Milwaukee author Mary Thorson has slowly doled out short stories for literary journals inspired by real true crime cases, two of which were included in Best American Mystery and Suspense in 2024 and 2025. The stories, each told from the perspective of a woman involved in the cases, both perpetrators and victims, are now collected in a volume titled A Woman’s Guide to True Crime (featured in our piece on things to look out for this March). Ahead of her book release March 20, Milwaukee Magazine asked Thorson about the appeal of true crime, and how one of the stories is especially close to home.
Architects, interior designers, renovators and landscapers: Submit your best work for consideration!
Looking back, where do you think you developed an interest in true crime?
I’ve been a true crime fan my whole life. I likely developed that interest because both of my parents were journalists, then I became a journalist, so it really solidified me being able to continue to do what I love.
Can you give an example of one of these short stories and the crime it was based on?
The first story is “When the Cold Gets In,” and it’s about a teenager who goes to high school, she hooks up with a bad kid, but she likes him. One night he sees her at work and says, “let’s go somewhere tonight,” and she’s like “I’m working, I can’t go with you.” She later finds out he had murdered his whole family, besides his father, who was out of town on business.
This story took place in Milwaukee, in the 1950s – John Schulz went to Riverside High School, he was at home with his mom and he asked her if he could borrow the car. She said no, and he came in with a shotgun and shot his mother and his two younger siblings. He left with the car, went to a Riverside High basketball game, then went to talk to his girlfriend, then skipped town. They found him a couple states over and brought him back, and it was a big news story at the time.
Are there other stories in this collection inspired by Milwaukee true crime or are they from all over?
I pick from everywhere, but three of the stories are set in Milwaukee. One of the stories is based on the Newhall House fire (the Newhall House was a hotel in downtown Milwaukee that caught fire in 1883, killing at least 70 people). My great-great…several greats back grandmother was a maid in the Newhall House – she was up on the sixth floor and one of the maids who survived. And then there’s the final story which is very loosely based off my own disappearance which happened in 1992, when I was 4. I was missing for 12 hours, it was in the paper, then I was found, and my babysitter brought me home. I was unharmed, it was like an ideal situation for a missing kid, but it’s based on the “what if” that hadn’t been the case.
What? Where were you?
Such a good question (laughs). The way I remember it, my babysitter’s husband – it was an in-home day care and I believe – I don’t know for sure, that the babysitter and her husband had substance abuse issues. He dropped my babysitter off for a dentist appointment and he was supposed to bring me to McDonald’s for dinner and instead, he went to a bar and he was in there from essentially 4pm to bar close. He just forgot I was in the car. When he came back out he was very surprised and brought me home. That’s the way I remember it. He always said his car broke down and he brought me to see some animals in the woods. Which sounds so much worse than what actually happened. I don’t know why that would have been his cover story, but that’s not what I recall.
True crime is such a popular genre. What do you think it is about us that makes us so fascinated by it?
I read this book, I think it was The Invention of Murder, many years ago and I’m maybe going to sum this up poorly, but essentially it’s being inside while watching a thunderstorm happening. You’re seeing this violence but you know that you yourself are safe. You’re relative to this horrible thing, it’s interesting regardless of whether good or bad to watch, while at the same time makes you feel safe and separate. I think that’s where our fascination begins – almost a reassurance.
You mentioned that you’re working a novel. Is there anything you can tell us about it?
It’s sort of true crime meets ghost story. I wanted to do a story based on the disappearance of a child, this is another exploration of my own “what if” situation. It’s a dual timeline where a town turns its back on a family and a little girl who goes missing and 30 years later a woman and her young daughter arrive in town and it’s up to them to figure out what happened to this little girl because she is haunting them.
Mary Thorson will be at Boswell Book Co. on Friday, March 20 at 6:30 p.m. You can reserve a spot here.
