You can listen to episode eleven of “Aren’t You the Girl?” podcast here:
Posted is the transcript for the episode for those who would like to read Martha’s story instead.
Sources, music and audio used in this episode are listed at the end of this post.
In October of 1993, the first body part of Martha Bacon was discovered in a rural area in Wright County, Minnesota.
She was victim number eight of sex workers who were targeted by a serial predator or killer in the Twin Cities.
The difference with Martha’s case that finally sparked public outcries – she was the first victim to be dumped in Wright County.
In this episode of “Aren’t You the Girl?” I’ll be continuing my search for answers in Martha Bacon’s horrific murder and introduce a friend of Martha’s who has joined me in this search.
Martha Bacon is one of the more puzzling and terrifying unsolved murders we have in Minnesota. And one of the most unknown murders.
I covered her case in episode three about some of the issues that may have caused her case to not be adequately shared within news cycles. If you have not listened to that episode, you don’t necessarily need to to understand this episode but I would suggest you listen to that one as well.
To my knowledge so far, we don’t have many dismemberment cases similar to hers – I actually can’t think of any case that resembles hers anywhere.
Body parts of Martha’s were retrieved from house dogs over the course of a year within rural residences throughout Wright County, Minnesota.
What the residences had to witness in her case left them haunted and absolutely traumatized.
A woman in her eighties who discovered her elbow reported that every time she closed her eyes she saw the elbow laying there.
All of her body parts were found except for her torso, arm and hand.
Since releasing episode three; I too have stayed haunted by Martha’s story.
Within only a week or two of releasing my initial Martha episode, I connected with a man named Jerry Ayres who urgently reached out to me regarding Martha.
Jerry is from the group Supernatural Investigators of Minnesota. He had wanted to try to add cold cases into the paranormal mix.
He has been instrumental in helping the family of 1996 homicide victim Cassandra Willis and pushing Minneapolis law enforcement to do more in her case. I’ll be covering Cassandra’s case in a future episode.
Jerry had also known Martha Bacon and had been haunted by her slaying.
Jerry had sold cat food at a time in the late 1980s and would sell cat food to Martha. He would drop it off at people’s homes including Martha and at times would see Martha out and about the Twin Cities; usually walking alone.
They were friendly to each other and Jerry would give rides to Martha when he saw her some place alone.
One time Martha said to Jerry,
“You know, you are so kind and being a good friend to me, I should let you know something about me.”
She says,
“I’m a hooker.”
Jerry had no idea that she was a street sex worker. She was very put together and was never out at night or in sketchy areas to his knowledge of seeing her.
He assumed she was working at a gas station he had seen her outside of frequently.
They stayed friendly and Jerry did not judge Martha though he did wonder why she was doing that line of work.
At some point Jerry had switched careers and Martha had moved out of the area and within time they never crossed paths again.
One day Jerry had picked up a newspaper and saw a headline reading,
“Prostitutes dismembered body part found by dog”
With the picture and name bearing Martha Ann Bacon.
Jerry was actually spoken to by police because she had his phone number written somewhere still and they checked who he was in relation to Martha during the investigation.
Ever since, he had wondered what had happened to this kind young woman and why no one was paying for what they had done to her.
Her name was Martha Ann Bacon but she liked to be called Marty.
Everyone weaving throughout her story knew her as Lisa, Marty, Alise or Martha.
To keep it easier to follow along with the people and facts of the case – I’ll be referring to her as Martha or Marty.
Martha was abducted from the West Broadway and Lyndale Area of North Minneapolis where she frequently would solicit customers on September 26th, 1993.
The first discovery of remains was on Oct. 14th, 1993 where her arm was discovered.
Both dogs and their paws in this discovery were dry and clean indicating that the hand wasn’t in water.
Oct. 20th a repair man calls to report he had seen a dog on the date of the 13th or 14th carrying what he thought was a ham in its mouth.
The dog was tracked to a farm in that same area and produced femur and humerus bones.
On October 23rd, 1993 two dogs dragged home arm and leg bones near a farm in Silver Creek.
The farm is about a quarter mile north of where her elbow was discovered.
In photographs it’s noted that some cut and puncture wounds were on her hands which were believed to be defense wounds.
