Name: The Thirteenth Crime: Buried Stories from Otter Tail County
Start: 2025-10-21T18:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-10-21T19:30:00-05:00
Location: 205 E. Hampden Ave., Fergus Falls, MN, United States, Minnesota 56537

The Thirteenth Crime: Buried Stories from Otter Tail County

Learn about thirteen crimes committed in historic Otter Tail County, culminating in the murder of Lillie Field. Join author Janet Preus as she examines the meaning of justice on the Minnesota frontier.
Told with a reporter’s eye for story and a sleuth’s nose for the incriminating detail, “The Thirteenth Crime” is a collection of stories, connected by their crimes, about how a rural county in frontier America dealt with violence and death, the free press, harassment and abuse, mental health, grief, alcoholism and drug use, skilled defense attorneys, ethnic loyalties, population growth, and the ghosts—real or imagined—that haunt us to this day.
Janet Preus is a writer, editor, playwright, songwriter, and a theater producer and director based in northern Minnesota’s lake country. She has a musical, several essays, a children’s book series with songs, and many trade magazine articles published. “The Thirteenth Crime” is her first book.