OH OH - Cleveland, WhtMale 20-30, 121UMOH, decapitated, Jiggs/"Helen-Paul" tattoos, Jun'36

[madamx]

Butterfly tattoos

represent hope, transformation, and renewal.

In sailor lore, there was a superstition that seeing a butterfly before embarking on your mission meant you would meet your end at sea.

A butterfly tattoo in this case could mean bravely facing your mortality.

Anchor Tattoos

Sailors would often get anchor tattoos after crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

American Traditional Tattoos: History, Meanings, Artists & Designs


Butterfly

As tattoo designs are often inspired by the natural world it is no wonder why this bright and beautiful insect found its place as a popular traditional tattoo design. Along with their beauty being a meaning in its own right, it’s furthermore the butterflies transformation which make them symbolically special. As butterflies metamorphose (caterpillar – cocoon – butterfly) this tattoo can demonstrate one coming into their own and having an attitude of reinvention.

A butterfly tattoo can also symbolise having a fresh start and being set free whether that is from a troubling relationship or mindset.


Heart

You are much more likely to see the design of the love heart shape in traditional tattoo imagery, as this is more representative of the emotion rather than the anatomical organ (although from time to time, you do see this in tattoo designs too).

The heart also originated from the sailors. There was always the risk that when you went on a voyage that you may not make it home. Often away for months at a time, a heart tattoo was a way to keep those you cared about most with you during the toughest times. Sometimes titled with banners and other times on their own, this design takes the idea of wearing your heart on your sleeve rather literally.

Often you will see the tattoo imagery of a crying heart, which is usually a reflection of a broken heart. Heart’s with daggers are also representative of this. Although you don’t have to be heartbroken to get this striking image tattooed on you, it can also be a symbol of making it through heartbreak and coming out stronger on the other side.


Anchor

The anchor’s meaning is one of the most literal of tattoo designs. As an anchor will prevent a ship from drifting away, it represents stability and the grounded nature of one’s personality. This may be something that someone sees in themselves when they get it tattooed, or in the personality of a person they want their tattoo to represent.

Traditional anchor designs often have banners reading the name of a loved one, are shown within a scene, or are paired with another traditional motif to create contrast.

Traditional Tattoo Ideas & Meanings - Anchors, Daggers, Flash, Ships & More...

Dove Tattoo
Dove Tattoo Meaning - What Do Dove Tattoos Symbolize?

 

[Triss]

I'm sorry if this was discussed before but do we know where he was buried?

 

[PatLaurel]

I'm sorry if this was discussed before but do we know where he was buried?

He was buried in Potter's Field Section of Highland Park Cemetery, Highland Park, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

MOO JMO

 

[MsKnief]

Anyone know if they exhumed the body for DNA testing at some point?

 

[Triss]

He was buried in Potter's Field Section of Highland Park Cemetery, Highland Park, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.

MOO JMO

Thank you so much for the link! Looks like DNA could solve this one. We will probably never know who commited the torso murders, but at least the Doe's relatives could have some closure. The tattoo guy's children or grandchildren could still be alive.

 

[MsKnief]

My unsolicited 2 cents about the tattoos:

I read an article called "The tattoos of early American seafarers, 1796-1818" by Ira Dye. Although the data doesn't go up to the 1900's, I thought it could still give us an idea. Here are some takeaways :
- "Of the men who had one tattoo, 43.8 % were tattooed with initials, 38% with their own initials". So roughly 87% of tattooed initials are their own.
- "In those days before ID tags the tattooed initials provided a means for identification of their bodies if washed ashore after a shipwreck." So W. C. G. are most probably the victim's initials.
- "Comparing the one-tattoo with the two-tattoo men suggests that these seafarers usually first got a tattoo of their initials or name, and for a second one branched out into anchors, patriotic symbols..."
- "The number of tattoos per man when related to the average age for the men in each number group indicates that they tended to get all their tattoos while they were quite young. The average age of men with increasing numbers of tattoos stays level at 25 years for men with one to six tattoos..."

So there's probably a better chance that W.C.G. are actually his own initials.

About the Helen and Paul Tattoo :
If we suppose Helen and Paul are his parents and that the dove symbolizes death, maybe both of them died in the influenza epidemic of 1918? The victim was probably born around 1910-1912, and could have been orphaned at a young age. Tattooing his parents' names would make sense in that way?

 

[Richard]

Unidentified Male, Murdered 5 June 1936, Cleveland, Ohio

LINK:

121UMOH

 

[Triss]

I was always under the impression that Helen and Paul are his children. Other possibilities that make sense to me are that they are his relatives (parents/siblings) or that he is Paul and Helen is his wife/girlfriend/crush.

