leila Atassi and content director Laura Johnston.

You’ve been sending Chris lots of thoughts and suggestions on our from-the-newsroom text account, in which he shares what we’re thinking about at cleveland.com. You can sign up here: https://joinsubtext.com/chrisquinn.

You can now join the conversation. Call 833-648-6329 (833-OHTODAY) if you’d like to leave a message we can play on the podcast.

Here’s what else we’re asking about today:

Tuesday’s storm, with two tornadoes, remains the topic of the day, as people hunker down in darkness and wait the agonizing days for relief from FirstEnergy. Let’s start with what we know about the tornadoes.

Many will wait deep into next week for power. We checked with police on whether crime starts going up after that long. What do they say?

For many, no power means no cooking, except maybe on the barbecue, and that’s if your food hasn’t spoiled from lack of refrigeration. Going out to eat is the answer. But restaurants got hit, too. How are they coping with the outages?

Outages are happening too often, these days. Is it time for everyone to get a generator?

Finally, Laura you wrote a piece examining what life really is like when you lose something you normally take for granted, based on a bunch of experiences. What did you have to say?

Moving on from the story, we just published an analysis of who is in Ohio’s prisons. The U.S. has among the highest incarceration rates in the world, and we wondered about how many of those behind bars in Ohio were there for violence, among other things.

One of the big fears about the launch of marijuana sales in Ohio was about supply. A few days in, have the dispensaries run out of product?

Two horrible crimes from the 1980s have been solved, too late for the criminal to be held accountable. What were the crimes, and how were they finally solved?

Finally, here’s story that got past us on Today in Ohio last month. Perhaps the biggest unsolved mystery in Cleveland history is the torso murder case from a century ago. The killer surely is long dead, but is there some movement that might finally get that person identified?

We have an Apple podcasts channel exclusively for this podcast. Subscribe here.

Do you get your podcasts on Spotify? Find us here.

RadioPublic is another popular podcast vehicle, and we are here.

On Google Podcasts, we are here.

On PodParadise, find us here.

And on PlayerFM, we are here.

Read the automated transcript below. Because it’s a computer-generated transcript, it contains many errors and misspellings.

Chris (00:01.71)

My mind’s still reeling from the conversation yesterday about exactly what the Haslums are asking from the public. $1 .2 billion for a place for their team to play football. It’s ridiculous. Ken Silliman, the guy who was involved in a whole bunch of stadium negotiations appeared on the Bloom Daddy podcast yesterday, talking with a great deal of expertise about all the reasons this is an idiotic idea to go to Brook Park.

Lisa (00:22.315)

feel like the piece about all the reasons this is periodic idea to go to book parties. Check it out where we do this podcast and those that we’re talking about. Or say they’re probably in different events. It’s today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion for Cleveland downtown and at the point here. I’m just going to with the Lisa, Laura Johnson and Lela Cotty and we are going to spend time in after this podcast talking about the storm because we don’t think, never have,

Chris (00:27.522)

Check it out wherever you listen to podcasts. Ken knows what he’s talking about more so than probably anybody in the conversation. It’s today in Ohio, the news podcast discussion from cleveland .com and the plane dealer. I’m Chris Quinn here with Lisa Garvin, Laura Johnston and Leila Tasi. And we are going to spend probably half this podcast talking about the storm because we, I don’t think ever had four tornadoes touchdown in one storm.

That’s the topic of the day. People are hunkering down in darkness, waiting the agonizing days for relief from this thing. Let’s start with what we know, Leila, about those four tornadoes.

Leila (01:07.978)

Yeah, so the National Weather Service has confirmed that those tornadoes touched down across Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake Lorraine, and Summit counties. And the storms left a trail of damage, uprooting trees, damaging properties, knocking out powerful days. Late Thursday, two more tornadoes on top of the other two we were already aware of were confirmed. One of these moved from Summit County into Cuyahoga County.

