A Brief History
On December 9, 1935, muckraking journalist, Walter Liggett, was gunned down in front of his wife and children by a Minneapolis, Minnesota mobster with a Tommy Gun.
Digging Deeper
Liggett was a native Minnesotan that had a left leaning political bent, writing against political corruption at all levels and even siding with Charles Lindbergh, Sr. to oppose US involvement in World War I.
Liggett became disillusioned with Governor Floyd Olson of the Farmer-Labor Party and began a protracted journalistic campaign against corruption in that party after he had returned to Minnesota from a period of writing in New York City.
Liggett apparently got a little too close to the ties between mobster Isadore Blumenfeld and the statehouse and found himself in court on trumped up charges. Once Liggett was acquitted due to witness perjury, he resumed his crusade to impeach Olson.
Blumenfeld himself promptly gunned down Liggett, and despite multiple eyewitnesses, was acquitted in a rigged trial.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Auerbach, Laura. Worthy to be remembered: A political history of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, 1944-1984. Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota, 1984.
Lewis, Chad. The Minnesota Road Guide to Gangster Hot Spots. On the Road Publications, 2009.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of Walter W. Liggett in 1929, is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1928, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation.
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