author
William Casper Heilbron
b. 1864
A little-known early 20th-century writer, he is remembered for a vivid book on life inside the Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater. His work survives mainly through library records and digital editions, giving modern readers a rare firsthand-era look at prison life and crime history in Minnesota.
1 Audiobook
Convict Life at the Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, Minnesota
by William Casper Heilbron
About the author
Very little biographical information about this author is easy to confirm beyond library and catalog records. Those records identify him as William Casper Heilbron, born in 1864, and connect him most clearly with Convict Life at the Minnesota State Prison, Stillwater, Minnesota.
That book, published in the early 1900s, is the work for which he is best known today. It offers a detailed account of prison life at Stillwater and is often linked with material about the famous Northfield bank robbery through contributions associated with Cole Younger.
Because so little else has been reliably preserved in the sources reviewed, Heilbron comes across as one of those writers whose reputation rests on a single surviving historical work. For readers interested in crime history, prisons, and Minnesota's past, that book remains his lasting contribution.