Research the archive
Narrow 25,688 newspaper stories by words, years, place, newspaper and subject. See when and where they ran, then download what you find.
Put a phrase in quotes ("rent strike") or leave a word out with a minus (strike -baseball). Old scans misspell names, so when little is found, near-spellings are offered.
Refine
Show the numbers
| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1886 | 2 |
| 1889 | 4 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1894 | 2 |
| 1895 | 1 |
| 1899 | 2 |
| 1900 | 1 |
| 1903 | 3 |
| 1904 | 2 |
| 1909 | 1 |
22 stories matching deceit
- The Libel Pamphlet That Ended With Psalm 52
Rev. M. H. Nichols, already convicted of libeling Elder T. B. Ford, circulated a new attack on Dr. W. P. George—and Judge Humes fined him $25.
- The Widow and the Land Graber
An Indian widow and her children reclaim their land after being defrauded by a prominent guardian.
- The Abandoned Wife of Seattle's Founder
Dr. David S. Maynard claimed 640 acres in Seattle, then secretly divorced his wife of 24 years to marry another—a legal battle that exposed the heartless machinations of the city's early days.
- The Judge’s Double Life: Seduction, Abortion, and the Cover-Up That Shook Tacoma
In 1889, a young canvasser named Sadie Brantner took the stand to accuse Pierce County Probate Judge James Wickersham of luring her into a trap in Seattle, forcing an illegal abortion, and paying her off to silence. The trial revealed a web of deceit involving fake names, land fraud, and medical conspiracies.
- The Northern Pacific Railroad Monopoly
Critics argue that the railroad company's selection of Stampede Pass is a calculated power grab over Washington's coal wealth.
- They Promised Clean Bunks and Good Food. The Sailors Knew Better.
At a longshoremen's meeting in Tacoma, a delegate described how ship's officers lured landsmen aboard with false promises — and told of a sailor who drowned swimming for shore rather than sail on the Henry Failing.
- A Judicial Feud Erupts in Whitman County
A former prosecutor and a sitting judge trade public accusations of deceit, perjury, and misconduct involving a prisoner and a local jail scandal.
- The Orting Tragedy: A Husband’s Despair and a Fortune-Teller’s Deceit
Edgar Kimball, a Mormon settler who moved his family from Utah to Tacoma in search of purity, was found dead from morphine overdose in Orting after years of marital strife and accusations of infidelity.
- The Knights of Labor Strike Back in Whatcom
A fiery public letter from the local labor organization dismantles the 'social assassins' and 'poltroons' who questioned their political legitimacy in 1886.
- The Jefferson County Political Volcano
A local Democratic club launches a full-scale mutiny against the Collector of Customs, accusing him of cronyism and financial improprieties.
- The Tragic Pact of a Seattle Love Triangle
When an engineer tasked his best friend with watching over his fiancée, the resulting forbidden love led to a desperate, fatal end in 1885.
- A Mother's Fight Through Three Marriages
After years of manipulation and threats, a Tacoma woman turns to the courts to reclaim her child from a former partner.
- The Ghost-Maker of Buffalo Gets Busted in Tacoma
A traveling spiritualist promising to summon the dead is exposed as a charlatan after an electric battery—and a hysterical scene at a hotel—reveals her 'spirit' tricks.
- The Great Smuggled Salmon Caper
When federal agents boarded the steamer Idaho, they didn't just find barrels of fish—they found a desperate, high-stakes attempt to smuggle opium into the Pacific Northwest.
- The Queen Anne Scandal: A Tramp’s Slander and the ‘Black Paws’ of Seattle
When a wandering journalist accused a local girl of plunging her cat into flour dough, it sparked a chaotic street confrontation on Queen Anne Hill that revealed the raw tensions of early 20th-century Seattle.
- The Railroad Lobby's Quiet Plan to Buy a Governor and Kill the Commission
A Walla Walla editor warns that railroad interests will avoid an open fight over regulation by nominating a friendly, colorless candidate—then using him to veto the commission bill.
- The Girl Who Vanished: A Seattle Mystery of Despair and Deceit
In June 1903, a young woman died under mysterious circumstances near Yesler Way, leaving behind only a few dollars and a card from a Pike Street lodging house. Was she an orphan in distress, or a fraud hiding her past?
- The Fortune Teller's Change of Heart
A local clairvoyant, weary of peddling fake love charms to desperate women, finds an unexpected path to a simpler life.
- Two Wives, One Painter, and a Flight to Portland
Seattle painters discover that a co-worker borrowing money for a 'sick wife' actually had two wives and no intention of providing for either of them.
- The Slave Smuggler's Lie: A Seattle Sailor’s Close Call on the Congo
In a gripping first-person account reprinted in local papers, a young American sailor recounts his terrifying encounter with a slave ship off the coast of Africa, where he nearly fell for a deceitful mate's story to avoid a deadly confrontation.
- Washington Dairymen Declare War on a Seattle Butter Dealer
At a dairy convention, producers accuse a Seattle dealer of cold-storing eastern butter and mislabeling it to break the market—and call for an organized, public fight.
- "My Idol Is Broken": A Governor Denounces a Senator to His Face
Miles C. Moore accuses John B. Allen of selling out an old friend to climb into the Senate, and prints the speech he says he delivered at Allen's headquarters.
Also about this, in other words
- The Decalcomania Confidence Man
A group of Seattle women expose a predatory art instructor who used a 'transfer work' scam to swindle local households.
- The False 'Reporter' and the Seduction Case
A young man posing as a writer for the 'Post-Intelligencer' is arrested for seduction after a bizarre paper trail of fake confessions and suicide notes is uncovered in court.
- The Estray Swindle: A Rural Confidence Game
A clever ruse targets farmers by using public notice requirements to set up a rigged animal sale.
- The Cashier’s Downfall
A Seattle Transfer Company employee’s descent from competence to embezzlement begins with a simple, hidden accounting error.
- The Treasury Betrayal
An editorial indictment of the city treasurer’s flight and the prosecutor’s leniency toward civic corruption.
- The 'Smart' Grift: A Frontier Romance Scammer
A Chinese laborer attempts to use the legal system to recover money lost to a romantic swindler who promised marriage but disappeared with his cash.
- A Marriage Built on Lies and Swindling
A husband files for divorce claiming his wife wasn't the 'virtuous girl' he was promised, leading his wife to reveal he was actually a confidence man trying to recruit her into his schemes.
- The Lonely Sentinel of Deception Pass
Federal authorities place a single, ill-equipped sailor on Smith's Island to guard against opium and immigrant smuggling.