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The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Each week, The Murder Book will present unsolved cases, missing persons, notorious crimes, controversial cases, and serial killers, exploring details of the crime scenes and the murderer's childhood. Some episodes are translated into Spanish as well. The podcast is produced and hosted by Kiara Coyle.
The Murder Book: A True Crime Podcast
Elizabeth Congdon Part I: Power, Wealth, and a Double Murder
Have you ever stepped into a mansion steeped in rich history, only to be chilled to your bones by a gruesome tale of double murder? Walk with us through the grand doors of the Glensheen mansion as we share the riveting story of Elizabeth Condon, the last surviving child of the affluent Condon family, and the heinous crime that occurred in her family home.
Stride down the opulent halls of Glensheen mansion as we unravel the layers of the Condon family's wealth and the architectural marvel that is their residence. Explore Chester Condon's journey from Rochester, New York, to Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, culminating in creating the remarkable Glensheen Estate. But within is a tale darker and more chilling than the cold Minnesota winters. Dive into the heart-stopping details of the night the intruder entered the mansion and the gruesome morning that followed, shaking the town of Duluth and the country beyond.
Join us as we navigate the murky waters of this high-profile case. We'll explore the crime scene, the frantic call to the police, and the ensuing gripping trial. Prepare to be intrigued, shocked, and perhaps even a little scared as we delve into the power, wealth, and tragedy surrounding the Condon family and the eerie Glensheen mansion. This is an episode you won't want to miss.
Sources:
Newspapers:
https://www.newspapers.com/article/lubbock-avalanche-journal/159939752/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/valley-morning-star/159939845/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/panama-city-news-herald/159939886/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-memphis-press-scimitar/159939921/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-terre-haute-tribune/159939964/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/quad-city-times/159940002/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-courier/159940044/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/tyrone-daily-herald/159940082/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-forum/159940150/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-hamilton-spectator/159940232/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-palm-beach-post/159940279/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-herald/159940316/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-forum/159940440/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-forum/159940472/
Book:
Hendry, S.D. (2009). Glensheen's Daughter: The Marjorie Congdon Story
Kimball, J. (2017). Secrets of the Congdon Mansion: The Unofficial Guide to Glensheen and the Congdon Murders
Welcome to the Murder Book. I'm your host, chiara. This is a new season and we're starting with a new case. This case has been known by many as the Killings at Glensheen. This happened on June 27, 1977, when an intruder entered Glensheen. Glensheen was a manor built along the Lake Superior shore by Chester Condon, a patriarch of one of the most generous and respected families in Duluth, minnesota, and before leaving with a basket full of jewelry, the intruder used a pillow to smother Chester's last surviving child, elizabeth Condon. After killing the hair's nurse, who fought with the intruder, she was murdered with a candlestick, the crime set in motion by a handwritten well pen just days before the murders. So we're going to look at the crimes, at the trials surrounding the people involved in this killing, and this is going to be brought to light by a former Duluth detective. His name was Gary Walker and the St Louis kind of prosecuted, john DeSanto. These were the men who first investigated and prosecuted the people involved in these killings. So even though there's a lot of articles in the archives that I have looked into in the trial, transcripts are also going to use the definitive book in the case that was written by these two people, john DeSanto and Gary Walker. Let's begin.
Speaker 1:The city of Duluth, minnesota, sits roughly 150 miles north of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis, st Paul and this region. During the 19th and early 20th century, the region was helped by a boom in lumber and mining industries. Now, by 1905, duluth boasted more millionaires than any other city in the United States, and they used to call it the Seneath City of the Assaulted Seas. But by the 1970s the economy had slowed down. A shortage of trees reduced the lumber industry and mine and mine shut down, due in part to an influx of foreign steel. While Duluth hosted many visitors drawn to the lake and such site as the Arario Bridge, its great tourism boom wouldn't begin until the late 1980s. In 1977, duluth was perhaps best known as the home of millionaire entrepreneur Geno Pogluci of Geno's Inc. This is the man that has been credited with inventing the pizza roll. But the residents never knew or couldn't imagine that this small city would soon be the scene of the most notorious double murders in the history of the state of Minnesota.
Speaker 1:And this starts with a Sunday afternoon of June 26, 1977, where Elizabeth Condon, the daughter of Clara Condon, and her husband Chester, an attorney who created a fortune investing in the mining industry, returned to her family's estate after a weekend in a farm called the Swift Water Farm, and this was pretty much her summer lodge and it was located on the Northwestern Wisconsin's Brew River, and every Friday after lunch Elizabeth, her driver, richard Card, and her nurse left for the brew, returning it Sunday before dinner. Elizabeth was 83 years old and she had lived in the same house for 72 years. What is a man called Glensheen is a 39 room mansion that the parents her parents had built an enormous estate, and the backdrop of the estate was Lake Superior. Elizabeth was the last woman standing. She had outlasted all her brothers and her sisters, and Mrs Elizabeth this is how the house full staff will call her was a heavy said woman. She wore glasses.
