Kitty Ging Murder
Kitty Ging Park recently got a mention in the Flanagan Memo. A softball field near the site of her murder is informally known as Kitty Ging Field.
Kitty Ging was acquainted with Harry T. Hayward and both of them lived in the Ozark Flats apartment building in Minneapolis in 1894. Harry was a playboy that liked to gamble. He convinced Kitty to let him put two $5000 life insurance policies on her as an investment. He also was involved in distributing counterfeit money and promised to get Kitty involved. He planned to have her killed by convincing her to meet in a remote spot and discuss more about “green goods” (counterfeit money).
Harry did not plan to do the murder himself, he first asked his brother Ardy and when he declined, Harry convinced Ozark Flats janitor Claus A. Blixt to murder Miss Ging for $2000 of the $10,000 of insurance money.
On December 3, 1894 Blixt drove Miss Ging to the western shore Lake Calhoun and shot her in the head close range. Her body was thrown back into the buggy and laid still. Blixt rode for a little longer and then threw her body off the buggy and ran over it.
On November 30th, Hayward’s brother Ardy had told attorney Levi Stewart about Harry’s plans. Once he had heard the murder had taken place Stewart contacted the county attorney. Ardy was arrested and said nothing at first but was confronted by Stewart and confessed the plot. Blixt and Harry Hayward were charged with murder. Harry was convicted first because Blixt was needed as the only witness to the crime. Harry was executed by hanging on December 11, 1895. Blixt received life imprisonment and died in Stillwater Prison in 1925.
Hayward is buried in Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery.
We just added The Ging Murder and the Hayward Trial to the Minneapolis History Collection. It consists of the official stenographic report supplemented by “A Dramatic Story of the Great Crime” by Oscar F.G. Day.
