Noah Voss - Mysterious Madison: Unsolved Crimes, Strange Creatures & Bizarre Happenstance

The official City of Madison flag design, accepted on April 12, 1962, by two Madison Boy Scouts, Dennis and Richard Stone. Image courtesy of Alan De Smet.

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2011 by Noah Voss

All rights reserved

Front cover: A man rows a boat on Lake Monona, 1894. WHS-2123; Madison State Capitol and a blindfolded statue. Courtesy of Martin Saunders; A map from 1911, showing West Madison (the capitol is on the right, a large square with a dark X). WHS-41578.

First published 2011

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.192.6

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Voss, Noah.

Mysterious Madison : unsolved crimes, strange creatures and bizarre happenstance / Noah Voss.

p. cm.

print edition ISBN 978-1-60949-369-1

1. Madison (Wis.)--Miscellanea. 2. Madison (Wis.)--History--Anecdotes. 3. Haunted places--Wisconsin--Madison. 4. Curiosities and wonders--Wisconsin--Madison. I. Title.

F589.M157V67 2011

977.583--dc23

2011030025

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Born in Madison and raised there until the age of eight, I grew up steeped in the weird aura of Wisconsins capital. My dentists window opened on Capitol Square, and I could see the gold statue of the lady with the badger hat on her head as my teeth were being drilled. At my elementary school, we had to sing an anthem to our cityMy heart is in Madison, M-A-D-I-S-O-Nalong with saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Even though my parents later moved us away, the city had charmed us so deeply that we returned whenever possible. Our hearts really were there.

It was with extra delight, then, that I learned that my friend Noah Voss had written a book devoted to Madisons twilight side, with all the parts that normal history books leave out. Make no mistake, this is historyjust not the dull kind. Ghosts of early settlers flutter and moan, lake serpents writhe, trance mediums unionize, mob neighborhoods offer legends that no one can refuse. UFOs zip and glow in the Madison skies, ancient effigy mounds persist in their enigmatic animal shapes and a tuberculosis sanatorium engenders more spooky stories than cures. A lion stalks in daylight.

All of these anomalous gems and more demand the readers full engagement with things that otherwise might escape notice. I urge you to allow Vosss well-researched tales to whisk you around the lesser-known alleys and avenues of Mad Town until you catch the nebulous scent of Madisons true nature. Perhaps you will even find that Madisons telltale heart is now in you.

Linda Godfrey

Wisconsinite Linda Godfrey is the author of Strange Wisconsin, Monsters of Wisconsin and many other books on strange and eccentric subjects.

PREFACE

I developed several goals when I was approached to write this book. Mystery lovers will, no doubt, love the mysterious occurrences outlined within these pages at any time of year. I also wrote with the aim of creating a perfect Halloween pairing for the reader, holding only seasonal interest. As I researched and wrote potential entries, a few screamed to my mental movie machinealone on a dark and stormy October night. I could see a faceless stranger on a nameless street. The storm deafeningly sounds across the city and has driven all but the boldest indoors. The hypnotically repetitive rain is occasionally populated with decaying, dying and once-dry leaves. They leap back to life only when the chilled wind whips. The storm is the perfect cover for the next mystery-in-the-making. Any sounds of screams are softened by the crack of thunder and the drowning of drops. While not all of the mysteries contained herein are dark, there are some that evoke that imagery to me.

The final goal I had with these documented but unexplained reports was for the avid researcher and investigator to be able to use them in his or her own quest for unequivocally quantifiable answers to some of lifes greatest questions. No small feats, only big mysteries. Some of these cases are hundreds of years old. Others fall into more recent history of the last few years.

I have traveled through all but a few states in the United States on my own adventures into the unknown. My current perspective has evolved from over two decades of research and investigation, including learning from those with college-level degrees in parapsychology. By now, I must have traveled through thousands of locations with purported unexplained events connected to them, including numerous international destinations. Sometimes I find myself exploring more than twenty states in a single year. I have had the good fortune to have so many travels, creating a variety of life experiences to draw from regarding the mysteries of events and people. I approach any new legend with the goal of keeping an open and objective mind. On one hand, I always take great effort to approach any mystery without my own predisposed assumptions from past experiences. On the other hand, what I have learned in the last few decades has helped me to remain efficient in my research and investigation and even to stay on the side of calculated riskwhich side varies from case to case. This is difficult to balance with the important lessons Ive learned through investigating so many locations.

Trying to keep from simply substantiating ones own belief system is a difficult task. At the same time, it is nearly impossible to know for sure if one is ever accomplishing said task successfully. This is reminiscent of the observer paradox found in experimental science. The openness to willingly change my stance in the face of new data is something Ive always been conscious of. I cling to no one belief so strongly that it blinds me to new information when discovered. During my research and investigation into these mysteries you are about to read, I approached them and disseminated the information in writing in the same vein. I will present the events as neutrally and factually as possible so you might make your own educated decisions. Of course, where I softly include my own perspective, I make clear that it is my own opinion in order to afford those less traveled the opportunity to view the mystery relative to my experiences.

I have called the Madison area home now for over a decade, so it is only fitting that I take the skills Ive acquired through my international adventures and apply them to mysteries in Madison. I hope that you not only enjoy your time becoming engrossed in the following mysteries but also pick up where I leave off. Take any constructive motivations you might find inside this book and apply them to getting out there and trying to uncover new clues to the mysteries. If we are lucky, perhaps youll be the next to find the final clue solving a great local mystery. I hope to read of your successful sleuthing in the local newspaper or hear of your mystery-solving exploits on the radiomaybe even watch your news interview on how you solved it.