In the 1920s, Michael Grenlund was a well-known tailor in Minneapolis with a thriving business.
Around noon on Monday, December 23, 1929, his badly-battered body, along with that of his pet bulldog, was found in his tailor shop at 741 Adams Street Northeast. From the condition of the bodies, it was believed that the murders would have occurred on the evening of Saturday, December 21st.
Immediately, the Minneapolis Police Department’s Bertillon expert Ray Harrington, Detective Frank Munson, and Detective William O’Rourke were on the case.
Mr. Grenlund’s shop had been ransacked. The detectives methodically examined and finger-printed objects in his workrooms and living quarters that might have been handled by the murderer in the hopes of finding a clue to his or her identity.
They found cigarette ashes in the kitchen which were thought to be those of the murderer because Mr. Grenlund did not smoke and only rarely since his divorce 15 years earlier was known to have visitors to his living quarters.
The detectives subjected a stained hammer to chemical tests and after more closely examining the head wound ruled out the hammer as the instrument of murder and determined that Mr. Grenlund’s head wound was likely caused by the butt of a pistol.
The detectives interviewed scores of neighbors but were unable to develop any meaningful leads. They had two suspects: one a man who was thought to have recently robbed two businesses in the neighborhood; and the other a man who had been hanging around the tailor shop and then disappeared after the murder of Mr. Grenlund. In the end, the evidence around both men was found to be circumstantial.
Based upon the disappearance of a diamond ring, detectives believed that robbery was the motive for the crime. After the diamond ring was found in a glass in a cupboard six months later by the new owner of the building, robbery was ruled out as a motive.
After some time, the case went cold and today the murder of Michael Grenlund remains an unsolved mystery.
Top photograph of crowd gathering outside Michael Grenlund’s tailor shop after the discovery of his body courtesy of Hennepin County Library