Family history: Testifying against the mob
Thursday, July 2, 2009 at 12:10PM The movie Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp hit theaters yesterday and my friend Eric Melin has a bangin' review of the flick on Scene-Stealers.com
The release of the movie got me thinking about my family history. My maternal great grandparents came to St. Paul, Minnesota from Sweden in the 1910s. They had a sh*t ton of kids. Like... they should've started a Von Trapp-style music group or something.
Anyway, in 1932 the youngest girl, my Great Aunt Ellie Hallberg (aka Aunt Tootsie), witnessed a mob hit at the height of organized crime in the Twin Cities. As a teenager, she testified against two Murder, Inc. hitmen.
No one in our family has ever recorded the story for future generations, so over Memorial Day weekend we visited her. She gave us some fantastic cookies and spilled the details. I put it together in video format. Enjoy.
aunt tootsie, family, minneapolis, mob, movies in Family, Movies, Videos 
View Printer Friendly Version
Email Article to Friend
Reader Comments (6)
Awesome story, awesome editing... I love it! Thanks for sharing!
The phenomenal cookies are called "Melting Moments" and I found the recipe on-line. Similar to Scotch shortbread and oh-so-good.
Everyone had lots of children back then. The only form of birth control was abstinence, and a large family was often valued for the extra work the children could take on and the support it could provide for the parents in their old age. Also, children died back then. No immunizations and no antibiotics!! So a large family was a type of "insurance policy." Sadly, some children in every family were expected to die. After this picture was taken, two of the sisters died of TB, in addition to two others Tootsie mentioned who died as small children. It is a real testament to Great-Grandma's physical and emotional strength that she had this large family and lived to old age.
Whitney, I loved this. These are all people I loved, and they loved me. Watching Aunt Tootsie reminds me so much of her sister, my Grandma (your Great Grandma) Belle. She is on the far right in the picture. It brings back so many wonderful memories.
Thank you!
Mom
Hi Whitney,
Found this post through Eric Melin's Scene-Stealers.com. We publish his written and video film reviews at www.presentmagazine.com. Would you be interested in allowing us to re-publish this blog post with video? We can link back to your site and include a short bio for credit. Also, we'd like to re-publish your review of My Sister’s Keeper. Let me know if you're interested.
Hi Whitney -
Thanks so much for this. I am Tootsie's youngest daughter, Kathy, and just finished sharing it with my daughter. My Jessie was in awe, and rightly so...it is a treasure. Mom is pretty amazing for 94 years old and you most certainly found her spark when you asked her to help you create this video. It's as though a piece of her history is frozen in time as it should be. It seems in our busy day to day lives, we have lost our ability to preserve these amazing stories - what a keeper this one is. Thank you so much again - for taking the time and for your willingness to share. Can't tell you how much it means to us.
Whitney,
You know I love all of your work, and this one seriously takes the cake! I love this!!! Matt says he loves it too!! Tell Tootsie that she is absolutely amazing!! Thank you so much for sharing this piece of history!
Alie
Kathy - I'm so glad you enjoyed it! If you'd like, email me your address and I will send you a DVD. I'm going to send Gary one later this week. My email: mathews.whitney@gmail.com
Whitney