Speaker 1:She had a stroke like 12 years earlier and this stroke was pretty bad. It left her comatose for 10 days. It destroyed massive amounts of brain tissue. It crippled her right side, so she has some partial paralysis and so she would use basically confined most of the time to a wheelchair. So she was made a little bit dependent on having around the clock nursing and she has living servants. She was nearly deaf and also suffer from diabetes, so she have to have a nurse because she require insulin shots as well on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:Since the stroke, elizabeth suffer from aphasia, so she didn't lose a little bit in her ability to speak and express ideas. So she could say yes, she could say no, but if she was trying to say a whole sentence it was really hard for her because her words were distorted, especially if she was getting tired. So she use flashcards and the flashcards help her communicate and if she forget a letter the family, the friends, the nurses, the servants they start resigning the alphabet until she stop at a certain letter and then they start listing off words beginning with that letter, and then she would not like saying yes, that's the one, that's what I'm trying to say. But despite of her handicaps, elizabeth refused to be pity, she refused to be cuddle and she tried to have as much as independence as she could.
Speaker 1:This is a woman that when she was young she was very active. She was physically active. So she tried as much as she could to lead an active life and she had her routine. She would wake up in the morning and then after breakfast she would do her therapy exercises on the third floor of the mansion. Walking was really difficult, but she always tried to be confined on the wheelchair all the time, with the help of her nurse. She always tried to take a few steps. She had these parallel bars that she would have to make sure that she would get these steps in every day Since the stroke.
Speaker 1:She also couldn't use her right hand, so she learned and she taught herself how to brush her hair and her teeth with her left hand. She writes a little bit and she uses her left hand for that, and she even learned to feed herself with her left hand, because she didn't want to have somebody feeding her, and she was able to read. She had always a lot of visitors, a lot of friends, to come and see her and she liked to be in the library and if she needed something to say to her servants or household staff, that's where they would meet her to know what she wanted and please her. And if the weather was good, she could go to the porch and have her lunch there. She liked to look outside, and this is the woman who loved the outdoors, so they would wheel her to the outside to get some sun every time it was possible. She loved to look at the gardens, glenn, she used to have formal gardens that were beautiful to look at that at them. Elizabeth was a very generous woman, so a lot of donations of for charities and nonprofit organizations in her name were received constantly and Elizabeth let overall a quiet life. She didn't like the fuss and the mass about anything. She had time to time she would go and watch a movie, but other than that, you know, she was not. She was more people coming to see her than her going places and she preferred that way.
Speaker 1:So in this Sunday of June the last Sunday of June in 1977, it was a day like always. She did all her routines. She was getting tired. She arrived to the mansion at around 430 pm after coming from the farm, which is like a two hour trip. She was with her nurse named Mildred Kosowski, miss Kay, and they took all the stuff her suitcases, her purse, several dresses and put them back in the bedroom. And then she went. The nurse went down to help Elizabeth. She wanted to sit in the living room facing the windows and she just wanted to rest there. And then the nurse went back upstairs and put everything away and she brought a basket that was full of Ole Miss Elizabeth's medication and the visitation charts, pillowcases. Anything that she needed wasn't those baskets.
Speaker 1:And around 5 pm Elizabeth, who fell asleep on the couch in the living room, woke up from her nap and she wanted to play with the nurse's cards. She was always a very good card player and they did that until around 6.30 in the afternoon. They stopped. They ate some supper, something light, and I believe it was tuna salad, some next salad, some fruit skim milk. She ate in the library with the nurse. They played a little bit more gin, ramen, rami. They watched some TV and Elizabeth, according to the nurse, was in good spirits. She was talking about celebrating the 4th of July in the country the next weekend.
Speaker 1:And about 9 pm her personal secretary, vera Dunbar, called to give nurse Klosowski an important message. She said a call was expected from one of Elizabeth's adopted daughters, marjorie Caldwell. The previous Friday night there was a call that have been intercepted. It was a woman that refused to identify herself. So the maid, miss Conjure, had intercepted a call from that woman and she thought it was Madri, the adopted daughter. So she told her hey, miss Elizabeth is not here. She's coming back on Sunday afternoon and she didn't want to leave a message of any kind, but people knew that Madri, every time she called she wanted something from her mother and it was usually money. So her personal secretary, miss Dunbar, told Nurse Krasowski not to pull the call through. Nurse Krasowski had been told the same thing in the past too, that usually they don't put the calls from her adopted daughter through, and the reason for that was that they made knew that Miss Elizabeth would not refuse to bail her daughter out of another financial mess. But they were trying to protect Miss Elizabeth. So, despite the Dunbar's personal secretary warning, the phone never ran. That expected phone call never happened.
Speaker 1:At 10 pm Nurse Krasowski wheeled Miss Elizabeth into the elevator which they exited on the second floor. The nurse pushed Elizabeth around the corner, down the hall, turned left into a simply decorated bedroom Through the door. She turned left again, maneuvered the chair beside Elizabeth's metal hospital bed with its matching nightstands and lamps on both sides Along the wall. Across from the other side of the bed was a door to the closet. There was also a dresser, the bathroom door and a vanity. The far corner of the room jotted out and it formed a nook with window facing the lake. There was a chair, a small desk, there was a memorabilia, a case of full of family heirlooms, and those things filled the nook. Then in front of the nook there was a sofa and this sofa faced the bed and it was covered with needle point throw pillows. A television stood just to the right of the sofa, opposite the bedroom door, and then there was a fireplace, and this stone mosaic fireplace dominated the wall to the right of the entrance.
