The Steele County Historical Society is offering an interesting one-day trip in June. It's the Crooks, Crime and Corruption Trip to St. Paul. The bus leaves the History Center at 8:30AM on June 9 and returns at 4:30PM. It'll be an opportunity to learn about the dark side of St. Paul in the 1930s.

The '30s marked a decade where plenty of known hoodlums and gangsters passed through or hid in St. Paul. A couple of the more noteworthy crimes committed in the Twin Cities in the 1930s featured kidnappings of some very familiar. names. They included William Hamms Jr., the president of Hamms Brewing. It's said his kidnapper, Creepy Karpis, only served Hamms beer to Hamms while kidnapped, as he didn't want to offend the man he held hostage. How nice. The other kidnapping involved Edward Bremer. Now Bremer is still a familiar name to Minnesotans. Edward's uncle Otto Bremer is a name we still say and hear. Edward's grandpa on his mother's side was the founder of Schmidt's beer.

I try to read almost anything I can get my hands on in relation to 1930s crime in the Midwest.

The tour will consist of a Gangster Tour offered at the Landmark Center. The Landmark once served as a courthouse and plenty of hoodlums made appearances there.

The tour also consists of lunch at the Wabasha Street Caves and then a tour of the caves. The trip also includes a St. Paul Bus Tour where you will be shown the sites of nightclubs, kidnappings and more.

You can get more details by going to this link on the Steele County Historical Society's website.

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