Dark La Crosse Stories

The life and times of Walter Goetzinger, one of the most extraordinary musicians in La Crosse history, including a theater fire, a messy divorce, and his role in the erection of the Rivoli Theatre. 

A young farmer kills three brothers near Austin, Minnesota and goes on the run for 12 days with George Brooks' bloodhounds and a La Crosse Tribune reporter hot on his trail.  

What happens when an unsavory business opens in a historic home in the heart of an upper-class residential district?

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At the turn of the 20^th century, disgraced Reverend Martin Hanson left a North La Crosse congregation, his family, and the family pet wondering what happened to the man they thought they knew. 

In October 1927, the La Crosse County Coroner drove to Madison with a macabre cargo - a human stomach, destined for the state toxicologist’s office, exhumed from Oak Grove Cemetery just days after its burial.

An evening performance of Howe's Great London Circus descended into chaos as a raging summer storm moved through La Crosse in 1875.

A hot summer night in 1935 that began with celebrating at the Crystal Room in the Hotel Stoddard ended in tragedy on the Old Wagon Bridge spanning the Mississippi River.

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What happens when archival records leave out crucial histories of those who persecuted by the writers of history? 

In this episode of Dark La Crosse Stories, listen to the account of the persecution and forced movement of Indigenous people -- the Ho-Chunk peoples -- as told by a citizen of the Ho-Chunk nation. 

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A notorious criminal ends up in the La Crosse County jail in 1913 after a drunken night out. The man was known for kidnapping high profile individuals and holding them for ransom, long before kidnapping was a common crime.

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Did the end of World War II usher in a crime wave in the United States? In La Crosse County, men and women defended their property and livelihoods against "homegrown Hitlers" in the latest installment of the Dark La Crosse series. 

What post-war societal problems contributed to the turn to crime? Find out in episode 55, "Homefront Hero."  

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When one of Minnesota's oldest weekly papers takes a shift towards the sensational, a community becomes divided, with reputations at stake. Some lives are changed forever. 

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The echoes of what sounded like a bombardment along the Mississippi River south of La Crosse in the fall of 1902 was a desperate attempt to retrieve the bodies of a well-known La Crosse business owner and his grandson.

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A second chance at love seemed promising for Mrs. Hope McEldowney of West
Salem, a widow of 44 years of age in 1913. McEldowney met a clairvoyant on one of her jaunts to Chicago who operated a bookstore on upscale Michigan Avenue with
occult rooms in the back. She became a regular client, and the two became more than just friends.

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A lot of rumors swirled around the "celebrated recluse" of La Crosse, Mary Ann Parker — but was there any truth that she murdered her husband?

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Mary Ann Parker was a strange woman who had been holed up in her house ever since her husband died. Were the rumors true about her?

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You may visit this now family-friendly block to get ice cream and sweets, but it has a sordid history in La Crosse.

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