Speaker 1:The nurse lifted her patient in to bed. She opened a window to let in fresh air, as Elizabeth preferred, and as part of the bedtime routine, nurse Krozowski removed Elizabeth's hearing aid, disconnected her phone and, as usual, elizabeth wore to bed her gold watch and her favorite ring. Her favorite ring was a platinum strawberry dome ring and this contained 12 diamonds and it also had 15 rounds sapphires. Elizabeth was so tired that she didn't need the medication that she sometimes took in order to sleep. She also didn't watch any television, as she did most nights, and she had a nice weekend at the farm. She even had a visit that was unexpected from her grandson, stephen Leroy, who was her adoptive daughter, marjorie's oldest son by 1045,. Miss Elizabeth was settled in bed. She was tired but happy. Nurse Krozowski left one of the nightstand, small lamps on and bedroom door open. Elizabeth went to sleep lying on her right face facing the fireplace, and there comes Nurse Velma Pietila.
Speaker 1:Velma Pietila was the night nurse for Sunday and she arrived at the mansion shortly before 11pm. Nurse Krozowski was standing at the window in the nurses room and she watched as Pietila parked her car near Glensheen's front door. She walked toward the mansion, pietila prided herself on her well kept appearance and her nurses uniform revealed that she was a slender lady with muscular legs and she was a petite woman, but she was strong for her, surprisingly strong, because she was a person who played a lot of golf, a lot of swimming, and on top of that, lifting Miss Elizabeth in another wheelchair has helped her pretty much keep in shape and keeps her arms strong, and she had been a registered nurse since 1933, so she was now around 66 years old. But she was very healthy, very fit, so she looked even younger than her age and she has spent the previous 7 years working at Glensheen. She just retired the month before and all she wanted to do was to travel and spend more time with her husband.
Speaker 1:However, head nurse Mildred Garvoo, who had taken over Miss Pietila's daily 7am to 3pm shift, had called Friday sounding desperate. The regular night nurse was on vacation and the substitute nurse had company. So she was asking to see if Pietila even though she knows she's retired she just wanted to ask, calling a favor for her to fill in for her Sunday night. And Pietila hated working nights and her husband strongly objected. But she had loved working for Miss Elizabeth and her sense of duty and affection worn out. So after nurse Krokosowski left nurse Pietila in, the two women charted upstairs for several minutes, krokosowski described Elizabeth's condition and she handed nurse Pietila the key to the medicine cabinet. When Pietila looked at her watch as Krokosowski glanced at hers, it was 5 past 11. And so Pietila said well, I'm letting you go home, it's getting late. And Pietila went ahead and spent the night in the nurse's room across the hall from Elizabeth's bedroom. She sipped fruit juice, she had a sandwich and an apple and a piece of cake that she was saving for later. And Pietila was reading a book that she had brought from home. The title of the book was I Didn't Come here to Argue from Peg Bracken. And soon she would be involved in much more than an argument, because soon she would be fighting for her life as part of her morning routine at Glenshin's maid Heiso Congerd unlocked Glenshin's front door for head nurse Mildred Garvoo so the doorbell wouldn't disturb Miss Elizabeth.
Speaker 1:But when she went to unlock the door Monday morning Congerd was surprised to find the chain off and bold lock undone. The nurses were supposed to follow a specific lockout routine. The nurse working the 3pm to 11pm shift would check the windows in the library to make sure they were locked. She would also test the front door's push button lock, but on the chain, and put on the chain to engage the double lock. The night nurse, which is from 11pm to 7am shift, would never knock on the doors or ring the doorbell when she arrived. Instead the nurse on duty would watch for the night nurse to arrive and unlock the door. The night nurse would then relock the doors after her colleague left. But nurse Pietila must have forgotten to finish locking up. This time the maid guest, as she popped up, opened the push button lock.
Speaker 1:Garvoo arrived shortly before 7am. Her first task was to get Elizabeth insuline from the refrigerator and the pantry which cooked. Prudence's vanquist was organizing the breakfast. She started saying how is Ms Elizabeth this morning? She said I don't know. I haven't been upstairs yet. This is Ms Garvoo's answer Insuline cold person hand. She headed upstairs to talk with the night nurse about Elizabeth condition nurse Pietila.
Speaker 1:So when Garvoo started up the stairs she was startled because she saw bare legs dangling on the landing between the first and second floors. And that was nurse Pietila and she lay motionless. She was awkwardly sprawled on the red velour window seat beneath a view of Lake Superior and at first glance Garvoo thought the night nurse was resting or had perhaps fallen down the stairs. Nurse Pietila's legs hung over the side of the window seat but her upper body was twisted around on the seat cushion and her arms had hit her face and her hands were nearly clasped, almost as if in prayer. So Garvoo walked and climbed further up the stairs and as soon as she did that she spotted blood crusted on the carpet. She stopped as she began to realize that something terrible had happened.
Speaker 1:Garvoo slowly looked up toward the night nurse lay and saw a pull of blood beneath Miss Pietila's head, and she approached the window seat and bent down but could not bring herself to look at Pietila's body. She did manage to lift the night nurse's stiff arm to check for signs of life and she noticed immediately that Pietila's arm was really cold and he felt like cement in Garvoo's hand. There was no pulse. Garvoo started shaking with fear and she gathered the courage to look closely at Miss Pietila's body and her face was a rust colored mask of dry blood. Her jaw appeared broken. Blood spattered her uniform and pulled on the polished hardwood floor beneath the window seat, staining the re-into carpeting. A blood cover brass candlestick stood on the carpet several feet from the body. She was horrified.
