The Brutal Killing of Mike Ivancovich
A grocery store owner in Anacortes is murdered in his home by a man known as 'Charley Sam,' sparking threats of vigilantism in the community.
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.
Mike Ivancovich, an Austrian saloonkeeper and grocer on First Street in Anacortes, died this evening from the effects of a blow on the head delivered with a hatchet by a Chinaman named Charley Sam, known locally as the 'U. P. Kid.' The blow cut a deep gash, nearly decapitating Ivancovich. In his ante-mortem statement, Ivancovich said he had no previous trouble with the man, who knocked at his back door late at night. When the door was opened, the assailant sprang into the room and struck the grocer before he could defend himself. The motive is believed to have been robbery, as Ivancovich usually kept a significant sum of money in the house. The assailant was captured in the suburbs and placed in jail. The crime, coming on the heels of recent anti-Chinese agitation, has raised cries of 'lynch him' among local miners, though authorities hope to maintain order.
“The crime, coming on the footstep of the anti-Chinese agitation in this city, has raised the cry of 'lynch him,' but the cooler heads will doubtless prevent any unwarranted interference with the law.”
This event captures the volatile atmosphere of the early 1890s in Washington, where anti-Chinese sentiment often boiled over into threats of extrajudicial violence following labor or criminal disputes. Such accounts serve as a grim reminder of how racial tensions were routinely exploited and weaponized in the early history of the Puget Sound region.
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