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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 |
| 1892 | 18 |
| 1893 | 13 |
| 1894 | 9 |
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| 1899 | 6 |
| 1903 | 12 |
| 1904 | 4 |
| 1909 | 6 |
| 1914 | 1 |
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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.