American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper

If you watch NCIS, you know that it is a spin off of the 90s show Jag. One of the stars of Jag was David James Elliot who was one of the actors in the short lived Untouchables series that aired on Fox (I believe). No, he didn’t play Elliott Ness.
That series didn’t get a mention in this book, which is the only disappointing thing about this excellent book.
The Robert Stack series, the one that the newer series was in part rebooting, does get a mention as does the famous movie with Kevin Coster. Stashower, however, does not focus on the constantly retread history of Capone vs Ness as it were, but instead on what Ness did after Chicago when he went to work in Cleveland, land of the burning river and the burning mayoral hair, and was show more confronted by not only having to clear corruption out of a police force but also a serial killer who liked cutting up bodies after he killed them. Later people, usually children, would find a seagull chowing down on a body.
Ness was Cleveland’s director of public safety at the time and as such, people wanted and expected to handle the case. But Ness also found himself in a slightly unfamiliar place, having to play politics as well as simple detective work, and it would be fair, that Ness was more interested in, rightly or wrongly, police corruption.
Stashower not only focuses on Ness’ quest to solve the murders and the at times polarizing actions that he took, but also on the area and people who were the victims of the serial killer as well as the work of the less famous detectives who were tasked with the case, and who in some ways may have been hampered by Ness, who found himself in a situation where his ethics and what needs to be done may be at odds in ways that he is not prepared to deal with.
Stashower also focuses on how the detectives were driven to solve a case even as they sometimes acted on prejudices that most people at the time had. For instance, there was a belief that the killer was a sexual deviant, which definition at the time included homosexuality. Stashower points out this homophobia but also highlights the fact that some of the detectives were educating themselves on the topic of deviancy as the case played out.
Stashower’s writing is clear and concise. Why it is clear that he admires the Ness and the others, he is not blind to their faults. The book is far from a hagiography of Ness in term of his work ethic and style, and Stashower is sympathetic to the women in Ness’ life who had to deal with his late nights and constant on the go and never at home work style.
If you like historic true crime, this a very good read. show less

American Demon is a well written true crime drama about a good cop and his most frustrating case.

American Demon more about Eliot Ness than the Torso Killer. It's about his devotion to Public Safety rather than his image. It's also about Ness as a person with major flaws. He wasn't the person we see portrayed in popular media. He wasn't a super-cop. He wasn't always a good person and he was sometimes a hypocrite. He went up against an entrenched system and found out twice that sometimes the best way to accomplish a task is to compromise and make peace with "that's good enough".

I don't know how to say more without spoiling the book, which is kind of a bizarre thing to say about true crime.

I first learned of the Butcher of Kingsbury Run, (AKA The Cleveland Torso Murder) twenty years ago while researching a book. To say this killer was twisted, brutal, and sociopathic didn’t quite cover it. It was 1935, Cleveland, and the country was still dealing with The Great Depression and the remnants of Prohibition. Eliot Ness and his Untouchables had helped bring down Scarface Al Capone and Ness had moved from Chicago to Cleveland where he became the Director of Public Safety, meaning he oversaw the police department and other city entities. During a three-year period, twelve corpses turned up. Beheaded, mutilated, dismembered, and scattered, many parts were never found, many victims never identified. The city was on edge, and show more everyone looked to Ness to bring the killer to justice. The pressure was massive, as the clues and viable suspects were sparse. This is as much a story of Ness as it is of the serial killer but make no mistake this is the definitive story of this bizarre series of events. The vivid characters and the twists and turns of this case will keep the reader enthralled.

DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Jake Longly and Cain/Harper thriller series show less

Well written and compelling, but the pace and plot and thrill fell off about 2/3 through. I would still recommend it, but it was a frustrating resolve that spoke more to the failures of bureaucracy and oversight than to Ness himself.

I had never heard of the Mad Butcher before listening to this audiobook. What an absolutely gruesome killer. This book relays the butcher's crimes, and the investigation into trying to find and stop him. Elliot Ness is brought in to help solve the case, fresh off working with the Untouchables to bring down Al Capone. This book is equally as much about Elliot Ness as it is about the Butcher. We get to learn about his history, an overview of the Al Capone case, and his later years as he tries and fails to run for office. We also learn about how Elliot Ness sought to root out corruption from the Cleveland Police. This was really well done and I found myself listening to the audiobook as often as I could.

Thank you netgalley and Macmillan show more audio for giving me an advanced review copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.
1 like show less

While very well researched and entertainingly written this volume has one problem in that it feels like two separate stories, that of Ness’s campaign to clean up a corrupt city, and the string of gruesome unsolved murders.

It’s only towards the end that the author puts forward the theory that Ness had been quietly monitoring the murder case, and had a suspect he felt was responsible, but had been pressured into secrecy.

In many ways the story of Ness’s decline from the famed leader of the “Untouchables” to an easily manipulated political stooge is a sad one, and we’ll probably never know exactly what went on. But it’s also a fascinating insight into Cleveland’s struggles to reinvent itself in the immediate pre-WW2 years.

American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper
by Daniel Stashower
I don't know about you but what I knew about Eliot Ness I learned from watching The Untouchables! So, not very much and not very accurate. This is an amazing read that gives us a look into the life of Ness when he left Chicago and landed in Cleveland. Here, he was faced with something that seemed he was ill prepared for. A serial killer that chopped up his victims. Eventually, he felt he knew who it was but was not able to arrest him. Partly because politics stood in the way.
The book also tells about his private life, a glimpse of the man at work and off the clock. The book takes us to his death and beyond. Very interesting.
The book gives the clues, show more the characters, witnesses, suspects, inspectors, politicians, and more. It flows smoothly and easy to read. Kept me intrigued throughout.
This is one book you don't want to miss! My favorite book so far this year!
I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this book! show less