Speaker 1:So Garvoo, of course, ran upstairs in a panic, concerned for Miss Elizabeth. She flung her purse and called into the nurse's room. As she rushed into the heiress bedroom, often in the morning Elizabeth, already waking up, would smile and say how are you? Before Garvoo had a chance to ask Elizabeth the same question this morning. The room was in disarray. The dresser drawers had been pulled out and jewelry boxes lay open, but they were empty. On the floor near the vanity, elizabeth lay face up in her bed, her legs bare, the sheets pulled back. Her left arm was bruised. Her gold watch and diamond and sapphire ring were missing from her wrist and hand. A pink, blood flecked satin pillow covered her face and Garnu nervously lifted a content. Ms Elizabeth's face was purple. Gauriou didn't need to take a pulse. Instead she rushed downstairs to the kitchen where Conger waited to bring up the breakfast tray and Gauriou said Velma's dead. Ms Elizabeth was murdered and her face and voice were not shocked. In Conger, suddenly weak, she clung to Gauriou for support. They knew they had to call the police but they were afraid that they would upset Rehnquist, who had a heart condition, so they avoided using the kitchen floor phone. Arm in arm, the two women guided each other slowly towards the front hall phone and they phoned the police.
Speaker 1:At 6.58 am the Duluth Police Department recorded the emergency and it says something like this, if we read the transcript severe emergency. Gauriou was the one talking on the phone to the dispatcher. She said severe emergency, 3300 London Road, homicide. And the dispatcher repeated the address and she waited for her to continue. She said yes, sir, the condom stayed. So what's the problem? She said homicide. She said okay, just a minute, we'll get an ambulance, 3300 London Road. She's like yes, please. And the dispatcher told the police and the paramedics and she said possible 1089, which is, you know, a homicide. So Conger and Gauriou then tried to call Don Barr, ms Elizabeth physician, dr Elizabeth Bagley, but when the head nurse picked up the phone, there was no dial tone. The two women looked at each other in horror. The phenomenon had just. The phone has just worked, but now it was dead. So Conger went to Fred Glensheen's maintenance man, leaving Gauriou alone in the mansion. Gauriou anxiously waited for the police to arrive and praying that the killer or killers wouldn't go to her first.
Speaker 1:So let's talk about Chester Condom, which is Elizabeth's father. He was the richest man in Minnesota when he died in 1916, according to news accounts at the time. Local legend has it that the conservative Republican died of a broken heart after Democrat Woodward Wilson won the presidency. He was an attorney, an owner, a state legislator, and he would have been remembered in Minnesota even if his daughter had died peacefully. The condom name is Sprinklethrough Duluth, condom Park, condom Boulevard, condom Park, elementary School two names, just a few tributes. At one time Chester even had a ship name after him. But on November 7th 1918, the Great Lakes Iron Ore Carrier, chester A Condom, ran aground on a reef. He remained there in a rocky area called Canoe Rocks near Aouloya, until a storm sank it. The wreck site is now called Condom Show.
Speaker 1:Chester was born in 1953 in Rochester, new York. He was the son of a Methodist minister and as a young boy he moved with his family to Syracuse where his father had a new large church, his child, who was unenvenomable until he reached the age of 14,. During one tragic month in 1868, chester's father died of pneumonia and three of Chester's siblings died of scarlet fever. Suddenly, the patriarch of the Condom family, chester, took his new responsibilities and he took them very seriously. When the time came, he decided to attend college at Syracuse University, which allowed him to be near his mother, his little brother and sister. He also sent money when he could to help his mother with payments for the family form.
Speaker 1:During the freshman year in 1871, chester made clava hisperia banister of San Francisco and they soon discovered they have something in common Methodist minister fathers. They made a striking couple, both excellent students. Chester and clava graduated Phi Beta Kappa in Syracuse University's first class of 1875. Clava further distinguished herself as one of the university's first women graduates. During college the couple had become engaged but they proposed a postponement, I should say, their marriage, until Chester established himself professionally. Chester found a job as a school teacher at a small women's college in Belleville, ontario, on the north shore of Lake Ontario, where she taught art and modern languages.
Speaker 1:Chester remained in Syracuse studying law at a local firm and was admitted to the New York bar in 1877. The next day Chester traveled west and Chippewa Falls, wisconsin. Eventually he hoped a teaching career would bring prosperity. But he only lasted one year. Entire teaching and being poor. Chester inquired about legal opportunities in the Midwest and back east where his family remained.
