I received an advance reading copy of this book from NetGalley.com in return for a fair review. Eliot Ness and his Untouchables have always held a certain fascination for me. Maybe it was Robert Stack's role in the early television series that did it. Not sure. But Ness and his days hunting Al Capone have been documented in depth over the years. This book is a little different as it concentrates on the life of Ness after Capone--although there is a little too much Capone here. After leaving the Untouchables, Ness took on the job of Safety Director in Cleveland, Ohio, where he made a name for himself by uncovering corruption in the local police department. He was merciless in his hunt for dishonest cops and, once caught, made them pay the price. Incidental to his tenure in Cleveland was a series of grisly murders known as The Torso Murders. Body parts kept showing up in various areas of the city, but Ness seemed more interested in cleaning up the cops than in solving the homicides. Author Daniel Stashower did a good job researching the case, but It was almost as if he was writing two books instead of one. One side dealt primarily with Ness while the other side addressed the murders. Murder investigations during the 1930s obviously did not have the advantage of today's technology. Headless torsos remained unidentified while crime scenes were picked over by the curious. Ness seemed to hold himself apart from the investigations until he was prodded by his superiors to make an appearance at the crime scenes. The murders remain unsolved to this day, but not before at least one dozen victims surfaced--all hacked apart and most left unidentified. It was Ness's unfortunate luck to be Cleveland's Safety Director during this time. Was there an actual suspect? You bet. But the lack of evidence stalled the case not to mention the suspect's ties to a powerful Ohio family. Overall, I enjoyed the book, but found the depiction of Ness as the man in charge a bit lacking. It seems it could have been anyone in the Safety Director's position, it just happened to be Eliot Ness, which gave the book it's angle.

I've never heard much about Eliot Ness after the Al Capone / Untouchables part of his career. This book does a good job of telling the rest of the story. Ness was still young when Capone's empire finally collapsed. The next step for Ness was to move from Chicago to Cleveland.
There he began a campaign to clean up the city's police. Even though his Untouchables had been disbanded, Ness stuck with what had worked for him in the past, assembling Unknowns, to work undercover and unknown to the main police body.
Then in 1935, dismembered body parts were found. As gruesome as this was it wasn't much longer before more mutilated and decapitated bodies were discovered. Most of the victims were men and a couple were women. Between 1935 and 1938 at least 12 bodies would be attributed to the same killer. The Cleveland Torso Killer (compared with Jack the Ripper in some newspapers), was not like anything local law enforcement had seen before. The term serial killer had not been coined yet.
Eliot Ness continued his work in cleaning up the police and stayed clear of the killings until he was directly assigned to work the case. This would be unlike anything Ness had ever investigated before. He was extremely good at rooting out corruption, but this case would try his investigative skills like nothing he had ever faced before.
Thank you for to Netgalley and St Martin's Press / Minotaur books for the opportunity to enjoy this exciting True Crime / Biographical e-ARC.

Being from Ohio, I was very interested in learning about Cleveland's Jack the Ripper. At the beginning, I was intrigued about how Eliot Ness of the Untouchables fame in Chicago fit into the story. As the story unfolded, the author focused more on Ness and not much on the serial murderer. About a third of the way through the book, I could not wait for it to end. The pacing was sluggish. The title is misleading. If you are interested in learning more about Ness, his background and how he moved forward in his career, this book might interest you. If you are one who was looking for something a la Devil in the White City, as I was, this book may not interest you. I am rounding up my 2.5 rating.

Thank you, NetGalley, the author and publisher for an advanced copy.

This book has a Black Dahlia vibe with vivid imagery in sepia tones and worn around the edges. This story follows the background of a young FBI agent hunting down an American Demon after a series of grotesque murders occur. The detail does make it a slower read, but you can see every frame in your mind. If you like old fashioned murder/mystery this is the one!

Having lived in Cleveland, I was aware of the infamous Torso murders before picking up this book. I'd also read Torso, the graphic novel, and went so far as to visit the Cleveland Police Museum, which has a small, permanent exhibit on the killings and Eliot Ness's oversight of the investigation as the city's safety director. For me then, American Demon is perhaps a little too straight forward. While the prose is eminently readable and the case well-chronicled, I was left wanting more -- something deeper, thematically, be it sociopolitically or psychologically. Also: is there relevance to this story today? Stashower touches on a couple areas that I would've liked the entire book to be built around near the end, specifically Ness and the city's treatment of the shantytowns built in the 1930s as well as Ness's own discomfort with the mythology built around his past after he retired. In a country wrecked by a housing crisis -- especially here in California -- and the increasingly liquid state of reality/truth we find ourselves in thanks to the internet, these are concepts worth investigating. Ultimately, I'd recommend the book most for those who are coming to the Torso murders fresh.

