Member-only story
Age Doesn’t Seem to Matter to Savage Killers
Continuing the Western Pennsylvania Mutilation Murders Series, we look into two cases of children killed by the river.
Tuesday evening, July 11, 1923, would mark a new era of crime in the nearly peaceful area. While most people are bothered by the death of anyone, it turns into something more sinister when it’s a child.
C.C. Whiteside was the manager at a stone quarry near Rock Point, on the Beaver River just south of Wampum. That evening, he was with his son on the Beaver River’s shore when they spotted something white near the roots of a tree on the river bank. Using a boat oar, Whiteside tried to move the object. It turned out to be a small human torso.
A medical examination would determine it was the torso of a small girl, around the age of 6 years old. The head, arms, and legs were missing.
The last flesh still clinging to the back of the ribs fell off when Whiteside moved it with the oar. The flesh easily falling off helped determine that the body had been submerged for quite some time.
An inquiry was made for all missing female children in the greater area for the past year, but there were no reports found. The search was broadened to include the possibility that the body had traveled down the Mahoning River from Youngstown, Ohio, or the Shenango River from…
