MURDERS IN MORRISON COUNTY

MURDERS IN MORRISON COUNTY

"The Story of Sheriff John Stack and Chief Deputy Andrew Herlitz"

 

If you threw a dart at the center of Minnesota, you'd likely hit Morrison County.  Focused on agriculture and tourism, this was your typical rural MN county- where families and kids felt safe and crime was low back in the mid 60s. Sheriff John Stack and Chief Deputy Andrew Herlitz ran a patrol crew of four along with the county jail.  Their kids tell stories of playing outside the jail, even playing board games inside the jail with inmates.  It's really an interesting story of how back in the day, the entire family was involved - from cooking, to cleaning, even taking emergency phone calls. This community would change forever on October 15th when the Sheriff's Office received a call requesting assistance mediating a dispute between farmers. While some calls like this can seem routine for rural law enforcement, this call would remind this small tight knit community that no call is routine. These two heroes responded to the farm - they'd dealt with this farmer before and felt they had a good rapport with him. In the end, the county's top two law enforcement officials were ambushed and murdered leaving behind two grieving families and a stunned community asking how could this happen in Morrison County?

 

Nearly 60 years later, the children from both families help us tell the story of these two amazing heroes, the impact they made on this community, and the legacy that continues today.

 

We have several family pictures, newspaper articles, and evidence photos on these heroes respective websites on our page:

https://www.officerdownmemorialpodcast.com/john-stack

https://www.officerdownmemorialpodcast.com/andrew-herlitz

 

 

This episode is sponsored by our friends at .css-j9qmi7{display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-flex-direction:row;-ms-flex-direction:row;flex-direction:row;font-weight:700;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:2.8rem;width:100%;-webkit-box-pack:start;-ms-flex-pack:start;-webkit-justify-content:start;justify-content:start;padding-left:5rem;}@media only screen and (max-width: 599px){.css-j9qmi7{padding-left:0;-webkit-box-pack:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;justify-content:center;}}.css-j9qmi7 svg{fill:#27292D;}.css-j9qmi7 .eagfbvw0{-webkit-align-items:center;-webkit-box-align:center;-ms-flex-align:center;align-items:center;color:#27292D;}