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`Minnesota Mayhem'
discussed at library series
Submitted by adminl on Tue, 03/17/2015 - 8:43am
By: Holly Wenzel
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As Minnesotans, we often think sensational crimes "can't
happen here."
A series of presentations called "Minnesota Mayhem:
True Crime Stories from the Land of 10,000 Lakes" puts
some bullet holes in that theory.
From the 1930s, when gangsters found safe haven in the
Twin Cities for themselves and their illicit businesses to
today's crimefighting, Minnesota has long had a place at
the table when the topic turns to crime.
The series will be held at the Maplewood branch of the
Ramsey County Library, 3025 Southlawn Dr.,
Maplewood, and includes:
Tales from the St. Paul Police Oral History project plus
discussion with Tim Bradley and Lucia Wroblewski, 7
p.m. Tuesday, March 24.
Kate Cavett, St. Paul resident, founded the oral history
project in 2002, with the support of then -Police Chief Bill
Finney and senior commander and former Maplewood
Chief Don Winger.
She's collected the reminiscences of every St. Paul police
chief since 1955 and stories of officers from 1937 to now.
Cavett's first interview was with the late James Griffin, the
first-ever black officer to rise to sergeant, captain and
finally deputy chief in St. Paul; the current police
headquarters and an athletics complex are named for
him.
She has also talked with an officer who saw the infamous
murder of James Sackett in 1972, a crime that wasn't
solved until 2005.
One of Cavett's themes is that police investigations aren't
turned around in the scope of time portrayed on TV.
"One of the most interesting things about investigations
officers have told me about is the relationship -building
that takes place over a long period of time," Cavett says.
"Another thing I don't think we realize here but is well-
known nationally is that the St. Paul Police Department is
known for being very innovative and creative with its
projects and programs."
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Not only have chiefs been tapped for their ideas by other metro departments, but sergeants, captains and lieutenants find
themselves the focus of professional interest when they venture out of the state, she explains. "They walk into a venue and
their peers want to know `What are you doing new in St. Paul?"'
The value of the oral histories—conveying more than years of service or awards won—was borne in on Cavett especially
after interviewing Griffin, who died at the age of 85 the same year. She has more than 50 interviews assembled on
thewww.spphs.com website, some of which are still classified, as the officers are still active.
She adds that St. Paul enjoys a much closer partnership with its community than many metro police forces. "One of the
things our chiefs are asked about when they go to D.C. or to other national conferences is their style of policing," she says.
That's clearly evident in department funerals for officers killed on duty, such for Ron Ryan Jr. and Tim Jones in 1994, for
Jerry Vick in 2005 and Josh Lynaugh in 2013, she says.
"When command staff come here from other cities, they cannot believe the lines of citizens who will show up to honor our
officers."
Also on the agenda with Cavett are Tim Bradley and Lucia Wroblewski, the longest -serving team in St. Paul's history
Bradley, now retired after 35 years, and Wroblewski, in her 26th year, may have looked like an unlikely pairing: a beefy
veteran of 10 years and a wiry novice, but their combined talents will go down in department legend, as well as in Cavett's
oral histories.
The pair pioneered the first-ever bike patrol team in St. Paul, taking their wheels onto a notoriously complex street system in
all weathers. With the silence and capability of rugged bikes, they could glide up on a drug deal in progress or pursue a
would-be fugitive across terrain.
Both native East Siders—he went to Harding, she to Johnson—their East Side beats were something of a homecoming. In
fact, they met near Lake Phalen, when Bradley, in a squad car, "pulled over" Wroblewski, in street clothes on a bike, for not
stopping for a stop sign.
Both won "officer of the year" for the department in 1995 and its highest honor, the Medal of Valor, in 1996.
"And they're both great storytellers," Cavett adds.
Stolen From the Garden: The Kidnapping of Virginia Piper, 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 31 "
The Virginia Piper kidnapping" is a phrase longtime Minnesotans recognize immediately, taking them back to the summer of
1972, when Piper—socialite, philanthropist and wife of investment banker Harry "Bobby" Piper—disappeared one afternoon
from her Orono estate.
The idea that a daylight kidnapping, complete with death threats and ransom notes, could take place in sleepy Orono
transfixed TV viewers and newspaper readers.
The $1 million ransom demand didn't abate interest.
Virginia was missing for two days, during which Bobby assembled the ransom in $20 bills, put it in his car trunk, and drove
from dropoff point to dropoff point to try to save her life.
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She was discovered chained to a tree at Jay Cooke State Park outside Duluth after the kidnappers collected the ransom and
reportedly called a random person out of the phone book to convey her location to the FBI.
From there, the case became even less clear, as the Pipers were bombarded by the media and sensation -seekers.
The FBI pursued "literally thousands of leads" as the five-year statute of limitations drew near.
Barely two weeks before it did, two men would be charged with the crime and convicted, only to be acquitted on appeal
Along the way, the defendants charged that prosecution witnesses were drugged, that evidence such as spelling tests given
by the FBI that would prove they hadn't written the ransom notes had been withheld and that their first conviction should be
overturned because the jury was stuck together for an hour and a half in a nonworking elevator at the Radisson Hotel one day
during the trial.
Minnesota author William Swanson, who's described the kidnappers as having made some amazingly boneheaded mistakes,
will discuss his book on Piper at the library.
One thing the kidnappers did get right: hiding, using or destroying the ransom. Only $4,000 worth of the original 50,000
twenties was ever discovered.
Swanson has also documented the T. Eugene Thompson case in "Dial M: The Murder of Carol Thompson," another
touchstone crime in Minnesota and "Black White Blue: The Assassination of Patrolman (James) Sackett."
The Gangsters of St. Paul, 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 14
From history books to televised documentaries, it would be easy to assume John Dillinger, Babyface Nelson, Al Capone and
the Karpis-Barker gang confined most their activities to the mean streets of Chicago.
However, all these notorious `30s villains—though some at the time thought of them as heroes—found the Twin Cities a
perfect getaway as well as a spot to pursue their trades in a less -crowded marketplace and less -hostile atmosphere.
Paul Maccabee, author of "John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crook's Tour of St. Paul," will outline near -forgotten tales and never -
heard nuggets of local gangland lore.
They remember in South St. Paul, where the Karpis-Barker gang killed a young police officer and seriously wounded another
one while taking a payroll being transferred from the post office to a Great Western Railroad car. Witnesses remembered the
gang spraying Concord Street storefronts with machine-gun fire and killing the disarmed young Leo Pavlak in cold blood.
The irony for the surviving officer, John Yeaman, and later, his grown son, was that a decades -long tolerance for gang activity
from the St. Paul police department might have set the stage for the crime.
According to Maccabee's research, the Yeamans even investigated the possibility that the then -South St. Paul police chief
might have been involved, especially as he was "just a few dozen yards down the street at the time of the robbery."
They were joined in their suspicion by none other than then -Dakota County Attorney and future Governor Harold Stassen, but
no one—including members of the Barker-Karpis gang—was ever charged with either the robbery or Pavlak's murder.
Holly Wenzel can be reached atreview@lillienews.com.
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