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.So he built dormitories: comfortable living quarters in which workers lived rent-free.Their meals were provided.Classes in American history, English, and business were offered twice a day to accommodate the shift workers; workers were put on a path to citizenship.The idea was to get the workers to view the company as family and stay put once they’d arrived.Hunh.I clicked back to my list and checked off dormitories as the real deal.Which freaked me out a little, because that meant at least part of my visions or dreams or whatever.were real.Searching for prisoners or a prison in connection with Eisenmann’s company was a big zero.So was the White Lady.Plugging in Winter, Wisconsin, murder, and 1945 got me a single useful hit, the first paragraph of an archived item on “National News” from the New York Times:Milwaukee, WI, October 23: Residents of the tiny rural hamlet of Winter continue to grapple with the aftermath of what appears to have been a particularly vicious and senseless murder.Walter Brotz, 45, was found slain in a horse barn on October 20.He had been stabbed repeatedly with a pitchfork, which was found at the scene, smeared with the victim’s blood.Mr.Brotz, an employee in the brass plant at the Eisenmann Manufacturing Company, was reported missing by his wife, Gertrude, on the evening of October 19, when he was last seen leaving work with several companions.When I read that word—pitchfork—my stomach clenched.There’d been a pitchfork in my very first nightmare.Unfortunately, that was all I got.If I wanted to read the rest of the article, I would have to pay and since a) I didn’t have a credit card and b) I didn’t have any money—that was kind of a nonstarter.I searched for Walter Brotz but came up empty.Still, I put his name on my list.At least now I had the name of the murder victim.Maybe there was more at the town library or at the Historical Society.Sarah would know.I checked the time: almost eleven, too late to call, though I had her e-mail address from way back.Hopefully it was still good.So I wrote:To: preacherskid@magna.comFrom: ccage@magna.comSubject: researchHey, Sarah:Sorry to bug you, but I’m getting started on my history project, and I’m drawing a big zero.I think what I need might be at the Historical Society, or maybe the library, but I’m not sure.Since you know who to talk to there, would you mind if I came with you? When are you going next? I have to work on Saturday, but I could go on Friday after school.Thanks.ChristianI hit Send, hoping she might check her e-mail tomorrow morning, and then maybe we could talk at school.Then I sat back and studied my list.Without more details, it seemed to me that searching for a 1945 fire was a waste of time.Here there’d been a murder in the same year, and I’d only found one news story about it.Maybe the Historical Society people would have more.That left only one item: Mr.Witek.It hit me then that I didn’t know his first name, which made me feel stupid.But I plugged in Witek, Winter and Wisconsin.I paused, thought about it, and added painter then hit Enter.The next second, my mouth dropped open.I clicked on the first result, and a short entry from Wikipedia opened on my screen:Mordecai Mendel Witek (b.April 3, 1905–?) was a self-educated realist painter.Dubbed the “Andrew Wyeth” of Wisconsin regional art, Witek immigrated to the United States from the tiny Polish town of Oswiecem (later renamed Auschwitz) in 1935.Initially settling in Milwaukee, he found employment as a painter of fine ceramics and porcelains at the Eisenmann Manufacturing Company in the small northern town of Winter and moved there in 1940.He continued to paint watercolors and oils, predominantly landscapes, but garnered both praise and censure after his painting, Katarina at Sunset, won Grand Prize at the Milwaukee Lake-side Arts Festival in 1943.A critic at the time described the painter’s style as “subversively sexual.” The painting caused a minor scandal when it was revealed that the young woman in question was the fiancée of a local businessman.Witek continued to reside in Winter, where he divided his time between his factory work and various commissions, and he was active in Winter’s small but vibrant Jewish community.Later events would cast a cloud over his short-lived artistic success.Today, Witek is remembered chiefly as the prime suspect in a gruesome murder of a fellow factory worker that occurred in October 1945 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]