Who Killed...? Cleveland, Ohio

Who Killed…? Cleveland, Ohio

by Jack Swint

Format: 6 x 9 softcover
Page Count: 168

ISBN: 978-1-60008-030-2
Price: $18.95
Publication Date: March, 2007

Book Description

From 1935 to 1938, 12 mutilated bodies found on Cleveland’s east side were attributed to the so-called “Mad Butcher of Cleveland.” Despite the efforts by law enforcement icon Elliott Ness, the slayings were never solved. In 1976, 21-year-old Joann Terrill was found dead in her apartment due to strangulation, touching off not only a 12-year murder investigation, which led to the acquittal of a former county commissioner, but set in motion a thorough probe into widespread corruption in Medina County. In 1987, four women in the Akron area were killed in a four-month time period under similar circumstances, causing widespread panic and an increase of gun sales in the area. No suspects were ever identified. In 2003, Ramona Krotine was found shot to death in her trunk just hours after leaving a party in Middleburg Heights, OH; Krotine’s husband survived two mistrials before being acquitted of murder in 2005. In 2004, two campers including a Coshocton, OH native, were shot in the head as they slept while on a camping trip in California, prompting California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office to post a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible, while a private party donated another $10,000.

Who Killed…? depicts fifteen of Cleveland’s most notorious, heinous, and mysterious unsolved murders. Through laborious research and interviews with investigators and families of the victims, Who Killed…? has laid out particulars of these unsolved crimes. These chapter-length sketches provide a glimpse into fifteen mysterious murders: from the frustrations of law enforcement officials, to grieving family members, to the coping of local communities trying to make sense of the random acts of madness. As a whole, Who Killed…? reveals the dark underbelly of a city still struggling to diffuse the rage and brutality that so many of its inhabitants possess.

While society’s momentary obsessions with sensationalistic unsolved murders quickly vanish, families and friends of these victims quietly suffer without closure. Who Killed…? aims to push these cases back into the public’s consciousness in hopes of bringing the guilty to justice. Readers with any information that may have significance to the investigation may contact the assigned investigators to these open cases or provide anonymous tips using the contact information provided at the end of each chapter.

Author Information

A former consultant for the popular television program A Current Affair, Jack Swint currently works as a marketing consultant for newspapers. Swint also authored Who Killed...? Pittsburgh, PA for Rooftop Publishing. He lives and writes in Northern Ohio.