Murder at the Crossroads: The Story of Clara Olson

In 1926, one invention was changing lives all across America. And in rural Wisconsin it was about to change the life of a young woman who thought she was on the road to her future. When she disappeared, her father did everything to find her, but what he uncovered not only changed his life – it changed everything.

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Team & Contributors

Executive Producer- Clare O'Donohue
https://clareodonohue.com

Executive Producer - Margaret Smith

Editor – Steph Kelly
https://stephkellyedits.com

Social Media Manager & Design - Mikayla Bogus
https://mikayladesign.cargo.site

IT Manager - Conor Sweeney

The History of Murder Logo - Bernadette Carr
https://www.bcarrdesign.com

Theme Song “My Carnal Life I Will Lay Down” - Rob Brereton
https://robertbrereton.com
 
Voice of Clara Olson - Hannah Magy
Instagram  @hannahmagy9352

Voice of Erdman Olson - Connor Stumm
https://www.instagram.com/connerscomedy?igsh=bmRxaDkxd2I0Z3I5&utm_source=qr

Voice of Chris Olson - Fredrik Kalstveit
https://fredrikkalstveit.com/


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Transcript

Clare  (00:09.433)
Southwestern Wisconsin, 1926. The Roaring Twenties are in full swing. Kids are dancing the Charleston and the Lindy Hop. They're paying 10 cents to go see major stars like Rudolph Valentino at the movies. Prohibition is in full force, but cheap booze is everywhere. And women have left behind their corsets for dresses that are simpler, easier to move in, and as it happens, easier to get out of. But there's one other change that massively alters the lives of many people all over the country, even in rural Wisconsin. And it may have led to murder. It's The History of Murder and I'm your host, Clare O'Donohue

Clare (01:06.688)
On September 10th, 1926, Christen Olson, a farmer in Crawford County, Wisconsin, had a bad dream. In it, he walked past his daughter Clara's bedroom, and it was empty. When he woke up, he was frightened, without any clear reason why.

At daybreak, he got out of bed. And just to get rid of that feeling of doom, he went into the room of his 22-year-old daughter, Clara, and discovered she was gone. She hadn't taken any possessions, but she had left a note written the night before.

Clara
Dear folks, I know you will be surprised to find me gone as I am leaving this evening. I will have to go tonight. Please do not worry about me as I will not be gone very long. If anyone asks about me, tell them that I have gone to the cross. Again, I must tell you, do not worry about me as I am taken good care of and will be back soon. Don't take it too seriously as it will mean nothing, only a little surprise. I will be back soon from my trip. 

Clare
But her father did take it seriously. He woke up her two brothers, Adolph and Bernard, and the three men went outside to investigate. There were tire treads outside the Olson home and the men speculated he must belong to Clara's boyfriend, Erdman Olson. No relation to Clara. Larry Scheckel, author of Murder in Wisconsin, the Clara Olson case, says the situation had all the hallmarks of a Hollywood movie. 

Larry
It has elements of intrigue and a love affair and betrayal and murder. 

Clare
Erdman was 18, a freshman at Gale College, a private school about an hour and a half north but his family lived in the area. 

Larry
Erdman was a fairly well-off farm boy. He was very full of himself. He had a lot of friends, especially if they had liquor. He was a spoiled kid, I think, from most accounts, privileged, lacking of self-discipline, looking for an easy life as many young people tend to do, but he had a streak of meanness to him.

Clare (03:18.306)
Despite living in the same area, Erdman and Clara had only met the year before. 

Larry
His family went to Southwest Lutheran Church in southern Vernon County, and Clara went to Utica Lutheran Church, which is northern Crawford County. So the two families really never met, but they did have a church social in which Erdman met Clara. They spent many hours talking, riding around the countryside. And I think he saw her as an easy mark, so to speak. She was quite naive. And that led to her downfall, if you will. 

Clare
Both Erdman and Clara came from tobacco farms. Both were of Norwegian descent. In fact, the area was called Little Norway because of the large immigrant populations, including Clara's parents and Erdman's grandparents. 

Larry
Both families were Norwegian. And at that time in northern Crawford County. There was a huge Norwegian component, mostly farmers and most, a lot of them tobacco growers. And they came over in the mid 1800s and settled in Northern Crawford County. So they were a very close knit family. 

