Silas Jayne

popular name: Bobby Franks

date_of_death: May 21, 1924

age: 14

cause_of_death: Homicide - beaten and asphyxiated

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Bobby Franks was the son of the very wealthy Chicago real estate speculator and developer Jacob Franks. On May 22, 1924, the body of 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks was found murdered on Chicago’s South Side. The murder would launch the infamous Leopold and Loeb trial. The criminal trial that followed — “the trial of the century” — would go on to captivate the nation and catapult defense attorney Clarence Darrow to fame.

popular name: Charles Lawson

date_of_death: December 25, 1929

age: 43

cause_of_death: Suicide by Gun

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: Charles Lawson was a North Carolina tobacco farmer born on May 10, 1886, who became infamously known for the tragic and shocking murders of his own family on Christmas Day in 1929 in Germanton, North Carolina. Lawson, reportedly a hardworking man, had recently moved his wife, Fannie, and their seven children into a new home and was thought to be relatively prosperous. Just days before the killings, he took his family to town to buy new clothes and have a formal family portrait taken—an unusual gesture that later seemed eerily significant. On December 25, 1929, Lawson brutally murdered his wife and six of their children before turning the shotgun on himself. Only his eldest son, Arthur, survived, as he had been sent into town on an errand. The motive behind the murders has remained a subject of speculation for decades, with theories ranging from financial stress and mental illness to dark rumors of incest. The case has since become a haunting part of North Carolina folklore, inspiring books, songs, and documentaries. Charles Lawson and his entire family were all laid to rest is one large grave at the Browder Family Cemetery in Germantown, North Carolina.

popular name: Dr. Francis E. Sweeney

date_of_death: July 9, 1964

age: 70

cause_of_death: Natural causes

claim_to_fame: Crime and their Victims

best_know_for: From 1935 to 1938, 12 bodies – some people say 13 - were dumped in the area known as Kingsbury Run, a creek bed that ran from East 90th Street and Kinsman Road to the Cuyahoga River. The victims included seven men and five women. Most were hobos and prostitutes, people living on the edge at a time when Cleveland was hard hit by the Great Depression. Many weren't missed for months. Then 80 years after Frank Dolezal was murdered in his prison cell as the suspected serial killer, multiple investigators have uncovered both old and new evidence that most certainly points to Dr. Francis Sweeney as the actual Cleveland Torso Murderer. Dr. Sweeney perfectly fit the profile of the Cleveland Torso Murderer and had the medical expertise required for dismembering human bodies. Alas we was never arrested as he committed himself to a mental hospital after extensive questioning by Eliot Ness, special agent assigned to the killings. He died in 1964 and was interred at Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland, OH.