This Datebook contains accounts of historical events, including disturbing crimes and incidents. Some content may be unsettling or graphic in nature and is presented for historical and educational purposes.
On this date in 1969, a shocking and grisly crime unfolded in the wee hours of Halloween morning. Various rumors began circulating in Wahpeton, spawning different local legends of the Halloween Horror. Two local college boys, entranced by a go-go dancer, had participated in a ghoulish deed. Initial reports on radio left room for speculation about the particulars of the incident. Kids at school heard versions including a headless corpse found by the Indian School barn. This version persisted in memory even after newspaper accounts came out. A later legend said the cursed college boys were killed in Vietnam, with their heads blown off. In fact, one of the young men did serve but returned in one piece, though mentally affected.
Newspapers reported the two young men had gone to the old Oasis bar, which featured a go-go dancer. They struck up an acquaintance with the dancer and left with her when the bar closed. The trio traveled to White Rock, South Dakota, on their drinking spree. There, they went to the cemetery and dug up a recent grave from its wooden vault. The dead man's head was recovered several days later at a vacant farm near Breckenridge, Minnesota, across the river from Wahpeton.
The trio were arrested for "wanton or malicious removal of all or part of a dead body" and scheduled for court in Roberts County, South Dakota. They requested a change of venue because of "excess publicity," which was not granted. The trio pleaded guilty to desecrating a grave, were placed on probation, and ordered to pay $1,090 in court costs. The judge ordered each of the defendants to serve "voluntary" terms in the Roberts County jail to pay $2.50 a day for room and board. The defendants were portrayed as "young people" learning a lesson from their horrible "prank." Many citizens were outraged at the lax sentence. "If they were old enough to go-go dance and drink in a bar, they were old enough to go to prison for what they did," said one elder recalling the incident.
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- Mrs. Frazier recollection. Elder interviews, Lise Erdrich.
- Plead Guilty of Grave Disturbance. The Farmer Globe, April 27, 1970, Page 1
- Three are Sentenced in Grave Desecration Case. The Farmer Globe, June 15, 1970, Page 1
