The Doctor and the Alleged Blackmail Ring
A sensational damage suit in Seattle reveals accusations of professional misconduct, bribery, and complex personal vendettas.
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 Plouf-Dempsey damage suit yesterday afforded another day of salacious testimony to a crowd of sensation seekers who filled Judge Osborn's courtroom. The defense began to lay out its side, and the nature of the evidence changed to favor the Dempseys. S. H. Piles, the defendants' attorney, made a scathing arraignment of Dr. Plouf. He claimed he would show that Plouf had attempted to hire a man to 'do up' Dempsey; that he had propositioned a woman to help him begin a system of blackmail upon physicians; that he had cheated a well-known attorney out of $250; and that he had made insulting propositions to the sister of Miss Shears. Charles Phillips, an ex-city detective, testified that Plouf had asked him to recommend a man to 'do up' Dempsey. Mrs. Jennie Marer testified that while traveling by boat from Fairhaven to Seattle, Dr. Plouf proposed that they establish a systematic blackmailing scheme against local physicians. She confessed to having ill-feeling toward Plouf because he had cheated her out of a real estate commission. T. H. Dempsey took the stand and denied involvement in an attempted assault on the doctor, stating he had merely tried to warn Miss Shears against associating with Plouf.
“The Plouf-Dempsey damage suit yesterday afforded another day of salacious testimony to a crowd of prurient sensation seekers who filled Judge Osborn's courtroom.”
Courtroom dramas involving local 'characters' and complex schemes were staples of 1890s news. Today's Seattle still debates professional ethics and legal accountability, though the era's penchant for publicizing every salacious detail of private lives has shifted into different media channels.
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