FILE 389 / 18 May 2023 / 161 MIN / full

The Legend Of 's Cheese

Mount Horeb, WisconsinListen

The town

N ↑Public placePublic placePublic placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

This is in southwestern Wisconsin, about a half hour outside Madison, in Dane County, area code 608. about 0:05:57

History, in brief

Town note

It had a large Norwegian population, either from Norway or of Norwegian descent.

about 0:07:26
All 12 history facts

Town note

It had a large Norwegian population, either from Norway or of Norwegian descent.

about 0:07:26

1856

In 1856 Osten Olsen Haugan and his family, who had emigrated from Norway, established a 40-acre farmstead near Blue Mounds.

about 0:08:31

Town note

The farmstead was called Nissedal, which in Norwegian translates to Valley of the Elves.

about 0:09:01

Town note

In the 1980s, as part of an effort to celebrate Norwegian heritage and draw people off the new highway, the town declared itself the troll capital of the world.

about 0:09:09

Town note

In Norwegian folklore trolls are said to be about the size of, if not smaller than, humans, with ugly faces, stout bodies and tails.

about 0:09:43

Town note

Residents have incorporated painted, sculpted and chainsaw-carved trolls throughout the village.

about 0:10:19

Town note

Each of the forty trolls in Mount Horeb has its own identity, such as the chicken thief, the accordion player and Sweet Swill, the drunk troll.

about 0:10:38

Town note

The Trollway was the Chamber of Commerce's attempt to draw traffic from the nearby highway into the centre of town to promote businesses.

about 0:10:51

The figures, as told

Religious

46.7%

Biggest faith: Lutheran, 12.4%

about 0:15:23

Crime / national average

Property crime
▲ a little more than half, almost half

about 0:23:38

Violent crime
▼ about one-third

about 0:23:47

Money

Two-bedroom rentabout $1,270
Median household income$63,634
Cost of living104

For sale

$335,000

Two-bedroom, two-bath house, 1,424 square feet

about 0:17:40

For sale

$405,000

Two-bedroom, two-bath house, 1,202 square feet

about 0:18:40

For sale

$1,100,000

Three-bedroom, five-bath house, 3,824 square feet on 11.48 acres

about 0:19:26
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2023

Population

"7,727 people"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:14:24

Sex

"about 53% male"

Comparison: "more male than female, by a lot". No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:14:33

Median age

"about 38"

Comparison: "about average". Direction: about the same.

As told in 2023 about 0:14:47

Married

"55%"

Comparison: "way more than the normal". Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:00

Race

"93.9% white"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:08

Race

"1.3% black"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:08

Race

"0.2% Asian"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:08

Race

"2.1% Hispanic"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:08

Religious

"46.7%"

Comparison: "just below the national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:23

Catholic

"dominant"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:29

Dane County vote, last election

"75.5% Democratic"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:40

Dane County vote, last election

"22.9% Republican"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:40

Dane County vote, last election

"1.7% independent"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:40

Unemployment rate

"about half"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:56

Median household income

"$63,634"

Comparison: "a little bit higher than the national average". Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:16:12

Cost of living

"104"

Comparison: "the average is 100". Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:16:24

Average house price

"$371,200"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:16:29

Average two-bedroom rent

"about $1,270"

Comparison: "just about the national average, maybe a little above". Direction: about the same.

As told in 2023 about 0:17:05

Two-bedroom, two-bath house, 1,424 square feet

"$335,000"

Comparison: "just under the average house price here". Direction: below.

