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