Dakota County, Gangster Territory?

While doing a bit of research for my new piece for the Dakota County Historical Society, I came across a reference to the “Hollywood Inn Raid at Mendota.”  My mind began to reel, the paper I was reading was from the 1930′s…Oh, the possibilities! 

When the prohibition bill, which was drafted by a Minnesota Senator, was accepted it helped criminal activity thrive throughout the country during the early 20th century.

Lets take a step back to the year 1932  in the midwest for a moment.  Prohibition was in full force, so it is quite possible they were bootlegging.  It’s also not as if drugs and prostitution weren’t occurring in that era.  However, what I found was what I had been hoping for… Gangsters!Â

In the past couple years Hollywood has released several films such as The Assasination of Jesse James and Public Enemies, glorifying criminal activity reflecting the current effect these hard economic times are having on the public.

I try not to buy into that whole “thugs as heroes” thing.  Because while I know there at times has been a huge amount of corruption in the government and law enforcement agencies, it doesn’t mean that doing the wrong thing is the way to handle it.  At least, in my humble opinion, there are plenty of us who have decent morals and that doesn’t by any stretch make us less heroic.  However, with the crumbling economy, and the extortiant bankers and CEOs we’ve been faced with on the news every day, it hardly seems surprising that the trends in Hollywood are reflecting all of our hidden desires to set them straight with Robin Hood-esque command. 

Here is what I have been able to determine so far: 

In the 1920s and 30s there was a joint in Mendota called the Hollywood Inn, it was a swinging casino, operated by two of the meanest guys in town, Dan “Dapper Danny” Hogan and his protégé Harry “Dutch” Sawyer as well as a couple other shady characters.  In addition to the Hollywood Inn, Dapper Dan was operating a tavern called The Green Lantern, and upon his death in 1928 by bombing, the establishment was passed down to Dutch.  Dapper Dan’s Gangland fashioned murder is widely attributed to Dutch Sawyer.  In the years to come, Dutch played an integral role in making St. Paul a hospitable place for infamous criminals and gangsters, the likes of which included the John Dillinger Gang and the Barker-Karpis Gang. 

John Dillinger became known as Public Enemy No. 1 after a string of bank robberies and other debaucheries throughout the midwest.

Dutch took money from his criminal friends and used his police connections, to make sure that the criminals were allowed places to live and were tipped off about upcoming raids.  Of course, this was lucrative for him, and created a nearly impenetrable environment for the gangsters to thrive.  This , however, was only icing on the cake as far as the gangsters were concerned.  The modern law enforcement standard at the time, was set up by Chief of Police John J. O’Connor and his brother Richard, and thus was named the O’Connor System.  Under the O’Connor System, the government basically said: Hey, bad guys… as long as you don’t tell us you’re here, and as long as you don’t do anything bad to us, you can stay in our city free and clear.  Pretty sweet deal, right? 

Under this system, St. Paul became an epicenter of criminal activity, the bad guys lived here unscathed, and needless to say, despite the O’Connor System, the citizens were subjected to their share of horrific criminal events.  Which criminal events I am excited to talk more about in upcoming posts..  Stay tuned, folks!

I’ll let you know if I dig up anything else! 

*** Special thanks to my sources Paul Maccabbee’s John Dillinger Slept Here  (p.18-22) and  G. Russell Girardin, William J. Helmer, and Rick Mattix’s John Dillinger: The Untold Story (p.339).

No related posts.