Lisa (01:08.489)

So the National Weather Service has confirmed that those tornadoes touched down across Cuyahoga, Geauga, Pittington, Lorraine, Summit counties. And the storms left a trail of damage, upward increase, damaging properties. It’s not going to help the buildings. Late Thursday, two more tornadoes on top of the other two we were already aware of were confirmed.

Leila (01:36.91)

and the other track from Lake County into Geauga. That, as I said, adds to the two tornadoes confirmed earlier, which went from Avon Lake to Rocky River and from Brook Park to Bedford. The first tornado from Avon Lake to Rocky River was about 200 yards wide, had peak winds of 110 miles per hour, and was classified as an EF1. So that, guess, is on a scale of zero to five.

And all four of these tornadoes had that same classification actually. The second tornado traveled from Brook Park to Bedford. It was 350 yards wide with peak winds of 104 miles per hour. The third tornado was from Breckville to Peninsula, and it was slightly smaller with winds reaching 104 miles per hour. The fourth tornado moved from Waithill to Chester Township. It had winds of 110 miles per hour. was 200 yards wide.

once again classified as an EF1. So meteorologist Jim Sullivan from Cleveland’s National Weather Service explained that tornadoes are becoming more frequent in Ohio with this year setting a record for the most tornadoes in the state. And contrary to popular belief, there really doesn’t seem to be anything about rural areas that make those conditions more inviting for a tornado. It’s simply a numbers game. There’s just more rural area.

where tornadoes can touch down, so it appears that way. But we are every bit as vulnerable, it seems.

Chris (03:05.172)

Except, except we haven’t had them. I mean, we’ve very rarely in in the developed part of Northeast Ohio, have we actually seen a tornado go into a neighborhood. It’s happened, but it’s happened in such a way that people remember it decades later to have four tornadoes, most of which were in neighborhoods in one storm blows my mind if we thought we had any security from it, we now know we don’t.

Lisa (03:18.443)

Mm -hmm.

Chris (03:33.902)

And I guess that’s part of climate change. It’s made us much more temperative as we’ve discussed. It’s also making us much more vulnerable. And that I cannot imagine being in 135 mile an hour winds. just what withstands that anything. And that’s the lowest class tornado, but 135 mile an hour winds. is just frightening beyond words. And we can understand why there’s so much damage as a result.

Lisa (03:34.134)

Okay.

Leila (03:59.79)

Right, right, right. mean, if you travel through the areas where these tornadoes were traveling, my goodness. I mean, the trees look like they’ve been peeled like bananas down to the ground. I mean, it’s going to take so long to repair damage. The wires everywhere and the poles just stretched across. It’s just awful. Yeah, very brief.

Chris (04:23.084)

This was a brief storm. This was not some gigantic storm. It came through and was gone in almost no time, but it left a trail of real tears.

Laura (04:25.522)

and

Laura (04:32.136)

And there was no almost no warning. Like I was not here. I was still in Canada when this happened. And my husband was telling me he’s like, you know, was bright and sunny. Five minutes later, it looked like it might storm. And then it was like, holy hell, get into the basem*nt right now. And people didn’t have a lot of warning. Kids were still out biking, which I’m so glad no one was hurt in this because Leila’s right. When you look around, I mean, there is a telephone pole right by the outdoor pool in Rocky River that is still.

Leila (04:42.424)

Yes.

Laura (04:59.07)

It’s like a leaning tower of peas that split the bottom looks like matchsticks and it’s still hanging out over the road. This stuff is not, I haven’t seen any much cleanup of the big stuff yet.

Chris (05:11.586)

All right. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Many will wait deep into next week for power, including Lord Johnston, as we’ll get through in a little while. We check with police on whether crime starts going up after that long. And the answer actually is surprising given the history of what’s happened.

Laura (05:29.106)

Right. So you might think that when people are bored and frustrated and they get hot because they don’t have fans and air conditioning, that crime will increase because we know crime increases in the summer when people have more, you know, it’s laid out longer and people are hot. But recent studies are not showing that they find that people are more likely to help their neighbors than to steal from them. So just because your garage door is stuck in the open position because you have electricity to close it doesn’t mean people are going to come in and steal your lawnmower.

