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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1876 | 1 |
| 1877 | 1 |
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1889 | 1 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1892 | 2 |
| 1893 | 5 |
| 1894 | 1 |
| 1895 | 2 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1909 | 3 |
21 stories matching captor
- A Woman Kidnapped from Her Home
A Chinese immigrant couple is torn apart as conspirators use a bogus larceny charge and a U.S. Marshal to traffic a woman into potential enslavement.
- A Six-Dollar Rent Debt and a Diamond Ring Nearly Drowned Her in Lake Washington
Ethel Perkins, a lodger at a Third-and-Union boarding house, tried to end her life when her rent fell behind and a barber demanded his ring back. A stranger on the Madison street car caught her at the wharf's edge.
- The Strange Odyssey of Princess Louisa
A royal daughter from the Gambier Islands, held in forced labor in Port Townsend, finds her way to freedom through the help of a sympathetic sergeant.
- 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.
- Vigilante Justice in Cle Elum
Citizens in Cle Elum adopt a brutal method of 'dealing with obstreperous hobos' using whips.
- The Lynching of Aldy Neal: A Mob’s Midnight Justice in Rockford
After escaping custody for horse theft and returning to his hometown under the guise of visiting his sister, a young man named Aldy Neal was intercepted by an armed mob north of Rockford and hanged from a tree limb.
- The Price of a Blind Eye
A Seattle official rejects a monthly bribe from local gamblers, exposing a deep-seated culture of corruption at City Hall.
- The Desperado Who Vanished Into the Brush
A King County manhunt closes in on escaped murderer Thomas Blanck—until a dark ambush near Black River Junction lets him slip away behind his partner’s raised hands.
- Drugged and Held at Sea for Seven Weeks, an Engineer Reappears in Tacoma
T. A. Cox, part-owner of an Arizona mining company, says he was drugged with a lemonade in San Francisco and held prisoner aboard an unknown ship before being put ashore at Des Moines — then walked to Tacoma without a cent.
- The Grizzly at Point Defiance
A silver-tip grizzly escapes its cage at Tacoma's Point Defiance Park, wounding three park employees before being put down to protect the zoo’s deer and elk.
- The Devil-Fish of the Chehalis
Two local fishermen survive a terrifying encounter with a massive, tentacled monster in the waters of Grays Harbor.
- The San Juan Huntresses of English Camp
Two young women in the San Juan Islands hunted a deer without a gun, pursuing it by rowboat until they could dispatch it with a knife.
- A Monster in the Mud
An unusually large sulphur bottom whale ends up stranded on the Olympia mudflats.
- The Great Front Street Shirt Heist
A petty theft at a Seattle variety store ends in a dramatic, water-logged standoff at the base of the city's waterfront.
- The Miner Who Vanished—and Came Back With a Shanghaied Story
Cox disappeared before Christmas. Then he turned up in Tacoma with a tale of drugging, abduction, and a vessel that would not let him go.
- Night Watchman Shoots Intruder at West Seattle Elevator
A thief attempting to steal grain sacks from a West Seattle elevator was shot in the leg by a vigilant watchman and forced to surrender.
- 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.
- The Jailbreak at the Lava-Beds
A woman held in a Seattle lockup executes a daring escape, shedding her clothes and fleeing toward the wilderness after outsmarting her captor.
- The Watch Thief of Front Street
A desperate thief snatched a gold watch from a construction site, triggering a neighborhood chase that ended in a vacant lot.
- The Boy Who Wrestled an Eagle
A young prospector fights off a protective mother eagle to secure eaglets from a craggy nest near the Columbia River.
- The Drunken Sea Lion of Olympia
An intoxicated 800-pound sea lion is captured after a bender on crude oil.
Also about this, in other words
- The Brutality Aboard the Challenger
A captain escapes conviction, but his mates are sentenced for systematic cruelty against seamen.
- The Captain Who Was Dredged for by Mistake
A tugboat captain vanishes for a night, prompting his concerned friends to begin dragging the bay for his body—only for him to stroll back into town while they were still at work.
- Tragedy at Sea
A squall off Cape Flattery claims the life of a captain's wife and child.
- The Unbelievable Survival of a Castaway
A mariner survives eight days adrift in a small, waterlogged boat after his ship collided with a mystery vessel in the Pacific.
- The 'Crusher' Strikes Again
The steam collier San Pedro continues its destructive streak on Puget Sound.
- Tragedy on the Quillayute Coast
The Chilean bark Leanor strikes rocks in a fierce storm, claiming the lives of the captain, his wife, and four crew members.
- The Shackled Sailors of the Karoo
A federal judge in Tacoma intervenes to protect a crew 'inveigled' onto a British ship, exposing a brutal system of forced labor and maritime exploitation.
- Lost at the Cape
A young Norwegian boatbuilder and schooner owner vanishes in the heavy seas off Cape Flattery.