Speaker 1:Chester decided to remain in the Midwest and moved to St Paul, minnesota, in 1879. The next year he was admitted to the Minnesota bar and hired by St Paul Law Firm. But his early days were marked by a scarcity of money and a wealth of doubts. Chester worried about his worth as a lawyer and prospective husband. He felt he had failed himself and Clara. In five years after graduation he was still struggling In Chesterville. Clara that his net worth consisted of $9.67 in cash, $5 receivable from his firm, $8 in prepaid rent, a $5.75 meal ticket, two pounds of crackers, two pounds of canned meat and a half pound of coffee. In another letter he told his fiancee to his fiancee, chester, that he'd be rated himself as nothing more than a second rate lawyer and he was telling Clara that he should have the good sense to be a cowboy on the plane. But you know, clara was always consoling him and giving him hope. And Chester's poor prospects suddenly improved. A month later when he was asked to serve as assistant to the US Attorney for Minnesota, william Billson. His career finally launched. Chester told Clara to make wedding plans. They were married in a small ceremony in Syracuse on September 29, 1881, and their honeymoon was in Niagara Falls. There was a traditional marriage based on a strong religious faith. Although their Methodist Church didn't prohibit them. Clara would not allow drinking, smoking or card playing in her home.
Speaker 1:Chester and Clara's first of seven children, walter Bannister Condom, was born in St Paul in November 1882. The family lived in St Paul for 11 years, had four more children, but little is known of their activities during that time. In 1892, chester, clara and the growing family of five children moved 150 miles north to Duluth. Their Chester set up a law partnership with his old boss, william Billson. The law firm of Billson and Condom quickly earned statewide reputation for its expertise in civil litigation. On October 19, 1892, not long after the move, clara and the family of five children moved.
Speaker 1:Clara noted in her diary that she saw first car from the Misavi range, and the Misavi, together with the Vermijohn Iron Range is an ore rich region in northern Minnesota that stretches over 100 miles in the northeast eastwardly direction, from Grand Rapids to Eli, and the Misavi. Iron Range became known for its soft ore, which lay close to the surface, so when you extract the ore it doesn't require deep mining. The Misavi generated a string of towns along its range, from Grand Rapids to Babbit, some with mining inspired names like Tuckonite and Mountain Iron. Pittsburgh mining magnet Henry Oliver came to Duluth to research the Misavi range for himself visited the firm without advance notice. Oliver wanted to talk to Billson, who was out of the office, but was persuaded to speak with a younger partner. He was so impressed he hired Chester that day as chief counsel for the Oliver Iron Mining Company, which became one of the largest copper in iron ore producers in Minnesota's Iron Range, the result of a lucky break and Chester's legal talents. Chester became a self-taught expert on iron ore properties as an investor, consultant and landowner. His biggest coup and moneymaker came at age 48 when he purchased land containing lower-grade ore, initially ignored by the mining companies, who eventually leased the land from him. Soon Chester Condon was turning iron ore into gold.
Speaker 1:The 19th century was a time of significant iron ore exploration and discovered in northern Minnesota. The major players included the Rockefellers, the Carnages, jp Morgan. Chester became increasingly active as a business consultant for the mining companies, serving on numerous boards but always protecting Oliver mining's interests. He continued as counsel for the company doing its sale to JP Morgan's United States Steel Corporation in 1901. The sale left its mark on the region by creating two towns along the St Louis River, just south of Duluth Oliver Wisconsin and Morgan Park, a company town built for workers at the US Steel Plant. After the sale, condon and Oliver started their own business leasing iron ore properties. Chester's investments went beyond mining properties, however. He bought large tracts of land in the south, including some in Louisiana, for their farming value, raising muskrats on all the development of a hunting resort, depending on which family members remember correctly, this property increased significantly in value after his death when oil was discovered During a trip to the West Coast in the late 1800s, chester had fallen in love with Washington State Jakema Valley and recognized the agricultural potential.
Speaker 1:He began purchasing land which he eventually developed into a 375-acre orchard and cattle ranch. He helped build Condon Ditch, one of the largest irrigation systems in Jakema Valley for his apple, cherry, pear and peach orchards. As for his cattle, chester heard of Aberdeen Angus, one of the largest in the country and nationally known, and on his ranch he built a family home out of native basalt stone on the side of a hill overlooking the orchards and name it West Home. The mansion was known to locals as Condon Castle for its castle-like design, including turrets or turrets. West Home was also distinctive for its indoor swimming pool, and that was the first of the region.
Speaker 1:Besides its vast wealth and land holdings, chester Condon earned a reputation for his civic contributions. For example, he gave a large sum of money to the city of Duluth to purchase land along Lake Superior. This property later became part of Panoramic Highway 61 north of the city that is called Scenic North Shore Drive. Chester had little patience for political deals and favors, but became increasingly active in the Republican Party. He was a member of the Republican National Committee, served two terms in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 1909 to 1913. During his tenure he denounced legislation to tax St Louis County at the state's highest property tax rate as a backhanded way to raise taxes on the iron and steel industries. The measure was defeated. Reappointment of political districts and issues still prickly today kept Chester so busy during this last house term that Clara noted it in her diary, despite his weakest in attorney, his been working as an investor and legislator.
Speaker 1:Chester's family came first. After living in several houses in Duluth, including the Redstone Architect Oliver Traphebphagin, sandstone and Redbrick Duplex Masterpiece located at 1511 East Superior Street, chester and Clara decided to build their own house. As the turn of the century they purchased a 14-acre tract along Lake Superior beyond Duluth's fashionable East End. The July 23, 1903 entry in Clara's diary says Chester and I went to Tissier's Creek to measure the place for house. Construction didn't begin until May 1905. The site of the condoms that the condoms chose for the new home was flanked by stands of pine and birch trees growing along Tissier Creek.
