Eliot Ness and the mad butcher Hunting America's deadliest unidentified serial killer at the dawn of modern criminology

This meticulously researched but often gloomy account of the life and times of Eliot Ness from Collins and Schwartz (Scarface and the Untouchable: Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and the Battle for Chicago) focuses on the legendary lawman's career starting at the end of Prohibition when he became Cleveland's Safety Director (essentially, police chief). In this position, Ness led the hunt for the Mad Butcher, a serial killer who terrorized Cleveland by killing and dismembering mostly indigent men and women and leaving their heads and other body parts around town. But the killer, who was never apprehended, ceased his attacks in 1938--less than halfway through the book. The rest is less true crime than a catalogue of Ness's far less dramatic endeavors as a bureaucrat: his destruction of Cleveland's shantytown, which displaced thousands of homeless people; labor racketeering probes that detoured into bingo and pinball gaming; and even crackdowns on traffic congestion and jaywalking. Ness's move into the private sector in 1945 begins a chain of foolish decisions that eventually cost him his reputation, his sobriety, and his solvency. Readers will wish that the authors had consigned Ness's post--Mad Butcher career to an epilogue. Agent: Ross Harris, Stuart Krichevsky Literary. (Aug.)

Collins and Schwartz (Scarface and the Untouchable) reunite to continue the story of law enforcement agent Eliot Ness, known for leading the Untouchables, the group famous for bringing down Al Capone. Ness moved on to serve as Cleveland's public safety director during a tumultuous time in the city's history following the Great Depression. He confronted various crime and political challenges, which are detailed within the book. The story is anchored by Ness's efforts to identify the Mad Butcher, a serial killer who terrorized Cleveland and whose actions followed Ness until the end of his career. The book is thoroughly researched and well paced, a feat considering the breadth of Ness's work. VERDICT A successful blend of history and suspense, this volume will appeal to readers interested in true crime and law enforcement. Readers intrigued by the Mad Butcher may also enjoy James Jessen Badal's In the Wake of the Butcher.--Kate Bellody, State Univ. of New York, New Paltz

A sharp history of crusading detective Eliot Ness (1903-1957), a man who was vastly more complicated than the square-jawed hero of The Untouchables. Ness began his career as a hard-charging special agent tasked with enforcing Prohibition in gangster-ruled Chicago. As crime writer Collins and historian Schwartz chronicle, he ended up a heavy drinker with a heart condition, thrice-married and unhappy. Having moved to Cleveland to take the post of head of public safety, he'd been broken by "one case he could never publicly close--the monster who emerged to prey on the city's weakest and most vulnerable even as Eliot Ness began cleaning up their town, a killer who made Capone seem benign by comparison, branded in the press a 'Butcher' for what he did to his victims." And what he did to his victims--most of them marginal people whose disappearances didn't excite much interest from the police--was horrific: The Butcher, "a killer who preyed on strangers, for reasons incomprehensible outside his own twisted pathology," cut off heads and genitals, eviscerated and dissected, left torsos and arms scattered along the shore of Lake Erie. Finally, upon Ness' arrival, the police began to take notice, but they never could quite piece together the serial killer's pattern until a resident of a veterans' convalescent home in Sandusky voiced his suspicion that the killer was a resident there. The cat-and-mouse game that ensued makes for a careening read that's full of surprises, especially once the killer decided that he ought to take the opportunity to taunt his pursuer. Collins and Schwartz deliver a nimble, taut tale. More importantly, they offer a portrait of a complex crime fighter who believed in science and reason at a time when most officers smacked suspects around with a blackjack, a portrait set against a backdrop of ethnic and class collisions, labor unrest, and political intrigue. Catnip for true-crime buffs. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.