A Boy Named Red

In March 1960, two students at Divine Word Seminary in East Troy discovered their 15-year-old classmate, Kenneth "Red" Rudnitski, hanging from the clothes hook in a bathroom stall. He was barefoot and dressed in his pajamas. Walworth County botched its one-hour investigation into Red's death. Although the manner, mode, and circumstances were highly suspicious, Walworth County ruled suicide. The County Sheriff did not request an autopsy. He did not advise the county prosecutor to open a suspicious death investigation. There was a sexual predator at the seminary high school. The religious superiors responsible for the education and the physical and mental health of the students knew he was a serial criminal. Nonetheless, they conspired to protect him. No one was ever charged or convicted of a crime. Did Red commit suicide? If so, why? Or was he murdered? Richard Rashke answers those questions in his new book A Boy Named: A True Crime Story. He details the events leading up to Red's death, the subsequent cover ups, and the trauma endured by Red's fellow seminary students. The book calls on the Wisconsin State Attorney General to admit to the injustice and to reopen the case of Kenneth Red Rudnitski.