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American Demon: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper
Maybe someday
29
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
6/100Critics
53/100Scholars
Author:
Daniel Stashower
Publisher:
Minotaur Books
Date:
September 6, 2022
Boston had its Strangler. California had the Zodiac Killer. And in the depths of the Great Depression, Cleveland had the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. Daniel Stashower shines a fresh light on one of the most notorious puzzles in the annals of crime, and uncovers the story of Ness's hunt for a sadistic killer who was as brilliant as he was cool and composed, a mastermind who was able to hide in plain sight.
What The Reviewers Say
The premise is a grind house fever dream.
There's no definitive solution to the murders in American Demon, but Stashower's portrait of Ness is layered and he vividly re-creates a broken system where a well greased cop often called ahead so gambling houses could tidy up before an imminent bust..
... grisly.
Stashhower, in his first section, writes about Ness’s growth as a lawman. To speak about the ones chasing the killer is usually problematic for nonfiction police procedurals. Since there is limited information about the serial killers themselves, writers tend to focus on the not-as-compelling narrative surrounding the killings. American Demon, however, is successful in making Ness an enthralling, flawed protagonist who got credit for Chicago’s infamous Al Capone’s incarceration, even though he did not have much to do with it.
