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867 stories matching sheriff
- The Sheriff Who Stood Alone: Cochrane’s Standoff with Federal Deputies
King County Sheriff Sidney S. Cochrane defied U.S. Marshals at the Oregon Improvement Company’s Newcastle coal mine, sparking a local crisis that ended only when federal and state authorities refused to back his arrest.
- The Sheriff Who Wouldn't Shield the Strikers: A Labor Standoff in Newcastle
When a coal mine strike erupted in Newcastle, King County, Sheriff Cochrane refused to protect workers willing to cross the picket line, sparking a public confrontation with the mine superintendent and accusations of union intimidation.
- The Sheriff Deputized a Killer to Keep the Peace at a Seattle Primary
A Republican primary in Seattle's First Ward turned into a street fight between the sheriff's men and city police—and the Post-Intelligencer laid the blame squarely on Sheriff Woolery.
- The Coal Creek Massacre: A Coroner’s Inquest into the Battle Between Knights of Labor and Mine Owners
In January 1890, Seattle Sheriff Cochrane deployed militia to Newcastle to suppress a miners' strike. When a riot erupted at Coal Creek, one man was killed and ten arrested. The subsequent coroner's inquest revealed a chaotic scene where union men claimed self-defense against armed mine owners, while the sheriff dismissed the Knights of Labor as 'too excitable.'
- Sheriff Cochrane’s War on the Gambler: A Raid That Left Wheels of Fortune in Police Hands
In a sweeping crackdown on vice, Sheriff Cochrane and his deputies arrested thirteen gamblers and seized an arsenal of gambling devices, while a decomposed body was pulled from the harbor.
- The Sheriff’s Grim Job Application
A newly elected Seattle sheriff faces a long line of patronage seekers, eventually offering a 'job' that none of them really wanted.
- Guns at the Polls: Seattle’s First Ward Primary Erupts in a Street Brawl
Sheriff Woolery and saloon man John Considine tried to seize a Republican primary by arresting the election judges; Chief Rogers and his police fought back with warrants, clubs and drawn revolvers.
- ‘You Are Hanging an Innocent Man’: A Condemned Killer’s Last Words Before 4,000 Witnesses
Ezra Snoderly, one of the Cummins murderers, is hanged in Dayton’s courthouse square — insisting to the very end that he dies for another man’s crime, while the crowd judges him ‘game.’
- The Siege and Tragedy at Friday Harbor
A reclusive farmer's descent into madness and murder in the San Juan Islands ended in a gruesome, fiery standoff with local law enforcement.
- Her Wages Bought the House at Fourth and Plum. The Sheriff’s Deed Was Canceled.
Elizabeth Burkett turned a $700 gift into a hotel and a home. When a Pierce County judgment against her husband threatened it, a Thurston County judge traced the property back to her own labor.
- The Deadly Cost of a Failed Train Robbery
A desperate shootout between a local sheriff and two convicts on the tracks outside of Walla Walla leaves one man dead and another in chains.
- The Old Man’s Last Stand: A Father’s Flight from Greedy Heirs Ends in a Sheriff’s Chase
P.V. Thorpe, an elderly pioneer fleeing false rape accusations and property theft by his son and son-in-law, was arrested for carrying a revolver in Seattle—only to be vindicated when the truth about his family’s blackmail scheme came to light.
- A Missing Man, a Secret Silver Oath, and a Sheriff's Certainty
Charles K. Gloystein vanished after refusing a vigilante pledge; Sheriff Pugh blamed political enemies in Spokane County's Populist hotbed.
- The Sheriff Who Arrested the Election Judges
At the opening of a Republican primary in Seattle’s First Ward, Sheriff Woolery had the judges jailed and then tried to pull police off the polls. A judge’s restraining order stopped him—barely.
- The Sheriff's Plot to Jail His Rivals Before the Convention
Seattle Republicans gathered at the Armory in 1894 amid rumors that Sheriff Woolery and John Considine planned to have First Ward leaders arrested before the county convention could organize.
