Witness Corruption in the Minkler Case
A key witness in a Centralia manslaughter case was jailed after evidence emerged that he accepted a bribe to skip trial.
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.
Edwin J. Luther, who is registered at the police station under the name of C. H. Hoffman, was acquitted in the municipal court yesterday morning of the charge of stealing two bottles of whisky from the Esmond saloon wine cellar, but is still in hot water in connection with the Alfred Wright manslaughter case at Centralia, in which he has played an important part as a witness. It will be remembered that Luther told a POST-INTELLIGENCER reporter some time ago that attempts had been made by the defendants to get him out of the country. Chief Jackson now has documentary evidence in his possession, a portion of which was introduced in the trial for petit larceny to impeach Luther's testimony, showing that, according to his own admission, he agreed to keep away from the trial for $175, $75 of which he received in advance from Mrs. McCormick. As soon as Chief Jackson heard that Dr. Minkler, who was convicted of manslaughter in connection with the case in question, had been granted a new trial, he placed the matter before the municipal court, and Luther was remanded to jail to await word from the Lewis County prosecuting attorney.
“Chief Jackson now has documentary evidence... showing that, according to his own admission, he agreed to keep away from the trial for $175.”
Witness tampering and the integrity of the judicial process were critical civic issues in Washington's early statehood. The intersection of local news, like the Esmond saloon petty theft, with high-stakes manslaughter trials captures the messy, intertwined nature of frontier legal life.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.