Al Capone, Eliot Ness, and Cleveland’s Torso Murderer
In 1934, a man collecting driftwood along the Lake Erie shore found a human torso on the beach. No one could figure out what had happened. Over the next several years, more bodies were discovered. Eventually, a coroner assembled something he called the “Torso Clinic” to work on the case. It was made up of about 30 people – doctors, professors, police officers, and a young Prohibition agent named Eliot Ness.
Daniel Stashower’s book is American Demon: Eliot Ness and The Hunt for America’s Jack the Ripper.
I learned a lot from this episode about both sides as they struggled with difficult decisions.
Author Evan Thomas tells the story of American leaders wrestling with the terrifying dilemmas of nuclear weapons and of determined Japanese leaders confronting the humiliating prospect of defeat. His book is Road to Surrender: Three Men and the Countdown to the End of World War II.
The Whistleblower Who Changed History
There have been several podcasts commemorating the death of one of the most famous whistleblowers in our history, Daniel Ellsberg who leaked the so-called Pentagon Papers. Do you even know what those were?
On this week’s On the Media, hear about his life, how the Pentagon Papers made it to print, and the impact he had on generations of whistleblowers. Plus, the women who covered the War in Vietnam.
The Naked Scientists give a very brief history of HIV and then examine a possible breakthrough in a vaccine to combat it.