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American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper
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About This Book
New York Times bestselling author and Edgar Award-winner Daniel Stashower returns with American Demon, a historical true crime starring legendary lawman Eliot Ness. Boston had its Strangler. California had the Zodiac Killer. And in the depths of the Great Depression, Cleveland had the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. On September 5th, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland's Lake Erie: the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed "The Lady of the Lake," was only the first of a butcher's dozen. Over the next four years, twelve more bodies would be scattered across the city. The bodies were dismembered with surgical precision and drained of blood. Some were beheaded while still alive. Terror gripped the city. Amid the growing uproar, Cleveland's besieged mayor turned to his newly-appointed director of public safety: Eliot Ness. Ness had come to Cleveland fresh from his headline-grabbing exploits in Chicago, where he and his band of "Untouchables" led the frontline assault on Al Capone's bootlegging empire. Now he would confront a case that would redefine his storied career. Award-winning author Daniel Stashower shines a fresh light on one of the most notorious puzzles in the annals of crime, and uncovers the gripping story of Ness's hunt for a sadistic killer who was as brilliant as he was cool and composed, a mastermind who was able to hide in plain sight. American Demon reconstructs this ultimate battle of wits between a hero and a madman.
Reviews
"The premise is a grind house fever dream ..."
"Based on numerous sources, including Ness' own papers, this account is a gripping true-crime thriller ..."
"The combination of a baffling unsolved crime with a nuanced portrayal of an American icon adds up to another winner for this talented author."
"American Demon, however, is successful in making Ness an enthralling, flawed protagonist who got credit for Chicago's infamous Al Capone's incarceration, even though he did not have much to do with it ..."
"American Demon is a thrillingly bedeviling true crime story interlaced with a nuanced character study--not of the criminal but of his flawed pursuer."
"There's no definitive solution to the murders in American Demon, but Stashower's portrait of Ness is layered and he vividly re-creates a broken system where a well greased cop often called ahead so gambling houses could tidy up before an imminent bust."
"Stashower showcases several such scenes in gripping detail, when innocent folks turned a corner and suddenly saw something they could never unsee ..."
"The author deftly sets Ness' battles against institutional antagonists against an engagingly told, suspenseful account of the search for a notorious killer."
"Stashower offers a meticulous account of the unproductive investigation, leaving no lead or body part unnoted."
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