Mystery and mayhem

Donna Cornett is happily married. She has a good job as a nurse. And she has a lovely daughter.

But she still loves to indulge in a good old-fashioned killing spree.

On a steamy July evening, the Cleveland resident was one of 50 or so murder-and-mayhem mavens to tour the area's most notorious crime scenes on board the good bus Homicide Cleveland Style.

Every Friday, the five-hour guided bus tour revisits the stabbings, shootings and burnings that made Cleveland crime history.

There's the man who was buried in Cleveland City Hall. The East Ohio Gas Co. fire that took an entire neighborhood. The car bombing that claimed one of Cleveland's most colorful mobsters.

Ah, yes, there's even dinner at the final stop. It's followed by a slide show and lecture by a wily detective who methodically explains all sorts of grisly, graphic details human dismemberment, the patterns of blood trickles, the mania behind 28 stab wounds.

Some might find that a bit, uh, unappetizing, especially after a hearty chicken-breast dinner.

Not Cornett.

In between nibbles on a tasty French pastry, she feasted on the story of the woman who killed, cut up and stuffed her husband in a box. Absolutely delicious.

"I just love stories about female killers," says Cornett. "I even came dressed as one."

Cornett looked like an elegant dame, dressed in a blood-red feather boa, a slinky, long dress and a flapper-style hat. Then she pointed to the dead giveaway.

"Look at my name tag," she says. "Eva Kaber."

In the annals of local lore, no woman hath more fury.

In 1919, Kaber had her invalid husband, Dan, murdered in their Lake Avenue mansion. She paid a couple of thugs to stab him 24 times while she was conveniently away.

But it isn't like Eva didn't try to do it herself. For months, she fed him arsenic sadistically turning the once mobile, successful businessman into a bed-ridden wreck.

At the time, the Kaber murder mystery animated the city. Two years later, it was finally pinned on Eva and her familial accomplices her daughter by her first marriage and her mother.

"It was the first time that three generations of one family were implicated in the same murder," says Chuck Gove, owner and operator of Haunted Cleveland TM. "That's why we included it on the tour."

But that isn't why the Kaber caper continues to fascinate Clevelanders, says author John Stark Bellamy.

"She was a ball of demonic fury," says Bellamy. "She's the kind of villain that's so ruthless, she seems like something out of an opera."

When it comes to a dripping murder opus, Bellamy has a pen that bleeds. The Cleveland-based author has written numerous books on local murder and mayhem, including "They Died Crawling," which documents the Kaber crime.

"What makes for a compelling murder story?" asks Bellamy. "The same elements, whether it's the O.J. case or a murder from 150 years ago.

"The killer has to have a personality," he says. "And it always helps if they're good- looking, wealthy and successful."

Sounds like the Sam Sheppard case all over again.

The 1954 murder of Marilyn Sheppard remains the most infamous of local crime stories. And not just because of the brutal killing of the Bay Village woman.

"It has that age-old mixture of squalidness and class," says Bellamy. "But there are also the trials, the Roman circus, even things like The Fugitive,' which kept the story going."

The Sheppard case didn't make the cut on Homicide Cleveland Style. Neither did the infamous Torso Murders.

"Both are so involved that they might merit their own tours down the road," says Gove. "Especially the torso murders."

Cleveland's most famous serial killer didn't go on a tour; he went on a rampage. Between September 1935 and August 1938, the bodies of seven men and women were discovered in or near the Kingsbury Run area, a shantytown on a creek bed running from East 90th Street and Kinsman to the Cuyahoga River.

Most of the victims, who were either homeless or transients, were dismembered. All were decapitated their bodies mutilated with such precision that the murders had to be the work of someone familiar with human anatomy.

The Jack the Ripper of Cleveland was never found, stifling the otherwise successful career of crime-buster Eliot Ness. An end to the nightmare came only when Ness, serving as Cleveland's safety director, ordered the razing of Kingsbury Run.

That doesn't mean there aren't any remnants of the case on display. The Cleveland Police Museum features an exhibition that includes photos, postcards sent by the killer, even a bust of one of the victims.

"The problem is the victims were largely anonymous," says Bellamy. "They were homeless people no one could even identify."

Or, years later, identify with.

"For a crime to really resonate, you have to have a killer," says Bellamy. "In some strange way, people relate to the killer.

"The rest of the world might get irritated but ultimately tolerates a tyrannical boss or nagging spouse," adds Bellamy. "But the criminal responds by taking extreme measures."

That's what Donna Cornett finds empowering about Eva Kaber so much so that she took her adult daughter, Heather, on the murder tour. Heather came dressed like Eva's murderous daughter.

"I'm more interested in serial killers, though," says Heather Cornett. "I like to know what makes them tick."

"That's where we differ; I prefer crimes of passion," says Donna Cornett, imitating a knife-wielding killer, a la "Psycho." "You know, killing a loved one in an act of rage."

So, what does her husband think of this passion?

"Oh, he doesn't mind," says Cornett, with a devious snicker. "He knows it's just fun."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:

jpetkovic@plaind.com, 216-999-4556

PREVIEW: Cleveland Police Museum

What: A museum dedicated to notorious Cleveland crimes.

Where: The Justice Center, 1300 Ontario St., Cleveland.

When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

How: Free. Call 216-623-5055.

PREVIEW: Homicide Cleveland Style

What: A five-hour bus tour that visits crime scenes. The tour concludes with a dinner and slide-show presentation on forensic evidence.

Where: It takes off from the West Side Market parking lot, West 25th Street and Lorain Avenue, Cleveland. It concludes at the West Side Market Cafe.

When: 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. (approximately).

How: $50 per person. Call 216-251-0406.

© 2004 The Plain Dealer. Used with permission.