So University Circle Police Chief Tom Wetzel, he’s been a police officer for 37 years, said he has not seen any uptick in crime after power outage. He says people pull together, neighbors helping neighbors. And because people are forced to spend more time outside because that’s where all the light is, then they’re keeping an eye on their neighborhoods more than usual. And I have to say that in my neighborhood, like I said, I was not home, but my husband, said, we don’t own a chainsaw.

But our neighbors brought over chainsaws to help us clean up this massive limbs that fell all over our front yard and into our porch. So I’ve borne that out so far.

Chris (06:33.1)

Yeah, I don’t I wouldn’t think that crime would rise in neighborhoods because people are stuck there and they have nothing else to do. So they’re looking outside. They’re talking to their neighbors. I think where you really have the looting in and out is when you have a blackout in the middle of a commercial area and people go into the stores. I do wonder, though, by Wednesday of next week, when it’ll have been a full week, no power and some heat. The weather is going to be beautiful after today. So so that shouldn’t be too much of a factor.

Laura (06:56.82)

Mm -hmm.

Chris (07:02.946)

But do people start getting cranky where you start to see domestic violence, where people start fighting with each other in their houses? You know, there’s no screen time, there’s no video games, there’s none of the stuff that people normally are doing and, you know, do they start throwing back some alcohol and misbehaving?

Laura (07:20.692)

I think that’s a good question. I was playing tennis last night and I was marveling at the number of people that were out walking on the paths in Westlake. And I felt almost like COVID. Like people have nothing to do, so they’re just going walking in a park. So maybe we’ll see some more of that. But I thought the same thing because of all of these stores closed, they don’t have power, are people thinking of breaking in? But all I’ve got to think is there is a large police presence. We have police directing traffic at an intersection.

Lisa (07:29.025)

felt almost like COVID. Like people have nothing to do, but they’re just quite walking this park. So maybe we’ll do some more of that, but I thought the same thing because of all these stores closed. They don’t have

Laura (07:49.266)

all the time because the lights are down. I think police are really vigilant in this time too.

Chris (07:55.276)

All right, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. For many, no power means no cooking except maybe on the barbecue grill and that’s only if your food hasn’t spoiled from lack of refrigeration. Going out to eat is the answer but Lisa restaurants got hit too. How are they coping with the outages?

Lisa (07:58.155)

No power needs no cooking.

Lisa (08:12.534)

Yeah, lot of restaurants, especially in Lakewood, apparently 77 % of the city of Lakewood lost power, including all of their restaurants or a lot of them. Some were closed, some remain closed, but some were able to remain open and serve customers on Wednesday and Thursday. The LBM restaurant in Lakewood started giving away free ice. told

you know, residents bring your cooler and we’ll fill it up. They went through 750 pounds of ice in less than two hours on Wednesday. They were open for service, but their menu had to change because a lot of their local suppliers are without power. So they had to make some menu substitutions. Cordelia on East 4th downtown was open Wednesday for dinner. They had an Instagram message that invited the community to come by if they wanted water, ice or a place to hang out, maybe charge their phone.

the Ohio Pie Company in Brunswick managed to stay open and they delivered pizza to the electricity crews that were working nearby to restore power. So other restaurants didn’t close at all. Edwin’s, Jugg, Poppy, among others, Four City Brewery in Ohio City said that they use dry ice and candles and lanterns. So they were actually open for service while the power was out and then the power got restored.

Just a little note, the Taste of Lakewood 20th anniversary celebration this Saturday has been postponed to November 23rd because of the impact on restaurants that were participating.

Chris (09:39.378)

This is not like a giant regional blackout. This is in pockets, a lot of pockets, way too many pockets, but there are places you can go to buy fresh groceries and to dine out. You just may not be able to do it near your neighborhood. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. All right, Leila, outages are happening too often these days. Is it time for every homeowner to budget for a generator?

