Book Review: The Minnesota Road Guide to Gangster Hot Spots

Post-Bulletin

In the annals of the gangster era, Minnesota rarely rates a mention next to Chicago and New York.

But Chad Lewis would beg to differ.

"People like to think it was only Chicago," Lewis said. "But actually, Minnesota was a hotbed for gangsters. They had safe havens in the Twin Cities, especially St. Paul."

Lewis has documented some of the state's gangsters connections in a new book, "The Minnesota Road Guide to Gangster Hot Spots." One of the cases in the book takes place in 1934 in Zumbrota and Rochester. In January of that year, the Barker-Karpis gang kidnapped St. Paul bank president Edward Bremer and held him hostage. A $200,000 ransom was paid -- delivered to a location in rural Zumbrota -- and Bremer was released in Rochester.

Ma Barker, Doc Barker, John Dillinger, Dapper Dan Hogan and Baby Face Nelson all made appearances in Minnesota during the heyday of the gangsters in the early 1930s. And Lewis tracked them all.

"I went to each site in the book," he said. Sometimes, just finding the sites was detective work in itself. The bank Baby Face Nelson shot up in Brainerd, for example, is now a pawn shop.

Lewis also dropped in on gangster-related sites in Cambridge, Hastings, Minneapolis and Redwood Falls.

"It's meant to be an adventure guide, to go visit these places," he said.

After all, in the 1930s, a lot of people wanted to rub elbows with the gangsters.

"They were really the celebrities of the time," Lewis said. "People hung out where the gangsters hung out. Gangsters could do what they wanted, travel where they wanted. We've always been fascinated with that in the U.S."

In fact, some people were cheering for the gangsters in the 1930s, Lewis said. "So many people were losing their farms to the banks that they were rooting for gangsters against the banks," he said.

Lewis became interested in Minnesota's gangster past while investigating paranormal activity and hauntings in the region. "I've been doing research on haunted locations and I started finding gangster connections," he said. "People think some places are haunted by the spirits of the gangsters who were there."

With Lewis' book as a travel guide, amateur investigators can now do their own research.

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