- The Sheriff’s Hammer: Snohomish’s Last Stand Against the 'Nuisance'
In March 1877, Judge J.R. Lewis and the local Grand Jury launched a coordinated assault on vice, seizing brothels and fining operators, while simultaneously exposing corruption in county bonds.
- The Sheriff’s Mercy in Union
A coal miner facing eviction due to a grocery debt is granted a reprieve by an empathetic sheriff.
- The Sheriff's Deadline: 'I Will Be Compelled to Hang Him'
C. W. Nordstrom has until August 31 to appeal his murder conviction, but with no money for lawyers, the King County sheriff is already building a portable gallows outside the jail.
- The Jailer and the Sheriff’s Keys
A power struggle inside the King County jail ends in a public firing after a suspicious security lapse involving lost keys and unauthorized visitors.
- The Foreclosure Auction: Snohomish’s Housing Crisis in 1876
As the Territory of Washington grapples with economic instability, three separate Sheriff's sales are scheduled for January 1877, putting local homes and land on the block for unpaid debts.
- The Sheriff’s Bold Stand Against Mob Rule
A newly minted newspaper editor-sheriff argues that local complicity, not just law enforcement failures, fuels vigilante violence in Washington.
- The Governor’s War: Seattle’s Militia Mutiny and the Coal Creek Massacre
In the wake of a deadly strike at Newcastle coal mines, Governor Elisha Peery clashes with local sheriff over military command, exposing the fragility of civil authority in Washington Territory.
- The Tragedy at Fort Simcoe
An Indian reservation sheriff is in hiding after killing a fugitive in a fatal dispute over a court-ordered fine.
- The Murdered Japanese Cook Known as Charley
A hatchet, a wages quarrel and a suspect who answered every question 'I don't know'—the killing near Auburn that drew Seattle's Japanese community into the hunt for a murderer.
- The $18,784 Express Package That Vanished—and the Sheriff Arrested for It
A grand jury charged a Northern Pacific agent, a Franklin County sheriff and another man in a January 1894 express theft. The sheriff’s Ainsworth neighbors posted his bond—and doubted the charge.
Also about this, in other words
- The Sheriff Who Would Be Governor
A political endorsement of John H. McGraw, framing his tenure as sheriff and his 'moral courage' as the ideal preparation for state leadership.
- The Sheriff’s Unwelcome Guest
An indebted Seattle businessman is arrested on a steamboat just as he was about to skip town for Whatcom.
- The Sheriff Who Refused to Enforce Mob Rule
In 1885, as anti-Chinese sentiment gripped Seattle, Sheriff J.H. McGraw defied a mass meeting of local citizens by refusing to join an exclusionary committee, citing his oath of office and the rule of law.
- Trekking Through the Frontier: The Sheriff’s Duty
A grueling journey through Whatcom County’s wilderness in 1878 to summon jurors, revealing a rapidly changing landscape.
- The Sheriff’s Shabby Costume: A Prisoner’s Trick to Escape the Penitentiary
In a bizarre twist of early Washington Territory justice, a sheriff attempted to smuggle a prisoner into the territorial penitentiary by disguising him in shabby clothes. The trick failed, but not before the warden made a memorable quip.
- Sheriff and Editor Clash in Spokane
An intoxicated Sheriff and a local editor settle a long-standing journalistic feud with revolvers in downtown Spokane.
- The Sheriff’s Auction: Losing the Land in Snohomish
A legal notice from 1878 reveals the harsh reality of frontier debt, as a local resident faces the forced sale of his 120-acre homestead to satisfy a court judgment.
- The Sheriff’s Gavel: Two Families Lose Their Homes in Snohomish
In March 1877, the Snohomish County Sheriff seized and scheduled the sale of real estate for two different local families to satisfy court judgments, marking a stark moment in the territory's early legal history.