Leila (10:01.07)

Reporter Sean McDonald explored that question for us and he found that it’s a decision that kind of depends on your needs and your budget. Portable generators can keep essentials like your refrigerator and your freezer and your sump pump running during an outage, but they come with some safety concerns. They need to be run outside, far from the house to avoid dangerous fumes like carbon monoxide. And you’ll need

Lisa (10:24.887)

like carbon dioxide. You’ll need heavy duty extension cords that are rated for outdoor use plus they require frequently fueling, about every six to eight hours, says. A good portable chicken can cost between $500

Leila (10:27.022)

heavy duty extension cords that are rated for outdoor use. Plus they require frequent refueling about every six to eight hours, Sean says. A good portable generator can cost between a thousand and $1 once you factor in accessories, but it’s important to buy one that’s frequency controlled to avoid damaging your electronics. If you want to safely connect that portable generator to your home’s electrical system, you need an electrician to install what’s called a transfer switch.

Some people try to rig this up themselves and I guess that is a terrible idea. For a more reliable and hands -off solution, there’s the automatic backup generators, which Chris, you have one of these and you’re always singing its praises. So I hear you. But these systems are about four feet wide and three feet tall and they turn on automatically when the power goes out. In our region, they typically run on natural gas, though they

also can use propane. Depending on your needs, you could go for a small system to power just your essentials, or you could get a larger one to keep your whole house running. But these permanent solutions are pricier. They start at around $8 ‚000. Installation costs can vary as they involve not just the generator, but also electrical work and possibly upgrading your gas meter. Some cities also have regulations on where you can put these generators. And they’re often required to be installed at the back of your home.

Lisa (11:41.129)

So it’s something to think about and with portable generators and high demand and contractors for these permanent ones

Leila (11:53.826)

So it’s something to think about and with portable generators and high demand and contractors for these permanent ones facing these big backlogs right now, you gotta start thinking now about the next storm and how you’re gonna be grappling with that outage.

Chris (12:07.566)

Yeah, we bit the boat. wasn’t 8 ‚000 then, I because it’s five or six years ago. I think it was five or maybe approaching $6 ‚000. And there is an annual maintenance cost. The people that installed it come out once a year. They changed the oil. After four or five years, you got to get a new battery. But we didn’t get it because of any one storm. We got it because of the increasing number of storms. And in Cleveland Heights with all the trees, the power would go out all the time. I cannot believe how many times we’ve relied on that.

you we’ve helped out neighbors by running a wire over to help them because if you lose everything in your refrigerator, it’s very, very costly. Plus, you know, it’s hard to run a household without refrigeration. I’m a big believer in them. It wasn’t cheap. It was a sacrifice to get it, but I cannot say enough about how much we’ve relied on it.

Leila (12:57.87)

Where is it installed? it like somewhere? Okay.

Chris (13:00.46)

It’s in the back. I mean, it’s noisy. When it goes on, you can hear it, but it’s in the back and they put in that switch. No, no, it’s in a little back patio area. It’s not that bad. We got plants around it, but it’s loud. And it goes off once a week for five minutes for a test. there’s a Wi -Fi connected thing that tells you the status of it.

Leila (13:09.206)

Is it a big eyesore on your?

Chris (13:25.708)

It was one time a few years ago that the automatic switch failed. And so they had to come out and replace it. But other than that, it’s been problem free and, and it gives you peace of mind. I mean, we have a sump pump when it rains, we have to get the water out of there. We don’t ever have to worry about it. And, you know, we have a fail safe on our boiler system that needs electricity. And this makes sure that our house stays heated. If the power goes out, there’s, I just think given what’s happened,

with First Energy and its crummy infrastructure maintenance and the intensifying weather, this is becoming a staple. And I know that new development often has those switches you talked about built in because so many people want to have these now. it’s just, look, when you buy a new house, there’s a bunch of things that you think about with a new house. This is going to become a part of it. The more climate change generates these storms. You’re listening to Today in Ohio.

