The Serial Defendant's Last Act
A repeat offender who boasted of forty trials finally runs out of luck in a Seattle courtroom.
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.
S. B. McLean, who was a short time ago convicted of false registration just prior to the last city election by swearing that he had never been convicted of a penal offense, was yesterday sentenced by Judge Humes to serve one year in the state penitentiary. After the motion for a new trial had been overruled, McLean's attorney gave notice that he would take an appeal to the supreme court and asked the court to fix the amount of the prisoner's bail bond. McLean himself made a short talk to the judge to get the amount of the bond fixed as low as possible. 'You know, judge,' said he, 'I've been tried a great many times, but have never yet been convicted.' 'Yes,' replied his honor, 'but you've had several mighty close shaves.' McLean had nothing more to say to the court, but was overheard to remark to a friend: 'By though, this is the only time when I've been on trial that I was innocent.' McLean has frequently boasted that although he has been tried for different offenses over forty times he was only convicted once before this time.
“I've been tried a great many times, but have never yet been convicted.”
McLean's bluster regarding his long history of evading the law captures the era's Wild West legal culture, where courtroom bravado was a common performance. Today, the judicial system is far more data-driven, yet the 'frequent flyer' trope in local criminal justice remains a central, unresolved debate in Seattle civic life.
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