Clare
Both families had land and there was money in that, but Erdman's family was wealthier and they also had only two sons compared to the nine living children in Clara's family.
They dated for over a year, but Erdman always waited in his car for Clara. He never went inside the house. 

Larry
The father, Chris, invited him in several times, but he always declined and never went in the house, which seems kind of strange. Maybe Erdman hadn't come inside because he was always in a rush or he didn't want to be part of Clara's family. 

Clare
Whatever the reason, Erdman had never spent time with her family. That was about to change now. Clara's brother Bernard went to the farm owned by Erdman's parents. Erdman was there. He denied any knowledge of Clara's whereabouts, and his parents even took Bernard room by room to show they weren't hiding her. But Bernard pushed. The tire tracks they'd found matched Erdman's car, so clearly he'd been at the farm and that evening as the tracks were fresh. Erdman eventually admitted he'd given Clara $50, about $900 today. (05:41.664) and brought her to a town about a half an hour north. But that's all he knew. Bernard didn't believe him. And when he got home and told his father, neither did Chris. They were an odd couple, Clara and Erdman. He had a reputation for being a fast talker, throwing around his father's money and bringing an air of worldliness to the farm community. Though four years older, Clara was a great deal less sophisticated. Erdman was her first boyfriend. She was described as innocent, a home loving girl and her father's favorite, which was a characterization that Chris did not deny. 

Larry
She was a very devout young lady. She worked on the farm, milking cows, helping with tobacco, hoeing the gardens, canning, went to church regularly. I think she was a little bit naive. She was not well read, like many young girls at that time went just through grade school, eight grades, and then lived and worked on the farm. 

Clare
Just as the pair seemed an unusual couple, so did their relationship. 

Larry
Even as he was dating her from the summer of 1925 to 1926, he would go to dances with other girls and leave her home. And that's strange too, And she knew that, but she sort of dismissed it. 

Clare
Erdman didn't seem too concerned about Clara's disappearance. He spent the weekend helping on his parents' farm and returned to school on Sunday evening. Chris, 60 years old with gray hair and a scraggly beard, stayed on his farm and waited. He hoped Erdman and Clara had secret plans and he didn't want to interfere. But after two weeks with no word from his daughter, he went to Albert and Anna He had run out of ideas of where Clara might be and he was filled with dread.And maybe what he heard from Erdman's parents made him feel better for a moment anyway. They showed him a letter that Clara had sent them in August of that year, just a few weeks before she disappeared. 

Clara
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Olson, I know you folks will be surprised to hear from me and what I have to say. Understand I am a good friend to your son Erdman and sorry to say we are in a pinch and have to get married if God is willing and you folks are willing to help us. (08:05.964) I wrote Erdman a letter some time ago and told him I wanted to see him, but have not seen him. I do not like to get Erdman in trouble, so I hope you folks will help us before my folks find out what is coming. Please be good to Erdman. I know he never meant to leave me in this way. It is only four and a half months left now until I will be expecting. So I hope Erdman and I can get married this month and make our life worthwhile.

Clare
According to the parents, Albert and Anna, Erdman denied he could be the father of the child she claimed to be carrying. They suggested she come to the house so they could talk, have her examined. But she wouldn't come, they said. Albert and Anna believed that Clara had gotten in trouble from someone else, but named Erdman as the father because of his wealthy parents. He was no more than a child, Anna would later say. He was a boy.

Chris had no idea his daughter was pregnant. Apparently, he hadn't seen any signs of it. For Clara, the situation must have been terrifying. At the time, children born outside of marriage were thought to have mental health issues. They were considered feeble-minded. And their mothers were unlikely to find suitors. So if Clara didn't marry the father, both she and the child would have been seen as unworthy of respectable society.

But his unmarried daughter expecting a child wasn't the blow to Chris, it might have been assumed. Chris would later say that Clara was not afraid of him, no matter what was wrong. Things in the 1920s were changing in so many ways. There were even articles about sex in prominent magazines like the Ladies Home Journal. Quote, sex is more openly discussed and premarital sex more common, they wrote in an August 1920 editorial.

quote, the sexual revolution has brought with it changing ideas about women, unquote. Of course, there was pushback to the idea that this was a good thing. In December 1925, in Harper's Monthly Magazine, author Lillian Symes wrote, quote, old values are giving way to what seems like a loss of all values, unquote. And while there may have been many reasons for that, one stands out, the car.

