Monday, March 10, 2008

A gangland murder

Ken Avidor produces a little film remembering Walter W. Liggett. Liggett was a  muckraking journalist in the Twin Cities in the 30s. Liggett was shot down in front of his family; his wife identified the killer as Isadore Blumenthal: Kid Cann.

Update: Spot posted this late last night and wasn't very descriptive. Be sure to read Ken Avidor's comments.

Further update: Here's the Wikipedia entry for Kid Cann. He is buried in a cemetery not far from where Spot lived, and still lives, and Spot remembers the day of the funeral quite clearly, a lot of big black cars and men in homburgs:

After his release from prison, he moved to Miami Beach, Florida with his friend Meyer Lansky. They reportedly continued to make money through illegal activities, though they changed tack, focusing instead on stock market fraud, money laundering, and questionable real-estate dealings. He frequently visited his family and friends in Minnesota and declared to a Minneapolis reporter in 1976 that he had recently turned down an offer to write his memoirs. He said, "I have nothing to say, really." He died in Minneapolis of heart disease in the summer of 1981. After the Kaddish was recited at the graveside by a rabbi from Temple Israel (see Reform Judaism) he was interred at the Adath Yeshurun Jewish Cemetery in Edina, Minnesota.

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