Matthew J. Prigge

"Milwaukee Mayhem" is like a collection of appetizers on the table of death, mystery and vice. Many of them are spicy and a handful are probably not going to be to your taste, but altogether they form a very satisfying offering.
Most compelling are the stories about death and secrets (there's a chapter on prostitution, alcohol and gambling, which I found only so-so). There are many tales that are heartbreaking, some that are quite odd, tales about politicians and lost love and the occasional show more oddball (like the woman who lived as a man and was even married; unfortunately there's no record of whether those women realized anything was amiss). Because Matthew J. Prigge is such a good writer, these stories, while short, are compelling and seemingly complete. (Sometimes, I admit, I was very frustrated at not being able to know more, as in the case of Isador Seidenbaum, an immigrant from Austria who, at 17, killed himself and the young girl with whom he was in love, with no reason known for the tragedy.)
My only real complaint with the book has to do with photos and art. There are a few images, and often these are captioned with things like, "A house like the one where Smith was killed..." I didn't want "like." I wanted the real thing, and if one wasn't available, I'd rather not see it. I think a bit of digging on the author's part could have turned up a few more images (I found some with a quick online search), though I understand these would be limited because most of the accounts occurred many years ago.
Still, "Milwaukee Mayhem" is a very good read, even for someone - like myself - who has no connection to the city. The book serves as a great reminder of all those curious, usually forgotten people, who left their mark - however small - on history. show less

Many cities have their legendary disasters, remembered both for tragic losses and heroic deeds. Chicago has it 1871 Fire, St. Louis has the Southern Hotel Fire of 1877 that ennobled firefighter Phelim O’Toole as “The Bravest of the Brave”, San Francisco has its 1906 Earthquake and Fire and New York has 9/11. Milwaukee has its 1883 Newhall House Hotel Fire. “Damn Old Tinderbox!” is its story. Although the actual death toll will never be known, it may be America’s greatest in a show more hotel fire.

The story begins in the Milwaukee, then dubbed “Queen of the West”, a growing metropolis rivalling Chicago for dominance in the Midwest. As the city grew in size, commerce and importance, it required a hotel with splendor to match its aspirations. That was the role of the Newhall House hotel, “The Palace of the West”.

Author Matthew J. Prigge commences with a narrative of the development of the city. Its economy driven by the grain trade, early hotels provided basic accommodations, but the need for a Crown Jewel went unmet until the construction of the Newhall House in 1857. During its tenure, it attracted leading travelers. Abraham Lincoln gave a speech there in 1859, General Rufus King first organized the Iron Brigade early in the Civil War, Grand Duke Alexis were hosted in the grand ballroom in 1872 and Charles and Lavinia Stratton, better known as “General Tom Thumb”, were carried out as the Newhall burned.

Although still aspiring to lofty standards, by 1883 the Newhall had passed through several owners, was past its prime and eclipsed by other hostels but still attracted a large and distinguished clientele.

The fateful night was January 10, 1883. Sometime around 3:45 a.m., fire was detected by workers and the fire department. Identified as having started in the elevator shaft, flames and smoke spread throughout the wooden structure. Efforts were hampered by the primitive nature of firefighting science, instructions to notify the manager before anyone else leading to a seventeen-minute delay in notifying guests, and frigid temperatures.

At this point the text evolves into a sequence of anecdotal accounts of ladders that provided means of escape, and others that were just a bit short, guests who jumped to safety and those who crashed to the pavement, those who could not decide whether to risk a jump until flames and smoke made the decision for them and, ultimately rescues and deaths. The magic of the written word transports the reader’s mind’s eye to scenes of horror. Waitress Mary McCauley was awakened to the sound of heavy and fast footsteps. Making her way to the hallway, “It was full of girls rushing madly up and down, crying and screaming.” Firefighter Herman Strauss tore off his helmet and jacket before climbing a ladder to rescue a stranded woman. No one panicked, but all were surrounded by panic.

When the injured were treated, flames were extinguished, bodies recovered and the debris removed the proverbial question arose, “Who done it?” Was it an accident, negligence or arson? Was it the unidentified man whose body was found near the elevator shaft or someone seeking insurance money? At this point the historical narrative morphs into a real-life mystery. No spoilers here. Let us just leave it that there was an arrest and a trial.