It’s believed the time of death was about two days prior to remains being found on Oct. 14th. Which means Martha could have been kept alive since she was last seen on Sep. 26th.
The person who did it was familiar with the area of farms, woods and water west of Monticello.
The swamp is close to gravel roads amid farmlands.
It would be easy for someone to throw human body parts from the roadside into a watery grave throughout that area of Silver Creek.
To have such a violent end led me to wonder what kind of life did Martha have? No judgement on her life and actions but how did a seemingly kind and giving young woman get trapped in a street sex working cycle?
Jerry had no inkling that Martha had worked the streets until she had told him.
Many of the witnesses in her case also didn’t immediately connect that she was working the streets either.
But once Martha had made a connection or friendship with someone, she would open up and tell them that she was a “hooker” in her words.
Martha did not have a vehicle and had never been married.
She had an extensive criminal record of theft, possession of stolen property, narcotics and prostitution.
She had recently gotten a paralegal degree from Wisconsin but had been unable to hold a job for any length of time.
Possibly because of her job history – she was unable to find work in her field.
She was described as a loner and didn’t associate much with other sex workers.
Martha would frequent Sonny’s bar on Lake and Chicago, smoked menthol cigarettes and was suspected of having issues with alcohol during her final months.
What is apparent through her reports, Martha was always very nice to people and would go out of her way to help someone if she could.
Martha had been living with her parents from Summer 1991 – Summer of 1993.
She left to visit friends in the city between memorial day and the first week of June and never returned home to live.
Sometime early Summer 1993, a man I’ll be referring to only as Mike throughout the episode, saw her at White Castle on Broadway Ave. N. Minneapolis.
Martha was black and blue from being beat up. Mike gave her his telephone number and told her to call him if she needed a safe place to stay.
She called a week or two later and moved in. She was given a key to the apartment.
Mike was the caretaker of the building and therefore lived there “rent free” so it didn’t really cost him to have anyone extra in the apartment.
All Martha was expected to pay for was her food.
For the first few weeks of her stay at his apartment, she had slept on the couch in the living room and didn’t go anywhere. She was recovering from being severely beat up.
Martha would at times be gone for two or three days at a time, sometime over the weekend, returning on Sunday.
Mike was aware Martha was a sex worker. He stated he was trying to help her, thinking she might get a legitimate job, if given the opportunity.
Martha told him that she received death threats against her parents if she left the business.
Mike talked to her about her family and her work. She told him that she felt like the black sheep of the family.
Concerning her sex work, she told him she likes to work during the daytime because nighttime was too risky.
On July 18th, Mike receives a call from Martha who asks him to remove money from her belongings in her bedroom at the apartment.
He brings it to her at a North Minneapolis address.
On July 19th or 20th, Mike observed that Martha was beaten about her head and face. She also had a large laceration across her chest.
When asked about what had happened, Martha stated that she was trying to get revenge on her ex boyfriend and was beaten.
Then stating the chest laceration by running into a fence while running away from him.
Starting mid September, Martha becomes a regular at Jugg Off Liquor Store. She comes in alone and buys a pint or half a pint of the cheapest vodka available.
Mike brought Martha to her parents home on Sep. 26th, 1993, to pick up some clothing.
This was the final time her parents had seen her alive.
According to Michael, a guy called the apartment the next morning on Sep. 27th and asked for Lisa.
Said his name was Eddie and that he had dropped her off in a bad part of town and was now looking for her.
He knew that she was a sex worker and said he was “watching her back” the morning she disappeared.
Eddie said that he had last seen her on 21st and Aldrich at about 12:45am – 1:00am on the morning of Sep. 28th, 1993.
He states he saw Martha almost every day that Summer but after the early morning hours on Sep. 27th, he had not seen or heard from her again.
Who was Eddie? Eddie said he first met Marty at White Castle about a year before.
He described their relationship as they were dating.
He saw Martha almost every day with sometimes a few days going in between seeing each other.
A few months after meeting she told Eddie that she was moving in with a guy named Mike in Brooklyn Park, saying that her parents were overprotective of her.
Eddie was in the house a few times with Martha but had never met Mike.
Eddie had last seen her on Sept. 27th at about 12:45 am – 1:00 am at 21st and Aldrich NE Minneapolis.
He remembered the bars were still open.
