The Yokohama House Murders: A Seattle Tragedy
A Japanese woman is found strangled and poisoned in her Fourth Avenue home; police arrest a lodger and hunt for a white suspect.
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.
K. Taka, the Japanese woman who was strangled in her Yokohama house on Fourth avenue and Jackson street Sunday morning by an unknown person, announced exclusively in The Star yesterday, died this morning at 1 o'clock, without receiving assistance.
There is no doubt but that she was strangled, and the suspicion is that poison was also administered.
Charlie Hamada, a Japanese porter who lives with the deceased, was arrested last night by Sheriff Van de Water, who thinks he may be connected with the crime. The police, however, do not believe him to be guilty, but say that the deed was done either by a white man or another Japanese.
Meredith and others are working on the case, and several arrests are expected to follow.
This 1905 murder case highlights the intense racial tensions and xenophobia present in early Seattle, where a victim's identity often dictated the urgency and direction of police investigations. The specific mention of suspects being 'white' or 'Japanese' reflects the era's segregated social fabric and the precarious position of Japanese immigrants, who faced both economic competition and violent prejudice.
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