Introduction -- A con man without peer: August 1871 -- Fire destroys the State Capitol: March 1881 -- Judge Cooley's courtroom: December 1882 -- A crowded steamer capsizes on Lake Pepin: July 1890 -- Cops break up a poker game: February 1895 -- Buggy rage flares on Portland Avenue: February 1898 -- The penniless prima donna: December 1899 -- Twenty-five years behind bars: July 1901 -- Ice yacht reduced to kindling: March 1903 -- St. Paul's first road fatality: May 1903 -- Minnesota's last execution: February 1906 -- Killer wore jewels in jail: March 1910 -- A three-year-old stops traffic: September 1913 -- Flu outbreak closes churches, schools, theaters: October 1918 -- Hundreds die in Cloquet fire: October 1918 -- Tarred and feathered: November 1919 -- An organ grinder's despair: January 1922 -- Bohemian Flats women defy eviction: May 1923 -- Frank Lloyd Wright jailed in Minneapolis: October 1926 -- St. Paul gang figure slain: December 1928 -- Race row in Minneapolis: July 1931 -- The evil that boys do: March 1939 -- Armistice Day blizzard: November 1940 -- Flower feud in Excelsior: May 1944 -- Aerialist dies in fall at State Fair: August 1947 -- Jailed stripper blames wardrobe malfunction: May 1953 -- Six killed as jet hits house: June 1956 -- Little boys tell a big lie: February 1960 -- Cities out of sync: May 1965 -- Buried alive in Bloomington: June 1965 -- The Big Lake one: February 1966 -- Burning money to survive: February 1971 -- Skinny-dipper lands in court: August 1975 -- The Congdon murders: June 1977.