Keepers of the County: Crime and the Anoka County Sheriff's Office

by Vickie Wendel

Keeper's of the County chronicles the changes, development, and leadership of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office throughout its colorful 153-year history. From The comprehensive history describes the cat-and-mouse chases between sheriff’s deputies and bootleggers and rumrunners. It details the bloodshed in the county’s most grizzly and sensational crimes, but it also highlights the day-to-day calls that deputies handled, including the theft of cattle, dogfighting rings and neighbor disputes. In more recent history, the book describes innovation and efficiencies in the Sheriff’s Office that are still in place today. The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office investigates all death and sex crimes in the county and helps with other major investigations as needed. Other highlights from the  Sheriff Thomas Henderson investigated the county’s first recorded homicide in January 1860. After several shots of whiskey, two hunters accused a tavern owner of stealing a mink pelt. The assailants stomped the victim, then used a butcher knife, jack knife, wood ax and a rifle to finish the job.  A notorious cow thief escaped Stillwater prison in 1871 and hid out in Anoka County. The sheriff organized a search party in the dark of night to find the daring criminal and bring him to justice.  Anoka marshal and former sheriff’s deputy P.E. Russell arrested 25 women active in the temperance movement for gathering for devotion and prayers in front of an Anoka saloon in 1874. Jurors deliberating the case demanded to see where the women were arrested. Eight of the 12 jurors stopped into the saloon for a drink before returning to the courtroom.  During World War I, Sheriff U.S. Red Pratt organized the “Safe Guard of Anoka County” to stamp out meetings of “seditious or disloyal elements” and the armed civilian “automobile posse” to chase down the criminal element entering the county from Minneapolis. More than 100 automobile owners joined the posse.

367 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2013