 

[Alleykins]

The victim's decapitated body was located on June 5, 1936 in Cleveland, Ohio. His head was found near the Shaker Rapid Transit tracks. His torso was found between the New York Central and Nickel Plate tracks by an old freight shed. The body was nude but unmutilated, and was found only about fifteen hundred feet away from the head.
There was no blood on the ground, indicating he had been killed elsewhere and his head and torso then flung into the wastes of Kingsbury Run.
A railroad worker’s testimony that the head was not in the vicinity at 3:00 p.m. Thursday, and an eyewitness’s report of a late-model Cadillac seen under the Kinsman Road bridge about 11:00 p.m. that same night suggested the latter time as the dumping hour.
The physical evidence of the decapitation suggested it had been done while the victim was alive. The head had been cut off between the first and second cervical vertebrae. There was no evidence of drugs or alcohol in the victim’s body, and nothing to suggest that he had been tortured or bound before being killed.
The case is believed to be one of 12 Kingsbury Run Murders committed in the Cleveland area in the 1930s by the Cleveland Torso Murderer or Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run, who has never been identified. It is now believed that several more murders were committed by the killer in other areas of Ohio between the 1920s and 1950s.

Reading this over from Doe Network, it doesn't appear he was subdued, like he wasn't drugged or bound, and was possibly decapitated while alive. I guess quite a few of the other victims were alive, too. How is that possible? I don't know from experience or anything, but I think decapitation is no easy feat. If not restrained, it's not like someone would hold still for something like this. If it happened while sleeping, whoever did it had to be strong enough and have a sharp blade, to make a solid, incapacitating blow the first time to prevent any possibility of a struggle against any subsequent blows, otherwise, there'd be defense wounds, and it doesn't sound like there were, as it mentioned the body wasn't mutilated, and nothing to suggest he was tortured. (which I read other victims were emasculated/dismembered, but not this victim).

Does anyone know what type of blade they think was used?

I found this about another victim (#6) who was believed killed by the same person:

Coroner Pearse noted that the lack of hesitation marks in the disarticulation of the body indicated a strong, confident killer, very familiar with human anatomy. The victim died instantly when the head was cut off in one bold, clean stroke. Victim #6 was never identified.

Torso Murders - Cleveland Police Museum

The Kingsbury Run Murders aka “The Torso Murders” Between 1935 and 1938, a serial killer murdered and dismembered at least 12 victims – only 2 of which were ever positively identified. This killer is officially unidentified, yet researchers of today are quite certain who committed these horrible...

www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org

 

[branmuffin]

The guy looks so much like somebody from South Boston/Southie that I expect him to step off my screen and say, "Hi, how ya DOin'!"

South Boston is the heart of Irish Catholic immigrants in Boston, so I guess that means he strikes me as Irish and Catholic. The Jiggs character would tend to confirm that; Jiggs and Maggie in the strip were poor Irish immigrants who got rich and moved up. But they were popular with all immigrant groups, especially second and third generation like my father, so that might not mean anything.

My dad was Irish. His colouring was exactly the same as this man: black hair, blue eyes and olive skin. I think it's possible that his colouring and the tattoo that refers to Jiggs is in reference to his heritage. If he was an immigrant he probably arrived prior to the depression since immigration was severely restricted during the depression. If the tattoos reference military service in the marines or navy he would have to be either a naturalized American or he was born in the US.

I suppose it's possible he may have been homosexual but the reality is that some men and women did what they had to do to survive during wars, famine and depressions. Or he could have been completely caught off guard. The shoes tied up with the laces with socks stuffed inside sound to me like the deceased may have taken off his own shoes and made sure the socks stayed with the shoes. People do exactly the same thing if they go to a pool or a gym.

The decapitation was very clean and precise according to the coroner. The deceased looks very serene in the autopsy photos which makes me wonder whether he had been sedated somewhat. It's difficult to arrange the features of a deceased person to a reasonable facsimile of serenity after such a gruesome death.

I'm interested in that letter that was sent to the police officer and the comment about how surprising it would be to find a D C could do such a good job. I tried to see if any other murders occurred in California using the same type of MO but the only one I could find that could possibly fit the time line, albeit 11 years later is the murder of Elizabeth Short in 1947, known as the Black Dahlia.

 

[MsKnief]

Reading this over from Doe Network, it doesn't appear he was subdued, like he wasn't drugged or bound, and was possibly decapitated while alive. I guess quite a few of the other victims were alive, too. How is that possible? I don't know from experience or anything, but I think decapitation is no easy feat. If not restrained, it's not like someone would hold still for something like this. If it happened while sleeping, whoever did it had to be strong enough and have a sharp blade, to make a solid, incapacitating blow the first time to prevent any possibility of a struggle against any subsequent blows, otherwise, there'd be defense wounds, and it doesn't sound like there were, as it mentioned the body wasn't mutilated, and nothing to suggest he was tortured. (which I read other victims were emasculated/dismembered, but not this victim).

Does anyone know what type of blade they think was used?

