The Escape of 'Big Nose Pete'
A notorious Chicago burglar makes a narrow escape from a Seattle detective after an intense foot chase through a downtown saloon.
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.
It has come to light that for over a week Seattle has harbored two of the most dangerous criminals in the United States, including a man wanted for burglary in Illinois with ten years left on his sentence. The men, known by the aliases 'Big Nose Pete' and 'Connie' Harris, had been operating in the city. Detective Roberts tracked the men to the M. and N. saloon on Washington street. When Roberts moved to arrest him, 'Pete' initially feigned cooperation before bolting up a back stairwell. The detective fired a shot, but the criminal escaped into a labyrinth of halls. It was later confirmed that 'Pete,' whose real name is Thomas Watson, had escaped while being transported to Joliet penitentiary. Detective Roberts remarked that he would have shot the suspect’s legs off had he known the full extent of the man's criminal history.
“Detective Roberts says that he would have shot 'Pete's' legs off if he had known he was wanted for a crime in any other place.”
This chase captures the chaotic, wide-open nature of Seattle's downtown in the 1890s, when out-of-town outlaws often used the city as a staging ground. The 'M. and N. saloon' on Washington Street puts this right in the heart of Pioneer Square, an area that remains a complex nexus of law enforcement and transient life today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.