Clare  (10:25.336)
For farmers, a vehicle was a time saver. They could go into town without hitching up horses and they could go further, faster, bringing their goods to larger towns and getting their supplies from a wider range of sources. 

Larry
They didn't have electricity, didn't have refrigeration, didn't have telephones or things of that sort, but they had a car. So it meant that they could go faster, easier.

Clare
One farmer said, quote, it has infinitely increased my sphere of activity and my pleasure. I can make a 70 mile run now where I used to be sorry to go 15. And the astonishing part of all of it is that it cost me less to maintain than a horse, unquote. According to the book, The Devil Wagon in God's Country by Michael Berger, farmers didn't just want cars because they helped with the workload. They also helped with the loneliness and isolation of life on the farm. Kids could go to school in towns with larger classes and more opportunities. Moms could visit their friends and relatives more often. Families could go to doctors and dentists more easily, get to the hospital more quickly, and buy goods from a variety of stores.

Clare
And for young people, cars meant freedom. Lovers' Lane, a phrase that had been around since the mid-19th century, didn't become a real thing until the car. It was then that actual Lovers' Lanes began appearing. Unmarried couples could go to secluded, darkened areas in a car and do what couples do. Of course, the freedom of a car only came to those who could afford it, and Erdman's parents could. He had a Ford Roadster. 

Larry
He was rare in that time, in 1926, he probably could have been the only kid in that area that had a car. If Erdman wanted to go to a dance in Seneca before the car came along, it would be almost impossible. The distance would be just too great. But a car made that possible. 

Clare 

According to his friends, not only did he use the car to drive girls or go to dances, he also picked up some extra money by transporting liquor. This was, after all, prohibition.(12:37.9) And though he had to leave the car at home when he went to school where cars weren't allowed, he did have other things in Galesville to compensate. It was at school he got used to a life of streetlamps, paved roads, electricity, and running water. It was far from the farm community he came from, and from all accounts, he did not want to go back. 16 days after Clara had gone missing, Chris asked two friends to drive him to Galesville so he could talk to Erdman one-on-one.

Chris
I asked Erdmann what he had done with Clara. I asked him if he'd seen Clara that night. He said he hadn't. He said he never went down to get her. I said I could prove it. 

Clare
According to Chris, Erdmann got kind of weak when he heard that. Chris offered him land to get him and Clara started on their life together. Erdmann wasn't interested. Chris, with nothing else left, issued a threat, bring Clara back within three days or expect a visit from the sheriff. Erdman seemed to take this seriously. He told Chris he would get her and bring her to Chris's farm. Apparently after the conversation, Erdman told a friend about the visit. 

Erdman
Offering me cows to marry his daughter? Them hicks must think I want to be one too. 

Clare
The next day, he left Gale College. Erdman Olsen didn't just have one worry on his mind. His life at school was problematic. According to a Winona Republican Herald article published in 1926, quote, on one occasion, he attacked a student in a quarrel and knocked him out, whereupon other college boys took him in hand. Early this year, when a disgraceful performance in one of the dormitories was reported, Olson is said to have been the leader, unquote. 

Larry
He had a gun. and he kept it in his locker, his foot locker, and he would take it out and show it to other college kids, I think, just to impress them. 

Clare
For this and other incidents, Erdman had faced disciplinary actions. The president of Gale College, Newt Logansgård, said that, quote, On April 18th, 1926, when he returned to school, he was given the choice of a formal expulsion or that of quietly and immediately leaving school. He chose the latter course and it was noted his conduct (14:59.384) previous to this affair was very unsatisfactory." But soon after Erdman left school, he begged to be readmitted and had been readmitted on probation. Unbeknownst to him, his mother had also written, asking the school to give her son another chance. After the conversation at Gale College, Chris returned home. Perhaps he had hoped that Erdman had taken him seriously and would return with Clara. But a few days later,
Chris got a letter from Erdman. 

Erdman
I know Clara can't be back by the time you say. What a fool I would be to wait for the sheriff. I don't want you to cause trouble for my people who know nothing of this. Your daughter will come back to you when I come back. I'm leaving school, so don't try to find me. He also sent a letter to his parents. I suppose you heard a lot of things already. I know that I did. I had some visitors yesterday and they were real nice about some things. They seem to think that they have me where I can't wiggle my toes.
which is where they are very much mistaken, very much so. He, the old man, claims that he has absolute proof that I know where she is, and I have in the least idea of her location, but I cooked up a story that she was in St. Paul, and that I would have to have some time to get her back here. I am leaving tonight for some place where no one knows. I shall not even tell you folks, though. God knows how I feel. I have thought of finishing everything, but life is sweet and hard to part with. But I say this, that I shall rather take death than captivity. These people cannot prove anything definite, although they will try. Do not let them try to pull anything over on you folks. Please, try to bear this with bravery and forget me, as I am not worthy of your memory. Shut me out from your thoughts entirely as though I never existed. Goodbye and God bless you all. You have not failed as parents, but I have failed as a son. Erdman.

