In this episode co-producer Jeremy Fugleberg interviews the creator and host of Dakota Spotlight James Wolner Jeremy talks to James about Dakota Spotlight, true-crime, storytelling, a bit about his life and his favorite music and more.

Dakota Spotlight is available on all podcast streaming platforms. https://www.inforum.com/podcasts/dakota-spotlight-podcast

It’s become the stuff of legend - a tale of three men, taking on a seemingly insurmountable task. Breaking out of the unbreakable, chiseling, climbing, swimming and just surviving their way into folk history. And now, North Dakota has become part of the narrative.

The community of Glyndon, Minnesota was in shock Christmas morning 1947 when a father shot and killed one daughter and wounded another, before turning the gun on himself.  After the deaths (and the hospitalization of little Betty Lou Hanson) the community rallied to help the family. The story attracted national attention and Betty Lou even got a postcard from one of the biggest movie stars of the day.

Reporter: Tracy Briggs 

https://www.inforum.com/news/the-vault

A look back at the devastating Tropics Nightclub arson fire of April 2000, started by co-owner John Michael Maurer. He first tried to blame the fire on an intruder but later admitted setting it to cover his financial problems. While no one was seriously hurt, the fire created months, even years of hardship for the businesses affected. The gap on Broadway created by the fire, between Fort Noks bar and Juice It, remains. This story will be told primarily through two Fargo firefighters who were almost hit by a two-ton boiler that fell through the second floor into the basement.

Reporter: Robin Huebner 

https://www.inforum.com/news/the-vault/death-almost-came-for-fargo-firefighters-battling-downtown-arson-22-years-ago

On a cold November morning, a 53-year-old woman and her 7-year-old granddaughter would be found brutally murdered at a motel in Dickinson — the crime so gruesome and heinous that it would garner national media and law enforcement attention, before going cold for a decade.

Read the full article: https://www.inforum.com/the-taxi-driver-murders-how-dickinson-police-never-gave-up-on-and-solved-a-cold-case-a-decade-later

Written by: James Miller

Narrated by: Paula Quam

On June 7, 2007, Minot State University student Anita Knutson was found stabbed to death in her off-campus apartment. Her body was discovered by her father and two apartment maintenance workers.

For nearly fifteen years, family members and friends of Anita Knutson have lived with an aching grief, intensified by a lack of answers regarding what happened to the then-18-year-old in her final hours and minutes.

Full article: https://www.inforum.com/news/the-vault/horrific-murder-of-north-dakota-college-student-remains-unsolved-as-family-waits-for-new-evidence

On the night of Friday the 13th in November 1987, deer hunters were gearing up for the opening weekend, a fire burned in a swamp on the edge of town, an unremarkable brown car was stolen and the employee of the month at the local Hardee's vanished without a trace.

Those events are either coincidental, or the keys to solving a now 34-year mystery that has yielded many theories and tips, but no answers.

Despite countless leads, sightings, psychic visions and rumors, Carla Beth Anderson, who became the subject of an intensive search in the Wadena, Minnesota, area, has never been found. Local authorities, though several generations have now held the case in their hands, continue to say the case is at the forefront of their minds.

Written by: Michael Johnson

Narrated by: Paula Quam

https://www.inforum.com/just-named-employee-of-the-month-wadena-minnesota-23-year-old-was-never-seen-again

On Monday, May 27, 1935, three armed men entered the bank, looking to relieve it of cash and then make their escape in the V8 Ford car that was running and waiting in the street just outside the building. The getaway driver was behind the wheel and ready to haul himself and his co-conspirators to safety.

But it didn’t go exactly as planned. The relative inexperience of the four men combined with a subtle ruse put on by the bank employees kept the robbers from making off with much cash. But during those few minutes as they grabbed as much money as they could, the robbery would escalate to a kidnapping and high-speed chase that reached speeds of over 80 mph.

Written by Erik Kaufman

Narrated by Paula Quam

Full article: https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/the-vault/7301349-Kidnapping-community-shock-marked-1935-Freeman-South-Dakota-bank-robbery

In 1885, the wife and young child of a wealthy Baptist minister were found murdered in their farmhouse in Inkster, N.D. After a twisting legal case, George Miller was hung for the crime about nine months later.

https://www.grandforksherald.com/the-vault/7260537-Grand-Forks-County-ax-murderer-became-Dakota-Territorys-first-legal-execution-in-1885

After being back-stabbed, Moorhead's 'Beer Baron' unleashed a weird crime in Sabin, and gangster life in town would never be the same. No one can quite figure out why the kingpin of the Minnesota town's illegal liquor business would mastermind a bank robbery, then try to attract the attention of the police on the way out of town. No matter why he did it, Jake Schumacher helped put the nail in the coffin of gangster life in Moorhead.

Reporter: Tracy Briggs 

www.inforum.com/the-vault