Fatal Booby Trap in Whatcom
Two men are being hunted after a 'trap gun' rigged to a door killed an unsuspecting visitor.
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.
A coroner's jury in Whatcom has returned a verdict that John Ericson died of a gunshot wound caused by a device rigged to discharge upon the opening of a door. The jury named Walter Pixley and Newton S. Barr as the individuals responsible for arranging the lethal trap. The local sheriff has dispatched men to search for the two suspects, who fled after the incident.
“Said gun being so arranged as to discharge upon the opening of a door.”
Rigged traps or 'trap guns' were a recurring, lethal method of property defense in the rural and frontier West, often resulting in tragic misfires or the deaths of trespassers. This case represents a dramatic example of vigilante property protection that often landed squarely in the hands of the coroner.
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