Cumminsville Killer
The Cumminsville Killer, also known as the Cumminsville Ripper, the Slouch Hat Man and the Man Gorilla, was an unidentified serial killer who is believed to have claimed five victims in the Cumminsville neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, between 1904 and 1910. Victims. Mary McDonald. On April 30, 1904, 32-year-old Mary McDonald, from Saginaw, Michigan, was horribly murdered at the Big Four Railroad railways. McDonald lived with 24-year-old Mrs. Finley on East Seventh Street, and on the date of the murder, she had been spotted by several witnesses in the vicinity of Chester  Park. Later on, McDonald visited the homes of the Stagmans, near Knowlton's Corner, with Charles Stagman later driving her back to the city. At around 11 o'clock, he left her on College Hill-Main Street, and that was the last seen of her. In the morning, the dying McDonald was found on the railway by a freight train engineer and taken to the city hospital, where she only managed to say her name before succumbing to her injuries. She had a bruise on the back of her head, her left leg being severed up to the knee, and had  been robbed of all her money. There were two theories surrounding her death: that she had been murdered because of jealousy or that the drunken McDonald, allegedly accompanied by somebody, had met her end by an incoming train. Neither theory could be backed up by evidence, especially the latter, as conductors and motormen questioned around the city did not recall a woman resembling McDonald boarding a street car. Soon following her death, the case was quickly forgotten. Louise Mueller. On October 2, Louise Mueller's body was discovered in a clump of weeds in the district's lovers' lane. Mueller  had two deep wounds extending down to her face, and the base of her skull had been fractured. According to several witnesses, Mueller, who had had multiple partners, had planned to visit her lover Frank Eastman. She had been observed listening to a Socialist orator's speech near her home and not far from the lovers' lane. Initially, it was also thought that she had been struck by a train, but it was later changed to possible homicide. There were no strong suspects in the killing, as Mueller had no known enemies and had been on good terms with her  several lovers. Alma Steinigewig. On November 3, the body of 18-year-old Alma Steinigewig, a highly-respected telephone operator who also sang in her local Episcopal Church choir, was found in a vacant lot at the Spring Grove Cemetery, near Winton Place, by a street car conductor. Steinigewig's head had been bashed in with a club, her eyes wide open, some teeth missing, and her face was in a pool of blood. In her hand, she held a transfer ticket. A bloody trail indicated that her corpse had been dragged into the open field, apparently by a large  man, as noted by the footprints left behind, which were from heavy boots. The day before, Steinigewig left her office and was telephoned by her boyfriend, who offered to pick her up. However, Steinigewig replied that she had been to a dance and was tired, simply wanting to return home and lay down in bed. She was observed boarding the street car with a man, as told by conductor Frank Limie, who he claimed often rode alongside her. It is suspected that she had been attacked while waiting for another car at Winton and was clubbed from behind, not having  enough time to react. Assaults. During his initial 1904 murder spree, the killer also unsuccessfully attacked several other women, who later gave descriptions of their attacker. After failing multiple times to kill another victim, the killer ceased activity for six years. The cases are the following: Anna Lloyd. On New Year's Eve, 1909, the body of the 36-year-old secretary for the Wilborgh-Hanna Lumber Co. was found near the railroad tracks in Cumminsville. Her mouth had been gagged, her throat cut, and her face beaten and bloodied, in the same way as the previous victims. According to  police, within twenty minutes of leaving her workplace alone for the first time, Lloyd was waiting for a trolley car near the Spring Grove Cemetery when she was attacked. The assailant dragged her to a suitable spot, and after a great struggle with the physically strong Lloyd, the man managed to kill her, possibly with a meat cleaver used in butcher shops. The following day, her body was found, either by two boys or by a male passer-by, who quickly contacted the police. Policemen later found Lloyd's satchel a mile away from the crime scene, with all the  money gone. Emma Lloyd, her mother, was reported as very ill from the ordeal, while her husband, Edward Tague, insisted that police do better work in finding the culprit(s). The tensions around the murder got so high, that for some time authorities believed that there would be a race war. As a response, the city council of Cincinnati announced a reward of $2,500, and members of the Lumber Company issued a reward of $5,000. Mary Hackney. On October 26, 1910, the body of the 26-year-old Hackney, who had moved to the city with her husband Harley  in 1906 from Louisville, Kentucky, was found in her Canal Ridge boarding house home by her spouse and one of the boarders, Charles Eckert. Her throat had been cut from ear to ear, her skull crushed, with her body and face slashed in several places, apparently with an axe. A search of the home revealed no other crime had been committed. Despite the killer leaving behind the bloodied axe, as well as a bloody thumb mark on the door casing, police were unable to determine whose they were. In a last ditch effort, authorities drained a nearby canal in hope  of possibly finding more evidence, but nothing turned up from this action. Suspects. According to all the women who survived the attacks, the Cumminsville Killer wore a dark slouch hat and was short and heavily-built. However, the victims were unsure when it came to his race, as some claimed it was a white man, while others thought it was a black man. On January 13, the police received a letter, in which the writer claimed to have witnessed Lloyd's murder and her killer. Police tried to contact the author, only listed as "S. D. M.", only to later  learn that the claim was just a sick hoax. Dayton Strangler. At the time of Lloyd's murder, detectives made an effort to connect her murder to a similar series of killings, which occurred in the city of Dayton. Spanning from 1901 to 1909, five women were murdered in a manner reminiscent of the Cumminsville murders, and the fact that that killer also wasn't apprehended, led some to believe that the two murderers were the same person. Although a mentally unstable vendor named David Curtis confessed to the Dayton killings, nobody was arrested, and these murders also remain unsolved . Unnamed black man. Several days after Lloyd's murder, a crazed black man, brandishing a bloody knife and shrieking, appeared on the door of David Taliaferro's home in Ford, Kentucky. The man screamed out that he had killed Anna Lloyd, and then ran off into the direction of Richmond. Frightened, Taliaferro phoned the authorities, with Sheriff Reed and a posse of men organizing to hunt the man down with a pack of bloodhounds. However, it is unclear what happened after. Richard Finley. Shortly after the trio suspected of Hackney's murder were all released, police announced that they had  arrested a 48-year-old black man named Richard Finley, who lived close to the Hackney home. He was placed under a charge "held pending investigation", but since no records of any other news exist about him, it is assumed he was released for lack of evidence.