Turtle Lake, North Dakota: The Wolf Family Murders of 1920

Turtle Lake, North Dakota. April 24th, 1920, a farmhouse three miles north of Turtle Lake, North Dakota. In a small bedroom, an eight-month-old baby girl has been crying for two days straight. She's soaked through her diaper, soiled, weakening from hunger and cold, but no one comes to feed her. In the kitchen, by all accounts, five bodies are piled in the root cellar beneath a trapdoor. The mother, the oldest daughter, three younger children, a hired boy, shotgun wounds, hatchet wounds, blood everywhere.

TIMELINE
1920: April 24th, 1920, a farmhouse three miles north of Turtle Lake, North Dakota.
1925: In June 1925, Layer developed appendicitis.
2003: Emma Wolf Hanson lived until 2003.

WHY THIS MATTERS
The story of Turtle Lake is a reminder that the events that shaped America didn't always happen in the biggest cities. What unfolded here left marks on the community that are still visible today. The full story is more complicated, and more human, than the version most people know.

Episode 183 | Hometown History | Hosted by Shane Waters

If you liked this: Episode 169 (Wahpeton, North Dakota)

Hometown History explores forgotten stories from small-town America. The overlooked events, hidden triumphs, and buried tragedies that shaped the country we live in. New episodes every Tuesday. Find every episode at mythsandmalice.com/hometown-history

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