Four Killers Confined in Pierce County Jail
A grim summary of four separate homicide cases in Tacoma, as of August 1892, including one death caused by a drunken assault.
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.
Among C. Makowski was today charged by the coroner's jury with having inflicted fatal wounds on the face of Thomas Jezorski, from which he died. He is the fourth murderer confined in the county jail at the present time. The others are Tom Hinchey, who, while crazed with drink, shot Tax Collector Martin in a Pacific Avenue saloon; Salvedore Pecani, who was adjudged guilty of murdering his friend, Conchilla Salvedore, by beating his brains out and stabbing him repeatedly; and Dave Seale, who murdered Patrolman Cudihee, who, in citizen's clothes, demanded to know why Seale, with Demorest Borders, was hanging about the South End. The murder of Jezorski and Cudihee occurred late on the last two Saturday nights respectively. The killing of Jezorski was not reported to police headquarters until nearly 2 o'clock in the morning. Jezorski's nose was completely mashed by his drunken assailant's blows. The nasal artery was severed, and as he was allowed to lay in a drunken stupor on his back, the flow of blood formed a clot in the throat and choked him to death.
“Jezorski's nose was completely mashed by his drunken assailant's blows.”
Public safety and the handling of violent crime in downtown Tacoma have remained a constant civic conversation for over a century. While the specific methods of police reporting have modernized, the intersection of alcohol, street violence, and legal accountability remains a hauntingly familiar struggle for the city.
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