- Captain Jeb Cheney: You know it's the generals that do the thinkin' and everybody else just says, "How high?"
- Hank Larsson: I'm not gonna debate the merits of top-down decision makin' with ya, Captain. 'Cept to say I had a lieutenant in the war, and h-he told Eisenhower to go to hell once, on account of his orders woulda got us all killed. And I send that man a card every Christmas - 'cause I can.
- [first lines]
- Narrator: And so, we come to perhaps the bloodiest chapter in the long and violent history of the Midwest region. And here, I'm speaking of Luverne, Minnesota, 1979 - commonly referred to by laypeople as the Massacre at Sioux Falls. Readers will know that I've chosen to file this case as a Minnesota crime, even though most of the murders took place in North and then South Dakota. But I believe the key to understanding this complex and nuanced crime is to look at the butcher and small-town beautician at its center. Ed and Peggy Blumsquist were just 29 years old on the night their lives changed forever.
- Narrator: As he killed both friend and foe alike, it became clear that Hanzee was on a mission to find the beautician and her butcher's assistant husband, and silence them once and for all. Again, the question of why has puzzled historians for decades. It's true that they had seen him execute Dodd Gerhardt and that they were the only ones left who could reveal his treachery for what it was. But maybe the reason was deeper.
- Captain Jeb Cheney: They don't look like much. You don't look like much.
- Peggy Blumquist: [tied to a chair] We're realized.
- Captain Jeb Cheney: What? What's she sayin'?
- SD Trooper Sue Lutz: Says she realized somethin'.
- [last lines]
- Hank Larsson: Go. I can make it.
- Lou Solverson: [groans] Dinner Sunday?
- Hank Larsson: [chuckles weakly] I'll be there - in a suit of armor.
- Chief Gibson: [playing cards while on stake-out] Best piss I ever took was in a kitchen sink.
- SD Trooper Sue Lutz: No wonder you got divorced.
- SD Trooper Bowden: I'm an outdoor guy myself.
- Chief Gibson: It's liberatin', I think - pissin' someplace where you're not supposed ta. When I was a sergeant, I pissed in my CO's desk drawer when he was in Hawaii. I drank six coffees and a Nehi first.
- [laughs]
- Chief Gibson: Now, that was a good piss.
- SD Trooper Sue Lutz: [laughs] Well, you got the hardware for it. If that was me, I'd-a had to climb up on the desk.
- SD Trooper Sue Lutz: [At the security meeting] We got the upstairs room bugged and ready for the meet.
- Captain Jeb Cheney: Okay... Move quickly and with authority, troopers. That's lesson one.
- SD Trooper Sue Lutz: Yes, sir.
- Chief Gibson: Ice machine's busted.
- Captain Jeb Cheney: What?
- Chief Gibson: I'm just sayin'. I mean, it's your show - you made that clear - which means I'm here to observe, and what I'm observin' is... ice machine's crapped out.
- [It's just a flyin' saucer, Ed. We gotta go]