A Murder on the Hill

A
murder of a white woman in a historic neighborhood of a Midwestern capital city
becomes sensationalized by the Depression-era press for rumored interracial sex
work. The unsolved case files provide an important and surprising record of
working class lives even as they invite readers' own conclusions to the mystery.

At
7:00 a. m. on December 9, 1937, St.
Paul firefighters battling an arsonist's fire in the abandoned Aberdeen Hotel
discovered the badly burned body of a woman.
The victim was soon identified as 31-year-old Ruth Munson, a waitress at
the Union Depot a "small-town girl” who had moved to the big city in search of
a new life.

Using
original police records, Ruth's own diary and letters, newspaper accounts,
public documents, and other primary sources, author Roger Barr meticulously retraces
the investigation, as detectives examined Ruth's background, work history,
relationships, and social life in search of clues to her killer. As they looked
into her sexual relationships, the detectives uncovered hints of Ruth's secret,
double life, which included legal but culturally taboo connections with Black
men. Despite years of searching, police never caught the murderer. Their work
was met with mistrust, silence, and denial among both white and Black people.
Barr provides a careful examination of the missed opportunities, secrets, and
racism that hampered the investigation.

Rich
in period detail and fascinating anecdotes, A Murder on the Hill constructs
a procedural investigation worthy of a high-profile case. Readers see for
themselves what it is like to winnow important information from a flow of
rumors, tips, and leads. What emerges is a remarkable view of a a racially and
economically divided time in the not-too-distant past. The murder of a working-class
white woman in a Midwestern city was sensationalized by journalists due to racial
prejudice; as a result, the historical record offers glimpses into the lives of
dozens of individuals whose story might have otherwise been ignored all like
Ruth trying to scratch out a living in a Depression-ridden, segregated city.