Back Then with Tracy Briggs

Four reasons the Midwest is fascinated by gangsters

Wed Mar 22 06:05:00 EDT 2023

Over the last three weeks, Inforum published “The Capones of North Dakota,” a look at the famous gangster connections to the upper Midwest. After the stories ran, you surprised us.

See more from Tracy Briggs at https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs

Did this cabin on Little Bemidji Lake once belong to Al Capone?

Wed Mar 15 05:05:00 EDT 2023

Rumors have circulated for 100 years that Capone was a Minnesota lake lover and friend to the owner of East Grand Forks "Whiteys" bar. But is it fact or fiction?

Read more from Tracy Briggs at https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs

A small-town waitress in North Dakota recalled the night she served steak to Al Capone

Wed Mar 08 05:04:00 EST 2023

Stella Hildre was only a teenager when the gun-toting gangsters “in fine clothes” asked her to lock the doors of her family's cafe and serve them dinner. It became a night she'd never forget.

Read more from Tracy Briggs here: https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs.

In the 1920s, a lawman in North Dakota had a dark secret - He was Al Capone’s brother

Wed Mar 01 07:02:00 EST 2023

Sometimes called “the white sheep” of the family, what would make Vincenzo Capone choose to fight the booze trade that was making his little brother Al the most powerful gangster in the world?

For more from Tracy Briggs, visit: https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs

Mourning the loss of our HASH jeans, leisure suits and other vintage favorites

Wed Feb 22 05:39:00 EST 2023

Did you once have an item of clothing that made you feel like a million bucks? Where did it go? And why the heck did you get rid of it?

See more from Tracy Briggs at https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs

This Clay County pioneer was a handsome, hard-working man with a prickly side

Wed Feb 15 06:36:00 EST 2023

The Probstfield name is well known in Moorhead. Now a new book digs deeper into the lives of Catherine Probstfield and her 'difficult' husband Randolph.

Read more from Tracy Briggs at https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs.

During WWII, North Dakota kids traded in their Valentines to help the war effort, while adults sent Camels

Wed Feb 08 07:32:00 EST 2023

On Valentine's Day 1942, the war was less than three months old, but children were already in the fight.

Read this and more from Tracy Briggs at inforum.com/tracy-briggs.

After battling the Great Chicago Fire this N.D. governor became a swashbuckling pirate

Wed Feb 01 07:41:00 EST 2023

Fred Fancher also survived North Dakota’s deadliest blizzard, wrote the state constitution, and became a multimillionaire businessman.

Check out more stories from Tracy Briggs at https://www.inforum.com/tracy-briggs

Saying goodbye to 'one of the greatest women you’ll ever meet'

Wed Jan 25 06:15:00 EST 2023

Esther Allen, 88, died Dec. 18, 2022 in Moorhead after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. She paved the way for generations of women, including me.

Amelia Earhart ate dinner with a local family after being stranded at the Fargo airport

Wed Jan 18 08:29:00 EST 2023

A former Fargo woman said her pilot father once brought the great aviator home for supper and a night of incredible stories.