American Demon was an interesting read. Before reading this book I had heard of Eliot Ness and the story of Al Capone, but had not heard of the Torso murders. Being a big true crime fan, I found this book to include just enough background on the players in the investigation as well as the victims.

The author, Daniel Stashower, did a great job describing Ness's accomplishment.s. It is impressive to think that Ness was able to achieve so much while he was young, but seemingly lost his way after his Safety director position. One has to think that much of this misdirection as Ness entered middle age could have stemmed from feelings of incompetence in being unable to officially solve the Torso murders. Stashower did an awesome job describing Ness's relationships, successes, and struggles. From his status as Golden Boy through his fall in popularity, I felt as if I was there watching everything happen in person.

While I enjoyed this book, it did take me a bit longer to get through. The subject matter is pretty heavy so this was a book I had to take in small doses. It definitely intrigued me, though, and I am interested in learning more about this story!

Daniel Stashower's story of how the "untouchable" Eliot Ness earned his reputation and pursued Cleveland's Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, is un-put-downable. I'd heard of Ness and his lawmen, and how he pursued bootlegger Al Capone, but I didn't know how dedicated and heroic he really was. This reads like a thrilling novel. Don't miss it.

I always knew Eliot Ness had a connection to Cleveland and the torso murders but I never looked into it because I knew the torso murders were categorized as unsolved and I like my true crime to wrap itself up in a neat little package at the end so I can sleep at night. While the murders are still *technically* unsolved, Stashower's book essentially proves that someone who was very likely the killer was brought to heel, although not really because of corruption.

The cover drew me in (reminded me of Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, the first true crime that I read and loved) and Stashower does a very good job of interweaving the parallel plotlines. You see, Eliot Ness was not in Cleveland when the bodies first started piling up, so we are given the backstory on Ness. I thought everyone from my generation was familiar with Eliot Ness due to The Untouchables movie, but it is always a good idea to delve into backstory.

Ness came to fame during the great American failed experiment of Prohibition. The rise of organized crime in Chicago is legendary and no gangster was more well-known and "untouchable" than Al Capone. Ness was a fresh-faced detective who was in charge of a detachment squad that had one goal: make something stick to Capone connecting him to the money or the alcohol. Meanwhile, other pencil detectives were forcing their way line-by-line of tax laws to get Capone off the street. If Ness is known for anything at all, it was his incorruptibility. He was offered bribes constantly and managed to make his team full of officers that would do the right thing, every time. Eventually they got their man, and Ness was forced to reckon with the fact that he may have hit his pinnacle a little young.

Then along comes Cleveland. The Mistake on the Lake. At the time, one of the top ten largest cities in the nation and so full of corruption and graft that police were expected to tip their hats to mobsters. Doesn't really seem like the place for Ness to take up shop, but that was exactly why he was needed so badly. He enters the scene, metaphorical guns blazing, to clean up the city and meets with partisan politics. How typical.

While he's busy cleaning up the corruption, a mass murderer is on the loose in the city, carving up citizens of the "other America." Because of the lack of conclusive evidence, the bodies keep piling up. When Ness is finally tasked with bringing the Torso Murderer to justice, the city has had just about enough of him. Ness believes that he catches his man, but those politics come back into play (the assumed murderer is closely related to a congressman!)

We then get to see the dizzying tumble that Ness is forced to fall. And it's no wonder. If the murders were resolved in the way that they seem to be, money obviously changed hands and it was not on the up-and-up. Ness was KNOWN for his incorruptibility and during his investigation, he resorted to strongarm tactics and may have been paid hush money to ensure a scandal didn't erupt. If being forced to desert your morals in the face of the greater good doesn't sound like enough reason to become an alcoholic, I don't know what is.

Nonfiction that reads like a novel is fantastic in my opinion. Even though the crimes happened almost 100 years ago, I still felt a sense of urgency to read the book - perhaps if I could finish just one more chapter, everything would turn out okay. Stashower's pacing was perfect and I am very glad that even though the Torso Murderer was never "officially" caught, as Ness himself said, "That case was solved."

