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.
Minnesotans are a tough lot, capable of pulling a house six miles by muscle alone or giving birth to a sixteen-pound boy. In 1921, young Phoebe Fairgrave set a parachute world record, stepping off the wing of a biplane 15,200 feet above the Twin Cities. In 1962, the last powerhouse Gophers football team brought home the Rose Bowl trophy. A year later, thirteen-year-old Jean Webb of Minneapolis risked arrest and refused to leave a segregated restaurant. In 1979, Gerry Spiess crossed the Atlantic alone in a 10-foot sailboat he built in his White Bear Lake garage. These inspiring stories and dozens more, culled from the Star Tribune newspaper archives, are presented in their original form by author Ben Welter, along with in-depth background, fresh interviews and more than seventy-five historic photos.
Turn back the yellowing pages of Minnesota's past and explore the best of the state's worst moments, as chronicled in the Minneapolis Tribune and its successor newspapers. These stories and photos, culled from the Star Tribune's microfilm archive by author Ben Welter, range from the catastrophic to the merely curious. From a fire that destroyed the State Capitol in 1881, to a wordless fistfight that broke out on a Minneapolis street in 1898, a flu outbreak that killed more than 10,000 Minnesotans in 1918 and the arrest of Frank Lloyd Wright at a Lake Minnetonka cottage in 1926.
Discover some of the most captivating mysteries in Minnesota history, from a sea lion on the lam to a clairvoyant in the courtroom to the tale of a Titanic survivor"--
Between these covers you have the best of Ben Trovato's popular satirical columns, letters and assorted rants from the Sunday Times since 2008. After thousands of hours of close reading and heated debate, we've compiled the funniest and cleverest material for maximum levels of enjoyment and entertainment. This is Ben's tenth book, but it would not be an overstatement to say that herein lies some of the most insightful and unbalanced social commentary currently available in print. Or out of print. And although not fully recognised as such yet, Trovato is a national treasure for his relentless pursuit of truth, equality, cold beer, and hot women.
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