Clare (17:01.152)
After receiving the letter, Albert and Anna Olsen drove over to Chris's farm. They were upset by the press the story was getting, implying that their son had something to do with Clara's disappearance. 

Chris
They told me I made a bad mistake when I went up to Gale College. They said I threatened the boy and scared him out of school. 

Clare
Chris didn't care. He was going to find his daughter, and he knew in his heart that Erdman had something to do with the disappearance. He hired two private detectives, John Sullivan and William Cash Wayne, both retired from the police force to search for Clara. 

Larry
They were looking all over. They were searching all the homes that she could have been in for unwed mothers. They were calling hotels, schools, universities, trying to get leads. They went and talked to lot of neighbors. 

Clare
They talked to Erdman's roommate and found out that he often joked about his relationship with a girl back home. He referred to Clara as, quote, a green hick girl, unquote. The last possibility that Erdman and Clara had run off together was shattered by that remark. Something else the roommate disclosed was that the night Chris visited Gale College the night before Erdman disappeared, Erdman, this self-confident sophisticate, was crying. By late November, the case wasn't just getting local attention. It had spread all over the Midwest. A sweetheart was missing and her lover had skipped town. That's just one newspaper headline. 

Larry
That was the murder of the century at that time. And so, I mean, they had reporters coming from Chicago and New York. It was in the New York Times, Egyptian newspapers. So they had a, it was a big deal at the time.

Clare  (18:57.09)
The La Crosse Tribune printed a description of Erdman. According to them, he weighed 165 pounds, was 5'7 or 8', with blue eyes and light brown hair that he slicked back, and a V-shaped scar on the right side of his face. They said he had a habit of blinking his eyes continually and a quizzical expression on his face. They also warned he carried a gun. Everyone knew about the details of his rural Wisconsin romance gone wrong. But for all the press, there was no word on Clara.

Chris and his family were facing a dark reality. Clara was dead. There was no way she would have been gone this long with no word. That just wasn't like the dutiful daughter, the loyal sister, the kind friend. (19:51.086) She was dead. Chris had begun to accept that. But he wanted her to have a grave he could visit. His goal hadn't changed. He wasn't going to give up until he brought his daughter home. The private detectives had amassed evidence against Erdman Olson. On Thanksgiving Day, they presented it to Justice of the Peace C.H. Spack and Crawford County Sheriff Harry Underwood. They showed the letter Erdman had written to his parents as well as the one he'd written to Chris.

Clare
They told them about Erdman's changing stories. They talked about his reputation at school, about the tire tracks found outside Chris's home the night Clara disappeared. There was no body, no weapon, no eyewitnesses. But the judge issued an arrest warrant anyway. Erdman's own behavior, the lies, the letters, and most importantly, his disappearance, was enough to conclude that they had, quote, information and belief, unquote, that Erdman had committed murder.(20:56.032) Albert, Erdman's father, sent a letter to radio stations. Quote, Dear boy of mine, come back Erd boy. I'll stand by you until the last. I know you didn't have anything to do with the disappearance of Clara. Your mother is fine and knows you are innocent of any wrongdoing. It may look bad for you, boy, but trot along home to me, kid. Never mind how black it may look. Try your damnedest to get in touch with me. I'll do the rest. Unquote.

Clare
He believed in his son's innocence and by staying away, Birdman was making things worse. Someone else killed Clara Olson, Elbert told a reporter. Birdman was a good boy and everyone called him a chip off the old block and everything I have is behind him. To hell with the farm, to hell with everything. We can start over again. We are ready to go to the rock bottom limit for him because we have faith. Both of them considered the idea that Chris drove their son out of the community, so they blamed Chris for his disappearance. The father and mother both, Vietnamese, deny that their son could have committed murder. On November 30th, Chris offered a $200 reward. That's over $3,500 today. His sons went to the local VFW to ask for volunteers for a search party. The word also went out to local towns.

