The upscale Highland Park neighborhood in Saint Paul in the late 1940s was a fun place to grow up in. But there was a dark side to the area as well. A trio of gruesome murders of young women happened in a fifteen month period, which shocked the respectable community. The most memorable for the author was the 1948 murder of seventeen-year-old Geraldine Mingo.

My guest, David Butwin, shares childhood stories from his memoir, "A Minnesota Kid: In Search of Heroes and Ghosts". Information about his book can be found at his website here: https://www.davidbutwin.com/

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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".

More about the author at her website: https://deborahfrethem.com/#

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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.

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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 investigation, trial, and eventual execution of Tim and Pete Barrett.

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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: John Bachich and the Twilight Years of Old Minneapolis". With the help of John Bacich's memories and photographs, he documents and shares the fascinating history of this bygone era of Minneapolis.

More about the author here: https://jamesshiffer.com/

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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 detail. The product of his hard work is the book "Stolen From the Garden: The Kidnapping of Virginia Piper".

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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.

More about the author here: https://jerrykuntz.org/

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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.

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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. 

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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 more sinister happened to the boys.

Jack also talks about a new podcast set to debut at the end of 2019 that explores the story in further detail.

The author's website: https://www.el-hai.com/

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