(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - We begin our eighth season here on Milwaukee PBS with a look at a critical issue in Milwaukee County, domestic violence.

Deaths from domestic violence continue to rise.

Officials tell us that among deadly domestic violence incidents, a firearm was used and abusers with firearms are five times more likely to kill their female victims.

Congresswoman Gwen Moore, a prominent advocate for women's rights, was herself a victim of domestic violence at gunpoint when she was in her 20s.

She shares her story with producers Scottie Lee Meyers and Alexandria Mack.

(gentle music) - Good morning.

- Good morning.

- Good morning.

- Good morning.

- Hi.

How are you doing?

Hanging out.

All right.

- Hello, I'm Alexandria.

- Hello, Alexandria.

- I think domestic violence is something that has been a secret, something that is supposed to be kept in the family and nobody wants to talk about it.

- [Alexandria] Congresswoman Gwen Moore is speaking up on a disturbing, yet needed conversation, and she's starting with a powerful story of her own.

- I can remember, in particular, my early 20s being in a domestic violence situation and I was in the relationship for longer than any sane person would've been in the relationship because I spent a whole lot of time blaming myself.

You know, it went from verbal abuse and escalated to physical violence, being beaten, and finally, finally this man pulled a gun out and put it to my head and at that point, I was so fed up with experiencing violence at his hand that I just sort of lost all sense of survival, I think, and said, you know, "MF, shoot it or eat it."

I wouldn't necessarily advise someone to take that advice.

And he did say to me, you know, "B, you're crazy.

I could've killed you."

And he could've killed me.

And sad thing is that there are a whole lot of women who are killed every single day in the United States from domestic violence.

- [Alexandria] A startling record high of lives being cut short in Wisconsin.

- My name is Antonia Drew Norton.

I'm the director of the Asha Project, founder of Asha Family Services Incorporated.

We are a culturally specific domestic violence agency in the city of Milwaukee.

- [Producer] I wanna talk a little bit about this "End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin" 2022 report.

- The report highlights 96 people died in domestic violence incidents, homicides, and the reality is that's up 20% over 2021.

In Milwaukee County in 2022, there were 32 domestic violence homicides.

- [Producer] What percentage of the the perpetrators of this violence are male?

- Oh, a significant portion.

88% of the perpetrators of domestic violence, intimate partner violence, if you will, are overwhelmingly male.

Gun involvement in domestic violence homicides is 88.5%.

So 88.5% of the domestic violence and intimate partner violence homicides, a gun is used.

When a gun is present, a woman is five times more likely to die.

And then we're getting ready to be hit by VACA, the Violence Against Crime Act funding cuts, which is gonna cut programs in Wisconsin from 135 programs to 52.

Somebody is going to die.

Lives are going to be lost.

So whose mother, whose sister, whose cousin, whose loved one, whose daughter is it gonna be?

So my hope is that people see the seriousness of this issue and these deaths are preventable.

- [Alexandria] It's troubling numbers like these that led Moore in late October to introduce a symbolic resolution in Congress.

- The resolution that I've introduced really recognizes the nexus between domestic violence, the presence of a firearm.

It really encourages our judiciary system to continue to withhold the ability of an individual who has committed domestic violence or has orders of protection levied against him from possessing a firearm.

- [Alexandria] The resolution's timing was no coincidence.

In early November, the US Supreme Court heard the case of United States versus Rahimi, which will rule if it's legal to take away the guns of people who are under a domestic violence protective order.

- [Justice Roberts] We'll hear an argument this morning in case 22-915, United States verses Rahimi.

General Prelogar.

- [Gen. Prelogar] Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court.

Guns and domestic abuse are a deadly combination.

- Rahimi is going to be the next big Second Amendment decision that the Supreme Court issues.

So in this particular case, the parties are the United States and a man named Zackey Rahimi.

Rahimi was prohibited from possessing a gun because he was subject to a domestic violence restraining order.