Finally, Laura, you wrote a piece examining what life is really like when you lose something you normally take for granted based on a bunch of experiences in our newsroom and beyond. were some of the highlights?

Laura (14:33.962)

Well, it’s that idea that you’re not even thinking about everything that goes out when the power goes out. I keep looking at our oven clock to see what time it is. It’s not there. My daughter was like, I can’t use the microwave. And that phantom flick of the switch, when you go into a dark room, you’re like, yep, still no power. And what I was trying to capture is this idea, this kind of post storm feeling that we’re all in it together, but it’s just kind of eerie that the traffic lights that are still out,

the sagging wires over the roads, those trees that have just split open and the cars just inching along because they stop at every light and you there’s, you just let somebody else go. It took me, you know, half hour to get to center ridge road and you’re driving these back roads and people talk about the long lines for fast food because if you don’t have any refrigeration and you don’t have a way to cook, you need to eat somehow.

So I think a lot of people are feeling that and trying to capture what is kind of a memory in real time. so I asked folks from the newsroom to chime in and Peter Chakerian had just bought a generator. Paris Wolff said she really missed the echo. You get used to these things, right? And she had just purged. Yeah, she just purged all her old CDs. So she wasn’t listening to music. I included this quote.

Chris (15:51.264)

Of the Amazon Echo? Yeah.

Laura (15:59.124)

from the University Heights Mayor, Michael Dylan Brennan, who seemed to really get it. He said, I know how awful and disruptive this is. I know you have food in a refrigerator rotting away. You have kids who are hungry and tired and may not understand. And for that matter, you may be hungry and tired and not understand what’s going on or why. People with CPAP machines might have a hard time sleeping if you’re used to a ceiling fan or the rain sounds to go to sleep. It’s just the everyday life that you take for granted.

Chris (16:28.034)

Yeah, and we want to thank Bruce Sennas for passing that along. He’s he passed that message along knowing we might have a use for it. And he was right. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. All right. Moving on from the power outage, we just published an analysis of who is in Ohio’s prisons. The U .S. has among the highest incarceration rates in the world. And we wondered about how many of those behind bars in Ohio were there for violence to keep them away and keep society safe.

Laura (16:30.58)

Mm -hmm.

Chris (16:55.968)

Among other things, Lisa, what did we find?

Lisa (16:58.007)

Yeah, in our review of the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections records, we found that 70 % of the Ohio prison population is classified as violent offenders. The total population right now in Ohio is about 43 ‚750 inmates. Of that, 20 % are in there for aggravated murder and voluntary manslaughter, murder. That’s about 8 ,700 inmates. Next.

18 % are sex offenders, about 7 ,700. 10 % are incarcerated for robbery, 4 ,500. 3 ,300, about 8 % are burglars, and then 7 % are imprisoned for felonious assault. And this is interesting, only 1 ,746, or 4 % of the population are in there for gun crimes. But in this report, in the data, the number of guns used has not been reported.

So 15 % of state inmates are from Cuyahoga County, about 6 ‚600. Right behind us or not behind us really, they’re a distant second. Franklin County is second with 9 % of their population in prison. So in Cuyahoga County, about 674 inmates per 100 ,000 residents over 18 are currently incarcerated.

Chris (18:13.984)

I was curious to know what percentage are violent because we do seem to have a lot more people in prisons in this country than other civilized countries. But if you’re a violent person, if you’ve used violence in your crime, you’re danger to society. And one of the arguments prosecutors make is we got to keep society safe and we lock them up to do it. It was a very high percentage that had been involved in violence. so

You’d have a hard time arguing that the incarceration rate is too high. I guess what you could argue is a lot of these people are doing this when they’re young men and the hormones are flying. And maybe we should be doing a much better job once they’re in prison of trying to temper that and focus them so that when they get out, they don’t return. But very interesting the way these numbers do bear out just how bad things are.

