The Diamond Thief’s Indignation
After being returned from Portland to face larceny charges, Elmer Mayberry takes issue with the press for linking him to a notorious saloon crowd.
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.
Chief Jackson returned from Portland last night with Elmer Mayberry, the man charged with the larceny of $1,000 worth of diamonds belonging to Rumps & Mayer. Justice Caldwell fixed Mayberry's bond at $1,000, which was furnished by Pete Burns and the Clancys, and he was liberated. The one thing in connection with the whole affair that stings Mayberry is the statement of the Post-Intelligencer that he was identified with the Madrona crowd. He says he never was in the saloon but once and never had any association with the gang connected with it. In an interview, Mayberry said: 'All they can make out of it is a breach of trust and get a judgment against me. I was given the diamonds to sell some time before, but gave them back. Then Reichardt gave them to John Thompson, the bartender at the Satori saloon, to sell, as he had given them to me and several others. Thompson handed them to me one day, and told me to get what I could for them. I went out and soaked them at that pawn shop on Cherry street, between Second and Third, receiving $250. I went on a hell of a spree, and finally wound up in Portland. I guess I got all the goods were worth and I would have come back and settled for them if they did not have me arrested, but now I will fight the case.'
“I went on a hell of a spree, and finally wound up in Portland. I guess I got all the goods were worth.”
Public reputation remains a fierce battleground in Seattle; just as Mayberry wanted to distance himself from the 'Madrona crowd' to maintain his standing, modern defendants and business owners often fight to control their public narrative against the 'stigma' of association.
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