Mike Piaskowski.Photo: Falco Ink
For more than two years, the people of Green Bay, Wisc., debated the mysterious 1992 death of a paper mill worker who was found at the bottom of a vat with a weight tied around his neck.
But three decades and six murder convictions later, the speculation about how 35-year-old Tom Monfils' died has yet to subside.
A new documentary about the early murder investigation is set to be released next month, giving a fresh new look at what director Michael Neelsen has said is “a part of Wisconsin lore.”
Beyond Human Naturewill be available on most digital streaming services beginning May 2. It includes interviews with one of the men initially convicted for Monfils' murder, some of Monfils' former coworkers, his younger brother and investigators and prosecutors involved in the case. (An exclusive clip of the documentary is shown below.)
“If you’re from Wisconsin, you need to know what Tom Monfils is, what the Monfil Six are, you need to know what the pulp vat is,” Neelsentoldlocal WBAY before the film’s premiere earlier this month.
Weeks before his death, Monfils contacted local police to file an anonymous tip about his coworker, Keith Kutska, allegedly stealing electrical wire from the James River Paper Mill. But according toThe Green Bay Press Gazette, Monfils' repeated calls back to the police asking them not to release the audio from his anonymous call were unsuccessful. Eventually, communication between Monfils and the police became confused and the audio wound up in Kutska’s hands.
Cal Monfils.Falco Ink
Kutska was suspended from work for a week. When he returned to the mill, he played audio from Monfils' call for other millworkers, some of whom became angry.
Thirty-six hours later,Monfils was mysteriously found deadat the bottom of a two-story vat with a 40-pound weight tied around his neck. His death launched a two-and-a-half-year police investigation, which ultimately led to murder charges for six of Monfils' coworkers in 1995.
However, their convictions remain controversial for some in Green Bay. Books about the case, protests, endless speculation online, and now a documentary have fanned theories surrounding Monfils' death and who is responsible.
A jury originally found his coworkers — Kutska, Michael Piaskoski, Dale Basten, Michael Johnson, Michael Hirn, and Rey Moore — to blame. But questions about how authorities landed their fingers on those six men lingered. And when Piaskowski’s conviction was overturned in 2001 due to a lack of evidence, it raised even more eyebrows.
Basten, Johnson, Hirn, and Moore have all been granted parole in recent years. Meanwhile Kutska, the man at the center of the investigation, remains behind bars.
Despite decades of doubt, authorities still don’t see anything differently.
Shortly afterThe Monfils Conspiracybook was published, retired investigator Randy Winkler, who helped close the case in the early 1990s and is also featured inBeyond Human Nature,toldtheGazettehe still believes he caught the right men. And the prosecutor in Monfils' case, the now-Brown County Judge John Zakowski,toldWBAY in 2020 he still maintains the millworker was murdered, calling suggestions otherwise a “disservice” to the Green Bay community.
“It’s not surprising, but it is somewhat frustrating,” Zakowski said of the lingering theories surrounding Monfils' murder. “Look, that was a tragic case in so many ways — obviously to the Monfils family, to the families of the defendants and to this community — and so it is frustrating when there are these repeated denials. Not that it’s unexpected, but it just kind of prevents any kind of closure.”
source: people.com
