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132 stories matching lynch
- The Origin of Lynch Law
A local resident traces his ancestry to the infamous Irish namesake of America's most brutal form of vigilante justice.
- The Custody Battle Over Miss Lynch
A bitter divorce case that led to a shooting and an abduction now sees a young girl caught in a tug-of-war between her estranged parents.
- A Fistfight at City Hall
A political dispute in Spokane turns physical, landing councilmen and a street commissioner in a public brawl.
- The Battle for the Yakima Indian Reservation
Local political pressure mounts to retain Superintendent Jay Lynch amidst federal investigation allegations.
- The Hunt for Two Children in a Custody Feud
A mother stalks her estranged husband across the region after he snatches their two young daughters from a Portland home.
- The Local Press and the Mob
A critique of Washington newspapers that refused to take a hard moral stand against lynch law.
- 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.
- The Deadly Contagion of Mob Law
An editorial reflection on the rising threat of lynch law in the Pacific Northwest and the necessity of the courts.
- Rumors of Lynching Debunked at Monte Cristo
A railroad contractor denies reports of violence against immigrant workers, highlighting the tension between the press and laborers.
- The Mob is Not a Court of Law
An editorial reflection on the recent lynching of Bill at Colfax, arguing that a community’s failure to maintain a just legal system does not justify vigilante violence.
- A Shingle War on the Frontier
A landowner's wife in Whatcom faces down armed men after a dispute over wood theft.
- The Governor Condemns the Colfax Lynching Mob
Governor McGraw orders an investigation into the extrajudicial murder of two men in Whitman County, declaring that mob violence is no substitute for the courts.
- The Phantom Lynching of Monte Cristo
Sensational reports of mass violence against Italian laborers in the mountains were debunked after local officials and witnesses found the camp quiet.
- The Struggle for Water Rights on the Yakima Reservation
Agent Jay Lynch warns that unmanaged irrigation is drying up tribal streams and threatening future agricultural viability for both the reservation and the surrounding valley.
- The Doctor Who Vanished: A Seattle Physician’s Fearful Disappearance Sparks Murder Theories
Dr. H.P. Harrington of Oakdale left his patients and his town in mid-April, leaving behind a trail of illness, a warning from a lynching victim, and friends who fear he was silenced.
- Vigilante Justice Narrowly Averted in Roslyn
A mob of men attempted to lynch a laborer near Roslyn before word arrived that the alleged crime had not been completed.
- The River Fight
Citizens and a private irrigation firm clash with an Indian Agent over the damming of the Yakima River.
- The Mob That Stole Justice in Seattle
A federal judge delivers a blistering rebuke to the Seattle vigilantes who lynched three men in January 1882, declaring that the lawless 'Committee of Safety' is a threat greater than the criminals they executed.
- A Mother and Baby Slain in South Seattle — and Talk of Lynching
An outraged neighborhood whispers of mob justice for Henry Cramer, but the Post-Intelligencer insists that a circumstantial case must go to an impartial trial.
- The Fake News That Spooked a Construction Site
A sensationalized newspaper report of a lynching on a remote railroad line triggered a labor shortage that crippled local work.
- The Trial That Nearly Triggered a Lynching
A Whatcom jury's acquittal of George Bwiloos for a brutal murder left the town in an uproar, sparking a desperate, failed manhunt by local citizens.
- Typographical Union Clashes Over Spokane and Tacoma Strikes
A convention of typesetters descends into internal conflict over broken contracts and the legitimacy of recent industrial action in Washington State.
- The Mob That Met Its Match in Dayton
A man targeted for a vigilante lynching fights back and escapes his attackers, leaving his would-be murderers in the shadows.
- The Night of the Three Nooses
A double lynching followed by a swift vigilante mob justice against a third prisoner defined one of the most violent episodes in early Seattle history.
- The Mob's Cruel Gamble: A Wrongful Lynching Attempt in Rosalia
A husband and wife were dragged into a horrific ordeal by a lynch mob convinced of their guilt in a missing child case—only to discover the child had been safe all along.