The Maniac in the Bushes: More True Tales of

Here are 13 more incredible true stories of Cleveland crime and disaster. Meet such local characters as Martha Wise, the Merry Widow of Medina, who poisoned a dozen relatives with arsenic because she enjoyed funerals; Velma West, big-city girl of Cleveland's Jazz Age, who was driven to murder her small-town husband by the slow pace of life in Painesville; Cleveland Safety Director Eliot Ness and his nemesis, the "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run"; and many other local heroes and villains.

Preface

9

(2)

Acknowledgments

11

(4)

``Jesus save me from the chair''

The Lonesome Death of Michael Hahnel (1924)

15

(14)

``Murderer in short breeches''

The Gothic Doom of Maggie Thompson (1889)

29

(14)

The Incredible Vanishing Killer

Cleveland's ``Black Widow'' (1922)

43

(8)

Murder on Millionaires' Row

Herbert Noyes's ``Danse Macabre'' (1900)

51

(10)

``We are going down!''

The Ashtabula Bridge Disaster (1876)

61

(10)

City Hall Cadaver

Robert Mercer's Unquiet Grave (1913)

71

(12)

Medina's Wickedest Stepmother

The Garrett Tragedy (1887)

83

(10)

Stand by Your Man

The Joe Filkowski Story (1931)

93

(12)

A Shot in the Dark

The Rayner Tragedy (1910)

105

(12)

``To get a woman or else''

The Sheila Ann Tuley Horror (1948)

117

(14)

Revenge of the Graybeards

The Fabulous Meach Brothers of Rochester (1902)

131

(8)

``With demons you're dealing''

Dr. Chapin's Date with Death (1917)

139

(10)

``They ought to give him the whole works''

The Ruth Steese Murder (1932)

149

(14)

The Case of the Careless Killer

The Mentor Marsh Murder (1923)

163

(12)

The Scovill Avenue Mystery

The Murder of Sonny Hoenig (1907)

175

(12)

``Jump, boys, it's a crash!''

The Doodlebug Deathtrip (1940)

187

(10)

``All will have gone to decay''

The Billy Whitla Story (1909)

197

(16)

Death on a Davenport

The Assassination of William E. Potter (1931)

213

(12)

``Shootin' and shootin' and shootin'''

The Awful Death of Mary Kelly (1877)

225

(14)

``Step aside, Daddy, and I'll fill him full of lead!''

The Insouciant Mabel Champion (1922)

239

(12)

``This is my last day!''

The Strange Death of Minnie Peters (1906)

251

(12)

Cleveland's Saddest Circus Day

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Fire (1942)

263

(4)

``In the name of violated chastity''

The Terrible Stalking of Tamsen Parsons (1865)

267

(14)

Assassin from Nowhere

Christina Lispcomb's Terrible Secret (1908)

281

(10)

The Phantom Flapper Killer

The Mystery of Margaret Heldman (1928)

291

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The Maniac in the Bushes: More True Tales of Cleveland Crime and Disaster

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials