Book description
In this newly revised and expanded third edition of “Corroborating
Evidence,” William Rasmussen, author of three previous true-crime books,
continues his investigation into famous, unsolved criminal cases by
focusing on two separate, unrelated stories. The first zeroes in on the
Cleveland Torso Murders committed between 1934 and 1938, where someone
killed and expertly dismembered at least twelve victims in Cleveland,
Ohio. In 1938, a letter by someone claiming to be the Torso Killer was
mailed from Los Angeles to Cleveland's Chief of Police Matowitz.
Approximately eight years later on January 7, 1946, six-year-old Suzanne
Degnan was killed and expertly dismembered in Chicago. A
seventeen-year-old by the name of William Heirens eventually pled guilty
to the Degnan murder and two other murders. In July, 1946, Elizabeth
Short (the Black Dahlia) was in Chicago “terribly preoccupied with the
details of the Degnan murder.” Less than six months later the Black
Dahlia was killed and expertly severed in Los Angeles. Was the Cleveland
Torso Killer also responsible for the murders of Suzanne Degnan and the
Black Dahlia? “If so, then is William Heirens wrongly incarcerated for
crimes he did not commit?” the author asks. “I think he was.” The second
investigation turns the spotlight on the Zodiac Killer, who was
responsible for at least six murders in California between 1966 and
1969. On October 30, 1966, eighteen-year-old Cheri Jo Bates was brutally
murdered in Riverside, California. On December 20, 1968,
sixteen-year-old Betty Lou Jensen and seventeen-year-old David Arthur
Faraday were killed near Vallejo, north of San Francisco. Someone who
identified himself as the “Zodiac” claimed to be the killer. He sent
taunting letters, notes, greeting cards, codes, secret messages and
hidden clues to newspapers and the police, and the killings continued.
To this day the identity and location of the Zodiac remain unknown. The
author says, “I think there is a high probability that the Zodiac is
still alive and currently incarcerated for some other crime.” In this
edition Rasmussen presents further evidence that may link the Zodiac
Killer to other famous unsolved murders. The fascinating and highly
documented information contained in this new illustrated third edition
of the book could well be a significant development in the Zodiac case
as well as the Torso Murders of the 1930s. WILLIAM T. RASMUSSEN,
attorney at law, was born and raised in northern Michigan. He graduated
from Central Michigan University and the Detroit College of Law. After
graduating from law school, he attended George Washington University in
Washington, DC.
