Jane Ann Turzillo - Unsolved Murders & Disappearances in Northeast Ohio

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2015 by Jane Ann Turzillo

All rights reserved

Newspaper images on the cover are courtesy of www.genealogoybank.com.

First published 2015

e-book edition 2015

ISBN 978.1.62585.635.7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015952225

print edition ISBN 978.1.46711.797.5

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

In many ways, all my books belong to my grandmother

Hazel Hearns Peltier (18941978).

She, above anyone else, gave me a love of history.

I know she would be proud of me.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The best part of writing this book was doing the research and meeting the folks who ultimately gave me all the information and photographs I needed to put together Unsolved Murders & Disappearances in Northeast Ohio.

But before I thank all the fine librarians, family members, police, friends, et cetera, I want to express my gratitude to my commissioning editor, Krista Slavicek. Without her, this book would not be in print.

I would like to single out and thank Nicholas Durda, subject department clerk, Cleveland Public Library Photograph Collection, Cleveland, Ohio. I collected a large number of photographs for this book from the Cleveland Public Library, and he made the job easy.

Other great librarians, historians, records clerks, photo directors, archivists, policemen, cemetery sextons and morticians have all played a part in bringing the cases in this book back to light. This is my chance to thank every one of them: Amy, reference librarian, Carnegie Library, East Liverpool, Ohio; Kimberly Barth, director of photography and graphics, Akron Beacon Journal; Sue Clark, reference librarian, Willoughby-Eastlake Public Library, Willoughby, Ohio; Frank Digger Dawson, Dawson Funeral Home, East Liverpool, Ohio; Carl E. Feather, ashtabulawave.org, Ashtabula, Ohio; Cheri Goldner, special collections, Akron-Summit County Public Library, Akron, Ohio; Gary Guenther, Summit County Medical Examiners Office, Akron, Ohio; Tammy Hiltz, reference department, Ashtabula County District Library, Ashtabula, Ohio; Ann Johnson, Canton Police Department, Canton, Ohio; Darrin Logan, president, Licking County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 127, Newark, Ohio; Deborah Long, Louisville Public Library, Louisville, Ohio; Gale Lippucci, adult services librarian, Willowick Public Library, Willowick, Ohio; Jennifer Lusetti, Licking County Historical Society Library and Archives, Newark, Ohio; Ken Mauro, Chestnut Grove Cemetery, Ashtabula, Ohio; Kelley Nikola, Akron-Summit County Public Library, Akron, Ohio; Maureen E. Pergola, senior records management officer, Cuyahoga County Archives, Department of Public Works, Cleveland, Ohio; Barbara Rand, volunteer, Geneva Public Library, Geneva, Ohio; staff at the Stark County Sheriff s Office Records, Canton, Ohio; Sue Schmidt, reference librarian, Orrville Library, Orrville, Ohio; Sergeant Al Shaffer, Newark Division of Police, Newark, Ohio; Shannon, records clerk, Lake County Clerk of Courts, Painesville, Ohio; and Kristine Williams, adult services librarian, Licking County Library, Newark, Ohio.

I owe a huge thanks to Linda Boyd, Roger Drake and Kermit Drake Jr. for sharing recollections with me of their sister, Anita, who has been missing since 1963.

Likewise, I want to thank James Chandler and Debi Chandler Heppe for photos and the information on the death of their grandfather.

Thanks Jennifer Popovsky, MD, for explaining medical terms on the autopsies.

The encouragement and support from my writer friends Wendy Koile, Irv Korman and Rob Sberna has meant a great deal to me. My Northeast Ohio Sisters in Crime group, especially Casey Daniels, has provided inspiration and information.

Two of the most important people in my writing career are my mentors: my sister, Mary Turzillo, and my friend Marilyn Seguin, both retired Kent State University English professors and fine authors themselves. They have stuck with me as my beta readers through six books.

I do not want to forget those period journalists whose bylines did not appear above the stories they wrote. All of us who write about history owe them a thank you.

Lastly, I want to thank my son, John-Paul Paxton, and grandsons, Nicholas and Nathan, for believing in me and being the best family an author could ask for.

INTRODUCTION

Murders were infrequent when I was a police reporter for weekly newspapers in the late 70s and early 80s, so when one did happen, it consumed a good amount of my time and gave me a large number of column inches on the front page.

One of those murders was a complicated web of betrayal and jealousy. It ended in the arrest of eleven people, including the victims brother, an attorney, a has-been exotic dancer and a couple of two-bit, drugged-up hoods from across the country. Needless to say, the detective work on that one is legendary.

Another murder that sticks out in my mind was that of the Millionaire Deputy, a nickname he inherited along with somewhere north of $1 million. He was shot nine times with a .22-caliber rifle from across the street while getting out of the car in his garage. It was such a baffling crime that one of the best detectives in Summit County could not bring the perpetrator to justice.

During this period, I wrote a routine three- or four-sentence paragraph for the police beat about a young Jeffrey Dahmers first arrest for being drunk and disorderly. He had already committed at least one murder, but nobody knew about it.

But the one that hit closest to home was that of a man I had known most of my life. He was a nationally known foundations expert and well-regarded soils engineer. He was the executive vice-president of my fathers contracting company. In November 1980, someone stabbed this educated, kind man to death in his Lakewood apartment. To this day, his murder is unsolved.

Murders and disappearances dig holes in the hearts of those family members and friends who are left behind to sort things out. A number of these losses never see closure even though police do their best to follow leads.

As time goes on, new cases come to the forefront and the old ones get pushed aside. They become nothing more than forgotten papers in dusty attic or basement record rooms. Maybe they have been preserved on hard-to-read microfilm.

The ten cases here are all that old. Luckily, the newspapers blasted headlines, copy and photos of the eight deaths and one of the disappearances on the front pages of Northeast Ohio newspapers. Sadly, one disappearance in these pages never saw ink at the time. Her name is Anita Drake.

Harry Beasley is remembered with photos and medals in a glass case in the lobby of the police department where he was an officer. Even his file is missing.