Initially, over 600 men turned up. They assumed Clara had been buried somewhere near Erdman's home. But that didn't really narrow the search. There were perhaps hundreds of places where a body could be hidden. There were creeks and hollows, woods and farms. And that's if the guess was right.

By December 2nd, more than a thousand men were out looking. The men walked from a paved road toward a hill, looking at the ground. A blizzard was predicted, and they were running out of time. 

Larry
This young one man, he was a woodsman. He had been in the woods a lot. He noticed that there's a little bit of yellowish soil there. That yellow soil comes from the fermentation of pine needles and leaves, and it's usually underneath an inch or two.(23:12.914) So he saw that and he took a stick and he started digging. He dug no more than three or four inches and he found a boot. 

Clare
Other searchers joined him to dig further. It didn't take long. Under the dirt, they found the body of a young woman, of Clara. She was a mile away from rising sun near Erdman's family farm, buried face down on a hill.

Larry
The amazing thing is that if he had not seen that and then you would have had the winter coming on with the more leaves falling, more snow packed out, she probably never ever would have been found. 

Clare
An autopsy revealed a series of blows to the back of her head. She had been six months pregnant with a baby girl. She had been wearing a new silk dress, a wool sweater, and a tan coat, and she had been carrying two letters in her bodice. One was written in pen, and the ink had become unreadable after so long in the ground. But the other was in pencil, and every word was preserved. It was a letter from Erdman. She'd received it just hours before she disappeared. 

Erdman
Dear Friend, I suppose you think me awfully neglectful, but I haven't. I have been to the hospital for a while, had a couple of operations. I have decided the time for us is right to show action. Of course, we'll have to disappear, you know, so I thought we could get the ceremony over with and then come back in a week or so and let them know if they don't know. You'll have to coax your brother to take you down to Seneca to the dance September 9th and I will get you there. Then we then go to Hindrum, Minnesota, which is the same as Winona. Do not take any more clothes than what you wear, as taking more will cause suspicion and try to get as much cash as possible as that is necessary if we wish to make a pleasant trip out of it. I have some myself of course. I will be at CINICA between 9 and 10 o'clock and when you see me, leave the hall alone and walk up the street until I find you and remember that everything is on the QT. Also, write a note and leave some place where it can be found in a day or so.(25:27.35) and say that you're going away for a while and not to worry as you'll be back someday. But don't mention why you were going, nor mention my name. If you can't come to the dance, sneak out of the house about 1230 and come towards the road. If I am not there, keep on going until I meet you. Don't let anyone see you. Please destroy this letter and all my other letters and act hard towards me to your folks. Do as I have asked you to do and everything will be OK. If you don't, your chance might be shot and I might make a scarce hubby. So if you wish to avoid the disgrace, do as I say and keep mum. See you on the 9th. As ever, as usual. P.S. Remember, do as I say and destroy all letters. 


Larry
She hid her letters under the rug in her room. She roomed with her sister Alice. And while they were baking cookies on the cooking stove that afternoon...She burned all of her letters except those two. 

Clara
Though Erdman expected Clara to keep the letter secret, it didn't exactly happen.

Larry
Clara would be reading one of her letters that she got from Erdman because they wrote to each other almost every other day. And then Alice would try to read over her shoulder. So Alice knew that she was getting letters, whether she read them or not, I don't know. When Clara disappeared, Alice told Chris about the letters, but they couldn't find any.

They must have assumed she'd burned them all as instructed, but she hadn't. What Clara had undoubtedly kept as a romantic keepsake was now proof of Erdmann's guilt. The surviving letter made clear that he knew he was the father and had planned to take Clara away on the night she disappeared. He talked about Minnesota because there was no waiting period for marriage in that state. It was where Wisconsinites would go to elope. It was all there in his own hand.

Clare  (27:27.254)
On December 6th, an inquest was held. 500 people came to listen. District Attorney J.S. Earl laid out his case to a grand jury he hoped would indict the young man for murder. On the night of Clara's disappearance, Birdman went to a dance in Seneca, Earl said. He got drunk. His last dance was with Marie Anderson, a friend of Clara's younger sister, Alice. At the inquest, she said, quote, he couldn't keep step, unquote. Maybe it was the liquor. Maybe it was nerves. He knew what he was planning to do that evening. He left the dance hall at 1135 to pick up Clara. 

