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

Continue readingMinneapolis Madams with Penny A. Petersen

I’m excited to share my interview with Steve Thayer, New York Times bestselling author, about a book that was very important in my life, a book that ultimately led me

Continue readingSaint Mudd: A Novel of Gangsters and Saints w/ Steve Thayer

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,

Continue readingThe Life & Death of Minnesota’s Colorful Nellie King w/ Jerry Kuntz

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

Continue readingThe 1972 Virginia Piper Kidnapping w/ William Swanson

First, a recounting of the December 1932 robbery of the Third Northwestern National Bank, where the Barker Karpis gang murdered three before making their way back to the safety of

Continue readingThe Rockwell Art Heist w/ Bruce Rubenstein

In a slight change of pace for Minnesota’s Most Notorious, I invite my sister Alison to interview me about my political true crime book, published in April of this year,

Continue readingDirty Doc Ames & the Scandal That Shook Minneapolis w/ Erik Rivenes

Part One: 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

Continue readingMinnesota’s First Murder Mystery w/ Gary Brueggemann (Parts One & Two)

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

Continue readingThe Murder of Thomas Tollefson w/ Beverly J. Porter

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

Continue readingSaint Paul Memories & Murder w/ David Butwin

Have you ever wondered whether Pig’s Eye Parrant’s notorious Fountain Cave saloon is accessible to visitors? Was there really a tunnel between Nina Clifford’s brothel and the original Minnesota Club?

Continue readingMinnesota Caves & Tunnels w/ Greg Brick