The Past Is Back — and It Knows the Door Codes
By Mack
Topeka has a long memory. Sometimes it just pretends it doesn’t.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mark Duane Huggins, now 52, was booked into the Shawnee County Jail on a stack of charges that reads less like a rap sheet and more like a true-crime podcast outline: two counts of first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a weapon, and aggravated robbery, all listed as no bond under a newly issued warrant.
If the name sounds familiar, it should.
According to reporting by the Topeka Capital-Journal, Huggins was one of four teenagers involved in what the paper has described as one of the most notorious crimes in Topeka history—the January 30, 1990 murder of Paul S. Bramlage at the Monarch Apartments near SE Winfield.
Back then, Huggins was 16 years old.
A Crime That Never Really Left Topeka
The facts of the 1990 case are chilling even decades later. Four teens arrived at Monarch Apartments armed with a shotgun, a rifle, and a revolver, reportedly looking for a fight. When no rivals appeared, prosecutors said they decided to rob someone instead.
That someone was Paul Bramlage, a 37-year-old part-owner of the apartments.
When Bramlage refused to hand over his money, he was shot four times. He died from one of the wounds.
One teen pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. Huggins was convicted of aiding and abetting the murder. The cases of the two youngest suspects were sealed.
Bramlage’s death rippled far beyond that parking lot. He was the son of Fred Bramlage, whose philanthropy helped build Bramlage Coliseum at Kansas State University—a name still etched into Kansas history.
Release, Return, Repeat
After serving time, Huggins cycled through the system again—a battery conviction involving a correctional officer in 1995, a drug conviction in 2003, and eventual release from state custody in 2008.
And now, in 2025, his name is back on the jail roster.
The new charges stem from an active warrant, and court records list no bond—a rare designation that signals prosecutors are not interested in quick exits this time.
Adding another layer to an already grim story: law enforcement sources indicate a relative—believed to be Huggins’ brother—was arrested just last week in connection with what may be the same incident. Authorities have not yet confirmed the relationship publicly, but the timing has not gone unnoticed.
Catch and Release, Kansas-Style
For years, Topeka has been told to believe in rehabilitation. In second chances. In the idea that time served closes books.
But for families who remember Monarch Apartments—or for those who didn’t live here yet but still feel the aftershocks—this arrest feels less like closure and more like an old chapter refusing to stay buried.
The justice system likes to talk about finality.
The streets remember patterns.
As always, Huggins is presumed innocent of the new charges unless and until proven otherwise in court. But one thing is undeniable: when a name from Topeka’s darkest history shows up again with no bond and first-degree murder charges, people are going to ask the same question they always do.
How many times does the door have to swing before someone finally changes the locks?
