New book revisits 68-year-old case of three missing Minneapolis boys
By Curt Brown
OCTOBER 20, 2019
KLEIN FAMILY PHOTO
a family devastated The Klein family in 1950 on their north Minneapolis porch: From the left, Kenneth Jr., Betty, Gordon, Kenneth, Danny and David. The three younger boys, Kenneth Jr., Danny and David, vanished in 1951.
It was Saturday, and Gordon Klein’s three younger brothers wanted to go to Fairview Park, four blocks from their north Minneapolis home. Gordon, age 9, first wanted to fix his knife sheath, so he told them he’d meet them later under a big oak at the park.
When Gordon got to the park, his brothers were nowhere to be found. He searched the playground. No trace. They had vanished.
Police and Boy Scouts searched door to door, using a dog to track the boys’ movements. Nothing. Three days later, a railroad worker spotted two of the boys’ plaid woolen caps on the Mississippi River ice near the St. Anthony Falls dam. Police ruled the case an accidental drowning.
After Nov. 10, 1951, Gordon never again saw 8-year-old Kenneth Jr., 6-year-old David and 4-year-old Danny. His guilt would consume him for the next 68 years, according to Minneapolis author Jack El-Hai’s new book, “The Lost Brothers: A Family’s Decades-Long Search.”
“As the oldest, Gordon always considered himself the boss of the brothers,” writes El-Hai, who has tracked the case for more than 20 years. “It pained him to think about his missing siblings. He wished he hadn’t stayed home fixing his crappy old knife sheath, and he replayed the tragic day’s events in his head.
“Go with them, he urged himself in his reimagining. Be there at their side. Whatever happened to his brothers, he knew it wouldn’t have happened if he had just walked to the park with them.”
Though El-Hai’s book and a companion TPT podcast focus on the missing Klein boys, Gordon becomes the story’s central character, keeping the heartache of an old tragedy painfully alive...
LINK:
New book revisits 68-year-old case of three missing Minneapolis boys
By Curt Brown
OCTOBER 20, 2019
KLEIN FAMILY PHOTO
a family devastated The Klein family in 1950 on their north Minneapolis porch: From the left, Kenneth Jr., Betty, Gordon, Kenneth, Danny and David. The three younger boys, Kenneth Jr., Danny and David, vanished in 1951.
It was Saturday, and Gordon Klein’s three younger brothers wanted to go to Fairview Park, four blocks from their north Minneapolis home. Gordon, age 9, first wanted to fix his knife sheath, so he told them he’d meet them later under a big oak at the park.
When Gordon got to the park, his brothers were nowhere to be found. He searched the playground. No trace. They had vanished.
Police and Boy Scouts searched door to door, using a dog to track the boys’ movements. Nothing. Three days later, a railroad worker spotted two of the boys’ plaid woolen caps on the Mississippi River ice near the St. Anthony Falls dam. Police ruled the case an accidental drowning.
After Nov. 10, 1951, Gordon never again saw 8-year-old Kenneth Jr., 6-year-old David and 4-year-old Danny. His guilt would consume him for the next 68 years, according to Minneapolis author Jack El-Hai’s new book, “The Lost Brothers: A Family’s Decades-Long Search.”
“As the oldest, Gordon always considered himself the boss of the brothers,” writes El-Hai, who has tracked the case for more than 20 years. “It pained him to think about his missing siblings. He wished he hadn’t stayed home fixing his crappy old knife sheath, and he replayed the tragic day’s events in his head.
“Go with them, he urged himself in his reimagining. Be there at their side. Whatever happened to his brothers, he knew it wouldn’t have happened if he had just walked to the park with them.”
Though El-Hai’s book and a companion TPT podcast focus on the missing Klein boys, Gordon becomes the story’s central character, keeping the heartache of an old tragedy painfully alive...
LINK:
New book revisits 68-year-old case of three missing Minneapolis boys