Speaker 1:Chester named the estate Glen Sheen or Glen Sheen sorry, in part of his family's village of Origin, which is Sheen in sorry England and as the family story goes, for the way the sun shone on the waters of Tissier Creek Glen derived from the deep ravines or glens carved out by the creek on the west end of the property. From the selection of the building site to the mansion's architectural and interior design, glen Sheen was Chester's special project. During the four years of construction he spent no expense. He commissioned Clarence Johnson the senior, a prominent architect for the state of Minnesota, to build the family house. A few years earlier, johnson had been appointed architect to the Board of Regents at the University of Minnesota and is credited with designing many of the university's buildings on its campuses.
Speaker 1:Chester hired one of the Midwest top interior designers, william, a French company of St Paul, to decorate Glen Sheen with furnishings from around the globe Italy, ireland, algeria, germany, the Orient and the Middle East. Glen Sheen's Jacobean design reflects the architect's classical training and Chester's fondness for English architecture. The 39-room mansion's external features include large rectangular windows with divided panes, three curved gables rising above the roof In a series of tall brick chimneys. The decor also features Jacobean-style touches such as handcrafted pilasters to the main hall and inter-create central staircase carved to resemble leather scrapwork, ornamental plasters, ceiling accents and stained glass windows in a two-door rose pattern. Red brick terraces with marble pillar railings overlook manicure longs, formal gardens and a fountain. Each of Glen Sheen's rooms feature international furnishings personally selected or crafted for the mansion. The main hall's rich dark wood paneling greeted visitors entering the house.
Speaker 1:In June 1906, claver and Chester traveled back east to Burlington, vermont, to see Granite and according to Claver's diary, which they purchased for Glen Sheen, by the following summer the mansion's third floor was plastered Claver Road and Glen Sheen was more than halfway complete In 1924-1908, three months before Glen Sheen was completed. Claver noted in her diary that the condom families moved in and all spent the night there. While typical lake front houses in 1909 cost between $11,000 and $16,000, glen Sheen's price tag at completion was $864,000,. Given modern construction techniques and the limited availability of the raw materials, experts estimate a current price tag as high as $30 million. While Chester took an appalling approach to Glensheen's magnificent design and interior decorations, he also equipped the mansion with practical features such as buttons under the breakfast and dining room tables to summon staff. Glensheen had state-of-the-art appliances for the time, including a vacuum system that extended throughout the mansion. Hot water ran through pipes installed under the sink in the butler's pantry to warm plates and keep food hot for second helpings. The house originally had gas-light fixtures, but the condoms had the foresight to have wiring installed for the ventrally electricity. Chester also irrigated Glensheen's grounds with water on a holding pond on Tissue Creek.
Speaker 1:Over time, the estate grew to include a cottage floor, a gardener, a clay tennis court, bowling green and a carriage house with an apartment, horse tables, room for several new Jersey cows, which provided the family with French milk and butter. Glensheen also boasted a large vegetable garden with a wealth of crops such as corn, broccoli, asparagus, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, peppers, tomatoes and squash. In back of the main house, on the lakefront, the condoms constructed a beach house with an attached L-shaped pier. The estate also included four greenhouses the palm tree carnation general plant house named for the plants grown in each. Several years after the condoms moved into Glensheen, they ate ripe bananas and oranges from their own trees that grew in the palm house, the property's largest greenhouse, along with orchids, palm trees and other exotic plants. Chester's grandmother supplied fresh flowers for the day, fresh to enjoy each day. So now, following Glensheen's completion, the estate became a gathering place for condom family members, friends from around the country, and the house was often filled with guests. Chester and Clara frequently hosted parties at the mansion or, in warmer weather, dances on the roof of the boat house and boat rides on Lake Superior.
Speaker 1:To the children growing up with its brick walls, glensheen could be stuffy and formal. Elizabeth and her siblings dressed formally for dinner every night. The boys wore black tuxedos and the girls longed dresses. But the mansion also made a wonderful playground. Glensheen had secret compartments, numerous hiding places for games like sardines in the dark, a combination of hide and seek and tag. One person hid and as each seeker found the hide, the hither they too squeezed into the hiding place. Winters meant skating and hockey on the grounds at Teacher Creek or the Condom Park ring just up the hill from Glensheen. The children also enjoyed sledding down the steep slope of Copperblocks east of the mansion.
Speaker 1:The condom celebrated Christmas time and grand fashion elaborately decorated Glensheen. Three Norfolk Island pine trees grown in Glensheen's own greenhouses and were brought into the mansion and put up in the main hall, the living room, the recreation room. The family decorated the living room tree with traditional Christmas ornaments and silver tinsel. Clever personally selected gifts for each child and grandchild Chester distributed $20 gold pieces to the household staff. The condom-to-clan would gather at Glensheen on Christmas Day, a tradition that held through the years.
