The Johnke Murder Trial

T h e J o h n k e M u r d e r C a s e By William Lanoue der and the grinding legal struggle that ensues, particularly when the identity of the killer is not a foregone conclusion, ften these stories begin with huge headlines and is a constant. In a whodunit we have to stick around pay- Oride a wave of publicity right to the end. There is ing faithful attention to detail upon detail, day-by-day, right hardly a break in the coverage and the action seems to up to the very end of the story. But the truth is, whether the always be at maximum throttle. The newspapers, radio, story begins with a bang or a whisper, it never really ends and television, pick up the story the first day, and like a – we just quit paying attention. hell-bent for leather running back, they don’t stop until the In the Simpson, Lindbergh and Thompson murder cases clock runs out. There was the O.J. the headlines were huge when they broke. The initial com- Simpson case in California and the mentary was shrill and at maximum volume from the very Lindbergh kidnapping case in New first utterance all the way to the end of the story – or to be Jersey, both of which hit the front pages more accurate, when the media decided the story was over. and the air waves with astounding impact But in the beginning of the Beatrice Johnke murder case it right from the start. was a small account near the bottom of page one in the Closer to home the South St. Paul Daily Reporter on August 20, 1937 that Carol Thompson case in started things rolling. From there the story built steadily O.J. Simpson St. Paul in the early with relentless momentum and strength until a jury of 12 1960s was another saga that began with provided the climax in a Dakota County courtroom over an explosive crime splashed across our five months later. newspapers and dominated the television It is a story that begins with the painful death of 49- from beginning to end. There were the year-old packinghouse worker Louis Johnke by what is high profile kidnappings in the ‘30s and Bruno Hauptman termed a “strange poisoning” in the old West Side General the killing of a South St. Paul policeman on the steps of the Hospital in St. Paul. Before it is over his widow Beatrice post office, huge flashy crimes that grabbed us, literally Johnke, 41, also a packinghouse worker, will be arrested, demanding our attention. It is as if the story itself gives us charged with and tried for his murder. The legal talent in no choice. Often this is the norm – but not always. the case will include two future state governors on one side There are other cases, for instance, that begin with a and a future District Court judge paired with a future legal small three paragraph story under a 24-point headline near titan on the other. There will be twists and turns, salacious the bottom of the page flanked by accounts of the manu- testimony and bizarre evidentiary issues and turnabouts facture of a new fire engine and a fatal car wreck. These are before it is over. From beginning to end the headlines will stories which begin with a whisper or a calm, matter-of- build and the news copy will both reflect and feed an insa- fact voice and do little more than make us wonder for a tiable public interest. second or two before we turn our attention to something more substantial. Then we forget about it, maybe for a long The First Story time, but somewhere there are people paying attention, It is probably safe to say not everyone people with jobs that perhaps connect them with the little was paying attention when the first story news account or who have an intimate relationship with the in the Johnke murder case appeared in participants. They are paying attention and the story grows the South St. Paul Daily Reporter on like a mushroom in a cave until one day it can no longer be August 20, 1937. It made the front page contained in the shadows and it bursts forth like the other but so did stories about entertainers fea- big cases grabbing us by the throat and holding us spell- tured at a Dakota County 4-H club home bound for the duration. talent barn dance and the renovation of a So at the turn of this century just as in the 1930s we fol- bar and restaurant by John Aller in the low these dramas as they are acted out on the pages of a Hub Building on lower Grand Avenue. newspaper, carried on the words of radio announcers or Across the top of the page a banner head- conveyed with images across a flickering television screen. line announced “Building Permits for We pick the paper off the front stoop, carry it into the house Six Weeks Hit $286,000 – Many Homes Louis Johnke and flick on the radio or television for the latest chapter, Being Built Within City.” St. Paul Dispatch ready to be updated daily with real details of real stories Each of these stories received greater play than the involving real people. We did so in 1937 and 1938, we do death of Louis Johnke at the bottom of the page. The so now, and we will do so in years to come. The method of Johnke piece is terse and to the point. It consists of three conveyance of the daily episodes may change such as with paragraphs with the lead relating only the bare bones television and cable news channels but the interest in mur- essentials. It reads: June 2003 Page 1 they were unloaded from trucks and rail cars, the animals Louis F. Johnke, 49 years old, an employe (sic) all bound for packinghouse kill floors. of Cudahy Packing Co. plant at Newport and a res- Workers streamed down the hill and along Concord in ident of South St. Paul for the past three years died the mornings to go to work at the yards, Swifts, Armour of a strange poisoning at 7 a.m. Thursday (August and Co. and other smaller packinghouses in South St. Paul. 19) at the West Side General Hospital, St. Paul. He It was a huge sprawling complex and Concord Street was had been ill since June 18. the downtown of the city. People lived here and did busi- ness here. There were dry goods stores, food markets, drug The second paragraph told readers that his widow and stores, hotels, pool halls, a post office and countless tav- two daughters survived him. The daughters are identified erns and bars now operating at full throttle since the repeal as Mrs. Theodore Milbrandt and Mrs. Frank Miller, both of of prohibition. St. Paul. The widow – Beatrice Johnke – is not identified Further down river a small turn of the century swing by name. Before long her name will not only be splashed bridge crossed over to the east bank and the river town of throughout the Reporter but in newspapers and magazines Newport, site of the Cudahy packing plant where Louis all over the metropolitan area, the state and even the coun- Johnke worked. It is here that the state will allege he was try; a prosecutor will run for governor of the state at the first poisoned in sandwiches he brought from home for his same time he is trying to win this case and other legal rep- lunch – sandwiches prepared by his wife Beatrice Johnke. utations will move to the fast lane of upward mobility. The defense will counter with testimony that workers often After this reporters will never again neglect to mention her shared each other’s sandwiches and that no one else was name. made sick at the Cudahy plant. It is just a sample of how Also absent from the case about to unfold will ebb and flow from one side to the initial story is the other in a constant tide of accusation and refutation, the address of the hallmark of a case that has no clear cut answer. But all of Johnke home. They this is yet to come. In the late summer of 1937 it is still a lived at 1400 North matter of the unfortunate death of a packinghouse worker, Concord in what husband and father of two grown married daughters by Johnke home, 1400 N. Concord St. , South will be often called what is termed a “strange poisoning.” St. Paul. Pioneer Press, January 15, 1938. a trailer house. It was situated partway up the Butler Avenue hill just above The Milieu the current location of the Kaposia Village monument at South St. Paul was like other working class towns. There the intersection of Butler and Concord. While the house were ambitions at all levels and people acted on these carried a Concord Street address there was no access ambitions. Workers – many of them immigrants or directly off of Concord, and while photographs from the migrants from rural areas under assault by a depression time indicate little to identify the structure as a trailer that began there years before the 1929 crash – had ambi- home, it is safe to conclude it was a very small, very mod- tions for their children that extended beyond that of the est house by any standards. One published photograph packinghouse kill floor. Merchants wanted bigger and bet- shows a squat, dingy white structure; slightly sway backed ter shops and more profitable methods of selling their with a makeshift porch that looks to have been added on wares or providing services.

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