Stopping the Presses; The Murder of Walter W. Liggett

In the 1920s and '30s, Minneapolis was a crime city. Gangsters and politicians were partners in illegal gambling, prostitution, and bootleg liquor. 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. 20 photos.

Publishers Weekly

Woodbury depicts her crusading muckraker of a father (1886-1935) as an idealist who rallied against corruption and too-chummy links between crooks and politicos in a one-man crusade that eventually cost him his life. (Gangsters shot him dead in front of his family in a Minneapolis alley.) Unfortunately, tangible drama and outrage don't arrive until the book's second half, though an exhaustive portrait of the Liggett family saga, along with a generous helping of descriptions of the Depression-era American press and unionist-socialist politics do help set the stage. The mainstream press appears to have respected Liggett, who published mainly in the Midwest American, a small weekly he began in 1933 with the blessing of Minnesota's then governor Floyd Olson, but, as Woodbury shows, kept its distance. Woodbury's research is top-notch and is well complemented by childhood remembrances, but some of the detail is extraneous and might have been pared away to make this feel less like a regionalist's account. Still, readers will find fascinating the trial of Kid Cann, Liggett's accused killer. Edith Liggett, the author's mother, proves a staunch, heroic figure, and readers can only shake their heads as the press fights too late for the life and reputation of one of its own. 20 b&w photos. (June)