Larry
I often think of that night. What was kind of conversation was going on in that car. In her heart, she had the catch. I mean, he had money. He had a position. He had a college education. She was basically a nobody as far society is concerned. So she had a real catch there. On the other hand, he had murder on his mind. 

Clare
Erdman's father claimed his son had returned home at 1 15 a.m. on the night of the murder. Not enough time to pick up Clara, commit the murder, dig the grave and be home where his father said he ate a sandwich. The prosecution had an answer for that. Erdman had already dug the grave earlier in the day and the grave was a short distance from his home.

Clare
Clara's sister Alice testified about the letters. The district attorney read out an excerpt, bring cash, he read twice. When Clara was found in her best clothes with the letters from Erdman hidden away, they also found her purse. It was empty. Erdman, who loved to parade around his wealth, had stolen the $7 she had in there. According to newspapers, a wave of comments went through the courtroom at this revelation. Erdman is a dirty scumbag, was one of the few principal ones. And there was one more fact that came out during the inquest. In July 1918, Erdman had killed someone. He was nine and he was playing Wild West with five-year-old Charlie Heavrin. Erdman attempted to put a 16 gauge shell into a 12 gauge shotgun and the shell exploded. Charlie was shot in the face and died instantly. It was ruled an accident, though many people felt that Erdman's father,(29:54.892) had pressured the sheriff to make that ruling.

Clare
Once everyone had testified in the long hearing, the grand jury went to decide if Erdman should be indicted. It took less than 10 minutes for them to return. 

Jury Foreman
We, the jury, find that Clara Dorothy Olson came to her death caused by a violent blow or blows administered by Erdman Olson to the left side of her head, causing fracture of the skull and violent hemorrhage probably in the early morning of September 10th, 1926. 

Clare
Erdman's parents had already left when the verdict was read. But Chris was there.

Clare (30:37.376)
On December 7th, 1926, it was snowing. It wasn't a pretty snow. It was the kind that's also rain hard and slushy and unrelenting. Claire's funeral was held that day at the local Norwegian Lutheran Church. 600 people came, but only 300 could fit inside. The rest stood in the cold. At the funeral, Reverend Martin Finsted, who spoke in Norwegian, said, Do not let your children ride around promiscuously in automobiles all hours of the night." Unquote. Chris would later say about her admit, 

Chris
I forgive young Olsen. My family is better off than his is, even if my little Clara is gone.

Clare (31:29.336)
Chris was 78 when he died in 1948. He is buried in Utica Church Cemetery near his wife, Dina, his daughter, Clara, and other family members. When Erdman left Gale College, his friend Tillman Moe drove him to the bus depot. He said Erdman was in tears when they last spoke. 

Erdman
I have a feeling I'm going away on a long trip, but I'm really just going just for a short time. 

Clare
The sheriff, Emmett Haggerty, said that he expected that Erdman would be arrested within six months. To help, the community raised $5,000 as a reward. That's almost $90,000 today. Erdman would be easy to find, the sheriff believed, because he stood out. 

Larry
He had a little bit of a lisp to his voice. He had a scar underneath his eye. He fidgeted a lot from left to right foot, according to accounts but he, he was typical farm boy, guess. 

Clare
But time passed. And while there were sightings of people who looked like Erdman, there were no confirmations of it. Even people who had initially believed in his innocence began to question why he would stay away so long if he had nothing to do with Clara's death. The police followed up on over a hundred different leads. Nothing ever came of them. In 1928 Albert Olson asked the governor for a court review of the case. It was denied. The $5,000 reward money stayed in the account until 1940, 16 years after Erdman disappeared. Then it was folded into the Crawford County general budget. 

Larry
People said that he went south to work in the tobacco fields, that he went back to join the Navy, that he went back to Norway. He was never to Norway or went to Canada or Mexico. That's the speculation. But the best guess that I have is that he went to some large city, Chicago, maybe LA, and worked for probably bootleggers and things of that sort. 

Clare
To this day, no one knows what happened to Erdman after he left Gale College. But what he did in Rising Sun, Wisconsin, a hundred years ago, is still talked about.

Clare (33:50.55)
If you would like to hear more about Norwegians in the United States, check out the 200 Norwegians podcast. to 200Norwegians.com. What do you think about this case? Please comment below. And if you liked this story, please subscribe to the channel, hit the like and notification buttons, and let us know if there are cases you'd like us to cover.