Famous Crimes Of Minnesota

Robberies, murders, kidnappings - Minnesota has been home to several notorious crimes. Some were committed by infamous lawbreakers: the James-Younger gang, John Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde and others. But not all misdeeds have been done by career criminals. Take a closer look at more than two dozen unlawful acts that rocked Minnesota and often grabbed headlines across the country.

Contains stories and rare photographs about major criminal events in Minnesota. Learn about major Minnesota cases of law and order and their surrounding events.

This treasury of vintage crime offers a vivid picture of Minnesota from the time it achieved statehood in 1858 through 1917. It also traces the gradual changes in social attitudes from the days of frontier justice to the abolishment of capital punishment in 1911.

Read 21 chilling ghost stories about reportedly true encounters with the supernatural in Minnesota. What college is “Minnesota’s most legendary haunted place?” Where did a ghost reportedly murder two victims? How has a haunted hutch predicted several people’s deaths? Minnesota is among the most haunted states in America, and this collection of ghost stories presents the creepiest, most surprising tales in the Land of 10,000 Lakes! Award-winning author Ryan Jacobson grew up in Minnesota—with a fascination for things that go bump in the night. As an adult, the professional writer spent countless hours combing the region for the strangest and scariest run-ins with the unexplained. Horror fans and history buffs will delight in these 21 terrifying tales about haunted locations. From the author's own ghostly encounter to a family terrorized by a fiendish toy, they’re based on reportedly true accounts, proving that Minnesota is the setting for some of the most compelling ghostly tales ever told. The short stories are ideal for quick reading, and they are sure to captivate anyone who enjoys a good scare. Share them with friends around a campfire, or try them alone at home—if you dare.

Stearns County in central Minnesota is well known for it's friendly people, as well as a wide variety of outdoor activities, restaurants that specialize in hearty comfort foods, and strong winds that often blow across the county from the west and south. It is also home to a relatively large number of unsolved or long-term murder cases, some of which are the most horrific and unimaginable crimes in the history of the state of Minnesota. "Cold Cases of Stearns County, Minnesota" chronicles many of those cases, beginning with the still unsolved disappearance of little Jackie Theel from the streets of Paynesville in 1944, to the seemingly solved but still open 2012 murder of Officer Tom Decker in Cold Spring, and many other cases in between. Robert M. Dudley, the author of "Finding Jacob Wetterling," chronicles a number of cases in the book: Jackie Theel, The Reker Sisters, Ivend Holen, The Huling Family Murders, Joanie Bierschbach, Myrtle Cole, Cynthia Schmidt and Ronnie Bromenschenkel, Herbert Fromelt, Joshua Guimond, and Officer Tom Decker. These cases span the careers of several Stearns County sheriffs including Art McIntee, Pete Lahr, Jim Ellering, Charlie Grafft, Jim Kostreba, and John Sanner. Most were generally well liked by constituents, but through the years some administrations saw their share of controversial moments.

This true crime history recounts more than a century of crime, deviousness, and disaster in the North Star State. In Minnesota Mayhem, local historian and author Ben Welter explores the best of the state's worst moments. Culled from the archives of the Minneapolis Tribune and its successor newspapers, these stories and photos range from the catastrophic to the chillingly curious and the simply strange. Among the true tales told in these pages, Welter recounts the career of a successful con man in 1871; an 1881 fire that destroyed the State Capitol; a flu outbreak that killed more than 10,000 Minnesotans in 1918; the arrest of Frank Lloyd Wright at a Lake Minnetonka cottage in 1926; an arrested stripper who claimed wardrobe malfunction in 1953; and the 1977 murder of a wealthy matron in Duluth.

A haunting recreation of the brutal death of an American housewife, the conviction of her husband, and the family trial at which their children determined for themselves how their father should be charged.

Dennis Nilsen was one of Britain's most notorious serial killers, jailed for life in 1983 after the murders of 12 men and the attempted murders of many more.Seven years after his conviction, Nilsen began to write his autobiography, and over a period of 18 years he typed 6,000 pages of introspection, reflection, comment and explanation.History of a Drowning Boy - taken exclusively from these astonishing writings - uncovers, for the first time, the motives behind the murders, and delivers a clear understanding of how such horrific events could have happened, tracing the origins back to early childhood.In another first, it provides an insight into his 35 years inside the maximum-security prison system, including his everyday life on the wings; his interactions with the authorities and other notorious prisoners; and his artistic endeavours of music, writing and drama. It also reveals the truth behind many of the myths surrounding Dennis Nilsen, as reported in the media.Nilsen was determined to have his memoir published but to his frustration, the Home Office blocked publication during his lifetime. He died in 2018 entrusting the manuscript to his closest friend and it is now being published with the latter's permission.Any autobiography presents the writer's story from just one perspective: his own, and as such this record should be treated with some caution. An excellent foreword by criminologist Dr Mark Pettigrew offers some context to Nilsen's words, and this important work provides an extraordinary journey through the life of a remarkable and inadequate man.Extract from the Foreword by Dr Mark Pettigrew, criminologistIn the UK, there are thought to be at least two serial killers active at any one time; in the USA the figure is estimated to be as high as fifty. Although a relatively rare phenomenon, there is a great deal of public interest in the life and crimes of serial killers. Yet, despite the inordinate amount of interest, the serial killer remains one of the least understood types of criminal - even in the academic world the simple definition of a serial killer has still not been settled.In a saturated market of true crime novels, there are very few that include the voice of the actual killer. As such, amongst a literary sea of accounts devoted to the serial killer and his crimes, this book stands out as unique. Of course any subjective retelling by the killer must be approached with caution; the prevalence of personality disorders, psychopathy, paranoid schizophrenia and other psychiatric and mental disorders, can distort the personal account just as an attempt at self-aggrandising can misrepresent the true narrative of the crimes. Yet, the simple facts of a case can be gleamed from police records, trial testimony and crime scene evidence, whereas personal introspection offers much more of an insight into the motivation of the killer.As the reader will learn from these memoirs, a confluence of factors met to form Dennis Nilsen. In all the academic and clinical research on the topic, there is no definitive answer as to why or how a person becomes a serial killer. Realistically, we can only identify risk factors. What this book offers, though, is an insight into how those killings are comprehended and understood by the killer in retrospect. In my own conversations with Dennis Nilsen, over several years, he did not try to excuse what he did, nor trivialise the devastating effect his actions had upon the families and loved ones of his victims. Instead, he sought to understand his actions in light of his particular circumstances. I cannot honestly say that he ever found a definitive answer as to why he became one of Britain's most infamous serial killers, but if the answer is ever to be found, it will be found within these pages.