Some resources from the Minnesota State Historical Society regarding T

[JimB]

As many of you folks already know many of the Great Automobile Bandits holed up in Minnesota when things became too hot

There was even an unwritten agreement by the Mayors office & Coppers that so long as they didn't raise cain in St. Paul they would be left to their own dubious devices.

 

Anyways here is a link to the digital archives of material that was in the State Police files

Some has been widely published, stuff that was shared by the FBI with local authorities however a good share is unique to Minnesota's Outlaw history.

 

Scroll down the page and click on the thumbnails:

 

http://www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/pubsaf08.xml

[OCM]

Thanks JimB-

 

Yes some good research material- I was in here a couple weeks ago , looking up Tommy Carroll and Nelson.

Minnesota Historical Society has always done a great job.

[JimB]

Thanks JimB-

 

Yes some good research material- I was in here a couple weeks ago , looking up Tommy Carroll and Nelson.

Minnesota Historical Society has always done a great job.

You are most welcome OCM

I wasn't sure how many were aware of the digital archives

 

Are you familiar with the South Saint Paul Post Office robbery ?

many years ago I was allowed to handle the 21' Colt used that was in the armory of the St. Paul PD

The gun had been seized during a raid on a Chicago apartment shared by Doc Barker and Creepy Karpis. Many years later Karpis admitted in his autobiography that he had been involved.

 

When I was young gangster guns cropped up time to time at shows in the upper Midwest

The one that hurts the most was at a show in Ashland WI back in the 70s.

The son of the County Sheriff that assisted Purvis' Gang on the Little Bohemia Raid was selling off his late father's collection for his mother.

The story went that a number of the guns were seized in the aftermath out of the cabins and there was a variety of documentation both Federal as well as State and an old yellowed newspaper with a pic of the Sheriff and the guns awarded to him by the Feds.

Mostly it was common things, a Winchester 97', a Remington Model 10, a Stevens High Power Lever Action & a couple Colt revolvers. The real kicker was a 21' Colt missing the butt. Price ?

They wanted a grand on the Thompson...try as I might I couldn't convince Dad to snag it, the hoops to buy NFA kind of stifled any interest he had.

We did purchase the Model 10, a Colt Army Special and a C drum with a bullet strike. Still have the drum with some copies of the documentation packed away.

Still irritates me Pops was unwilling to move on the Tommy, well he's up in his 80s now and more PO'd at himself than I ever was

Talk about an iconic Thompson

Not just Dillinger association but a Little Bohemia seizure with rock solid provenance. God knows what it would bring at auction today.

 

No the C Drum isn't for sale no one needs to ask

 

Something else to bear in mind is that it wasn't just the Twin Cities

The Chicago mob was extremely active in extreme Northern MN as well

There was a crap load of bootlegging going on, mostly centered around International Falls and west to Lake of the Woods. Tons of Canadian Whiskey was being routinely brought cross border either by barge or being off loaded from the Canadian National Railroad which still runs a spur through MN along the south side of Lake of the Woods.

Chicago money built a resort/speakeasy in Roosevelt MN known as the Nite Hawk. Booze was off loaded at the CNR depot in Roosevelt and hauled to the Hawk by wagon.

Lot of local lore regarding Gangsters getting too hot and being sent up to the "resorts" for a multi month stay

There was a bit of this afoot around Bemidji, Walker and Park Rapids as well.

 

Back then these areas were still mostly wilderness. The roads what roads there were, were largely "Cordoroy". Just timber laid down with a dirt topping. Little Law Enforcement and what there was, was buyable. If you look at a map from the 30s or earlier much of northern MN is labled "The Great Dismal Swamp"

Yes, it was just that bad until the WPA & CCC dug in a vast network of drainage ditching to partially reclaim the land.

anyways Prohibition was not really observed in these areas, it was the wild wild North

[OCM]

JimB-

PMed you on the other subject too.

 

OCM