His defense in this particular case was that the whole restriction on his right to keep arms in this case violated the Second Amendment, and on the other end of the spectrum, the government interest in defending this statute, I think it was articulated very well by General Prelogar, her opening at oral argument where she said pretty much that "The combination of domestic violence and guns is a deadly one."

- [Gen. Prelogar] As this court has said, "All too often, the only difference between a battered woman and a dead woman is the presence of a gun."

- And then, of course, on the other side there's the Second Amendment right to keep arms for self-defense from the government or just personal self-defense as well, so there's a concern with unnecessarily stripping that fundamental right from citizens of the United States.

Traditionally in the United States, rights are not absolute, so just as the First Amendment doesn't allow you to yell fire in a crowded theater, the right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment also is not absolute, and in this case, it would seem the government has a compelling interest in restricting gun possession for people that are subject to these domestic violence restraining orders.

I think it is going to be difficult for Mr. Rahimi to prevail after the oral argument.

I think there'll be consensus on a ruling in favor of the government, but I think the justices will have pretty different reasons for doing so.

- [Alexandria] With so much on the line, survivors, like Moore, still sharing hope for a life without violence.

- My message for hope for women who are experiencing domestic violence is to remember that you are loved, and that you don't have to rely on this particular relationship to be loved.

That there are people, we're out here, we love you and we're willing to make the interventions that will help you find safe shelter, to be able to maintain your employment, to be able to make sure that you escape in a safe way.

Just know that there are resources out there, people working 24 hours, seven days a week to make sure that you're safe.

- Gwen Moore and other advocates working on the front lines of this problem will be featured in the upcoming season of our podcast, "Speaking Of: The Missing Peace," with producers Scottie and Alexandria.

- [Alexandria] For the last two years, the Milwaukee PBS podcast, "Speaking Of," has brought you stories.

- [Scottie] Stories about people from throughout Wisconsin making space for perspective and reflection.

- [Alexandria] But as we were looking for stories for season two... - [Victim] And so that was the moment where I was just like, "Okay, this is starting to get a little scary."

- [Scottie] It was hard to ignore a growing crisis around us.

- [Reporter] As violent crime rises in Milwaukee, domestic violence is claiming more lives as well.

In our newsroom tonight, Milwaukee Police say domestic abuse is behind a homicide this morning.

- [Reporter] 100 domestic violence victims in Wisconsin were killed last year.

- [Reporter] Domestic violence is a root cause of a significant amount of violence in our city.

- [Reporter] Milwaukee police are calling a domestic violence-related murder suicide.

- [Victim] Within 10 seconds from that conversation, I was on the floor in the corner rolled up in a fetal of position.

I'm like, "My life is in this man's hands."

- [Alexandria] A crisis of domestic violence.

How many times were you reaching out for help?

- [Victim] Oh, I would say probably more than 10 times.

- [Scottie] Unprecedented numbers of people, mainly women, losing their lives.

- [Spokesperson] We're in the midst of a crisis.

- [Speaker] I was like, "Oh my gosh, she was shot."

- [Victim] I just collapsed and everything was like a blur after that.

I was like on autopilot for the next couple weeks.

- [Scottie] That's how you found out you were on the scene and you overheard a news anchor.

- [Victim] Yes, I didn't even know.

It was like she was shot, she was burned.

- [Advocate] We know who we lose and we don't know who we save.

I still have to believe that it's worth it.

I still have to believe that I'm making a difference.

- [Alexandria] Now with funding cuts on the horizon... - [Spokesperson] Wisconsin is looking at about a 70% decline in this funding and so we are seeing really a dire picture.

- [Advocate] There are some programs that will not exist because of these impending cuts.

- [Scottie] And a system still working to recover from the side effects of a global pandemic.

- [Speaker] Under covid, everything broke down significantly.

- [Alexandria] We take a deep dive on how we got here and what is being done to save lives and restore peace.

- Scottie and Alexandria join me now to talk more about their podcast, about the serious issue facing our community and really across the state.

