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Operation Hotbed

Lead Daily Call, July 18, 1980. Photos by Tom Moxnes & Jean Sternhagen

In The Moment ... May 30, 2019 Show 585 Hour 2

On May 29, 1979, U.S. District Judge John Wood was shot and killed outside of his home in San Antonio, Texas. Evidence from the murder investigation led to Deadwood, South Dakota.

About a year later, Federal and state investigators conducted a raid on the four brothels in Deadwood.

Chief U.S. District Judge Jeffry Viken was a young attorney in 1979, working for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Rapid City. He was in charge of the details that led to the raid. He's written about the investigation and presented a program called Operation Hotbed: Who Really Ended Prostitution in Deadwood?