This books synopsis is VERY misleading.
Let me get this out of the way, only about 5% of the book is Eliot Ness and his involvement with the Cleveland's Mad Butcher.

A murderer was running lose over the streets of Cleveland, butchering male and female bodies and leaving them along the river and lakes.

I had never heard of this case and was excited to dive in, believing from the premise of this book that Eliot Ness would come in and save the day.

This book was REALLY disappointing in the fact that 5% of the book (and I am being generous in the percentage) actually deals with how Eliot Ness handled the case.
75% of the book just talks about the history of Eliot Ness and his private life.

I can tell you right now that this case WAS NOT WHAT BROUGH ELIOT NESS DOWN!

I was so disappointed in the way that author focused more on Eliot Ness then the actual investigation of the case.
Further, the reader never found out what happened to the main detectives working the case....who was NOT Eliot Ness.

Overall, I enjoyed the book because I got to learn more about Eliot Ness, but disappointed that he had SO LITTLE to do with the Mad Butcher case.

If you want an overview of Eliot Ness' life, then read this book.
If you want to learn more about the Mad Butcher, read another book.

Hello:

This review is going to be in the Chicago Review of Books in the coming weeks; I just provided a first draft several days ago.

Best,
DOUG

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for an advance copy of this history on the pursuit of a savage killer by one of America's most famous lawmen.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his final book The Last Tycoon that "There are no second acts in American lives." Written after the ages both Jazz and Prohibition there are a lot of theories on what that means. For Eliot Ness, G-man, Untouchable, the man who busted Al Capone it might have meant that just because you saved one city from a criminal, doesn't mean you could do it twice. Or maybe it meant something more. In American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper author Daniel Stashower writes of both the famous lawman and his life, and the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Road, whose murders and the treatment of the bodies scared and paralyzed the City of Cleveland.


The book begins with a brief introduction by the author discussing his interest in Eliot Ness, who was famed for his pursuit and helping to put Al Capone, a famed gangster and bootlegger away in prison in Chicago. The author discusses his ties with the city and how his grandfather knew and roasted Ness at one of the many civic events that took place. From there we come to the first found victim of the Butcher, a dismembered corpse found in various locations. Police investigated, but had no idea this was going to be the start of a four year odyssey of body parts and terror. Readers are introduced to young Eliot Ness and we follow his childhood to college, and finally into law enforcement and his clashing with Al Capone. After that Ness came east looking for a new challenge, which he found in the City of Cleveland as the Director of Public Safety, where he found more gangsters, more corruption and a brutal serial killer.

The book is both a biography on Ness and a history of the killer, who unfortunately was never discovered. This takes a little away from the story as we learn much about Ness, but only the crimes committed by the Butcher, not the whys. The book is very well researched and written, with Ness being a very complicated character, much more than the stiff character played by Robert Stack, or the boy scout as portrayed by Kevin Costner. Ness liked his drink, his ladies, and action. Not to take away from his bravery, or his honesty. The politics of the big city are detailed well, and how Ness was not very good at it is shown also. A true crime story with a lot o details that it make it much more.

A very gory tale full of gangsters, serial killers and lawmen raiding illegal houses, with a sad story of a hero in Ness when the glory has gone away. An exciting tale, even without knowing the motivations of the Butcher, was he the relative of a powerful Congressmen who kept the police at bay, or was that just another story to explain the Butcher never being found. Recommended for true crime podcast listeners, gangster historians and readers of Brian Bendis' graphic novel Torso, or the Max Allan Collins novels on Ness, with Butcher's Dozen featuring his time in Ohio.

This was a very interesting book with a dual story. It tells the history of crime fighter Eliot Ness and the true crime story of the mad butcher of Kingsbury Run in Cleveland. 12 victims were killed and dismembered with their blood drained and left all over the city. The killer surgically dismembered them. Ness was part of that unsolved investigation, although he believes he knew who the killer was. I’ve always been curious if this killer actually stopped or just left the area and continued killing without the murders being linked. The Black Dahlia was killed in a similar fashion. This book was very interesting and I learned a lot about Ness.

