Francis E Sweeney's Murder Case Study

If you are a citizen living in the United States and you were murdered, there is a 1 in 3 chance that the police will not identify your killer. The clearance rate for homicide today is 64.1% while fifty years ago it was above 90% according to National Public Radio. In the town of Cleveland,

A unidentified serial killer murdered and dismembered between 12-20 people. Nobody knows what the murderer’s motives were or why these murders were committed. The primary suspects in this case are Frank Dolezal and Dr. Francis E Sweeney. Frank was a 52 year old man who had a temper problem and was a suspect in the murder of Florence Polillo. Frank later died in police custody under suspicious circumstances. While he was in custody he admitted to killing Florence in self defense. Dr. Francis E Sweeney was a retired World War I veteran surgeon who had

During the investigation of the murders the police department of Cleveland couldn’t find a solid trace on the suspect who committed the murders. So in order to speed up the process of the case Sheriff O’Donnell pinned the entire case on Frank Dolezal. The entire town and some of O’Donnell’s co workers believed Frank was Innocent and was being wrongfully treated. O’Donnell then proceeded to beat answers out of Frank in order to get a “confession” out of him which Frank later recanted his confession saying he was beaten until he confessed. Seeing as how Sweeney was a professional war surgeon gave him an advantage in the category of cutting limbs off bodies over Frank. One reason to prove that Sheriff O’Donnell beat Frank in order to make him confess is by the autopsy that was done on Frank’s body. The autopsy showed that Frank had 6 broken ribs