The Inside Story of the Roslyn Bank Job
A tipster known as 'The Queen' and a remorseful participant reveal how a secret ring of thirteen men planned a violent bank heist in the coal mining town of Roslyn.
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.
It is said that the Roslyn bank robbery was planned by a prominent steamboat captain living in this state. He kept up his business while the plans were under consideration and while they were carried into effect. The Oregon men arrested for the crime were taken on a mere description, with no prospect of conviction. However, details of the plot were known to women who lived with those who laid the plans. One, known as 'The Queen,' corroborated these details. A former deputy sheriff named Mart Edner, who was running a road camp near Sumner, encountered one of the participants shortly after the robbery. The man, ragged and tired, eventually confessed his role to Edner under a promise of anonymity. He described how the town of Roslyn was surrounded by thirteen men, prepared to kill everyone in sight if resistance were offered. They had expected to seize the payroll intended for Northern Pacific coal miners, but the man picked up by Edner received not a cent and had long since parted ways with the gang.
“If there had been 'trouble' the robbers were prepared to kill everybody in sight if any attempt had been made to capture the robbers.”
Bank robberies in the coal-mining centers of Washington were frequent during this era, often tied to the control of payroll funds and regional labor tensions. Today, Roslyn is best known as a historic district and filming site, a far cry from the violent frontier intrigue of the 1890s.
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