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214 stories matching mob
- Mob Violence Against Federal Officers on Seattle Streets
A correspondent defends the Seattle police for their inaction while deputy marshals were hunted through the downtown district by angry crowds.
- The Cabin Murder and the Fear of a Mob
An Italian stonecutter on trial for his life recounts a desperate struggle on Mercer Island that left his employer dead.
- Anti-Chinese Mob Drives Hop Pickers from Tampico
Armed vigilantes enforce local exclusionist sentiment, leaving hop crops to rot in the Yakima Valley.
- Student Mob Attacks University Regent
Campus tensions erupt into a harassment campaign against a university official in Pullman, allegedly fueled by the college president.
- A Seattle Mob Attacked a Deputy Marshal. The Paper Wanted the Police to Answer for It.
After Deputy Marshal Gagnon was set upon by an excited crowd, critics charged that Seattle officers were too cozy with the lawbreakers — and this editorial demanded that heads roll.
- The Mob That Tore Through Chinatown
Testimony from an acting police chief details the systematic expulsion of Chinese residents from Seattle during the violent anti-Chinese riots of February 1886.
- They Seized a Locomotive to Stop a Train—Then Faced Judge Hanford
After a mob of 3,000 surrounded a Northern Pacific train in Spokane, ten men were charged with contempt and riot; three pleaded guilty and two were sent to hard labor.
- The Siege of Seattle: Governor Squire’s Martial Law
A fiery defense of the 1886 imposition of martial law during the anti-Chinese riots, arguing that civil authority had collapsed under the pressure of the mob.
- The Statehouse Heist
A political mob forcibly seizes company records from a government official in a Spokane hotel room.
- Race Riot Erupts in Opera Alley
A domestic dispute over smoke turns into a mob confrontation between a Black household and local Italian residents.
- Vigilante Violence in Roslyn
A saloon keeper is dragged from jail and lynched by a mob after a deadly dispute over a two-dollar debt.
- The Bar of King County Condemns the Anti-Chinese Expulsions
Local lawyers and citizens formally denounce the violence of February 1886, defending the rule of law after a mob forced residents out of the city.
- The Minister and the Mob
A Marysville clergyman faces a near-drowning at the hands of an angry crowd after attempting to enforce strict Sunday-closing laws against a local baseball game.
- The Dynamite Murder of Tacoma: A Mob’s Verdict
In the early hours of January 1890, a Tacoma man was dragged from jail and hanged by a vigilante mob for blowing up a house and killing a sleeping family. The Seattle press offers a chilling reflection on whether such 'swift justice' is ever truly justified.
- Sixty Armed Men Took the Jail at Dayton
A convicted murderer was hauled out of the Columbia County jail and strangled from a rope in the public square — the coroner's jury named no killers, and the local editor scolded lynch law while calling the mob 'cool and systematic.'
- The Violent Expulsion of Chinese Workers from Tacoma
While Seattle officials debated the law, a vigilante mob in Tacoma took matters into their own hands, forcibly ejecting Chinese residents from the city.
- The Ghost of a Mob in Colfax
Decades after a violent public lynching left a permanent stain on the community, the citizens of Colfax still wake to find ominous reminders scrawled on the sidewalk.
- A Fourteen-Year-Old's Elopement Ends With a Mob Chasing the Groom Down the Tracks
A farmer's daughter slips away to marry a man eleven years older, her father gives in — then a gang of neighbors decides otherwise.
- After the Riot: Martial Law and the Reassertion of Civil Order
Governor Watson C. Squire revokes martial law in Seattle following the forced expulsion of Chinese laborers, signaling a return to civil governance.
- The Deadly Contagion of Mob Law
An editorial reflection on the rising threat of lynch law in the Pacific Northwest and the necessity of the courts.
- Civic Leaders Respond to the Anti-Chinese Expulsions
The Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade issue formal resolutions condemning the February 1886 mob violence and pledging to support law and order.
- The Mob That Stopped a Cannery
Business owners in Everett face threats and intimidation for attempting to hire Chinese labor.
- The Mob is Not a Court of Law
An editorial reflection on the recent lynching of Bill at Colfax, arguing that a community’s failure to maintain a just legal system does not justify vigilante violence.
- A Mob Hanged Two Men at the Courthouse. Then the State Argued Over the Bill.
After Hill and Parker were lynched in Colfax, Attorney General W. C. Jones ruled that the county need not pay for a coroner's inquest—and said the real hunt for the mob belonged to a grand jury.
- Mob Tension Stirs in Wilkeson
A brutal assault on two local women near the railroad tracks leads to the arrest of an Austrian man and triggers fears of mob violence.