What's New

New to the manuscripts collections this month are papers relating to the sensational 1917 Saint Paul murder-for-hire case of Alice McQuillan Dunn. Alice, the young daughter of a successful Saint Paul plumbing contractor, was murdered in bed in her parents' Selby Avenue home in the middle of the night by a hired killer in a scheme orchestrated by her estranged husband, horse trader and teamster Frank J. Dunn.

Killer Joseph P. Redenbaugh, a young tough of 19 from Kansas City, had a day or two earlier been involved in the murder of Minneapolis police officer George Connery after a traffic stop.

The case draws eerie parallels to the murder-for-hire of Saint Paul housewife Carol Thompson (1963) in her home in a scheme orchestrated by her attorney husband T. Eugene Thompson.

Case documents relating to the Alice Dunn murder are in the Minnesota Supreme Court Case Files in the state archives.

The Dunn murder is further documented in The Dunn-Connery Murder Mystery Revealed for the First Time (J.M. Near, 1917), Murder in Minnesota (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1985) and Murder has a Public Face (Borealis Books, 2008), all in the Minnesota Historical Society library.

Researchers should also see the Crime and Punishment research guide on the Minnesota Historical Society Library web page for information about similar materials in the Society's collections.

The American Double Action .38 caliber centerfire revolver, typical of the period but not the gun that killed Dunn or Connery.

New and Updated Finding Aids - November 2018

Name/Abstract	File No.
Aitkin County: Aitkin: An Inventory of Its Records	gr01523
Records documenting the administration and activities of the city.
Melvin Carl Anderson: An Inventory of His Family Papers	01290
Correspondence, journals, birth and baptism documents, death announcements, photographs, and other papers of a Twin Cities Swedish American family. Much of the material is in Swedish.
Conservation Department: Forestry Division: An Inventory of Its Photographs, Negatives, and Lantern Slides	gr00245
Collection of photographs, negatives, and lantern slides documents Forestry Division activities and facilities, as well as life in northern Minnesota as it relates to natural resources and disasters.
Human Services Department: An Inventory of Its Bulletins	gr00768
Circular letters and bulletins (often called Commissioner's Bulletins) issued by the Human Services Department and its predecessors. Includes digital content.
Morrison County: District Court: An Inventory of Its Case File Transcripts and Exhibits	gr01524
Ramsey County: Human Services Department: An Inventory of Its Records	gr01522
Subject files and meeting minutes documenting the administration of this agency and it's committees.
School of India for Languages and Culture (Saint Paul, Minn.): An Inventory of Its Records	01292
Records of the School of India for Languages and Culture (SILC) which was organized in 1979 to give children of Asian Indian descent in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul metropolitan area a place to learn Indian languages, culture, history, art, dance, music, and yoga.
Wilkin County: District Court: An Inventory of Its Civil and Criminal Case Files	gr00764
Civil case files (1883-1973), civil case file exhibits (1906-1988), and criminal case files (1917-1955). The civil case files prior to 1917 may include criminal cases. Also includes unnumbered civil case files (1909-1943), and one 1922 civil case file transcript.
Lois B. Wintersteen: An Inventory of Her Beaver Family Letters	01291
Letters of a Lutheran pastor who served congregations in northern Minnesota and his family, especially his daughter Lois. The letters concern ministry, family life and activities, work, education, and a family lake cabin in Hubbard County, and include some biographical details about the authors of the letters.

New and Updated Catalog Records