In Madison, Rising Sun is one of the last remnants of the once-thriving massage parlor scene, which appears to have started in the 1970s and once numbered in the dozens. The Downtown parlors drew heavy scrutiny during the 1980 murder trial of Barbara Hoffman, a former UW-Madison student and prostitute ? she worked part time at Rising Sun ? who was charged with poisoning two former customers at another Downtown massage parlor, causing their deaths. She was convicted in one of the murders and remains in state prison today.
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