Draft:Cleveland Police Museum

• Comment: Needs more sources other than the museum website. BuySomeApples (talk) 18:13, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

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Poster of the Cleveland Torso Murder killing spree that terrorized Cleveland from 1935 to 1938.

Patrolman William M. Tucker, #45: Cleveland’s First Black Police Officer

This is a map in the Torso Murder exhibit that shows the location that each victim was found during the Torso Murder killing spree that happened from 1935 to 1938 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Picture of Eliot Ness in an exhibit at the Cleveland Police Museum. Elliot Ness was the Safety Director for Cleveland from 1934 to 1942 and instrumental in making the city a safer place to live.

The Cleveland Police Historical Society and Museum is located inside the ground floor of the Justice Center Complex, located at 1300 Ontario Street, Cleveland, OH, 44113. The museum exists to collect and preserve the police history of the city of Cleveland and to use its collection and programs to educate the public and foster mutual understanding and respect between law enforcement and the local public.

The concept of the Museum was inspired by a visit to Scotland Yard’s Black Museum in London, England, by Cleveland Police Detective Robert Bolton. After his visit he later convinced Chief William Hanton that Cleveland should have its own police museum. Subsequently, Detective Bolton, Chief Hanton, Deputy Chief Lloyd Patterson, and Deputy Chief Richard Kazmir incorporated The Cleveland Police Historical Society in May 1983 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

The Cleveland Police Historical Society collects, preserves and interprets artifacts, archives and photographs that cover the entire history of the Cleveland Police Department, from its earliest days in the 1800s to today. The museum today has a variety of in-person exhibits located to the public from uniform memorabilia to influential cases and officers that helped shape Cleveland into the community and city it is today. It is normally open to the public Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m, but will also provide tours by appointment request.

The museum also maintains an official website www.clevelandpolicemuseum.org. The website is a repository of a vast amount of history and articles on high crimes, notable incidents, interesting facts, and important people in Cleveland's history that ranges in topics from terrifying cases like the unsolved Cleveland torso murders, to William M. Tucker, the first black police officer for the Cleveland police department.

Some of the most prominent events in Cleveland policing history include:

• The Kingsbury Run Torso Murders. The torso murders, committed between Sept. 1935 and Aug. 1938, were believed to be serial killings. Most of the bodies were discovered in or near the Kingsbury Run area—a creek bed that ran from E. 90th St. and Kinsman Rd. SE to the Cuyahoga River. Over this time, body parts of what was thought to be 7 men and 5 women were discovered; most victims were dismembered, and all were decapitated. Most of the victims appeared to be transients or derelicts living in shantytowns on the fringes of society. The murderer was never discovered. The first 2 dismembered bodies were found together in Kingsbury Run on 23 Sept. 1935. Safety Director Eliot Ness eventually ordered the shantytowns that populated Kingsbury Run burned to the ground, which ended the torso murders.

• Eliott Ness, Cleveland Safety Director 1935-1942. Ness was hired to clean up the corruption in the city's scandal-ridden police department and to establish a safe environment in Cleveland. With his own department which provided Ness with 34 agents reporting to him, much like his “Untouchables” in Chicago, Ness was able to bring 15 officials to trial and garner the resignations of 200 police officers. As Safety Director, Ness was responsible for burning down the Kingsbury Run shantytowns during the Torso Murders investigation, ending the murderer's crime spree. He also did much to improve traffic control in Cleveland, which, at the time held the record of second-worst American city in traffic-related deaths and injuries.

• The 1966 Hough Riots when on July 18 an African American man was denied a glass of water at the white-owned Seventy-Niners Cafe at Hough Ave. and E. 79th St. The economically and racially suppressed Hough neighborhood in Cleveland exploded with protests that quickly turned to violence and rioting through the night. The police proved unable to handle the rioting and violence that ensued, and on July 19 Cleveland City Mayor Ralph Locher asked Ohio Governor James Rhodes to send in the National Guard. The National Guard arrived later that evening and into the next morning to restore order. Four people were killed in the violence, about 30 people were injured, and close to 300 people were arrested.

• the Glenville Shootout of 1968 and the Trial of Fred Ahmed Evans. The museum showcases the details on the events of local Black militants charged with inciting a full-scale gun battle between Cleveland police and Black snipers in 1968. This was the deadliest shootout in Cleveland police history in which three Cleveland police officers were killed.

• The "Bomb City" era. Danny Greene (aka the Irishman), was a major figure in Cleveland racketeering. he met his demise when a bomb hidden in a car parked next to him exploded in a parking lot at the Brainard Place office building in Lyndhurst, Ohio on October 6, 1977. Prior to his death, Greene led a crime war with the Italian Mafia in Cleveland in which explosives were the main weapon of choice. Between 1975 and 1977 there were 37 explosive devices detonated in the greater Cleveland area, with Danny Greene thought to be responsible for three out of every four of them.