Speaker 1:Elizabeth Nephew Tunkhampton lived at Glensheen for 18 months with his parents, sister and brother while other house was being remodeled. He remembered the traditional Christmas breakfast at Flammery, a gritty, grainy hot cereal of Scottish origin, and, like her cousin, elizabeth's daughter, jennifer Johnson, remembers hearty Christmas breakfasts, christmas and Glensheen's dining room with sister Marjorie, their mother and grandmother, clara. After breakfast, the four-son Christmas carols. As they walked downstairs, one at a time, oldest to youngest, to the recreation room, they would find a fire blazing in the fireplace and rat presents stacked beneath the Christmas tree. And then, before the condom relatives arrived for the big meal at noon, the family opened their gifts. The Christmas noon meal consisted of turkey, trimmings, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberries, mincemeat, pumpkin pie, and it was served in the dining room. And as a young child, jennifer enjoyed visiting with her cousins. As the children are the Christmas meal in the list, they would have it in the last formal breakfast room, tom's sister, mary, condomed and Vandivera and say.
Speaker 1:Christmas night was celebrated with friends and neighbors. They would invite people around town that didn't have family, family friends who didn't have any connection, like bachelors, former boyfriends and then of Elizabeth, and dinner was held in the basement with all the food on the billiard table. In early spring, while the woods were still blanketed with snow, chester and Clara's grown children and their children would have a cookout and make maple syrup candy. As the weather became warmer, family activities often revolved around the lake and lakefront. The condoms held parties on the beach and on 4th of July they picnic it and set up Roman candles. Chester bought a pleasure boat and named it Hesperia, which is Clara's middle name, and the boat was docked at the pier behind Glensheen. During the summer, chester and Clara entertained friends on the boat, taking it out on the lake, while a live orchestra played on the boat house roof. Unfortunately, a mishap with the boat fuel destroyed the Hesperia in July 1916 in a fire that also damaged the boat house.
Speaker 1:Chester and Clara were seasoned travelers. They visit many European countries, middle East Asia, and they display special mementos that they brought home in their little museum, a room at the west end of the mansion's basement. The mementos included miniature tea sets, souvenir teaspoons, wooden carvings, ceramic tiles. In addition, clara collected seashells and coral from their travels to tropical destinations such as the Caribbean, south Seas and Rovatonga. Some items, like Persian rug, became part of the mansion's decor. As the children grew, clara became more of a homebody, preferring to remain behind at Glensheen while Chester traveled on business. Family vacations, however, remained important to Clara and Chester. The Condu family visited Clara's relatives in California, new York, toured historic sites, attended world fairs and expositions, including those in Seattle, chicago, san Francisco and Portland.
Speaker 1:As a father, chester was caring and supportive, although he expected his children to excel academically and was a stricter disciplinarian than Clara. Chester also enjoyed a close relationship with each of his six children. While he and Clara had a large family, they tried hard to spend time with each child individually. Chester had a special way of getting to know his children better. Each year Chester told one child on a trip. One year Elizabeth and her father sailed like superior on an iron one carrier. In another time Chester took Elizabeth's brother, walter, on a trip down the Nile.
Speaker 1:Clara was a loving mother, but it was the practice in those days, not an overly demonstrative parent. Her children were encouraged to be self-reliant. As Clara explained to one of her grandchildren years later. She says in the old days we didn't believe he was proper to fill our children with love and affection. We had to be stoic and teach them to be good sports and overcome all obstacles. But Clara took an active interest in her children's activities. She screamed her children's books to make sure they were suitable Guilfoy at sewing, needle point, applique and other hand crafts, including making lace which she collapsed from around the world. Clara taught her daughters those skills.
Speaker 1:Clara's children also received lessons in thriftiness. When the seamstress came to Glensheen to sell the clothes for the children, clara had to make over any reusable clothes belonging to the older children, as hand-me-downs Torn bed sheets that couldn't be mended became pillowcases. Freight towels found a new home in the maid's bathroom. Chester and Clara instilled in their children a sense of nobleress, oblige, and for the condom children this meant that because they had more money than most, they had a duty to give to others. Community service would become a priority in their daughter Elizabeth's life. Clara, a devoutly religious woman, made sure her children regularly attended services as first methodists, where she was an active volunteer, as she had done in their previous homes.
Speaker 1:Clara did not allow alcohol to be served at Glensheen, but when Chester hosted his business associates for dinner, he liked to serve brandy after the meal. He had a secret liquor cabinet in the basement, in a closet of the playroom, which was not accessed until after Clara and the other wives retired to the living room. Jennifer Johnson remembered a family story about the night. Chester had to repeatedly ask the butler to bring up brandy for his guest, and the butler would say each time I'm sorry, mr Condom, there isn't any brandy. Chester asked him to look more thoroughly and finally, the fourth time, the butler was unsuccessful. Chester could see and smell their real reason why there was indeed brandy, but unfortunately was inside the butler. Clara discovered the liquid after Chester's death and promptly donated it to St Luke's Hospital to use for medicinal purposes.
Speaker 1:When Clara was in her late 20s, she lost most of her hearing to an unspecified illness and sometimes she wore an ear trumpet as a hearing aid. She found the device cumbersome and unhelpful, but instead began carrying a pad and a pencil around to better communicate with family and friends. Although she never learned sign language, clara became skilled at reading lessons or reading lips, even from across the room, and Clara could make out an unkind word for her heart's retort as her children and grandchildren learned the hard way. Chester and Clara wanted their children to receive good education, so they sent them off to prestigious East Coast preparatory schools and colleges. Elizabeth older brothers attended prep schools in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania before attending Yale. Elizabeth and her sister Helen and Marjorie attended Dana Hall, which is a private boarding school for girls in Wesley, massachusetts. Elizabeth was a good student who excelled in history and English, and her parents encouraged her to continue her education. After graduating from Dana Hall in 1915, she enrolled at Vassar College in Pukitspie, new York, where her sister Helen had also gone.
