Dark La Crosse Stories

What happens when archival records leave out crucial histories of those who persecuted by the writers of history? 

In this episode of Dark La Crosse Stories, listen to the account of the persecution and forced movement of Indigenous people -- the Ho-Chunk peoples -- as told by a citizen of the Ho-Chunk nation. 

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A notorious criminal ends up in the La Crosse County jail in 1913 after a drunken night out. The man was known for kidnapping high profile individuals and holding them for ransom, long before kidnapping was a common crime.

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Did the end of World War II usher in a crime wave in the United States? In La Crosse County, men and women defended their property and livelihoods against "homegrown Hitlers" in the latest installment of the Dark La Crosse series. 

What post-war societal problems contributed to the turn to crime? Find out in episode 55, "Homefront Hero."  

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When one of Minnesota's oldest weekly papers takes a shift towards the sensational, a community becomes divided, with reputations at stake. Some lives are changed forever. 

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The echoes of what sounded like a bombardment along the Mississippi River south of La Crosse in the fall of 1902 was a desperate attempt to retrieve the bodies of a well-known La Crosse business owner and his grandson.

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A second chance at love seemed promising for Mrs. Hope McEldowney of West
Salem, a widow of 44 years of age in 1913. McEldowney met a clairvoyant on one of her jaunts to Chicago who operated a bookstore on upscale Michigan Avenue with
occult rooms in the back. She became a regular client, and the two became more than just friends.

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A hardworking brother, born the 11th son of a farming family, noted for his good character and straightforward life by family and neighbors alike, a man whose final act appeared to be reading the Bible in the kitchen by the fire. Or a desperate, demented man, prone to drinking and violent acts, his sudden fits of fury made even more menacing by the fact that he couldn’t speak above a whisper.

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A lot of rumors swirled around the "celebrated recluse" of La Crosse, Mary Ann Parker — but was there any truth that she murdered her husband?

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Mary Ann Parker was a strange woman who had been holed up in her house ever since her husband died. Were the rumors true about her?

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You may visit this now family-friendly block to get ice cream and sweets, but it has a sordid history in La Crosse.

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