Landmark Center - Tours / Volunteer

A Property of Ramsey County
75 West 5th Street // Saint Paul // 651.292.3233

Gangsters Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, Doc Barker and John Dillinger made St. Paul their “safe house” during the 1930s, a place to hole up and regroup. When crimes committed on the streets initiated the fall of the old “O’Connor” system, many were brought to justice and tried in Landmark Center, the former Federal Courts Building. As the movie “Public Enemies” hits the big screen, take time out to explore this notorious era in St. Paul’s past and the interplay of crime and justice that occurred on the streets and in the halls and courtrooms of the capital city.

PLEASE RSVP TO KATE @ Kthompson@landmarkcenter.org or 651-292-3063
for all lectures and trial reenactments.

JULY 10 | 12pm | FREE
Author Lecture - Bryan Burrough, Public Enemies
F.K. Weyerhaeuser Auditorium

The “Public Enemies: A Retrospective” events kick-off with a presentation by acclaimed author Bryan Burrough of the best selling Public Enemies: America’s Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34 – which has been made into a new movie starring Johnny Depp. Bring a bag lunch and enjoy! Burrough examines the stories of Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, the Barker-Karpis Gang, Machine Gun Kelly, and Bonnie and Clyde as a single narrative history of the FBI’s “War on Crime” from 1933 to 1936. For Burrough, the story is about the bureaucratic evolution of the FBI from a bungling group of amateurs to a professional crime-fighting organization. Burrough’s central aim is to reclaim the history for the individual FBI agents involved.

JULY 11th | 10am-4pm | FREE
“Public Enemies: A Retrospective” Exhibit & Memorabilia Evaluation
Courtroom 317

Authentic artifacts from the St. Paul Police Historical Society and regional collectors will be on display in Landmark Center’s historic courtroom 326, including John Dillinger’s “hit list” and Dillinger henchman Homer van Meter’s straw brim hat, worn when he was gunned down in St. Paul. Share gangster era stories on tape, collected for historical purposes. Bring in your own police memorabilia or gangster-related item, and local historians and collectors will help evaluate them for authenticity and historical significance.

JULY 14th

Dillinger's Moll: The Trial of Evelyn "Billie" Frechette
F.K. Weyerhaeuser Auditorium

In 1934, John Dillinger’s girlfriend, Evelyn “Billie” Frechette, was put on trial, accused of having knowledge of a federal warrant for Dillinger and harboring a criminal. Coinciding with the Hollywood release of the movie “Public Enemies” starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, Landmark Center presents a reenactment of Frechette’s trial, featuring top Minnesota attorneys and a Minnesota Supreme Court justice. A discussion panel will immediately follow the reenactment, which – together with the reenactment - will fulfill 2 CLE credits.

To enroll in either the live CLE event at Landmark Center or the live webcast on July 14, visit the registration page on West LegalEdcenter. Click here to enroll.

JULY 15th & 16th | 7pm | FREE
Trial Reenactment of Evelyn "Billie" Frechette
F.K. Weyerhaeuser Auditorium

Watch as noted Twin Cities attorneys and judges team up to recreate the 1934 trial of Dillinger’s girlfriend Evelyn Frechette, in the very building in which it occurred. The cast includes Associate Justice Paul H. Anderson of the Minnesota Supreme Court, Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Jennifer J. Hasbargen, Professor Doug Heidenreich, the longest-serving member of the William Mitchell School of Law faculty, and James Patrick Barone, Assistant Attorney General for Minnesota.

Frechette was charged and convicted of harboring a notorious criminal, public enemy #1 John Dillinger. Narrated by Dillinger and based on the original trial transcript, the trial reenactment illustrates the ability of the gangster world to draw in people on the fringe of it. The trial reenactment is sponsored by Thomson West LegalEdcenter, which will Webcast the event to attorneys nationwide.

A reception will follow both nights of the trial reenactments with the “Public Enemies” exhibit on display (6pm-10pm).

JULY 28th | 7pm | FREE
Joint Author Lecture on Gangland History: Paul Maccabee and Ellen Poulson
F.K. Weyerhaeuser Auditorium

Paul Maccabee, author of the crime history book John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks’ Tour of Crime and Corruption in Saint Paul, will reveal the secrets of America’s most notorious outlaws Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, Babyface Nelson, John Dillinger, Ma Barker, “Machine Gun” Kelly and Bugsy Siegel all of whom lived in St. Paul during the public enemies era of the 1930s. Paul has been featured in three A & E Cable TV specials and in the History Channel’s TV documentary, “Crime Wave.”

Joining Maccabee will be Ellen Poulsen, author of Don’t Call Us Molls: Women of the John Dillinger Gang. Paulsen hails from New York City, where she has received the Sandra Schor and Helen Viljoen Awards for Non-Fiction. Don’t Call Us Molls reflects 15 years of research and a lifelong interest in John Dillinger.

Ramsey County Historical Society Self-Guided Walking Gangster Tours (ongoing)
Pick up a map and guide at Landmark Center's Information Center to explore the former Saint Paulstomping grounds of Al Capone, John Dillinger, Babyface Nelson, Roger "the Terrible" Touhy, Machine Gun Kelly, Alvin "Creepy" Karpis, and the Barker gang, whose activities extended to robbing banks, holding up mail trucks and trains, and kidnapping.

“Uncle Sam Worked Here” Building Exhibition (ongoing)
Learn about the people and the stories behind Landmark Center’s magnificent façade by exploring the “Uncle Sam Worked Here” exhibition. FBI G-men, the Courts and the notorious gangsters themselves all show up as part of Landmark Center’s story. Exhibit guide available at Landmark Center's Information Center.

Building and Gangster Tours (ongoing)
To reserve your space please call Diane Lewis 651.292.3230

Landmark Center offers public and private tours that range from a broad presentation of the building's history and its beautifully restored courtrooms and Cortile, to tours tailored to the specific needs of the groups or individuals taking the tour.

Our Gangster Tours are enhanced by costumed guides who adopt the personae of the infamous gangsters who resided in St. Paul during the 1930s and whose path took them (perhaps unwillingly) into the Federal Court House (now Landmark Center). Guides tell of their “lives as gangsters” and how the criminal justice system functioned during that era. Told with humor, accuracy and liveliness, these tours educate about the life and times of people like “Ma” Barker, Alvin “Creepy” Karpis, John Dillinger and his moll Evelyn Freschette, and more. Many of them were held in our third floor Detention Room, were tried in Courtroom 317, or faced down J. Edgar Hoover's G-men on the front steps.

Special thanks to the Office of Councilmember Dave Thune, Neighborhood STAR funds and Paul Maccabee for his tireless effort in making these programs possible.