The Gruesome Story Of The 1973 Gitchie Manitou Massacre

Publish date: 2024-05-04

According to Oxygen, Stewart Baade, 18, his brother Dana Baade, 14, Mike Hadrath, 15, Roger Essem, 17, and Sandra Cheskey, 13, all took a nocturnal excursion to Gitchie Manitou State Park in the late Fall of 1973. The teens went to the woods where they could talk, play music, and smoke a joint, but according to what Cheskey told the Des Moines Register it was only about 20 minutes until their evening was disturbed. Then, a strange sound in the woods prompted Essem to take a closer look. That's where he found the Fryer brothers posed with shotguns in the dark, hiding in wait. He was gunned down on the spot and the trio descended upon the unsuspecting teens like a pack of wolves.

The Fryer brothers stood before the panicked group of teens claiming to be narcotics agents who smelled the marijuana they were smoking. Sandra Cheskey was taken to a vehicle and driven off by Allen, and the remaining boys were fatally shot. Allen, David, and James then met up at a farmhouse, per the Des Moines Register, where James raped 13-year-old Cheskey in the truck. However, her life was spared. Allen (who identified himself as "the boss") drove the traumatized girl back to her house and threatened to kill her if she revealed anything to anyone about what had happened (per Oxygen). 

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