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THE MURDER OF ALVIN MARSHALL AND IT'S HUMBIRD TIES
- Matt Hawkes
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Did you know that at one point our town and our property were part of a notorious murder?
It was Monday August 31, 1931 when Alvin Marshall, State Annuity Appraiser left his house in New Lisbon, WI to make his rounds as a property assessor. He carried with him $1200 in annuity checks from the State Dept for any payments he may have to give out and several traveler’s checks for his expenses while on the road. His first appointment was to meet with a farmer in Eau Galle. He kissed his wife goodbye, jumped into his Coupe de ville and headed out to make his rounds. He didn’t keep that appointment and never reached the farm that day.
The next day, Marshall’s car was found burned and charred off a farm road outside Farmington, MN. The car had been doused in gasoline and ignited. Inside the car, authorities found an axe, a shovel, and a hammer. The license plate had been smashed beyond being legible. Nonetheless, police were able to trace the car back to the dealership it had been purchased from – Robinson’s in New Lisbon, and eventually to Alvin S Marshall. However, Alvin was nowhere to be found.
Governor Philip F LaFollette of WI was so alarmed by the disappearance of his state employee, he personally assigned Police Chief William H McCormick of Madison as a special investigator. Between the chief, his men and friends of Marshall, they scoured the roads between Farmington and Humbird looking for Marshall, and also as far down south as LaCrosse. Just when they were about to give up, two men noticed a strange break in the woods off Hwy 93 five miles south of Eau Claire. Upon investigating, they found Marshall’s body on Thursday September 4th in the woods. His head had been bashed in and he had been shot four times: once in the head, the chest, the right side of his body and his left hand. His body had been stripped of all his clothes and the $1200 he carried in checks were gone.
Soon, police received reports of someone pretending to be Marshall who was attempting to pass the checks held in Marshall’s possession at various establishments. These reports allowed authorities to trace Marshall’s movements back to the last known place he was seen alive: THE HUMBIRD HOTEL BAR AND GRILL.
Police stitched together that soon after leaving his home in New Lisbon, Marshall was seen picking up a passenger on the side of the road. This was witnessed by a young girl and was assumed that Marshall picked up a hitchhiker. Then at 11am on Monday August 31, 1931, Alvin Marshall rolled into the Humbird gas station with his passenger in tow. Gas attendant Jack W. Lawrence made special note of Marshall’s companion, due to his stand-offish behavior. The two then stopped into THE HUMBIRD Hotel Bar and Grill and ate dinner (lunch) together. Owner George Lastofka noted at the time that Marshall not only paid for both gentlemen’s meals, he purchased cigars for both before leaving. That was the last time anyone saw Alvin S Marshall alive.
The reports of someone attempting to pass checks as Marshall came in from a gas station in Baldwin, WI, a restaurant in Hudson, WI and another filling station in St. Paul, MN. The gas station clerk in St. Paul reported the man was looking for the nearest railroad depot. These reports caused authorities to focus on the location of where Marshall’s car was found in Farmington, MN and the nearest possible suspect: Otto E Wade.
Otto Wade was a 29 year old Farmington man with a known criminal history and a penchant for hitchhiking. He had been employed with a road construction crew that had worked in both MN and WI, so he was familiar with the Western WI area. Within a matter of days, on September 12, 1931 authorities had a warrant out for Wade and the manhunt was on.
Two days later on September 14th, Wade was found working on a farm in Winfield, KS. He was immediately arrested and taken into custody. Chief McCormick himself went down to Winfield to extradite Wade back to WI and stand trial. However, there was a snag in all that.
According to authorities in KS, the case against Wade was flimsy at best. Wade claimed he had been employed at the farm in Winfield for months and hadn’t set foot in the Humbird/Eau Claire area for years. He had his alibi backed up by locals and relatives. In examining the evidence McCormick had complied, KS authorities found too many variations in eye witness statements. For example, the gas station attendant in Humbird and the witnesses in Hudson said the man had sandy hair and a fair complexion. The gas station attendant in St Paul reported a man with black hair and dark complexion. These conflicting identification reports didn’t sit well with the KS authorities. Two days later on September 16th, they exonerated Otto Wade of all suspicion and released him from custody. No one else was ever arrested or charged with Alvin Marshall’s murder.
