Badal, a journalism professor and board member of the Cleveland Police Historical Society, approaches the cold case with the rigor of a modern forensic investigator. He utilizes a wealth of archival materials to reconstruct the events:
In the late 1930s, Cleveland was gripped by terror as a serial killer, often called the "Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run," left a trail of dismembered bodies across the city. Amidst immense public and political pressure to solve the case, sheriff’s investigators arrested Frank Dolezal, a 52-year-old Slavic immigrant. Though Murder Has No Tongue (James Jessen Bada…
: Contributions from contemporary forensic anthropologists and medical examiners to re-evaluate autopsy and archival photographs. Badal, a journalism professor and board member of
: Exploration of how the high-profile failure to catch the real killer tarnished the reputation of then-Safety Director Eliot Ness . Though Murder Has No Tongue : Before he could stand trial, Dolezal was
: Access to private investigator notes and police reports from the era.
: Before he could stand trial, Dolezal was found dead in his jail cell, hanging by his own belt. While officially ruled a suicide, Badal uses modern forensic analysis to challenge this conclusion, questioning if Dolezal was actually murdered to cover up police incompetence. A "CSI-Style" Historical Investigation