Allegheny County John Does are two men who, along with another man who was identified, were found murdered in railyards in McKees Rock, Pennsylvania on May 3, 1940.
Case
The victims, along with a third man were found by P&E workers in the railyards near Pittsburgh. The first victim was found by two workers inspecting a string of boxcars. He was found nude but covered in a burlap sack and cut up into seven pieces where only the head was missing. Minutes later two other victims were found. One was found decapitated with the word "NAZI" carved into him and the other man was cut into five pieces and covered with a burlap bag. There was evidence of burning on all victims. The victim with the carving was eventually identified as a known homosexual and former convict from Wisconsin.
Between 1925-1940, nine people, eight of them unidentified, were found dead and dismembered in the swamps or around the train yards of New Castle and West Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The murders being dubbed, "the Murder Swamp Killings," have been theorized to either victims of the Mafia or the Cleveland Torso Murderer. Between 1934-1938, the Cleveland Torso Killer was responsible for at the murders of twelve to thirteen people in Cleveland, Ohio. Both towns are connected through the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad lines and the victims of both killings were dismembered similarly and had similar profiles. As of today, both series of killings, related or not, remain unsolved.
Sources
- Lawrence County Memoirs
- Cleveland Torso Murderer on Wikipedia