This case not only prompted changes by the WI governor in how state employees conducted themselves in their positions, but spurned an anti-hitchhiking battle in MN. The MN state police chief, Earle Brown, treated hitchhiking as a crime after this case and other reported cases of hitchhikers holding people at gunpoint surfaced during this time. They began arresting anyone in suspicion of trying to get a free ride.
But was Alvin Marshall killed by a hitchhiker that disappeared into the pages of history? Some of the evidence that was disregarded by authorities in the official narrative forces us to ask that question and even consider this was perhaps a mob hit. Here are some of the nuances we uncovered in our research:
The witness that saw Alvin Marshall pick up his passenger was a child. Children are not known to be the most credible witnesses. She didn’t know Marshall personally or his passenger and it was assumed by police to be a hitchhiker.
Sheriff Elmer Hempleman of Juneau County publicly stated he didn’t believe the killer was a hitchhiker. He claimed to personally know Marshall and stated he wasn’t someone who would pick up a stranger, much less buy him dinner and a cigar in the course of executing his position. He firmly believed Marshall knew his killer.
Two other men were arrested in connection to the killing, but were released once the warrant for Wade was issued. A man in Wausau, WI and another in Crandon, WI were also caught attempting to pass the traveler’s checks and annuity checks carried by Marshall. These leads were never followed up on. In addition, another man being held in Hennepin County Jail in Minneapolis was also suspected of having some of Marshall’s checks in his possession. These other men lead us to believe this act was conducted by a group of people versus one man.
The way the victim was killed is also revealing that more than one person was involved. It is rare for perpetrators to use more than one form of violence. The fact that Marshall was bludgeoned and also shot would be “overkill” for one person, but makes more sense with at least two people involved.
During this timeframe, a lesser known but highly violent mob gang made their way up from Kansas to St. Paul. They were known as the Barker-Karpis Gang, and were ruthless. They specialized in bank robbing, but liked to supplement their income by kidnapping people, robbing them or even holding them for ransom. Their exploits included kidnapping William Hamm Jr. of the Hamm’s Brewery and Edward Bremer who was associated with the Schmidt Breweries. Therefore, grabbing high profile victims was not something they were shy about doing. It is possible members of this group had a hand in Marshall’s demise.
Otto Wade’s background….rumor had it that Wade had spent time in a Kansas prison. It is possible that while in there he became connected to the Barker-Karpis Gang and was indeed a part of the murder of Marshall, but his connections got him off the hook.
Multiple other cases of hitchhiking crimes surfaced during this time across the state of MN. Reports came in from Rochester all the way to Mankato suggesting that an organized ring of attackers was committing these crimes, again pointing back to the Barker-Karpis gang that infiltrated the area.
In summary, the mystery of THE UNSOLVED COLD CASE OF ALVIN S MARSHALL – STATE ANNUITY APPRAISER has disappeared into the pages of newspaper history and has never been re-opened. All we know for certain is that he enjoyed his last meal at our establishment and a nice cigar before meeting his tragic ending. This case garnered national attention and put Humbird in the spotlight, altered WI state employment policies, changed laws in MN, and this is the first time we’ve ever heard about it!
We must wonder though….considering this was the last place anyone saw him alive, is it possible that Alvin is one of our permanent residents looking for justice? We hope to find out….and we hope to continue to uncover more lost history of our property and of Humbird!
Sources Listed: Appleton Post Crescent, LaCrosse Tribune and Leader Press, The Madison Wisconsin State Journal, The Manitowoc Herald News, Moorhead Daily News, Racine Journal News, Winona Republican Herald, and Find a Grave.
