The November 1914 death of Mary Fridley Price made the front page of the Minneapolis Journal: “Woman Killed in Attempt to Save Pet Dog.” Her grieving husband, Fred Price, told police she had fallen off a Mississippi River bluff in a vain attempt to keep her dog from going over. But by January 1916, that grieving husband was at the center of a sensational murder trial, accused of shoving her off the cliff for her money.
In this segment of MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds, Britt Aamodt explains how the execution of William Williams led to the end of capital punishment in Minnesota.
Marie Carey, ca. 1935. Inmate case files, 1919–1977, Minnesota State Reformatory for Women. State Archives Collection, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul. Used with the explicit permission of the Minnesota State Archives.
August Ruther, who served in the German army in the 1890s, was charged with poisoning his brother-in-law in Rice County in 1917. Despite any direct evidence, a jury convicted him in eighty minutes, in large part due to anti-German nativism during World War I. His sentence was commuted to time served (eighteen years) in 1936.
Sample of baling twine produced by the twine factory at the Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, between 1891 and 1925. Prisoners bundled the twine by coiling it, flattening the coil, and binding the coil in a tight cylindrical spiral.