I'm getting more into old timey true crime. The Man from the Train is another book I've read about an early 20th century serial killer. American Demon struck me with how modern police investigation had become by the 1930's, occurring just 20 years after The Man from the Train. The pre- and post- WWI divide is wide. Finger printing, chemical analysis, psychosexual profiling, and even lie detectors were used in this case.

The story is told through the lens of the career of Eliot Ness of The Untouchables fame, focused mostly on the period of his life when he was Cleveland's public safety director. Approaching the Torso Murderer case in this light was a great decision on the author's part, because the "resolution" only makes sense if you understand the niche political setting of Depression-era Cleveland (it's more interesting than it appears at first glance). Although I am usually more interested in the other side of the coin (ie, a profile of the killer), Eliot Ness proved to be enough of a complicated, enigmatic figure to hold my interest.