The Roslyn Bank Robbery Trial
Testimony in the Roslyn bank heist reveals a trail of threats and horse thievery through the Washington wilderness.
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.
In the trial of the Roslyn robbers today, the cross-examination of Mrs. Morgan by the defense did not elicit any new evidence. Oie Hanson testified that on the night of September 24, 1892, Lewis, in company with four others, came to his cabin on the Teanaway inquiring for the trail, saying they had lost it and offering $10 for his lantern. They told him they had robbed the Roslyn bank and that if he gave them away they would kill him. After giving him $10 for the lantern they struck him in the face with a revolver. Joe Brooks, a former partner of Lewis, testified to the defendant leaving home in mid-September; that Lewis borrowed his horses and said he was going to Rock Island on the Great Northern, returning ten days later with the horses in poor condition. He heard the McCarthy brothers, Hill, Tom, and Fred, counting money in the bedroom, and said Lewis had invited him to aid in robbing banks, claiming it was an easy thing to do.
“They told him they had robbed the Roslyn bank and that if he gave them away they would kill him.”
This story details a classic frontier crime—the bank robbery—that was a staple of 1890s Washington news. The reliance on horse tracks and lantern light for navigation highlights how much the geography of the Pacific Northwest dictated the pace of crime and justice at the time.
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