Revisiting Buddy with ‘Weird Wisconsin’

I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Josh Hughes for the very first episode of his Weird Wisconsin video podcast series. The segment was posted on July 21, 2026, 91 years after the disappearance of Buddy Schumacher, the subject of my first book. Watch “The Boy Who Never Came Home” by clicking here.

Josh, a paranormal enthusiast from Waukesha who wrote Ghosts of Waukesha, got in touch with me after learning about the case of Buddy Schumacher, which reminded him of a case in Waukesha of a boy found dead there in the 1920s. Buddy’s mysterious death, my personal connection to it, and the similarities to what became known as the Little Lord Fauntelroy case in Waukesha, sparked Josh’s interest in learning more about me and Buddy.

The subject of my first book, Murder in Wauwatosa: The Mysterious Death of Buddy Schumacher, Buddy was an 8-year-old boy who left his home in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, one summer morning with a few neighborhood pals. According to his friends, they jumped on a fright train that was leaving the station basically across the street from Buddy’s house, rode it about a mile to the vicinity of the local swimming hole, and jumped off. At that point, they were accosted by a homeless man who had been living in the area. The boys ran home; Buddy didn’t.

His disappearance caused a huge stir in town, and he was feverishly searched for over the next seven weeks, when his body was found not all that far from the swimming hole. The investigation into who killed him took several odd turns.

As part of his research, Josh read the book, interviewed me online, then went with me in person to several key locations, where we recorded some segments that ended up in the podcast. These locations included the location of the old swimming hole near Hoyt Park pool, the house I grew up in that Buddy’s parents bought two years after he died, and Buddy’s grave in the Wauwatosa Cemetery.

Josh did a great job, as he has done with subsequent episodes. Check out his work here.