Lisa (19:08.695)

And Cuyahoga Common Police Judge, Brandon Sheehan says, there’s no question we’re seeing more violent offenders. He thinks that number will continue to rise. And he says, currently there are 172 inmates from Cuyahoga County that are charged with murder.

Chris (19:25.836)

Yeah, it’s a lot. And you can’t say, well, they’re charged with murder. They shouldn’t be in prison. Sounds like a lot of these guys should be in prison. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. What are the big fears about the launch of marijuana sales in Ohio was about supply? Layla, it’s a few days in. Have the dispensaries run out of their products?

Leila (19:44.134)

They have not. Despite those initial concerns, it seems that the supply has held up pretty well. As of Thursday, no dispensaries had reported running out of their product, even with the high demand from eager customers. Ohio’s Division of Cannabis Control, which greenlit 98 dispensaries for recreational sales on Tuesday, hasn’t received any complaints about shortages. According to Tom Herron from the Ohio Cannabis Coalition,

The rollout has been pretty smooth with manageable lines and customers finding pretty much what they need, but prices seem to have spiked, which was expected because of the surge in demand. While the average cost of an ounce of flour was around $222 back in July when it was just a medical program, prices now range from $290 to $420 an ounce. And this price jump is making some medical marijuana patients.

a bit anxious. There was one person interviewed for the story who said that he noticed that certain products he relies on for his chronic issues are starting to disappear from the shelves. And he’s really concerned about the quality. He prefers fresher products and he’s considering growing his own plants at home, which is also a new option under Ohio’s law. Some medical patients might opt to switch to recreational purchases to bypass the daily limits.

imposed by the state’s new medical program.

Chris (21:12.652)

I don’t know. think when the price gets that high, it’s going to persuade people to go to Michigan because you’ll save a fortune there. It’s nowhere near that expensive there. And so the price of gas is nothing compared to the difference in price. Eventually, it’ll all come into balance once the supply is equal to the demand. But that kind of increase is not going to play well with people when they know they could drive a couple of hours and get it much, much cheaper.

Leila (21:41.742)

So seems that that is that price increase only applying to flour right now. I was looking around on the dispensary’s websites to see and it looks like other like things, products like edible seem to be still in the reasonable range and stuff like that. I don’t know. But interesting that that I’m glad to hear that they prepared for the surge of customers and that they have the right amount of product for what kind of crowds they’re seeing.

Lisa (21:55.573)

Mm -hmm.

Chris (21:58.658)

Interesting.

Lisa (21:59.369)

I’m glad to hear that they prepared for the social customers and that they have the right amount of...

Chris (22:07.598)

They’re right.

Lisa (22:07.753)

I was interested because I was in Palm Springs in June. Of course, it’s been legal in California for a long time and the difference in how they handle the retail situation. I went to two dispensaries this week. You have to order on an iPad and then they take you to another room. So you don’t even get to look at the product before you buy it. I mean, you can look at it before you pay, but in California, it’s basically there in the counter. I mean, you can’t, you know, reach for it. I mean, somebody has to get it for you. So I’m hoping that that

Leila (22:25.539)

Wow.

Lisa (22:36.243)

evolves a little bit. Also too, found that there’s like not a lot of pro they don’t have any pre -rolls or any other kind of smaller amounts.

Chris (22:45.176)

Alright, you’re listening to Today in Ohio. Two horrible crimes from the 1980s have been solved too late for the criminal to be held accountable. Laura, what were the crimes? How were they solved?

Laura (22:55.562)

Yeah, these are terrifying. These are the kind of crimes that keep women from doing things by themselves because it’s like the random stranger worst case scenario. Two Summit County rapes from 1987, are linked to this Arizona man who apparently attacked victims on park trails. Janice Christensen of Hudson died after her attack. And the other case was in Cuyahoga Falls. So Dave Yost has it.