Thank you for being here on 10thirtysix.

- Yeah, thanks Portia.

- Thanks for having us.

- First, let's start with what got you interested in this topic, talking about this very weighty issue that really has taken a spotlight recently.

What got you interested?

- Yeah, so our own police chief has said that domestic violence is the root cause of a significant amount of violence in Milwaukee and throughout the region.

Something like one in six of our homicides are domestic violence related.

I mean, that is a huge issue.

If we can curb domestic violence, we can drastically reduce violence in our city, so it is a huge issue.

I would also add that, you know, we hear a lot of data, we see a lot of numbers, maybe we see headlines, we become a little bit numb to it so we really wanted to bring a fuller picture to the complexity of this issue and really just like confront this head on.

- Right, and for you, Alexandria?

- When me and Scottie were talking about what way we wanted to go with the second season, something that I could not escape were these headlines, and I think of July of 2022, where we saw seven women killed in a three-week span across different neighborhoods, different ages, and I think it really opened my eyes specifically to how big this crisis was and how our community was being impacted.

- So, we talk about this and we're in this post-covid world.

How did we get here?

- The interesting thing is, is when we look at the number of homicides prior to covid, 2019 and a few years prior, the homicide number had been decreasing consistently.

And then we get to covid, which obviously is an unprecedented thing, it's a global pandemic and new stressors are added into the equation.

We are seeing significant unemployment, we're seeing people dying at rapid rates, and then we also have the stay-at-home order, which requires us to shelter in place.

And when you look at the numbers, once we hit covid, we see that the homicides increased by 60% and they continue to inch up after that.

When you compare 2022 versus 2019, you see that we are getting twice the number of homicides that we had in 2019, which really speaks to how significantly covid impacted our homicide rates.

- Yeah, and it really impacted, I mean, so many factors and variables within domestic violence.

We can look at the Milwaukee County courthouse.

We saw a backlog in the judicial system and that ultimately postponed justice for a lot of people.

- Right, and this is a very difficult topic to discuss.

In my days when I did daily news, it was very hard to get survivors to come forward because they still lived in that circle of fear and that cycle of violence still just was so present, so how did you get, what voices did you lend to your reporting and to the podcast?

- We are not experts in this issue, so we sought out people who could talk about this.

We talked to dozens of people.

We're talking to survivors, to victims, to their families, to law enforcement, the DA's office.

We spoke with public health officials.

We really wanted to get a 360 view of this important topic.

- And I think another important layer was just the additional reporting that we did on top of the voices.

We sat in on restraining order hearings.

We did so many criminal complaint requests, public record requests, so it was really richly reported in our understanding of what are really the numbers and what is happening behind closed doors.

- In your reporting, what are the constants, what are the threads that just go through each case that you were privy to?

- Trauma.

Honestly, and everyone that we were speaking to, they were saying that domestic violence doesn't start with that particular instance, that so many people are carrying so many things before they're even in a relationship, before things go south, that they're carrying and projecting onto other people.

We spoke with someone from the DA's office that spoke to just how things impact children, that a lot of people that go on to be victims or even perpetrators, that they've experienced domestic violence in their homes at some point, right?

And then you think of these new things like covid and just how the economy may be changing and just these stressors, even just demographics in Milwaukee and things that people in Milwaukee experience, how do those things contribute to trauma and how is that trauma playing out in our everyday situations?

- Yeah, one thing we heard is that hurt people, hurt people.

We had the opportunity to go to the Alma Center, the Alma House, and we met with Will Singleton.

And what makes his work so important is that he works with men who are trying to rehabilitate himself.

We know that something like 90% of the perpetrators of this violence are caused by men, so what are we doing?

We gotta kind of look inside and say, "How can we help men who have committed these awful acts sort of rehabilitate themselves?"

They do these incredible intake surveys where they go through dozens of questions that last two hours long and they're really asking these like soul-clenching questions.

"What kinds of things did you experience in your childhood that might be rearing its head now?"

