The Old Man, the Opium, and the Confidence Trick
A classic swindle involving a fake opium deal leads to a criminal trial in Judge Holmes' court.
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.
The trial of the state against Charles B. Bishop, S. H. McLean and James Brown, charged with obtaining money under false pretenses from old man John Tilly, was called before a jury in Judge Holmes' court yesterday. The prisoners elected to be tried separately, and Bishop's case was commenced and occupied the attention of the court all day. The prosecution proved that on the 22d of last May, Bishop and two others swindled Tilly out of $120 in cash and a promissory note for $1,850, along with a mortgage on real estate in Montana. The defendants obtained these by pretending to sell the elderly man 150 pounds of opium for $725. The defense claimed that Tilly knew it was a crooked transaction and that he was a willing participant in the illicit trade, but Tilly denied ever receiving the opium.
“The old man, who is not over intelligent, made a poor witness, though he denied ever receiving the opium.”
This case highlights the vulnerability of the elderly to predatory scams—a persistent issue in Seattle's history. The 'opium' scam serves as a reminder of how criminals leverage perceived illicit goods to silence or discredit victims who are afraid to go to the police.
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