As told in 2023 about 0:17:40

Two-bedroom, two-bath house, 1,202 square feet

"$405,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:18:40

Three-bedroom, five-bath house, 3,824 square feet on 11.48 acres

"$1,100,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:19:26

Property crime

"a little more than half, almost half"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:23:38

Violent crime

"about one-third"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2023 about 0:23:47

The reviews

4.5 / 5 · average of 4

5 stars

“Couldn't imagine a better place to raise children: wide welcoming streets, a bike trail through town, endless parks, a school district with endless opportunities and a Culver's.”
about 0:11:43

5 stars

“A vibrant main street with thriving local shops and restaurants for every niche, and carved wooden trolls more welcoming than they look.”
about 0:12:33

5 stars

“We are the town of trolls; restaurants have great quality food in ideal locations, everyone is nice and welcoming to newcomers, and it is in a great location outside Madison.”
about 0:12:45

3 stars

“A bit of a drinking culture; a small town that seems sweet on the outside but where everyone gossips about everyone else's business, though there are still quite a few very good people, beautiful parks and the Military Ridge running through it.”
about 0:13:19

In Wisconsin

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The story

Mount Horeb, Wisconsin, is a village of 7,727 people in Dane County, about half an hour from Madison. It began as the Corners, became Horub's Corner and then Mount Horeb, and it carries a large Norwegian heritage: in 1856 Osten Olsen Haugan and his family, emigrants from Norway, established a forty-acre farmstead called Nissedal, Norwegian for Valley of the Elves, near Blue Mounds. In the 1980s the village began calling itself the troll capital of the world and lined Main Street, the Trollway, with painted, sculpted and chainsaw-carved trolls to pull traffic off the highway.

Dorothy Weiss was born in 1936 and grew up in Orangeville, where she played golf. They had four children, Jackie, Terry, John and Jo-Reen.

The marriage was violent. Dorothy told a psychiatrist, Dr Maric J. Hahn, in sessions between January and June 1981 that she lived in fear of her husband, that he drank all day and became violent when drunk, and that she worried he might turn on the children, especially John. Neighbours across the street heard arguments that began around midnight and ran until three or four in the morning. On 19 March 1981 Dorothy ran to Jackie's apartment at one in the morning and said her father would kill her if she did not get out; she spent that night in a motel.

On 16 November 1981 the couple visited their friend David Flom. Dorothy met Ann Erickson at the Viking Bowl and they went round several bars. He said he got up at 2.20 a.m., cleaned the kitchen, noticed his favourite serrated steak knife was missing, read, and went back to bed before rising at 4.30 to go to the cheese factory. John, seventeen, said he was woken between two and three by a single dull scream from the basement. He did not get up, thinking it was none of his business, and said nothing about it until the police asked. Jo-Reen, thirteen, heard nothing. John and Jo-Reen left for school about eight; Dorothy failed to keep an 8.30 hair appointment she had made herself the previous afternoon, and the hairdresser and a clinic receptionist called the house through the day without an answer.

At six that evening John went down to the basement and found his mother. My wife is downstairs dead. She's stiff as a board." She had been dead for hours. The pathologist, Dr Billy Bauman, found her throat cut from ear to ear to the vertebrae, with thirty-three stab and cut wounds to the upper chest, a dozen to twenty slash wounds on the neck, defensive wounds on both hands, and a deep sawing groove in a vertebra that matched a dull, serrated, white-handled kitchen knife found partly under her right arm. He said it had been on the kitchen counter when he left for the game and was gone when he cleaned the kitchen at 2.20.

The defence built its case on an unknown intruder. A stranger had called at Jackie and Lester's apartment, two doors away, at seven in the evening on 12 and 16 November asking for a blond woman; Dorothy had dyed her hair blond in September 1980. Friends said she used marijuana, amphetamines and cocaine and had fallen out with someone in the drug trade.

The judge found probable cause. The state's case was wholly circumstantial.

The court cited the closeness of the case. In May 1986 the Pardon Advisory Board heard his application, backed by 64 letters and a petition with 391 signatures; it recommended against a pardon. He died on 20 April 2019, aged 87, at the VA Hospital in Madison; per his request there were no services.

The case

Murder of Dorothy Weiss

Victims

Dorothy Weiss. wife of 27 years and mother of four, born in 1936; a former high-school golfer who drank in bars and had told her psychiatrist she feared her husband.

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 18 May 2023.