- So where do we go?

This has been your long-term project and thank you for shining a light on this.

What have been, again, some of those moments that really just stuck with you that you think that the rest of the community should listen to on "Speaking Of"?

- For both of us, this was our first time really diving into this crisis, so again, we knew little to anything about domestic violence, but these people were so willing to let us in in their organizations, let us in hearing their stories and I think one thing that stays with me is these are not like magicians, they're not superheroes.

They're everyday people.

They have families, they have hobbies, but they're choosing to pick up this weight and these burdens to help these families, to help survivors, so that more lives aren't lost and I think that's a really beautiful and inspiring thing.

- And I think of Carrie at the Indian Health Center.

We went there for an interview.

We sat down with her and we quickly noticed that she was wearing all purple and we had to ask her about that.

We said, "Carrie, why are you wearing purple?"

2018, she lost her daughter to domestic violence.

She was killed.

Later that month in the year, it was Domestic Violence Awareness Day, she was asked to wear purple and she was almost a little bit offended that she only got a day to sort of honor her daughter and so every day since, her iPhone case is purple, her shirts, her clothes, her nails are purple and she does that every day.

And she used to be a carpenter.

And now, ever since that moment, she now is a domestic violence advocate for the Native community at the Indian Health Center.

- Well, we all need to hear these stories, so when and where can we catch the podcast?

- So the podcast is called "Speaking Of: The Missing Peace."

The first episode will come out on Friday, February 23rd, with new episodes coming out every Friday after that.

You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts or at MilwaukeePBS.org.

- Thank you, Scottie.

Thank you, Alexandria.

My colleagues here at Milwaukee PBS, thank you so much for being on 10thirtysix.

- Yeah, thanks, Portia.

- And if you or someone that you know needs help with domestic violence, if they're in a situation, there are resources out there.

Please go online to MilwaukeePBS.org for more information.

The Sojourner Family Peace Center in Milwaukee operates a 24 hour confidential hotline.

The number is 414-933-2722.

Wisconsin is known for many things, including stories about infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone.

In an upcoming half-hour documentary, "Al Capone Prohibition and Wisconsin," you'll hear how Al once tried to purchase land in the Badger State and hear from the family that unearthed the letters and photographs proving this.

You'll also hear from his granddaughter who tells never-before-heard stories about her grandfather.

Here's a preview of the documentary.

(clock ticking) - When my mother passed, it took me two years to go through a century of papers.

That's the land use.

That was his grandfather.

I was finding things from the early 1800s to up until she had passed.

I was sitting at this table and found two of the letters and one of 'em was, "Dear My Friend Bill," and basically asking him for the bootlegger that was up there, "The whiskey was really good.

Do you think you could have him send me some more?

Your friend, Al."

And that's how he signed them.

That was quite a unique find.

Al Capone was coming up for a particular reason to look for property, so my grandfather overlooked, to an extent, overlooked his business end and looked at this as a opportunity, one, to sell property, but also looked at it as a friendship.

That was a secret that was kept and it was kept because of my grandparents.

So I think that shows to who they were and why he felt as he did, to come up North with his friends and felt safety.

(dramatic music) - Everywhere I go, somebody tells me the story of their grandfather having a still for Al Capone or Al owning a piece of a hotel, a restaurant, a tavern.

(liquid sloshing) (glasses clinking) - For better or for worse, alcohol is a huge part of Wisconsin history.

- Big commerce, big industry, a lot of people moving around, a lot of money and vice goes along with money.

(gunshots banging) - When you look at prohibition, not only was it a failure, but it drove things underground.

- [Speaker] Given the limited federal criminal laws, Wisconsin's a haven.

(door slamming) - We can't deny the connection between Al Capone, the Chicago outfit, and Wisconsin completely.

There's clearly evidence that they owned property in the Lake Geneva area, and in the north woods of Wisconsin, there are many gangster stories, again, some which cannot be proved, but many which can.

