Brutal Saloon Brawl Leaves Man with Fractured Skull
A card game dispute at a Seattle saloon escalated into a violent attack, landing two brothers in police custody.
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 row between three men started in the Fountain saloon, corner of Jackson and South Sixth streets, yesterday afternoon about 5:30 o'clock, which resulted in Thomas Caporilli having his skull fractured by an iron weight in the hands of William Sirianni. The two men named above and Frank Sirianni were playing cards in the saloon when a dispute arose over some point. All got mad and, it is claimed, William Sirianni drew a knife and tried to stab Caporilli, who arose from his chair and ran out of the room. The two brothers followed him into a fruit stand adjoining the Fountain house and it is claimed that William picked up a weight and struck Caporilli on the forehead. The blow knocked him down, crushed the skull, and made it necessary to remove him to the hospital. Officer Henry Surry arrested the two brothers and booked them at police headquarters for assault and battery.
“The blow knocked him down, crushed the skull, and made it necessary to remove him to the hospital.”
This incident occurred in the heart of what was then the rough-and-tumble industrial edge of Pioneer Square. The neighborhood remains a site of high-density social conflict and shifting urban demographics, mirroring the historical tensions between neighborhood businesses and their patrons.
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