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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 4 |
| 1877 | 5 |
| 1883 | 2 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 6 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1887 | 3 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1890 | 2 |
| 1891 | 5 |
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| 1909 | 6 |
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| 1916 | 1 |
103 stories matching con
- The 'Rich Deed' That Wasn't: Snohomish’s Wild Gold Rush Hoax and the Community’s Reality Check
A sensational tale of a legendary gold mine in Snohomish captivated locals, but the paper quickly pivots to a sobering assessment of the lumber industry's financial struggles and the region's agricultural potential.
- The Con Man Who Sold the Seattle Circus
A clever swindler fleeced the city's elite by selling them on imaginary contracts for a Ringling Brothers circus that was never coming to town.
- The Con Man Who Conned a Town
Before he was caught, a master swindler known as 'Gen. Ward' charmed the elite of Spokane Falls and eloped with a banker's daughter.
- The Art of the Con: How a Swindler Sold 'Rare' Books to Seattle’s Elite
A clever grifter conned prominent Seattle society women into buying ordinary books at exorbitant markups by selling them on a false promise of exclusivity and 'easy' monthly payments.
- Con Men Target Ranch Owner With Locked-Box Poker
A Spokane County farmer loses his life savings in a classic confidence scheme involving a locked box and a mysterious stranger.
- The Town That Forgot to Celebrate
Kennewick's editor warns that civic apathy is turning the community into a ghost town, one canceled event at a time.
- The Clergyman and the Con Men
A visiting clergyman outwits a band of Seattle 'bunko steerers' who tried to trap him in a gambling game at a local church-adjacent hideout.
- Thirty-Seven Miners Died 150 Feet From Safety
An 1894 coroner's jury in Franklin, Washington, heard how a small fire in the Oregon Improvement Company's coal mine became a wall of smoke — and why the men who could have escaped stayed to fight it.
- The Con Man Who Taught the City a Lesson
A prolific swindler who posed as a businessman and senator-associate leaves a trail of bounced checks and broken promises across Seattle, Tacoma, and Fairhaven.
- The Ghost Town That Only Existed on Paper
How two swindlers and a 'Nebraska Cyclone' preacher conned a community with a townsite located entirely in a duck-filled salt marsh.
- The 'Kid Mayor' of Michigan Found in Port Townsend
A brilliant young con artist once known as the 'Kid Mayor' has fled the Washington Territory after his real identity—and a trail of fraudulent bonds—finally caught up with him.
- The Great Seattle Theater Con: A Swindler’s Exit
A smooth-talking promoter claiming to represent an opera company flees Seattle under the cover of night, leaving behind a baffled police guard and a nearly empty safe.
- The Con Man and the Tacoma Jail
After swindling banks for a half-million dollars, a notorious criminal is captured in Tacoma and offers an interview from behind bars.
- The 'Lumberman' Who Swindled Seattle's Elite
A smooth-talking con man gains the trust of the city’s fashionable society before vanishing with thousands in unpaid debts.
- The Confidence Man of Washington Street
A grifter exploited local tensions to con Chinese merchants out of $600 under the guise of buying off a prosecutor.
- The Postmaster Who Refused to Hire Women
An eighteen-year-old applicant details how she was misled and eventually dismissed by the Olympia postmaster due to her gender.
- The Timber Land Swindlers of Seattle
A new arrival in Seattle narrowly escapes a sophisticated land scam operating out of the Seattle National Bank building.
- The Hypnotic Lothario of Tacoma
A wealthy widow discovers that her 'handy' boarder was a con man who used alleged hypnotic powers to swindle her and charm local women.
- The Bunco Gang’s Wharfside Swindle
Two young women are fleeced by a sophisticated street-con artist on the Seattle waterfront.
- Tragedy at Rigney Hill: Teenager Re-Arrested for Fatal Shooting
After previously being exonerated on grounds of self-defense, a 19-year-old Tacoma youth faces a new grand jury indictment for a deadly farm dispute.
- The Lock and the Bunko Men: How Two Hop Pickers Turned the Tables on a Seattle Con Artist
Richard Sullivan, a bunko man with a Tacoma headquarters, was convicted of petty larceny after swindling two Indian boys on the City dock.
- The Cruelest Con: Fake Letters From the Sickroom
Police say an Englishman charmed strangers, learned their children’s addresses, then mailed desperate pleas for medical money.
- The Con Artist Who Fleeced All of Seattle
A smooth-talking lawyer arrives with a letter of introduction from the Governor, only to leave a trail of unpaid debts, fake mortgages, and broken promises across the city.
- The Real Estate Swindler Who Fooled Seattle
A smooth-talking con artist masquerading as an 'Eastern capitalist' swindled multiple Seattle banks by weaving himself into the city's booming real estate market.
- The 'Pretty Widow' Conning the Coast
A charming socialite accused of swindling Seattle investors with worthless oil stocks awaits her day in court, leaving police convinced no jury will dare to convict her.
Also about this, in other words
- The Con Artist's Tearful Pitch
A traveler uses a tragic tale of fire and loss to test the hospitality of a Seattle resident.
- The Gold-Brick Con: A Tacoma Contractor Swindled
A Slavonian contractor loses $550 to two men posing as subcontractors in an elaborate fake-deal scheme.
- The Con Man Who Wore a Partner's Identity
A clever grifter posed as a prominent Seattle businessman to swindle New York merchants, leaving local partners to clean up the mess.
- The Con Artist of the Y.M.C.A.
A smooth-talking grifter exploited the goodwill of Seattle churchgoers by playing on his 'sick wife's' needs, until an umbrella heist landed him in the city jail.
- The Con Artist’s Benevolent Hustle
A smooth-talking stranger visits a Seattle tobacco shop, spins a yarn about a tragedy at sea, and leaves with more than just a sympathy donation.
- The Pioneer Argument Against Prohibition
An 1854 speech by legislator Mr. Chenoweth argues that legal coercion is a poor substitute for individual morality in the fight against intemperance.
- Washington's 1889 Convention Settles Prohibition, Corporations
Delegates in Olympia rush to finalize state constitutional provisions, including contentious debates over railroad commissions and alien land ownership.
- The Con Man and the Widow
A crafty imposter poses as a weary veteran to swindle a charitable widow out of her supplies.