Alex “Shondor” Birns, legendary arch-criminal, lived for several years at 2813 Edgehill Rd. A Hungarian émigré, Birns involved himself in rackets, prostitution, theft, assault, and murder from the days of Prohibition until his death. In the spring of 1975, Birns was released from a short stay in jail and announced that he was going to go straight, but he was killed by a bomb planted in his automobile. No one was arrested for his murder. (Source: The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History.)

Widow Saito Clemens resided at 13314 Cedar Rd., where she was fatally stabbed and strangled on January 18, 1979. Her killer, Jerome Hollins, eventually implicated himself in the murder by his over-eager attempts to collect the reward offered in her slaying.

For many years, the Symthe Cramer real estate office at 12435 Cedar Rd. housed a Miller Drug store outlet. It was behind that store that Cleveland Heights Police Captain Edward B. Connelly was shot to death on September 2, 1920. It is probable that Connelly was shot by a suspected burglar, although it may have been an accidental shooting by a fellow police officer.

On February 20, 1948, burglar Barney Davis fatally shot Cleveland Heights Police officer Norman C. Reker during a robbery at 2580 Colchester Rd. Davis was sentenced to the electric chair for the slaying. This was the most recent murder of a Cleveland Heights policeman.

Peter (“Pete”) DiGravio, loanshark gangster, was mysteriously assassinated from ambush while playing golf at the Orchard Hills golf course on June 21, 1968. At the time he lived at 2589 Norfolk Rd.

Dorothy Dolin, wife of bookie Louis Dolin was brutally and mysteriously murdered in her home at 3602 Grosvenor Rd.

Jean Harris, well-known headmistress of an exclusive east coast girls’ school—until she became even better known as the murderer of Scarsdale Diet Doctor Herman Tarnower—lived at 2237 Demington Drive. As unique as her life was, her explanation of why she killed the doctor was even more unusual: She claimed that the gun accidentally went off while she was trying to persuade him to kill her!

Mary Jardine, mother, divorcee, and murder victim resided at 2276 Grandview Avenue. On the night of May 16, 1959, Jardine went out drinking with Mr. Goodbar, who turned out to be Cecil Hanner, the night manager of the Toddle House restaurant at the corner of Delaware Drive. and Cedar. Sometime later that night Hanner strangled Jardine and dumped her body out in Hunting Valley. The corpse—and Hanner’s telltale tire tracks—were discovered by an early-morning horseback rider. Hanner was convicted of her murder and incarcerated.

Owen Kilbane lived at 12920 Cedar Rd. from the 1970s until he was imprisoned for life for his participation in the murder-for-hire killing of Euclid Judge Robert Steele’s wife Marilyn in 1969.

John F. Kennedy High School Latin/English teacher William A. Molik, Jr., lived at 3623 Monticello, where he was stabbed to death on August 4, 1983.

Joseph Porello, prohibition liquor gangster, who was murdered at Mayfield and East 125th St. on July 5, 1930, resided at 2862 Berkshire Rd.

On August 5, 1910, prominent lawyer William Lowe Rice was shot, stabbed and bludgeoned to death by a person or persons unknown at 2419 Euclid Blvd., the current site of the English Lutheran Church. At the time, the site was a vacant lot. The crime remains unsolved.

2612 Mayfield Rd. was the childhood home of Richard N. Robbins, who later was convicted for the racially motivated killing of folk singer Tedd Browne in 1968, as well as for the 1969 murder-for-hire of Euclid Judge Robert Steele’s wife Marilyn.

Dr. Sam Shepard, Bay Village’s not-so-favorite son, spent his boyhood at 3062 Euclid Heights Blvd. As most of us know, he was convicted of murdering his wife Marilyn in the early 1950s. The verdict later was overturned. After leaving prison, Dr. Sam became a professional wrestler—not a common or prestigious profession for ex-physicians. He died of liver failure in 1970.

On October 31, 1973, Arthur Snepberger attempted to plant a bomb in Michael Frato’s car, parked at 2780 Mayfield Rd., the current site of a Dairy Mart convenience store. On this site while Frato drank at a nearby tavern, someone blundered: The bomb went off prematurely while Snepberger was still under the hood. Several theories have been advanced to account for Snepberger’s demise. One is that he was simply careless, and the bomb exploded before it was supposed to. Another theory is that Snepberger, not Frato, was the target, and that he was set up for the premature blast. The likeliest possibility, however, is that the bomb, designed to be triggered by a radio-control device, was set off by a device in the neighborhood using the same frequency: perhaps a garage door opener, a low-flying plane, or even some item of police equipment.