Wisconsin Myths & Legends: The True Stories Behind History's Mysteries

by Michael Bie

Overview

Fourteen Mind-Boggling Tales from the Badger State

 

Was Joe Davis, Civil War veteran and Menominee Indian, really the son of Confederate president Jefferson Davis? 

 

What really happened the night that banker H. C. Mead was murdered inside the Exchange Bank of Waupaca? 

 

Did a flying saucer really land in Joe Simonton’s yard, and did the aliens aboard ask for a jug of water and serve him pancakes? 

 

From pirate ships to pancakes from outer space, Myths and Mysteries of Wisconsin makes history fun and pulls back the curtain on some of the state’s most fascinating and compelling stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493067480
Publisher:	Globe Pequot Publishing
Publication date:	09/01/2022
Series:	Myths and Mysteries Series
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Michael Bie, a Green Bay native, was formally educated at UW-Stevens Point and informally educated at the Upper Wisconsin River Yacht Club, Stevens Point; Del's Bar, La Crosse; and The Joynt, Eau Claire. As a freelance writer, he has multiple magazine and newspaper credits to his name. He can usually be found pursuing an interest in all things Wisconsin. Bie even spent several summers crisscrossing the state by bicycle until he realized that motor vehicles provided the same service in a fraction of the time. Occasionally he considers taking his bike out of storage.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Chapter 1 Holy(?) Apparitions 1

Chapter 2 Waukaukaummahaut: Son of the Southern President 13

Chapter 3 The Lost Prince 25

Chapter 4 A Capitol Offense 36

Chapter 5 Harry Houdini Claims Appleton as His Birthplace 48

Chapter 6 "A Horrid Dread": The Unsolved Murder of H. C. Mead 61

Chapter 7 "Plaster John": The Miracle Healer of Somerset 74

Chapter 8 The Life and Crimes of Pirate Captain Dan Seavey 84

Chapter 9 Shot in the Chest, Teddy Roosevelt Kept Giving His Speech 93

Chapter 10 Valley of the Molls 105

Chapter 11 Doomed: The Winter Dance Parry of 1959 119

Chapter 12 Pancakes from Space 131

Chapter 13 Vanished: The Enduring Mystery of Leo Burt 142

Chapter 14 Beerman: The Mobster Who Made Milwaukee Infamous 156

Chapter 15 The Strange Story of the World's Only Mustard Museum 169

Chapter 16 The Myth of the Marinette Mercenary 181

Chapter 17 The La Crosse Serial Killer 195

Bibliography 208

Index 223

About the Authors 230

Editorial Reviews

Most Wisconsin history books cover important highlights, but somehow they miss the stories of headless bankers, the part-time Santa visited by a saucer from space, and the Wisconsin pirate who killed a man. With a piano. You can’t make that stuff up, but Michael Bie didn’t have to because these tales of molls and mobsters, murders and mysteries are all a part of Wisconsin’s past, and our history is richer for their telling.

Dennis McCann

"Most Wisconsin history books cover important highlights, but somehow they miss the stories of headless bankers, the part-time Santa visited by a saucer from space, and the Wisconsin pirate who killed a man. With a piano. You can't make that stuff up, but Michael Bie didn't have to because these tales of molls and mobsters, murders and mysteries are all a part of Wisconsin's past, and our history is richer for their telling."
-Dennis McCann, former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist; author of Badger Boneyards: The Eternal Rest of the Story

From the Publisher