In the Wake of the Butcher : Cleveland's Torso Murders (Ohio)
by James Jessen Badal
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Book Summary Information
Author: James Jessen BadalEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2001-04-01
ISBN: 0873386892
Number of pages: 255
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Book Reviews of In the Wake of the Butcher : Cleveland's Torso Murders (Ohio)
Book Review: Factually impressive, a good account
Summary: 4 Stars
Surprisingly, this is only the second book published on the subject of the Cleveland Torso Killer, and whilst both books are a good read (due to the horrendous nature of the subject), this one is much less instantly readable than Steven Nickel's earlier `Torso'. James Jessen Badal has done a commendable job in documenting the complete facts of this case, working directly from original police reports and the personal files of Detective Peter Merylo, the policeman who investigated the murders for the longest time and in the most depth. However, Nickel's book, for all its apparent factual errors (which, in the fashion expected of `true crime' writers, Badal wastes no time in pointing out), was more successful in drawing the reader into the time and place in which the murders were committed; he spent time sketching in Cleveland's geography and recent history, and provided information on the Great Depression, and the career of Eliot Ness, the famous lawman whose career suffered as a result of his failure to apprehend the killer. Badal doesn't ignore Ness, but seems to have little time for him, and adopts Merylo's viewpoint that Ness was a political attention-seeker only interested in headlines. In my opinion, this is due to the fact that he is working directly from Merylo's extensive material, obtained from his daughter, which includes nearly all the published photographs. In return for this co-operation, he appears to have agreed to paint Merylo white and Ness in shades of grey. Also, Badal had the co-operation of the relatives of one of the few identified victims, that being petty crook Edward Andrassy, and this has led him to paint this man as an `innocent' victim of the Cleveland Butcher. Steven Nickel didn't waste time with such misplaced sentiment, instead painting Andrassy as the seedy, deadbeat grifter it is obvious he was; a con-artist, a pimp, and a feckless libertine. Badal's book is a more in-depth look at the facts of the case than Nickel's (which spent just as much time on Ness's career as it did looking at the murders), but for all his investigating, hard work, and efforts to produce the definitive word on the subject (including `identifying' the killer at the end), Badal's book is finally less enjoyable than Nickel's.
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