It said that police and state forensic scientists used enhanced DNA to identify this Thomas Jordan of Yuma as the suspect. died in 19 or died at the age of 83 in 2009, and they exhumed his body to find the DNA that linked him to these victims. But these attacks in 87 were only two years after he was released from serving a nine year prison sentence for rape. There was a 17 year old girl walking alone in a trail in Cuyahoga Falls and.

This man grabbed the teenager, held a knife to her throat, sexually assaulted her, and her hands and ankles were tied with a pair of shoelaces. The attacker took her keys. And then that three months later, there was a woman that drove to this bike and hike trail in Hudson Township to run. She was stabbed five times and a pair of shoelaces were later recovered. So they used the idea that these are similar attacks with those shoelaces.

and that’s how they tied them together and then eventually tested.

Chris (24:21.678)

You’re right about this being the terrifying kind of crime. You go out to run and an attacker is laying in wait for you. When you read this though, you do wonder why didn’t they identify this guy earlier? He had done similar kinds of crimes in Northeast Ohio, even with the shoelaces. It’s odd that it took this long to get him. He wouldn’t have done anything to change his life. He did spend a lot of time in prison, but it did seem like there was a missed opportunity here.

Laura (24:25.33)

Mm -hmm.

Laura (24:47.945)

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, but you’re right. just, I don’t remember this. was seven. So obviously it was way over my head at the time, but a 17 year old, this is the kind of thing that people would be like, do not go out by yourself at all.

Lisa (24:59.041)

that people would be like, do not go out.

Chris (25:03.224)

You’re listening to Today in Ohio. Speaking about unsolved murders, here’s a story that got past this on Today in Ohio last month. Perhaps the biggest unsolved mystery in Cleveland history is the Torso murder case from a century ago. The killer surely is long dead, but is there some movement that might finally get that person identified, Lisa?

Lisa (25:26.037)

Well, now lot of the victims haven’t been identified either. So the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office is teaming up with DNA Doe Project, which is a nonprofit that uses modern forensic techniques to solve old crimes. Medical Examiner Thomas Gilson says they hope to exhume some of the victims’ bodies before this winter to gather DNA. They’ll use that to create a genetic

profile and then they’ll put that in a database that draws from 23andMe, Ancestry .com and other, you know, family history websites. If a living relative is indicated, they can work backwards to identify these victims. So the torso murders were also known as the Kingsbury Run killings. They happened during the depression. There were at least 12 victims, only two of which have been identified. Kingsbury Run was a neighborhood that stretched from the flats to East 90th Street. It was very

poor neighborhood, a lot of transient residents. So that allowed the killer to get away with these murders. So they’re hoping that they can, you know, identify some of these people. Because what happened was is that during the torso murders, they all had their heads cut off. Some of the heads were never found and some of the bodies were dismembered. So they weren’t able to identify.

Chris (26:38.562)

It seems like every few years we do the retelling of this case because it is this big unsolved murder mystery. But to identify them, even if you use DNA, you got to have somebody you can connect that to. And maybe because the DNA databases are now loaded with people that have checked their heritage, it’ll start to clue people in. But Cleveland was a very different town back in the 20s. And there were a lot of people that were kind of

Lisa (26:52.353)

Right.

Chris (27:07.286)

locationless and maybe very hard to do.

Lisa (27:08.855)

Right, right. And they did, you know, they did have two suspects. One of them was Bricklayer Frank Dolezal. He confessed to the police, but he was found hanging in his jail cell before the trial could commence. And then in the 1930s, they suspected surgeon Francis Sweeney of the murders. He never confessed, but the murder stopped when he checked himself into a mental hospital, so.

Chris (27:33.607)

Yeah, well, we’ll see. I’m interested if they get anywhere. Eventually, someday, somehow, technology will bring closure to this case the way we got closure on the case we just talked about. You’re listening to Today in Ohio. That’s it for the Friday episode. Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Laura, Laila, and thank you for listening. We’ll be back next week talking about the news.