The Plot to Rob Lou Graham
Police thwart a desperate plan by criminals to hold up the city's most famous madam for her diamonds.
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.
Police believe the trial of Jim Burns for stealing two gold watches, alongside his alleged partner E. L. Page, has frustrated a well-laid plan to rob Lou Graham, owner of the house of ill fame at Washington and South Fourth Streets, of $3,000 worth of diamonds. Detectives Philbrick, Cudihee, and Roberts identified Burns as a dangerous criminal. Page, posing as a mendicant, was allegedly tasked with sizing up Graham’s routine and identifying where she wore her jewelry. The robbers planned to seize her at her Washington Street entrance, silence her, and strip her of her necklace, solitaire, and diamond-studded dagger. The plot failed when Page was arrested in Edison for a different theft, and Burns was captured Sunday morning near South Third. Graham, upon learning of the plot, secured her $10,000 worth of jewelry in a safe deposit vault.
“The robbers calculated that it would be an easy matter... to seize her at the door, and with all dexterity possible remove the necklace from her neck.”
Lou Graham was a legendary figure in early Seattle, running a high-end brothel that was a nexus of the city's power and vice. Her story bridges the gap between Seattle's frontier lawlessness and its development into an urban center, remaining a touchstone for local history enthusiasts today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.