There was a "mad butcher" running amuck in the 1930's in Cleveland. He seemed to be rivaling the exploits of the famous Jack the Ripper in London. In all twelve people were horribly killed in a four year period. The people of Cleveland were frozen in fear and demanded that something be done. The mayor had great hopes for the newly hired Eliot Ness of Chicago fame, the final person attributed to the imprisonment of Al Capone. Eliot and his men were up against a mastermind, who seemed to be able to outwit and taunt the men and especially Eliot. In the end, the battle between Eliot and this psyco killer was never really resolved, although the suspect was eventually confined to a mental facility.

Eliot Ness was a young unassuming man who was leading the fight against corruption. Eventually, he and his team were labeled the Untouchables, later this would become a very popular TV series that ran for years.

This book covers well the life of Eliot, his marriages, his feats of bravery, his descent from being a very successful man to one with problems with drinking and the high life. Handsome and famous, he was attractive to women and succumbed to their charms. Married three times, Eliot had no children and died at a fairly young age.

This was a well done true crime book that managed, although somewhat graphic to capture the life of a man who became famous but died poor and in a scene of obscurity.

Thank you to Daniel Stashower and NetGalley for a chance to read and listen to this fascinating story.

While this discusses the “American Jack the Ripper” it deals a lot more with Eliot Ness and his career which is fascinating.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I thought this was a fascinating discussion of Eliot Ness’ career. My sum total of knowledge about him prior to reading this ARC was composed of remembered snippets from the television series, The Untouchables. Which I now know to be mostly fabricated. I appreciate the insights into his methods and findings; he was able to accomplish so much with what now seem to be meager tools available. How much more he could have done with today’s technology! I do find it ironic that someone who was so honest in so many ways could reconcile that behavior with womanizing and drunkenness on so many occasions. All that said, he was human like the rest of us and I believe he was able to finally find happiness near the end of his life.

This ARC was provided to me by NetGalley and the publisher. The opinions expressed here are solely my own.

This true crime book takes place in Cleveland, Ohio and tells of the crime solving done by the Untouchables headed by Eliot Ness. The crime he is trying to solve is the butcher who is terrorizing this town. He is known as the American Jack the Ripper. The author describes the crimes and how Eliot Ness fought prohibition and the subsequent backlash. Now it is his mission to find the murderer.
The book is well written with many interesting facts, but I would have liked it more had it stayed with the main solving of the murder.
I thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I am sorry to say this was a DNF at 61% in. I expected more about the Cleveland murders, but the book went into great depth about Eliot Ness and his life with the murders simply a peripheral storyline. I just did not find the book compelling.

I enjoyed reading American Demon. It was captivating from the beginning with the story of discovering pieces of a body of a woman on the shores of Lake Eerie. It continued to keep me intrigued as it derails additional crime-fighting against Al Capone, more murders, and the interesting life choices & relationships of Eliot Ness. I love that it is based on a true story, as that simply makes it more fascinating.

Undoubtedly, Ness was an interesting guy- brilliant at what he did and possibly a bit extreme in his exploits both on and off the job. It seems as though he had an uncanny instinct, and he knew it. He followed his gut and it was usually accurate. Because of this, he developed a reputation that adds an interesting aspect to his character: was his arrogant? Or just confident? Or was he simply good at projecting what he felt the press and the public should see? While he was talented, he seemed to often make questionable life choices (drinking, affairs) that conflicted with his profession.

At no fault to the author, the ending is disappointing in that we never find out for sure who the torso killer is, although the details around the speculations of Ness and others are well documented.

Beginning in 1934 and continuing over the four years more than a dozen bodies were discovered in sketchy areas of Cleveland, Ohio, all dismembered in disturbing ways. Citizens and politicians demand answers and the task falls to the new Director of Public Safety—Eliot Ness. Fresh off the triumph of helping put away Al Capone, Ness throws himself into cleaning up Cleveland corruption and discovering the identity of The Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. Examination methods were quite different from TV’s modern CSI. Google images shows medical authorities examining bodies without gloves and reporters close by with dangling cigarettes in their mouths. Yet, the focus of the work is on Ness and how he rapidly falls from grace by challenging the wrong people mixed with his heavy drinking. True crime fans will be drawn to Stashower’s reporting and book people will be amazed to learn that Ness’ second wife was Evaline Ness, author of the 1967 Caldecott winner—Sam, Bangs and Moonshine.

Excellent examination of Eliot Ness pre and post Al Capone - this book busts the myths and finds the man - and who knew his later career was spent hunting a serial killer in Cleveland?