Accused

Outcome

Other people

John Weiss. 17-year-old son who found his mother's body in the basement
Jo-Reen Weiss. 13-year-old daughter, at home that night
Jackie. oldest daughter, married to Lester, living in an apartment down the street
Terry. older daughter
Lester. Jackie's husband, who cleaned up the kitchen after beat a man
Ann Erickson. friend who drank with Dorothy and drove her home after 1 a.m.
Dr. Maric J. Hahn. psychiatrist who treated Dorothy between January and June 1981
Dr. Billy Bauman. pathologist who performed the autopsy
David L. Flom. friend the couple visited on the evening of 16 November

The timeline

  1. 1932 is born.about 0:36:52
  2. 1936 Dorothy May Bousjan is born.about 0:41:55
  3. 1950 graduates from Orangeville High School and joins the Navy, stationed in Norfolk, Virginia. (Orangeville High School)about 0:37:11
  4. 1952 and Dorothy become engaged while she is still in high school.about 0:37:33
  5. August 25, 1954 and Dorothy marry.about 0:42:22
  6. 1957 is fined $10 for an improper muffler on his car.about 0:43:38
  7. March 25, 1964 writes to the Capital Times as manager of Joe's Bar, seeking softball games. (Joe's Bar)about 0:43:56
  8. 1972 Dorothy and sue the village of Mount Horeb for $100,000 over a sewage backup into their basement on November 1st. (Weiss house)about 0:44:50
  9. January to June 1981 Dorothy sees psychiatrist Dr. Hahn and says she lives in fear of her husband, who drinks all day and becomes violent.about 0:54:29
  10. March 19, 1981 beats a man Dorothy brought home from a bar; at 1 a.m. Dorothy flees to Jackie's apartment and says he will kill her. (Jackie and Lester's apartment)about 0:59:16
  11. November 12, 1981 A stranger asks at Jackie and Lester's apartment for a blond woman. (Jackie and Lester's apartment)about 1:20:25
  12. November 16, 1981 and Dorothy visit David Flom; leaves for a basketball game about 7 p.m. after kissing her goodbye. (David Flom's house)about 1:06:58
  13. November 16, 1981 Dorothy meets Ann Erickson at the Viking Bowl and they drink at several bars. (Viking Bowl)about 1:04:27
  14. November 17, 1981, shortly after 1 a.m. Ann Erickson drives Dorothy home; hears her come in and vomit in the bathroom. (Weiss house)about 1:09:18
  15. November 17, 1981, about 2 a.m. hears Dorothy vomiting in the basement rec room. (Weiss house)about 1:10:16
  16. November 17, 1981, 2.20 a.m. gets up, cleans the kitchen and finds his favourite serrated knife missing. (Weiss house)about 1:10:45
  17. November 17, 1981, between 2 and 3 a.m. John hears a single dull scream from the basement and does not investigate. (Weiss house)about 1:14:11
  18. November 17, 1981, 4.30 to 5 a.m. gets up and leaves for the cheese factory. (cheese factory)about 1:11:53
  19. November 17, 1981, about 7.30 to 8 a.m. John and Jo-Reen get up and leave for school. (Weiss house)about 1:15:13
  20. November 17, 1981, 8.30 a.m. Dorothy fails to keep the hair appointment she made the previous afternoon.about 1:35:33
  21. November 17, 1981, 6 p.m. John finds his mother's body in the basement; calls 911. (Weiss house)about 1:12:08

Murder of Carl Quinbin

Victims

Carl Quinbin. Cleveland filling station operator, also known as Carl Stone.

Outcome

Other people

Carl Quinbin's wife. said he had done something with two men he called safe crackers

The timeline

  1. the day before the discovery, about 9.30 p.m. Neighbours see the headlights of a car enter and leave the woods and hear a blast they take to be from the nearby stone quarry. (Weiss farm)about 0:39:12
  2. 1952 Weiss finds a human leg while dumping rubbish in the woods on his farm. (Weiss farm)about 0:38:18
  3. 1952 He finds arms, a head and a torso in five pieces within 200 feet of an explosion crater. (Weiss farm)about 0:38:35

Places and phrases

N ↑Public placePublic placePublic placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

Heard in this episode