A Woman's Fist Fights Off a Tacoma Street Robber
After being accosted at 11th and A, a woman turned the tables on her attacker, delivering a stinging blow that sent him fleeing into the night.
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.
A footpad held up three women at the corner of 11th and A streets in Tacoma at 8 o'clock this evening. One woman, Mrs. Ben McHandley, was choked and beaten in the face and on the head, while another woman, Mrs. Charles B. Nelson, coming to the rescue, dealt the highwayman a stinging blow on the back of the neck with her clinched fist. Maggie McHandley, aged 15, was preparing to assist in overcoming their assailant, when he fled as a result of Mrs. Nelson's loud cries for help. Detective Flannigan has arrested William Frazier and T. H. Coniff on suspicion. The women had been shopping and looking into jewelry windows and joking about buying diamonds, and it is thought the highwayman overheard the conversation and followed them. There is an electric light at the corner, but the foliage of the trees made it a dark corner.
“She turned around until the glare of the electric lights... shone full in his face, she realized her mistake, and told him to go away.”
This street-level account of a robbery in downtown Tacoma highlights the persistent dangers of urban transit in the 1890s, when dark, unlit corners were the domain of 'footpads.' Today, the area near 11th and A remains a vital, albeit modernized, part of downtown Tacoma, still balancing the challenges of public safety with city life.
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