Oak Grove Country Club
Thank you to Jeff Neuberger for information about this venue.
The Oak Grove Country Club opened on May 11, 1929. It was located in Fridley, three miles up Central Avenue from the Minneapolis city limits at 37th Avenue NE, approximately at Moore Lake. (Turn left at the little white store…)
May 29, 1929
Its owner was “Handsome Dan” Moriarty, a Minneapolis restaurant and saloon owner and former resort owner (euphemism for bordello). It was a two-story building on a five-acre site, with the first floor having dining and dancing, and the second floor measuring 20 x 60 feet given over to roulette, craps, blackjack, and poker.
Some of the bands who played there were the George Podany Orchestra, Mildred Couch and her Rosebuds, and the Harold Betts Orchestra. Harold Betts broadcast on WRHM radio from the Oak Grove in 1930. WRHM would later become WTCN radio.
WHERE DAN WENT, TROUBLE FOLLOWED
On October 5, 1929, Feds paid a visit to the Oak Grove. While they made no arrests, they noted evidence of drinking and requested the presence of Handsome Dan to answer some questions.
On July 5, 1930, head bouncer Martin Tobin got into an altercation with two men leaving the Oak Grove. Tobin slugged one of the men, and from the ground the man fired a pistol and shot Tobin twice in the abdomen. The two men left at a high rate of speed. Tobin was taken to Eitel Hospital (across from Loring Park). While there he was asked by Anoka County Deputies who shot him. True to the gangster code, Tobin replied “I ain”t squawking.” Martin Tobin died on July 7, 1930.
The man who shot Tobin was believed to be New York gangster Mike Ritter. His companion was William Stone, a North Minneapolis gangster. Stone’s body was found in a shallow grave outside Owatonna, Minnesota, in September 1930.
On September 12, 1930, Gertrude Mantle made the news when she and her girlfriend accepted a ride home from the Oak Grove from the McMann Brothers, one of which turned out to be “a self-styled tough gangster from Cicero.” The man decided to take them for a ride – the friend got away, but Gertrude went for the ride until she jumped from the speeding car.
On September 21, 1930, the club was raided by the Anoka County Sheriff and gambling devices were found. The papers made much of Moriarty’s man-about-town image and his indifference to the eight charges heard by the “gray-haired woman judge.” An editorial also made fun of the cops and the Feds, chiding them for not realizing that the club had been offering liquor and gambling for over a year and a half.
On December 24, 1931, the club was hit with a temporary injunction and closed for creating a nuisance.
On February 9, 1932, the club was allowed to open, but the district court judge ordered an injunction against gambling, dancing, and liquor at the club.
Dan Moriarty died on April 7, 1932, at the age of 47 from pneumonia.
December 23, 1933
After Moriary’s death the club changed hands and names a few times. It was advertised for sale in August 1934 and again in April 1935.
The Oak Grove Country Club had a Swiss-born chef named Eugene A. Rerat. He was an criminal attorney who defended several gangsters in Minnesota. He married Violet Peifer, the widow of Saint Paul gangster Jack Peifer. In the 1940s, Rerat switched from a criminal law to a highly lucrative personal injury practice. The Rerats had a home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and a 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom home in Golden Valley modeled after a French Chateau they saw outside Paris.
The Rerats had a son, also named Eugene. The family would travel to Europe, Brazil, and the Bahamas. Like his father, Eugene Rerat enjoyed cooking and was a member of an Amateur Chef society. Eugene Sr. died in 1979 and Violet Rerat died in January 1984 in Fort Lauderdale.