This was a tough episode, folks.

We wanted to avoid "true crime podcast" tropes at all costs while making this episode.

We talked to our guest John Sandy for about four hours to get the details of this case, combed through our own research, and talked to our families about this case. There are plenty parts of this story that still haunt us.

The photographs below illustrate one of the most consequential cases in Dickinson County history, gathered and preserved by John Sandy, Jim Ladegaard, and K.B. Welty.

The gallery opens with the Raebels themselves and the resort they built on West Lake, a family known around Spirit Lake for their church work as much as their cottages.

From there, the photos turn to the Heincys, father and son, whose path through the Midwest led them back to Dickinson County. Courtroom photos follow: the officials, witnesses, and lawyers who filled Judge Hudson's courtroom during the sentencing hearing.

Further along are the somber images from the final hours before the execution, and the gallery closes with a photograph of Justice Byron "Whizzer" White, whose family ties to this case reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.