Sunday, January 31, 2010

Walter Liggett


Walter Liggett was a journalist, who died infamously in a hail of bullets in front of his wife and child, while he clutched a bag of groceries. This was no random 1935 drive-by. Not only was the alleged trigger-man Minneapolis' most famous gangster, Liggett's widow was convinced that this was a hit directed by the popular Governor Floyd B. Olson.

Liggett was born on the prairie in Benson Minnesota in 1886. The son of a "scientific" stock farmer and a mother who was active in various community and progressive causes. The tall and striking Liggett dropped out of college and began his career as a muckraking journalist. Working on papers all over Minnesota, North Dakota, and Washington State he wrote and reported on the plight of farmers, and workers, and rallied against the forces of corruption and the interwoven tentacles of business and government.

He was instrumental in the rise of the Nonpartisan League, a group started by radical North Dakota farmers.

A friend of Charles Lindbergh Sr., the central Minnesota father of the famous aviator, Liggett and Lindbergh canvassed the state in Lindbergh's unsuccessful bid for the Governors' seat in 1918. Both stood in opposition to US involvement in WWI, a war that was not supported by 4 of Minnesota's 10 congressional representatives.

After the War Liggett took his act to the nations capital. Liggett was a committed progressive who was unafraid to tell the truth, even when it reflected poorly on the very causes he endorsed. He was one of the first progressive American journalists to attack the Soviets for their lack of freedoms. Among his accomplishments in the 1920's was exposing the corruption between the State department and US oil interests with designs on Mexican oil fields. Some credit Liggett's work with preventing a war with Mexico.

By the 1930's Liggett was back in Minneapolis running his own paper. In the time before his death Liggett was gathering information linking progressive Governor Floyd B. Olson and gangster Kid Cann, both products of notorious North Minneapolis. Olson was a former political ally of Liggett, both were involved in the formation of the Farmer Labor Party that rose out of the ashes of the Nonpartisan League. Liggett was convinced that Olson was corrupt and had abandoned his progressive ideals.

Liggett obviously touched a nerve. He was framed for sexually assaulting two teen-aged girls. After he was acquitted he was beaten by Cann and his thugs. Undeterred Liggett continued his work. This decision cost him his life.

He was with his wife Edith and his 10 year old daughter Marda, in an alley behind their Minneapolis home. Liggett had exited his vehicle when a car with two men came barreling down the alley. To the horror of his wife and child, Liggett was shot down in a hail of Tommy gun rounds. Edith identified the trigger man as Kid Cann, and Cann and an associate were later arrested.

Corruption and incompetence led to Cann beating the rap (pictured here). Olson's popularity was enhanced as he suffered from pancreatic cancer. Olson would be dead in less than a year, and sympathetic public had trouble connecting the dying leader with such brutality.

Liggett's daughter, Marda Liggett Woodbury, spent much of her life trying to preserve her fathers memory as a martyred hero. This culminated in her book Stopping the Presses.

Liggett was idealist his entire life. His ability to make enemies of every political stripe, and his unseemly death at the hands of the underworld, sullied his reputation. His many enemies revised his contributions in the wake of his death. For all of his accomplishments, and ultimate sacrifice, he is largely forgotten instead as being lauded as the supreme crusader he was.

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