Staggered Paths: Strange Deaths in the Badger State

by Steven Spingola

During a twenty year span, over two dozen young men were found dead in Wisconsin lakes, rivers, and wooded areas. Law enforcement officials attribute almost all of these strange deaths to acute alcohol intoxication, but others suspect a shadowy serial killer. Like most readers, Steve Spingola first learned of these tragic incidents from newspaper and television reports. During a career that spanned parts of four decades, the now retired lieutenant of detectives spent fifteen years investigating some of Milwaukee’s most complex and heinous murders, including those linked to Jeffrey Dahmer and the north side strangler. In Staggered Paths, the stellar sleuth poured through thousands of pages of police reports, dozens of newspaper accounts, and autopsy findings to independently review these strange and troubling deaths. Is a serial killer lurking in college towns, such as La Crosse and Eau Claire, to lure inebriated men to their watery graves? Spingola definitively answers this question and suggests some of these cases should be revisited.

Genres: Nonfiction

171 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 20, 2017

Reviews

[John Volatvinski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first heard of Steve Spingola when he came to the University of Wisc. - Platteville for a Psychology of Homicide presentation. It was the most fascinating thing I ever saw the entire time I was in college. So when Staggered Paths was released I had high expectations, and Spingola delivered.

Although I do get some joy from reading Ann Rule-style books, I'm of the opinion some authors fill their pages with fluff about victims and families and could cut the page total in half if they eliminated information not pertinent to the murder. Spingola cuts to the chase. He is a facts and evidence detective and big info forensics.

One of the deaths that troubled me most was Brookfield, WI native Luke Homan. I do not want to spoil this part for other readers, yet I found the conduct of Homan's so-called friend unfathomable. Was Homan's death a case of reckless negligence, a homicide or and accident?

Like Spingola's homicide presentation, this book is good one for armchair detectives.

[Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the past, I've read about these rather odd deaths and wondered what actually transpired in Wisconsin college towns. The police said a slew of weird deaths were related to binge drinking. Some of the relatives of those who died suspected something more. I found Steve Spingola's take of these "strange deaths in the Badger State" unique because he came in somewhere in between the police and amateur detectives. According to author, two of these deaths are "probable homicides" and another two are "suspicious."

I thought this book's shining moment was probing a drowning in Green Bay, Wisconsin. From my perspective, it seemed the police quickly wrote the death off as a suicide because of the man's criminal past. The author did a excellent job detailing inconsistencies in the investigators' own reports and red flagged the police department's findings.

This is a very well-written book that contains a few typos. I highly recommend Staggered Paths for anyone interested in true crime or forensics.

[Abby Stopka · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is not my cup of tea. However it is well written and for somebody who is interested in this kind of stuff would be a great read.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really kind of love this book. By the looks of it it's self-published (either that or by a publishing house so small they have no budget for a copy-editor); Spingola is a functional rather than a graceful prose writer; and he can get a little self-righteous. But what he's doing is taking on the theory of the smiley face killer (young men keep drowning in Wisconsin and there is a theory that there is a serial killer at work); he goes one by one through the drowning deaths in La Crosse and other parts of Wisconsin and environs, and by looking at each case on its own merits, does a not bad job of proving that the only serial killer at work here is binge drinking. Which is to say that there is a pattern in these deaths, but it's not a pattern that you need a serial killer to explain. All you need is Wisconsin's binge drinking stats.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Came across this book when reading about 3 recent drowning deaths just this past winter in my hometown of Eau Claire, WI. I grew up and went to college in Wisconsin, and I had no idea that this was such a common phenomenon. Had an important convo with my three teenagers, one college aged, about the dangers of getting “falling down” drunk even if you’re not driving and the importance of staying in groups. I found it interesting that almost all the stories were about young men. My daughter and I speculated that was because girls are taught from a young age not to walk alone at night and girls are also not typically going to be leaving the road to go relieve themselves :)

[Devin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Living way at the tip of northwestern Wisconsin, the murders some say were committed by the smiley face killer have been on my mind since the late 1990s. It just seemed like too much of a coincidence so many healthy college age have died, mostly by drowning. Enter Steve Spingola, an investigator with the Oxygen Channel's show "Cold Justice."

Like a laser surgeon, Spingola cut through the myths and some of law enforcement's smoke and mirrors to get to the truth. In a sense, Spingola had no skin in the game, which makes his review very plausible. He is not an advocate for any special interest groups or theorists and is not employed by as a government law enforcer.

The smiley face killer theory likely far-fetched, yet not all of these deaths could be accidents. Spingola's review of the drowning of a troubled Green Bay man was excellent and show why the case, written off as a suicide, is probably a homicide. This was a must read section of the book. I found it kind of crazy that not a single media outlet in the state has called the Green Bay Police Department and inquired about the shoddy investigation.

Good book for amateur cops.

[Bexa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, it would have been 4 but there were a lot of editing mistakes and this could have used another pass through.

Having grown up with the urban legend of the "smiley face killer" and gone to the university where some of these accidents occurred, I really wanted to know more. I enjoyed how Spingola breaks each case down, provides the information for why it might have been more than an accidental drowning, and then states all the evidence for why there isn't a serial killer running wild in Wisconsin, at least not one drowning drunken males.

Short read, entertaining, and full of information to destroy the urban legend of the Smiley Face Killer.

[Andrew Jung · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a Wisconsin native who went to a State school and traveled staggered paths myself, I find the detailed analysis quite compelling and far more probable than other theories (rumors of which have floated around Wisconsin for now two decades). My main criticism is at times the author waxes too clever by half, such as in the hackneyed “captain Morgan” puns.

[Rhonda E Voitl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an okay book

This book is okay but not great. Got boring a few times. I have read worse,I have read better. Just my opinion though.

[Jason Roberson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read and very well researched. It's a unique book, but very repetitive, similar case after similar case. You could get the gist after about 50 pages.

[Brookelynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very dry. There were also a few grammatical errors.

[Michael Ojibway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid, thorough analysis.

Spingola puts all conspiracy theories to rest surrounding the many deaths of college aged men in the Badger state with thorough research, supporting narrative, and geographically grounded storytelling. *Edit* Per additional editing for clarity, grammar, and consistency I give Staggered Paths a 4/5 rating.