Why would anyone want to read “Damn The Old Tinerbox!”? My reasons are several. It is a moving, good story. From an historical perspective, it presents insights into the life of 19th Century Milwaukee and a play-by-play of a major tragedy. While the event is unique to Milwaukee, the themes are universal. Whatever your city, its residents have lived through something like the Newhall fire. Read and appreciate the tale.

I did receive a free copy of this book with9ut an obligation to post a review. show less

Milwaukee Mayhem: Murder and Mystery in the Cream City's First Century
By Matthew J. Prigge
Wisconsin Historical Society Press
Reviewed by Karl Wolff

Beer, Lake Michigan, and the Brewers have made Milwaukee a great Midwestern town. Located on the confluence of Lake Michigan and the Milwaukee River, the Cream City is home to innovation, industry, and sensible zoning controls. At least that's what the boosters will tell visiting conventioneers and investors. But every city has its dark side. show more Milwaukee has had its share of crimes, accidents, and disasters. Milwaukee Mayhem: Murder and Mystery in the Cream City's First Century by Matthew J. Prigge chronicles the lurid underbelly of this American city.

Matthew J. Prigge hosts "What Made Milwaukee Famous," a radio show produced by WMSE, the radio station of the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). He also hosted MONDO Milwaukee boat tours in 2014. His previous books include a history of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and a history of Milwaukee film censorship.

Milwaukee Mayhem divides its brief stories into four categories: Murder, Accidents, Vice, and Secrets. He begins with the famous "Bridge War" of 1845. The last stories come at the tail end of the Second World War. Prigge crafts each tale from newspaper reports from the Milwaukee Journal and the Milwaukee Sentinel, back when the city had two competing newspapers. Most stories are brief and thin on the details, but this is because of the original source material - newspaper clippings - didn't reveal much in the first place. But the point of Milwaukee Mayhem isn't depth, so much as variety. These are random snapshots of the past, stretching from the early nineteenth century to V-E Day. While a more progressive perspective might say this book shows how Milwaukee developed from hardscrabble frontier town to bustling civilized metropolis, more jaded minds might offer a different opinion. Crime, like war, corruption, and hysteria, are eternal. Are we better than our ancestors? Our technology has at least improved. These days America has become barbaric, short-sighted, and vulgar.

Reading Milwaukee Mayhem reminded me of watching City Confidential on A&E. Airing from 1998 to 2005 and narrated by Paul Winfield, it offered lurid stories of murder and corruption in otherwise ordinary cities and towns. Prigge's book offers a good substitute for those seeking a pulpy tabloid read.

Out of 10/9.0

http://www.cclapcenter.com/2017/02/book_review_milwaukee_mayhem_b.html show less

I feel a little bit bad that I signed up to get an advanced copy of this book, because I think it would've been enjoyed a lot more by someone who is from Milwaukee, or that area. I thought it was going to be a book about one famous crime/trial from a bygone time in Milwaukee's past. Turns out, it was a bunch of little stories, one or two pages each, about the history of Milwaukee - that is, a particular kind of history, the dark history of Milwaukee. Mystery, vice, murder, disaster - in show more short, people in all their unglory. But, still, all focused on Milwaukee, which is why I wasn't completely interested in the entire book. But when I would ask myself, "well, would I be enjoying this more if it was about my home area, say, Seattle?", then the answer was - yes, I would! The stories, all true, are just the kind of offbeat, quirky, "growing pains" tales from the underbelly that one finds so fascinating about the place one calls home.

It's a great premise - the author has taken all of these stories straight out of Milwaukee newspapers, as reported at the time, over a period of around one hundred years, more or less from the 1840s to the 1940s. He doesn't reprint the articles from the papers (although I would've loved that as an addition to the book), but recounts them in his own story-telling way, so there is a nice consistency of feel and perspective through the book. His take is, basically, these people's lives and these events, brutal and terrible as they were, made the city of Milwaukee as it is today and are crucial to our understanding of the city, acknowledging, as one reviewer says on the book jacket, that a "city cannot be built on progress and triumph alone."

So, yes, although I think someone from Milwaukee and Wisconsin would enjoy this book much more than I did, I did still enjoy it, especially once I started thinking in the author's "big picture" - about how a city's history makes the city and that city makes us. Even if you're not from Milwaukee, if you enjoy true historical tales that are "too dark to fit in broader histories and too strange to count as nostalgia", you'll enjoy this book. show less