The Fugitive Clerk and the Victoria Sting
A Tacoma city official accused of forgery and embezzlement is nabbed by local officers after a high-stakes flight to Canada.
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.
Frank D. McCain, deputy city clerk of Tacoma, was arrested as he was leaving the city of Kingston in Victoria yesterday morning, charged with forgery and embezzlement. His brother, John McCain, who accompanied him, was also taken in custody as an accomplice. The arrests were made on dispatches received by Acting Chief Walker. The two men fled from Tacoma Friday night, spent Saturday in Seattle, and got away from the latter place on Saturday night. The local officers had been advised that the McCains had gotten out of Washington on Saturday, so upon the arrival of the Kingston, they were on hand and learned that the men they wanted were aboard and secluded in a stateroom. The McCains came off about 7 o'clock and were immediately arrested. They protested strongly that it was a case of mistaken identity, and gave the names of Doane and James. They were taken to the barracks and locked up separately. Mayor Huson has been notified that assistant City Clerk McCain, who uttered three city warrants amounting to $765 and forged the names of the mayor and others to them, was arrested today at Victoria.
“They protested strongly that it was a case of mistaken identity, and gave the names of Doane and James.”
Public corruption and the 'fugitive clerk' narrative have been a staple of PNW politics for over a century. The ease of cross-border flight between Seattle, Tacoma, and Victoria remains a recurring theme in local crime reporting, even as extradition processes have modernized.
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