The CBS Radio True Detective Mysteries featured the “Coffey Case” episodes in the early 1930s. William Coffey murdered Hattie Hales, his second wife, of Elroy. The episodes would play up the “Berlin System” invented by then Juneau County Sheriff Lyall Wright who hoodwinked Coffey into believing a guilty person would lose weight daily. After days of being weighed by Wright who conned him into believing countless pounds were lost, Coffey confessed to the crime. Hattie’s dismembered body was located near the southern state line.
The April 17, 1930, headlines in the local papers blared out the news of the murder of District Attorney Clinton G. Price, Ex-Sheriff Lyall Wright being held. Vernon Wright, Sr., Juneau County Clerk of Court, father of Lyall, announced in a few weeks, enough signers secured for his son’s $40,000 bond to have him released from jail. The October 9, 1930, issue of Juneau County’s newspapers proclaimed “Wright acquitted of the ambush slaying of D.A. Clinton Price.”
This case remains unsolved.
On May 13, 1930, business men of New Lisbon announced, “Free Talkie Shows” at the Home Theatre later in the month. Town kids, younger than age 16, were required to attend the afternoon matinee so there would be room in the evening for country kids and out of towners. More than 1,300 attended the show more than 90 years ago.
December 1930 ended on a sad note for Juneau County when two boys were killed by a hit-and-run driver. Howard Mortensen, 11, and his brother Gerald 7, had stayed after school in New Lisbon to practice basketball, and a rehearsal for an upcoming pageant. The boys were walking home on Highway 12/16, about a mile east of the heart of the city when struck and killed. A few minutes later, an older brother Robert, 14, walking home, came upon the bodies but failed to recognize them. He ran home and informed his father, who rushed to the scene and discovered the victims were his sons. Sheriff Hempelman working on the theory that the two boys must have been struck by a truck with something protruding beyond the chassis. Within days, Leo and Hallie Dickinson of the town of Orange were arrested. Harold “Hallie” was the driver of the truck, claimed he did not know he struck the boys. He finally pleaded guilty and was sentenced to Waupun State Prison. The Mortensen boys were survived by seven brothers and sisters; Harry, Avis (Mrs. Joe Haske), Art (Red), Anna, Robert, Helen (Poulda), and Louise.