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10 stories matching cryptic

  1. The Last Stand of Bebe Low: A Saloon Keeper’s Final Plea

    In August 1876, Seattle saloon owner Bebe Low publicly demanded his debts be settled before disappearing from the city, leaving behind a cryptic notice and a legacy of vanished frontier commerce.

    Aug 19, 1876Puget Sound DispatchSeattle, King County

  2. Wireless Expert Disappears Following Mysterious Note

    A Marconi Company employee vanishes after writing a cryptic message to his assistant.

    Apr 30, 1909The Tacoma TimesTacoma, Pierce CountyTrue Crime

  3. Gambler's Lonely End in Dayton

    An unidentified man found with a revolver and playing cards leaves behind a cryptic note.

    Oct 19, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerDayton, Columbia CountyTrue Crime

  4. A Body in the Bay: The Cryptic Note Left in a Dead Man's Skiff

    An unidentified man is found adrift in Admiralty Bay, and the only clue is a strange note in his pocket about a neighbor, a house, and cloth nailed to the walls.

    Mar 31, 1876Puget Sound Weekly ArgusAdmiralty Bay, Port TownsendTrue Crime

  5. 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.

    Jun 8, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerColfax, Whitman CountyExclusion & Resistance

  6. Final Leap at Pier 6

    A man identified as Robert B. McManus ends his life in the harbor after leaving cryptic clues behind.

    Jan 21, 1909The Tacoma TimesPier 57, Seattle, King CountyTrue Crime

  7. The Baker Who Left a Sign Reading 'Out Painting'

    Christian Gutheil's morphine suicide and the cryptic notice on his Second Avenue bakery door.

    May 17, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King County

  8. The Shadowy Death of Charles Smith

    A suspected opium smuggler dies by his own hand in the Puyallup reservation jail, leaving behind a cryptic note that hints at corruption and a hidden fortune in contraband.

    Apr 20, 1892The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPuyallup reservation, Tacoma, Pierce CountyTrue Crime

  9. The Sudden Flight of Ballard's Prominent Citizen

    A local businessman flees to Chicago, leaving unfinished projects and a cryptic telegram behind, out of a sensitive fear of public scandal.

    Nov 14, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerBurke Avenue, Seattle, King CountyScandal

  10. The Mystery Man at the Rail Yards

    A man found critically injured near the Northern Pacific tracks dies in the hospital, leaving behind only a cryptic note and a broken life.

    Nov 8, 1893The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

Download all 10 as a spreadsheet (CSV)