Judge Intervenes to Save Boys from Reform School
A Seattle judge issued a last-minute stay to keep two boys from being sent to the state reformatory, instead using them as witnesses against the man accused of training them in crime.
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Judge Humes yesterday issued an order restraining the sheriff from taking Fred Miller and Guy Waller to the reform school and ordering them held as witnesses against Jacob Rickhes, the junk dealer, who is accused of playing the part of Fagin in coaching the boys to 'go out and rustle and bring him in the plunder.' The two lads were convicted and sentenced by Judge Glasgow last Saturday and were to have entered the freshman's class at the Chehalis university yesterday when stopped by Judge Humes.
“The junk dealer, who is accused of playing the part of Fagin in coaching the boys to 'go out and rustle and bring him in the plunder.'”
This early case of a 'Fagin' figure exploiting youth for theft highlights a recurring tension in Seattle's history: the treatment of juvenile offenders as either victims of systemic adult manipulation or as hardened criminals. The move to preserve their testimony against the adult handler mirrors modern debates about holding adults accountable for child-driven crime rather than criminalizing the youth themselves.
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