I found this about another victim (#6) who was believed killed by the same person:

Torso Murders - Cleveland Police Museum

The Kingsbury Run Murders aka “The Torso Murders” Between 1935 and 1938, a serial killer murdered and dismembered at least 12 victims – only 2 of which were ever positively identified. This killer is officially unidentified, yet researchers of today are quite certain who committed these horrible...

www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org

In the case of our Doe, from "In the wake of the butcher" : "...the head had been severed from the body, with multiple hesitation cuts, under the chin at the axis". Definitely seems like he was much better at it when he got to the 6th victim.

 

[Triss]

Reading this over from Doe Network, it doesn't appear he was subdued, like he wasn't drugged or bound, and was possibly decapitated while alive. I guess quite a few of the other victims were alive, too. How is that possible? I don't know from experience or anything, but I think decapitation is no easy feat. If not restrained, it's not like someone would hold still for something like this. If it happened while sleeping, whoever did it had to be strong enough and have a sharp blade, to make a solid, incapacitating blow the first time to prevent any possibility of a struggle against any subsequent blows, otherwise, there'd be defense wounds, and it doesn't sound like there were, as it mentioned the body wasn't mutilated, and nothing to suggest he was tortured. (which I read other victims were emasculated/dismembered, but not this victim).

Does anyone know what type of blade they think was used?

I found this about another victim (#6) who was believed killed by the same person:

Torso Murders - Cleveland Police Museum

The Kingsbury Run Murders aka “The Torso Murders” Between 1935 and 1938, a serial killer murdered and dismembered at least 12 victims – only 2 of which were ever positively identified. This killer is officially unidentified, yet researchers of today are quite certain who committed these horrible...

www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org

The lack of defense wounds is very interesting. I was thinking chloroform could've been used, but I heard it doesn't work like it's shown in movies. Apparently it requires a few minutes to start working. Surely this John Doe would've fought back(especially if we believe he had a military background) during these minutes before being put to sleep by chloroform.

 

[MsKnief]

The lack of defense wounds is very interesting. I was thinking chloroform could've been used, but I heard it doesn't work like it's shown in movies. Apparently it requires a few minutes to start working. Surely this John Doe would've fought back(especially if we believe he had a military background) during these minutes before being put to sleep by chloroform.

Maybe he could've already been asleep when chloroformed, delaying his defensive response?

 

[branmuffin]

If all of the deaths are known to be related I wonder why there was some variations as to the methodology. I'm curious about the use of Calcium Hypochlorite that was found on a couple of the victims earlier in rampage. Calcium hypochlorite is a component of disinfectants primarily used to clean water purification systems, swimming pools as well as commercially prepared bleaches. However, it has also been used during wartime, especially the First World War to irrigate wounds to delay infection since closing wounds before surgeons could operate led to further infection.

I know the coroners' reports have stated that most of the decapitations were done while the victim was alive but do we know whether any of the dismemberments were done while the victim was alive?

Is it possible the killer had some medical knowledge related to being a medic or a military surgeon during the war?

 

[Tempst]

If all of the deaths are known to be related I wonder why there was some variations as to the methodology. I'm curious about the use of Calcium Hypochlorite that was found on a couple of the victims earlier in rampage. Calcium hypochlorite is a component of disinfectants primarily used to clean water purification systems, swimming pools as well as commercially prepared bleaches. However, it has also been used during wartime, especially the First World War to irrigate wounds to delay infection since closing wounds before surgeons could operate led to further infection.

I know the coroners' reports have stated that most of the decapitations were done while the victim was alive but do we know whether any of the dismemberments were done while the victim was alive?

Is it possible the killer had some medical knowledge related to being a medic or a military surgeon during the war?

Yeah, I've been studying this case for years and this still remains a mystery.

Not sure why did the killer put lime on Lady of the Lake.

 

[Tempst]

Maybe he could've already been asleep when chloroformed, delaying his defensive response?

He probably got drunk and killed by the murderer. Since the body location was the murder scene.

 

[MsKnief]

He probably got drunk and killed by the murderer. Since the body location was the murder scene.

He had 0.03 alcohol in his system when the autopsy was done 48h after the discovery of the body. But apparently the body was quite swollen and the level of blood alcohol could be explained by the decomposition.

 

[Tempst]

He had 0.03 alcohol in his system when the autopsy was done 48h after the discovery of the body. But apparently the body was quite swollen and the level of blood alcohol could be explained by the decomposition.

I think he either got drunk himself or was lured there by the killer with some offering.

Other than him and victim 5, all others are obviously killed in the killer's "house of horror".

 

[Richard]

• Here are a few images of the cartoon character Jiggs and his wife Maggie. As seen on the covers of these comic books, the sometimes inebriated Jiggs was often the subject of domestic abuse from Maggie. Her usual weapon of choice was the rolling pin, but she would also use whatever other household item was handy.
• 

Click on images for more images and source link.

 

[Tempst]

I still can't believe this guy was never identified. They got the face, the fingerprints, cloth and all the tattoos .