Minnesota's Most Notorious: Where Blood Runs Cold

On this episode, I get a little more informal than usual, as I chat with Deborah Frethem, long time tour guide at the Wabasha Street Caves (the old Castle Royale Nightclub). We swap tour guide and ghost stories, in honor of the sad, recent closing of the Caves. Deborah, along with Cynthia Schreiner Smith, are co-authors of a book called "Alvin Karpis and the Barker Gang in Minnesota".

My guest, Rob Feeney, suddenly found himself the middle of one of the most fascinating criminal investigations in Minnesota history - the theft of one of the famous pairs of Ruby Slippers, worn by Minnesota native Judy Garland in the classic film The Wizard of Oz, out of a Grand Rapids museum in 2005. Rob talks about the historical significance of the shoes, the theft itself, and shares his own experience helping investigators track them down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

In the summer of 1887, Thomas Tollefson was shot to death as he operated his mule-drawn streetcar in the Cedar Avenue-Lake Street neighborhood of Minneapolis. Police settled on two brothers as the murderers - members of a family that ran a notorious saloon nearby called The Hub of Hell. My guest is Beverly J. Porter, author of "The Hub of Hell: A True Story of a Nineteenth-Century Neighborhood, Murder, and Trial". She offers details of not only the murder itself, but the flimsy...

Before the early 1960s, when much of Minneapolis was razed to make way for ugly parking ramps and office buildings, another world existed. Decrepit 19th century buildings in an area of downtown called Skid Row housed lowbrow bars and flophouses, and a man named John "Johnny Rex" Bacich, owner of the Sourdough Bar, reigned supreme over a gaggle of brawlers, migrant workers, prostitutes and drunks. My guest is Star Tribune editor James Eli Shiffer and his book is called "The King of Skid Row:...

The F.B.I. refers to the 1972 Virginia Piper kidnapping as the most successful kidnapping in American history. In July of that year, Virginia Piper, socialite wife of Bobby Piper, the CEO of Piper, Jaffray and Hopwood, was abducted from her home, taken to Jay Cooke State Park near Duluth, and tied to a tree. The ransom demand was one million dollars. My guest, William Swanson, with help from the Piper family, has meticulously researched a case that many Minnesotans still remember in vivid...

My guest is Jerry Kuntz, author of "Minnesota's Notorious Nellie King: Wild Woman of the Closed Frontier". He tells the story of a larger-than-life and beautiful young con-artist, pretend detective, singer and cross-dresser, who lights up Twin Cities papers with her outrageous exploits. He also explains how he was able to track down her elusive past history, and discover her real identity. Become a Most Notorious patron at: www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Learn more about your ad choices....

In this second part of the 1912 Alice Matthews Murder case, a serious suspect finally emerges, a young man named Alfred Driskell, but it takes four confessions for the police to finally him seriously. And throughout his journey to convince authorities of his guilt, many questions arise as to Driskell's sanity. Become a Most Notorious patron at: www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In March of 1912, a brutal murder of a young woman just off of Cedar Avenue rocked the city of Minneapolis. In part one of this episode, I narrate the story of the initial investigation of the slaying of Alice Matthews, just feet from her front door. Become a Most Notorious patron at: www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this new episode of Minnesota's Most Notorious: Where Blood Runs Cold, I speak with author Jack El-Hai about his book, "The Lost Brothers: A Family's Decades-Long Search". In it, he explores the mysterious disappearance of three little brothers in a Minneapolis park in November of 1951. While the police would consider it a drowning, their parents, Betty and Ken Klein, would never give up looking for their sons. A recent investigation has begun into the cold case, suggesting something far...

The year 1918 goes down as probably the most horrific in Minnesota history. A flu epidemic, a world war and the deadliest fire in the state's history all hit within months of each other, and often the resulting tragedies overlapped for suffering families. My guest is Curt Brown, author of "Minnesota 1918: When Flu, Fire & War Ravaged the State". He not only shares some sad stories from this disastrous year, but uplifting ones as well. Become a Most Notorious patron at:...

