Ripsaw (sometimes called Rip-Saw, RipSaw or The Duluth Rip-Saw) was a Duluth, Minnesota newspaper published from 1917 to 1926 and again from 1999 to 2005. The paper was a scandal sheet during the first years of publication, with a reputation for muckraking, sensationalism and criminal libel. The revival was similar in tone, though the publishers changed. The Great Family Journal The original Duluth Ripsaw was founded by John L. Morrison, a puritanical Christian who abhorred alcohol, gambling and prostitution. The paper debuted on March 24, 1917. Issues were published every other Saturday, with copies sold at newsstands for five cents. The newspaper's offices were originally in downtown Duluth’s Fargusson Building, and later moved to the Phoenix Building. Morrison produced the Ripsaw almost entirely by himself. Three known helpers were stenographer Alice B. Bartlett, a cartoonist who signed his work “Webster,” and Isadore Cohen, a pre-teenaged newsboy who hawked papers in front of the old St. Louis County State Bank. Other writers were also periodically featured, but the vast majority of the work was always done by Morrison, who called himself the “head sawyer” of the “Great Family Journal.” The Ripsaw began shortly after St. Louis County outlawed the sale of alcohol. When Superior, Wisconsin, followed a few months later with its own voter-instituted prohibition, the Twin Ports were nominally dry, but alcohol was available at bootleg outlets and in townships nearby. Local politicians and police did little to enforce the prohibition, and Morrison ridiculed them for it in the Ripsaw. He also editorialized in favor of streetcars, public toilets and higher pay for policemen. During the Ripsaw’s first year, Duluth Chief of Police Robert McKercher and City Auditor “King” Odin Halden were both ousted from their positions after being labeled crooked in the Ripsaw. Microfilm copies of the Ripsaw are located in the Duluth Public Library and in the Library of the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul, for researchers interested in reading specific articles from the paper. Morrison’s demise The Ripsaws decline began with the October 25, 1924 issue. Morrison accused State Senator Mike Boylan of threatening him with mayhem and death, Cass County Probate Judge Bert Jamison of having acquired syphilis at a brothel and Victor L. Power, a former mayor of Hibbing, of corrupt legal practices and a weakness for women and whiskey. All three retaliated. Morrison was arrested by a sheriff from Walker, Minnesota (the county