Stopping The Presses

An in-depth exploration of corruption and a notorious murder in 1930s Minneapolis.

In the 1920s and 30s, Minneapolis was crime city. Gangsters and politicians were partners running the Twin Cities’ illegal gambling, prostitution, and liquor concerns. Stopping the Presses is a searing look at this corrupt time, told through the life of martyred journalist Walter W. Liggett by his daughter, who finally sets the record straight.



Walter Liggett published The Mid-West American, a newspaper that sought to expose machine politics and corruption in Minnesota. At times Liggett seemed alone in this endeavor—very few journalists joined his crusade to detail the links between the political establishment of populist Governor Floyd B. Olson and the crime syndicate in Minneapolis.

For his efforts Liggett was threatened, offered bribes, beaten up, framed, and finally shot to death in the alley behind his home. His wife witnessed the assassination and was able to identify Liggett’s killer as mob leader Kid Cann. Though he was indicted by a grand jury, Cann was not convicted after what appears to be a sloppy investigation and cursory trial.

Liggett’s ten-year-old daughter Marda also witnessed the shooting that night. Decades later, while researching the events surrounding her father’s death, she discovered a historical record that was either woefully inadequate or outright incorrect. She worked for more than eight years to research her father’s life and death, exposing a side of Minnesota’s history that has been often ignored or overlooked.

An intriguing report on the complex intersection between populist politics and corruption, Stopping the Presses is a personal and detailed account of the surprising stories of crime, politics, and journalism of the time.