The Cold-Blooded Murder at the Copper Chief
A Seattle bartender is gunned down over a dispute about drink tabs, leading to a grim scene at the local undertaker's.
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.
James Murphy, the slayer of Philip J. Dawe, was removed yesterday from the city to the county jail to face a charge of murder in the first degree. The coroner's jury yesterday found the shooting of Dawe was deliberate and premeditated. The murder was the talk of the town yesterday. Both men were widely known among sporting men, and in every saloon, knots of loungers were discussing the matter. When the inquest began at 2 o'clock, the undertaking rooms of Bonney & Stewart were crowded almost to suffocation; the press was so great outside that several windows in the undertakers' office were pushed out of their frames. George A. Gordon, porter of the Copper Chief saloon, testified that Murphy entered the bar and ordered a whisky, putting down a 50-cent piece. As Dawe reached for ice, Murphy drew a revolver and fired within six inches of his head. Murphy then drank the whisky, took his money back, and walked out. The two had previously quarreled over Murphy’s habit of demanding free cocktails.
“The murder was the talk of the town yesterday. Both men were widely known among sporting men and in every saloon were knots of loungers discussing the matter.”
This 1892 report captures the raw, volatile atmosphere of a city transitioning from a frontier town to a metropolis. Today, the corner of 8th and James streets, once the site of the funeral, remains a central part of Seattle’s urban core, though the 'sporting' culture of 19th-century saloons has been entirely replaced by modern development.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.