Speaker 1:Chester Connen died of pleurisy on November 21, 1916 in his apartment at the St Paul Hotel where he stayed during the latest session. He was 63 years old and he had become ill shortly after the return from Duluth where he had gone to vote in the presidential election. Her father's death brought Elizabeth home to Duluth after her freshman year of college. She did not go back to Vassar, feeling it was her duty to remain at Glensheen and look after her mother. In 1913, chester had established two trusts to provide and maintain for his wife and children home so long so any of them shall live, making it easy for any of the children who so many may wish to occupy Glensheen. Elizabeth became her mother's closest companion, a special relationship the two women shared for 34 years until Clara's death at age 96 in 1950. Elizabeth stayed until her own death, the last of Chester and Clara's children and the only one to live in Glensheen. Her entire adult life Soon.
Speaker 1:After her return to Duluth, elizabeth devoted herself to volunteer work. Although Elizabeth avoided publicity, her generous donations of money and time to charitable and civic organizations put her in the public eye. Education institutions, long important to both sides of the Elizabeth family, became one of her priorities. She served as a member of the Chancellor's group at Syracuse University, her parents' alma mater, and she was a trustee of Dana Hall, the preparatory school she attended and nearly nearby Pine Manor Junior College. Elizabeth received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, california, where her maternal grandfather had been the first president and founder. Elizabeth shared her father's interest in civic affairs. She served as president of the King's Daughter Society of Duluth and when it became the local junior league in 1920, members selected Elizabeth as its first president. She held a seat on the board of the St Luke's Hospital Guild and as a board member took charge of a major decorating project. She helped redecorate an entire wing, selecting wallpaper, traveling to Mexico to buy decorative art pieces.
Speaker 1:During World War II, elizabeth organized and headed the American Red Cross Nurses Aid Committee in Duluth. The women volunteers wore bad bandages, prepared care packages, neat mittens and scarves and helped however they could to support the war effort and the local hospitals. Although Elizabeth didn't knit, she wore hundreds of bandages and coordinated volunteers. Those who knew Elizabeth well said she didn't have the impression of belonging to one of the richest families in town. She shunbed fancy clothes, preferring her instead to wear simply style fine cotton dresses and sensory props. She wore her hair nearly coiffed, but in a simple and fussy style. Elizabeth adorned herself with a little jewelry, typically a simple strand of cultured pearls and matching earrings. Elizabeth did sometimes indulge a more from budget aid. Her pride and joy for many years was a studs bear cut sports car, followed by a Cadillac in the family's favorite color, a pine green. They call condom green.
Speaker 1:Although Elizabeth remained single, it wasn't for lack of attention. In her late 20s she seriously considered marrying Fred Volving, who was a handsome Duluth bow and longtime acquaintance considered a good catch by Elizabeth's friends and family. Elizabeth accepted a diamond engagement ring from Volving, although their engagement was never officially announced. Elizabeth later told Volving she didn't love Tim enough to spend the rest of her life with him. The story goes that after she returned to the large diamond engagement ring, her distraught suitor threw it into Lake Superior. Elizabeth never married and when he died he left Elizabeth money in his will to buy a ring. To commemorate their friendship, she purchased a diamond and sapphire dome ring she wore faithfully on her little finger until she died. For reasons she kept to herself, elizabeth never married. Nevertheless, elizabeth loved children and didn't, like convention, stand in her way when, in her late 30s, she decided she wanted children of her own In.
Speaker 1:Although adoption by single women were virtually unheard of in the 1930s, elizabeth had family and financial resources that many adoptive couples did not, which likely assisted the adoption process. In 1932, at the age of 38, she contracted an adoption agency in Greensboro, north Carolina, and brought home a three month old baby girl named Jacqueline Barnes. She said I want to help her, I can give her a good home and schooling. Elizabeth told family and friends and she decided to rename her daughter Marjorie after her sister and Manorin after her mother's father. Marjorie Manorin condoms slept in a bassinet in her mother's bedroom. There was a kind of feeling that Marjorie was to be the answer to an Elizabeth lonesomeness and her feeling of being unskilled as a single person. This is according to her niece, mary Van Abira. And then she said but that also made Marjorie sort of a toy. I remember reading in Clara's diary that Elizabeth was away again today and I think that Elizabeth left the babysitting job to her mother a whole lot.
Speaker 1:Three years later, elizabeth Condon adopted her second daughter, this time through a Chicago adoption agency. As part of the adoption proceedings, she obtained a letter of recommendation from Attorney Harrow Stason, minnesota's future governor. Elizabeth adopted a baby girl whose parents and Mary college students could not afford to raise a child. She called her new daughter Jennifer Susan because she liked the name. The two girls couldn't have been more different. So next week we are going to focus on the investigation after the fact that, now that everybody knows that Elizabeth and her nurse had been murdered her by it looks like asphyxiation and her nurse was beat up with a candlestick. So let's see what happened with the investigation and who are the main suspects. Have a great week.
