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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 7 |
| 1877 | 6 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1879 | 1 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1883 | 4 |
| 1884 | 4 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 7 |
| 1890 | 3 |
| 1891 | 7 |
| 1892 | 8 |
| 1893 | 17 |
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| 1895 | 12 |
| 1898 | 2 |
| 1899 | 4 |
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| 1903 | 6 |
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| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 4 |
| 1910 | 4 |
| 1911 | 2 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1916 | 4 |
| 1928 | 1 |
133 stories matching fool
- The Night the Coal Ran: How a Company Outsmarted Strikers with Negro Labor and Winchester Rifles
In a brazen move to break the Koslyn coal strike, company managers smuggled in replacement workers from Illinois under cover of darkness, escorted by armed deputies who fired through the sleeping village of Seattle.
- A Denial and a Threat: W. H. Evring Fires Back at Murder Plot Accusations
Accused of plotting to kill a ship captain, Whatcom businessman W. H. Evring writes a fiery letter denying everything—and warning his enemies he'll be back.
- The Alderman, the Streetcar Man, and the Offer to 'Make It All Right'
Alderman J. Eugene Jordan answers a St. Louis letter from street-railway manager E. F. Wittler, denying personal spite while insisting that an investigation will expose who tried to buy a vote on the car lines.
- The Tillicums' Trick: How a Political Machine Fooled Tacoma's Democrats
A secretive faction called the Tillicums manipulates primaries, places decoy tickets, and doles out patronage jobs to tighten its grip on Pierce County politics.
- 'As Cold as a Barn': The Olympia Theater Fight That Spilled Into Print
When the Tribune panned the Olympia Theater, the rival Standard accused it of kicking without reason. The rebuttal names icy dressing rooms, one-dollar seats and a manager in over his head.
- The Confidence Man’s Tears: How a Thief Fooled His Victim and the Court
In May 1877, Seattle confidence operator Dowd was granted a change of venue after moving his robbery victim to tears with a sob story about his destitute family. The District Attorney’s lenient stance sparked outrage among citizens who feared the law was too soft on crime.
- The Chief Says the Victims Were Drunk
Two men said they were robbed and ignored by Seattle police. Chief Enright answered with a saloon-to-alley account of drink, deeds, and a woman called 'Big Six.'
- The Alibi That Could Save a Condemned Man
A condemned man's fate hinges on a Tacoma Labor Day alibi, a jailhouse confession, and a tailor who may have been pressured to identify bloody clothes.
- A Diamond Ring and a Broken Romance: The Saloon Trial of 'Sodie' Davis
When a French hotel keeper and her much younger lover quarrelled, a diamond ring became the star exhibit in a Seattle larceny trial — with a will, a fortune in gems, and a $5-a-day allowance all laid before the jury.
- The Minister, the Miracle Cure, and Olympia's War on Drink
Rev. Napoleon Hoagland preached "salvation by science" at Tacoma Hall, touting Dr. Keeley's famous remedy for alcoholism and urging Olympia to raise money so the poor could be treated too.
- The Railroad Contractor Who Thought He Could Boss the Republican Party
Nelson Bennett's Tacoma Ledger refused to back John H. McGraw and the state Republican ticket after a canal fight. A Pierce County senator told the party to stand by the convention—and warned that one wealthy man was not bigger than the party.
- The Great Hotel Heist That Wasn't: How Seattle’s Gamblers Were Fooled by a Fake Fortune
A broken-down cardsharp named 'Splitcheck Jimmy' was tricked into stealing an envelope full of newspaper, only to be ambushed by actors in a staged robbery at the St. Denis Hotel.
- The Great Assessment Scam: How King County Taxpayers Were Fooled by 'Blunders'
A local reporter exposes the absurdity of county tax assessments, where landowners receive notices for huge back-taxes on property they already paid off, forcing them to chase down exhausted commissioners in a cycle of bureaucratic error.
- The Plot to Fire the Engineer Behind Seattle’s Sewer Tunnels
Democratic operatives wanted Reginald H. Thomson’s job for a patronage appointee. Mayor Ronald threatened to make them pay.
- The Steamboat Inspector's Reckoning
Capt. Bryant admits free rides, denies bribery, and trades accusations with the pilots and captains who want him removed from the Seattle inspection office.
- The Wooden Revolver That Sprung Tom Blanck
A murderer awaiting appeal in the King County jail used a hand-carved fake gun to force his way past the night jailer, then vanished into the Black River woods as a sheriff's posse rushed south by special train.
- The Country Estate as Medicine: Why Seattle’s Elite Are Buying Farms to Save Their Nerves
A satirical essay in the Daily Intelligencer argues that small country plots are not financial investments, but essential health remedies for city professionals suffering from 'trade winds' and nervous exhaustion.
- A Mother Fights for Her Children—and the Court Hears How She Wore Men's Clothes to Save a Timber Claim
In a Seattle habeas corpus hearing, Mrs. L. L. Shaffer battles her husband for custody of their two daughters as neighbors and her stepmother testify to her character.
- A Seattle Merchant Sold His Stock, Then Vanished — and His Creditors Want Him Back
Simon Rumpf disappeared sometime after selling the Diamond Palace's goods to J. K. Basye & Co. Detectives are hunting Nuremberg, Honolulu, and a cache of missing merchandise they suspect never left the city.
- Walla Walla's Water War: Springs, a Bank, and a $250,000 Bond
In December 1903, an editorial backed Councilman Glasford's plan to use Thomas Springs rather than buy bank-owned ranch land or bond for Mill Creek water.
- He Loved Her Too Much to Marry Her
Adam Gehm, a Bavarian logger working in Carbonado, shot himself in a Seattle lodging house after confessing to a friend that illness left him unable to provide for the woman he loved. He had tried once before.
- The Healing Lake That Hid a Walking Fish
On the Columbia plateau near Spokane lies a strange saline lake with no inlet and no outlet — credited with curing rheumatism, foaming like soap in the wind, and home to an axolotl that fooled the naturalists.
- "All the Devils in Hell Can't Get Me Out of This Position"
Puget Sound steamboat men spent a year trying to oust the federal hull inspector they accuse of padding his travel expenses. Their affidavits went to Washington City and vanished into red tape — and Bryant kept his job.
- The Sheriff Who Wouldn't Shield the Strikers: A Labor Standoff in Newcastle
When a coal mine strike erupted in Newcastle, King County, Sheriff Cochrane refused to protect workers willing to cross the picket line, sparking a public confrontation with the mine superintendent and accusations of union intimidation.
- The 'Gold Brick' King: How a Master Con Man Sold Copper to a Banker
A too-trusting Aberdeen banker, a man disguised as an Indian, and a forged letter from the San Francisco mint—the Seattle trial of the notorious swindler 'Rebel George' Knowlton.