Walter Liggett
| Walter W. Liggett | |
|---|---|
 Walter W. Liggett in 1929. |
|
| Born | February 14, 1886 |
| Died | December 9, 1935 (aged 49) Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Newspaper editor/Journalist |
Walter W. Liggett (February 14, 1886 – December 9, 1935), was an American journalist.
Liggett was a crusading newspaper editor in the Minnesota of the 1930s. Founder of the newspaper Midwest American, he specialized in articles about Minneapolis and Saint Paul organized crime and their political connections.
Soon after alleging links between the criminal syndicate of Kid Cann and the administration of Minnesota Governor Floyd B. Olson, Liggett was beaten up, prosecuted on trumped-up kidnapping and sodomy charges (and acquitted), and finally died after being machine gunned in the alley behind his apartment on December 9, 1935, in view of his wife and two children. His murder remains unsolved.
Liggett had a noteworthy career, leaving college after a year and working for a succession of newspapers in Saint Paul, Skagway, Alaska, Washington state, and New York City. In 1929-1930, he vaulted to national prominence with a series of articles for Plain Talk magazine which described the corruption wrought by Prohibition on American cities such as Washington, D.C., Boston and Minneapolis. When Congress held its first ever hearings on the efficacy of Prohibition in February 1930, he was the first witness to testify.
Liggett was an activist for the North Dakota-Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party. He helped set up weekly newspapers to support the cause. He was also outspoken on a number of controversial issues, among them the Sacco and Vanzetti case and the Thomas Mooney imprisonment.
During the 1932 Presidential election, Liggett published a negative biography of Herbert Hoover, The Rise of Herbert Hoover. He harbored a long-held enmity for Hoover dating to the Russian famine of 1921 when, as head of a relief organization, he was investigated for possible Soviet ties by the Bureau of Investigation on Hoover's behest as Secretary of Commerce.
His daughter, Marda Liggett Woodbury, a professional librarian, authored an account of Liggett's life and assassination which was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 1998.
[edit] References
- Woodbury, Marda Liggett, Stopping the Presses: The Murder of Walter W. Liggett. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (1998)