- They realize that it's hollow back here.

(hand knocking) These are the bottles that they found in the storage space.

- See, this is the side of the building where Capone, where those shots were with the gun and things like that over here.

- I mean, as I grew up, you know, I'm thinking, "This guy was a gangster."

Al Capone ate dinner with them, cooked dinner in my grandmother's kitchen.

- We always were raised to keep a low profile.

I'm the only one who's still alive who could tell the story.

(dramatic music ends) - You can watch the documentary January 29th at 8:00 PM right here on Milwaukee PBS Channel 10.

We're taking you back in time with this next story from our partners at CBS 58.

The historic Oriental Theater on Milwaukee's East Side is now home to a restored 1925 Wurlitzer pipe organ, a project that took five years to complete.

(dramatic music) - [Yukare] Silent films, movies without synchronized sound or dialogue, leaving the heavy work to the facial expressions of the actors and the emotions of a scene driven by live musicians, but did you know at the height of the silent films era, around 1925, this kind of pipe organ became a hot commodity for its ability to imitate almost any kind of sound effect.

(horn buzzing) (air hissing) (sire blaring) (horn tooting) (metal clinking) (engine revving) - There are real, actual instruments up in either chamber that an organist has control over, so if somebody were to knock on the door, you have a wood block or something that can knock on the door for you.

- [Yukare] Bringing a silent movie to life.

- Originally when films started to exist, they were silent films.

When a theater needed, say a soundtrack, they would either hire a 30-person orchestra, or they'd buy one of these and pay one guy to do the job instead of 30.

- [Yukare] That piece of cinematic history now resides on Milwaukee's East Side, a 94-year-old Wurlitzer pipe organ now stationed at the equally historic Oriental Theater, an instrument the Milwaukee Film Organization got their hands on in 2019, says media coordinator Robyn Ehrlich.

- So this organ is just exciting because it's an original 1925 piece of cinema history that's been restored to its original state and sound and so people will get to experience a lot of what cinema was like in the '20s in this beautiful theater that was also built in the '20s.

- [Yukare] Ehrlich says the restoration of the Wurlitzer, one of the most produced pipe organs in those days, has taken about five years.

Toby Washburn, one of the restoration technicians, says it's been an undertaking, but one that's been worthwhile.

- What I've actually kept track of was how long I've spent wiring this instrument, which is well over 400 hours.

- [Yukare] Washburn says the instrument with seemingly endless buttons, wiring, and pipes (pipe bellowing) has been fairly easy to put back together.

The challenging part... - [Toby] Hard part comes in is needing lots of manpower to move some of these items around.

There are pieces in this instrument that weigh over 1,000 pounds on their own.

(machine whirring) - [Yukare] Just like this big guy, which is essentially the lungs of the instrument.

- [Toby] So basically, it's just a giant fan that pressurizes air through the main wind line here across both chambers and various other parts.

- [Yukare] Washburn says it's an insight on how intricate and impressive these Wurlitzer instruments really are.

- At their height of their time doing what they were doing, they were producing an entire pipe organ every single day, so they figured out how to mass produce these and do them with an amazing amount of quality control and consistency.

- [Yukare] And says the job of an organist playing this instrument wasn't easy.

- A lot of times organists would have the luxury of a couple days to preview a film and figure out what is happening with it, or some days you just had to show up and hit go.

- [Robyn] It was a very expensive acquisition and installation process because we needed to make sure that we were doing it right.

- [Yukare] Milwaukee Film debuts the organ to the public this winter.

- [Robyn] This is just a really exciting, like momentous occasion for Milwaukee Film.

It's been so long in the making.

Milwaukee Film has been a champion of the cinematic experience.

- [Toby] Bringing it into the modern era like today, it's important to keep the tradition and lineage of it alive.

- That will do it for this edition of 10thirtysix.

Remember to check us out on all of our social platforms and at MilwaukeePBS.org.

We'll see you next time.

(gentle upbeat music) (upbeat music)