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"Homicide: Cleveland
Style" Bus Tour
Various spots around
Cleveland
Selected Fridays through
September 2004
Call (216) 251-0406 for
info and reservations
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Homicide: Cleveland Style tour guides
Chuck and Buddy |
I’m not usually big on touristy stuff, but a guided
tour of Cleveland’s true crime past was something I couldn’t pass up. Of
course my wife, Dead Ohio webmistress Stephanie Lane, was up for it as
well. So we showed up at the West Side Market parking lot around 5:30 to
wait for the bus. Tour guide Chuck Gove was already there, dressed in
thirties period garb, along with co-guide Buddy. Traffic delays due to the
Children’s Games and the presence of “W” in our fair town cause a few people
to be late. We waited for the stragglers, and got underway about a half
hour later than scheduled.
Our first stop was City Hall, where the body of murder
victim named Robert Mercer was disposed of in a sub basement in 1913. At
this and a few other stops in the downtown area, our guides filled us in on
all the grisly and fascinating details of crimes from Cleveland’s past.
Then it was off to the site of the East Ohio Gas Company explosion of 1944.
Not really a “crime” in the usual sense, but still a fascinating tale. We
were able to get off the bus and stretch our legs in the park where the gas
tanks once stood. When we got back on the bus, we headed back towards the
west side of town. It was about a 15 minute ride to the next stop, but we
were treated to a short documentary about the gas company explosion while in
transit.
Once on the west side, we made a couple more stops at
sites of murder and mayhem, including the one time home of Dan Graber.
Graber was a fairly wealthy guy who suffered paralysis from the neck down.
His wife, apparently growing impatient for her husband to die and leave her
his cash, decided to speed things along. The story gets much more
complicated than that, if you want to know all the details, you can take the
tour yourself.
After the tour itself was over, we went to the West
Side Market Café for a dinner of chicken paprikash. After eating, we were
treated to a slide show of crime scene and forensic photos narrated by
Buddy, an ex homicide officer. This part of the tour was definitely not for
those with weak stomachs. However, Buddy used the gruesome photos to
explain the ways police work towards solving crimes. If you can handle it,
it’s definitely educational.
All in all, the tour lasted about 5 ½ to 6 hours. I
was kind of surprised that none of the stops involved the infamous Kingsbury
Run “Torso” murders, but some of the lesser known cases covered were just as
interesting. If you’re a true crime or Cleveland history buff, you
definitely should check this out. The tour runs every Friday through
September. Admission is $45 per person. Call (216) 251-0406 to
make your reservations. Starting in late September and running through
October, the focus of the tour will switch to area ghost stories. (Bob
Ignizio)
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