While most of us know that prostitution existed in Minneapolis in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, fewer of us know where the red-light districts were, and what life would have been like for the madams and prostitutes who worked in these bordellos. My guest is Penny A. Petersen, author of Minneapolis Madams: The Lost History of Prostitution on the Riverfront. She offers a rare glimpse of a long lost and hidden history, and the struggles and successes experienced by the women who ran...

A brief look at some of the wild stories published in the Minneapolis Morning Tribune on August 4th, 1913. True Crime, tragedy and even comedy take a turn. Become a Most Notorious patron at: www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On July 14th of 1901, the remaining members of the notorious James-Younger outlaw gang, Cole and Jim Younger, were allowed to leave the gates of the Minnesota State Prison, where they had been incarcerated for twenty five years, and explore the town of Stillwater for the morning. This is an account of that little expedition, as reported by the Minneapolis Tribune. Become a Most Notorious patron at: www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Minnesota's Most Notorious's first interview in front of a live audience took place at the Warden's House Museum, downtown Stillwater, on Thursday, June 27th, 2019 at 7 pm. My guest was Gibson Stanton, site manager of the museum, which is operated by the Washington County Historical Society. She not only offered a fascinating history of Minnesota's first prison, but told stories of its most infamous inmates, Cole and Jim Younger. She also revealed some of her research into Jim Younger's...

My interview continues with Gary Brueggemann, author of "Minnesota's First Murder Mystery, The Case of Edward Phalen: St. Paul's Unsaintly Pioneer". In part two, my guest delves deeper into the death of Sergeant John Hayes, including presenting strong evidence to suggest it was his partner, the brutish Edward Phalen, who murdered him. He also offers his opinion on the Lake Calhoun name change controversy in Minneapolis. Become a Most Notorious patron at:...

My guest is teacher and historian Gary Brueggemann, author of "Minnesota's First Murder Mystery, The Case of Edward Phalen: St. Paul's Unsaintly Pioneer". In part one of this episode, he explains the strange and complicated origin of Saint Paul, and sets the scene for part two, which details the murder of John Hayes, the investigation, and eventual outcome for Edward Phalen, the prime suspect. Also in this episode, notorious river pirate and whiskey peddler Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant's...

My guest is Tim Mahoney, author of "Secret Partners: Big Tom Brown and the Barker Gang". He shares the story of the tangled relationship between mob bosses, bank-robbing gangsters, breweries and corrupt police officers in 1920s and 30s Saint Paul. Become a Most Notorious patron at: www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm tickled, on this episode of Minnesota's Most Notorious, to be joined by author, poet and nonagenarian Betty Gove. She talks about an infamous and tragic Minnesota murder, taken directly from her own family history. Josefina Olson was stabbed to death by her jealous father Ole on the eve before her wedding day in 1902 outside of Aitkin, MN. Become a Most Notorious patron at: www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My guests are Susi and Todd Adler, Fort Snelling historians who specialize in the history of the Upper Post during World War 1 and World War 2. On this episode of Minnesota's Most Notorious, they tell the story of the gruesome murder of fourteen year old Mary Jane Massey, who disappeared while walking home from the post's swimming pool on a hot summer day in 1940. Become a Most Notorious patron at: www.patreon.com/mostnotorious Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of my favorite characters from my book, Dirty Doc Ames & the Scandal That Shook Minneapolis, is "Coffee John" Fitchette. He was an incorrigible, swaggering bully who conned and cheated his way across the United States, leaving three wives, multiple children, and a legion of angry creditors in his wake. He finally settled in Minneapolis, where he would start his infamous Coffee John's Oyster Grotto on Nicollet Avenue and become fast friends with Mayor Albert Alonzo "Doc" Ames. He'd use...