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Rating: 
Summary: Another side of Minneapolis
Review: As a former Minnesotan, I was interested in this generally untold side of Minnesota history. I have lived in Minneapolis and loved it, but was shaken by these horrors that long preceeded my time there. I would have appreciated more specific addresses and names of businesses where events took place as it would have put the story in a more real context, but only for those familiar with the city. It is almost unbelievable to imagine the kind of opposition that existed to those publishing information which went contrary to the public image desired by those in power-both "legitimate" and underworld people. I'm glad Ms. Woodbury used her research skills to write this work. It does indeed exonerate her family, and her respect for her parents is well deserved, especially her telling of her mother's grace and dignity in coping with this tragedy.
Rating:
Summary: A good historical re-examination
Review: Marda Woodbury's look at her own father's death is a gripping and well-researched look back at a tragedy and possibly a government cover-up. Woodbury does an excellent job of re-evaluating her father, Walter Liggett, and his death. Her father was an old-school muckraker in Minnesota and one of the most vocal opponents of then-governor Floyd Olson. Not being familiar with this particular case before I read the book, I was concerned that this would be some sort of apologistic, revisionist history. However, the more I researched the case, the more I found that Woodbury had given a fair assessment of the murder and of her father's career. The book is a case study in how political machines worked, a good look at the rise of gangland in the heart of the Midwest, and a really interesting history of Minnesota journalism in the 1930s. Liggett argues that her father was too good of an advesary, knew too much and couldn't be bribed - all fatal ingredients which spelled his demise. I wish Liggett would have explored her father's reputation as a blackmailer. While she makes several references to it, and while that was many the gripe of many of Liggett's contemporaries, she doesn't seem to do as thorough of a job in researching the claims of blackmailing as she does in other parts of the book. While that particular area isn't exhaustively explored, the book still seems to have objectivity and balance. Woodbury should be complimented for her well-documented research and her crafty ability to present this case in a new light, some half-a-century after it happened. She has done not only an admirable job in her role as a historian, but we also are given a first-hand account of what happened to the family and a look into the private dealings of Walter Liggett.
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