Eddie said he was with her because he would watch her back sometimes while she worked.
He knew Martha had at least $14 on her and that would cover a taxi home to Brooklyn Park which a bus would not travel that far that late.
Martha told Eddie that she was going to walk one more time down the block looking for a “John”.
Martha left walking one way and Eddie left walking the other way.
They met again on the corner of 21st and Aldrich a few minutes later.
As Eddie walked towards Martha, he noticed a cinnamon colored 1985-1987 olds or Buik with two black males in the front pulled up to the curb a short distance from where Martha was.
When Eddie and Martha began talking, the car drove away.
Martha said she was going to try one more time for a John and she would meet him by the phone booth in a few minutes where she would call a cab and go home.
They both go their way.
When Eddie returned a short time later, Martha was not there.
Eddie said he walked around the area for a while searching for her until about 3 am – 4 am.
He waited until about 8am that morning to call her residence to see if she made it home.
Mike told her she was not home.
Eddie said her normal time with a John was 15 to 20 minutes and she would have talked to him before leaving the area.
He called several more times as the weeks went by and either got the answering machine or spoke with Mike.
Eddie also called her parents home and tried to report her missing.
He said she may possibly be carrying a small black shoulder bag.
Also wore a gold wrist bracelet she got from Target for about $20.
Eddie also said Martha had a police officer friend by the name of Shelly who works in Fridley and was a nice cop.
Several employees of Merwins Liquor store stated that Martha’s ex-pimp/boyfriend was also a regular at the store and he would beat Martha up on a daily basis.
Two weeks before her disappearance, she got away from that boyfriend and was associating with another black male.
She would come into Merwin’s store multiple times a day and purchase three condoms each time.
They stated Martha was normally very quiet and didn’t say too much to anyone.
She would sit by the back fence behind the store in the rear of the parking lot.
She was seen every day the weeks before her disappearance.
On September 25th, a witness reported they observed someone throw a box containing women’s clothing and money from a truck window.
This was along the road where most of Martha’s remains would later be located in Wright County.
Martha had asked Mike on September 26th to bring her to her parents home to pick up more clothing, saying she needed dress clothes for job interviews.
Could this possible dumping of clothing be connected to Martha or was it just a strange detail?
A friend also stated Martha knew an undercover cop who would frequently buy her flowers – more specifically a rose and candy. But this friend said Martha didn’t tell them his name or department.
Martha said the cop would give her $80 to $100 “just to be seen with her.”
Farrell was an ex-pimp/boyfriend of Martha’s.
Martha came into the domestic abuse project office beat up with a cut on her finger.
She said Farrell had done this and the cut on her finger was a warning.
He said next time he would cut her up into little pieces.
Martha’s final months and homicide is a very complex and heartbreaking story. With many different players and rabbit holes to fall into research wise.
Investigators may be aware of only a fraction of potential serial killers or predators we have in the area.
At that time about 1,000 sexual predators were released each year. Authorities had a hard time tracking them – and they were registered.
Who knows how many people with the urge to kill were running around in 1993 who were not registered.
Authorities can look for patterns but predators can switch up their M. O to stay off the radar.
And as for Martha’s case, she doesn’t have much to compare it to in terms of similarities.
I find 1993 a very interesting time for cold cases within Minnesota and plan on delving into those women’s cases in a future episode in relation to Martha Bacon’s case. Many women’s cases in the Twin Cities are unknown because they led a similar life to Martha.
One of the problems with vulnerable victims like Martha is that Martha was murder number 8 before any media took notice and a real look into the homicide cases as a potential serial killer by investigators.
A predator can reach almost a double digit number of victims before anyone in society or law enforcement takes real notice.
If two or three girl next door type girls go missing or are murdered in a certain timeframe within a certain area – police immediately would look into a pattern and the potential idea of a serial killer.
The victims who don’t fit that mold never get that type of investigation until it’s way too late.
Please share Martha’s story and get her case circulating.
Rest in Peace to Martha Bacon.
Please return for episode twelve where I’ll share the start of my journey with Wright County victim Victoria Morris before we keep diving into the cases of Martha and Vicky as a whole.
Thank you for listening. Stay safe, everyone.
Sources:
- Martha Bacon case reports
- Jerry Ayres
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