The Trial That Stoked a Mob: The Swiloos Case
After an accused murderer was acquitted, the citizens of Whatcom waged a campaign of social ostracism against the jury, reflecting deep racial tensions and extrajudicial outrage in 1892 Washington.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The party of horsemen led by George M. Brown, which started in pursuit of George Swiloos, the Indian accused of the murder of Moses Younkin, arrived at Lummi a little ahead of Swiloos, but had no boat to cross the river. George and his party, seeing the horsemen, ran their canoes aground on the opposite side and hurried ashore. An alarm bell was sounded, and a large number of Indians came to the rescue of the accused. He was soon galloping away, presumably toward British Columbia. Public sentiment is very bitter toward C.C. Thornton, Indian agent of the Tulalip agency, for the part he took in the trial. It is claimed that the witnesses for the state were kept from the stand by intimidation by the 'Lummi Mafia.' When the prosecution rested, it had a case, but the door for perjury is always open, and it is not the fault of the district attorney that the neighbors of the accused, trembling with fear for their own lives in case of his conviction, perjured themselves to prove an alibi. The jury which rendered the verdict, or at least those who have been in Whatcom since that remarkable verdict was rendered last Saturday, have had ample opportunity to feel the sentiment of the citizens. Wherever they have appeared they have been treated with the utmost contempt, and but few of the restaurants in the city would furnish them with meals. One of the jurors went into Nolte Bros. wholesale meat market to purchase some meat, and was unceremoniously told to depart, as his money was not wanted.
“Wherever they have appeared they have been treated with the utmost contempt, and but few of the restaurants in the city, if they discovered who they were, would furnish them with meals.”
This story captures a volatile moment in 1892 Washington where public fury regarding legal verdicts spilled over into social shunning. It highlights the stark racial divide and the intense, often vigilante-style community pressure that defined the era's approach to the justice system.
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