Mansfield Historical Society serves up murder mystery dinner

By Amanda Rogers

Mansfield Record

The Mansfield Historical Society is digging up another unsolved mystery for its second annual murder mystery dinner April 11.

Madam Mildred’s Disappearance from Hell’s Half Acre, an original work by Karen Leach based on a true story, examines the life of a Fort Worth madam in the late 1800s and early 1900s and her ties to Mansfield.

“This is a mystery of where did she go and why,” said Tom Leach, president of the Mansfield Historical Society. “It ties our scandalous, gossipy past to Hell’s Half Acre and her ties to Mansfield, right here on Main Street. It’s based on newspaper articles.

“Madam Mildred ran a brothel in Fort Worth and disappeared,” he said. “There’s no records, no death records. She just vanishes into thin air. What happened to her and why?”

That will be up to the participants to solve, Leach said.

He did emphasize that the murder mystery dinner is a comedy, and not a sordid or scary whodunit.

“In the stressful lives we live, everyone needs to laugh and relax,” Leach said. “You will walk away with a belly full and lots of laughter and fun.”

The murder mystery will be performed by the North Texas Civilian Historians, who have been writing and performing murder mysteries as fund-raisers for museums and historical societies for more than 15 years.

The murder mystery dinner will be held at 6:30 p.m.  April 11 in the St. Thomas Hall at St. Jude Catholic Church, 310 Graves St. The evening will include a catered lasagna dinner from Biundo’s Italian Restaurant. Tickets are $50, and they are limited. Get tickets here.

All proceeds will be used for a grant through the Mansfield ISD Educational Foundation to send all Mansfield ISD third-graders on a field trip to learn about the history of Mansfield.