The $31.50 Murder That Broke Open Near Auburn
A deputy traced three suspects from a Northern Pacific train and secured what officers called a partial confession in the killing of a man known as “Charley.”
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.
Deputy Sheriff Jack McDonald has solved the mystery surrounding the murder of a man known as “Charley,” properly Zenza Maveda, near Auburn last Saturday morning, and has lodged the accused in the county jail. The information was obtained at 12 o’clock this morning, when the deputy took three Japanese men—Nakamura, Aoki and Sotto—from a Northern Pacific train. Nakamura has practically confessed to the murder and told how it was done. As had been claimed from the beginning, the killing grew out of a debt: Charley owed the accused $31.50.
To Deputy Sheriff McDonald, who has worked night and day, consulting when opportunity afforded with Sheriff Woolery and Prosecuting Attorney Miller, the greater part of the credit is due. Through his untiring energy he found the man who gave the clue that unravelled the mystery. The night before the deed, Frank Barre, grandson of Mr. Brennon, who lives near Auburn, asked Nakamura for $1.30 which the latter owed him. According to Barre’s story to McDonald, Nakamura said he would have the money in the morning. “Charley,” he said, owed them—meaning himself, Aoki and Sotto—$31.50. They were afraid he was going away the next day and intended to get the money that night. He said in broken English that if they did not get the money “Charley die.” Aoki was to do the work. The next morning Nakamura told Barre he did not get the money and said: “Charley die at 3 o’clock.”
He took the matter coolly and did not seem to think anything wrong had happened. As soon as the officers commenced work on the case, however, the Japanese residents hushed up and would not say a word. Barre gave his information to McDonald and helped him hunt up the men. After they were located nothing was done until last evening, when the deputy and Barre took Nakamura and Sotto captive at Frank Barre’s place near Christopher, and later gathered in Aoki near the place of the murder on Mr. Yank’s farm. All three took their arrest stolidly and accompanied McDonald without complaint. In Nakamura’s cabin McDonald found a butcher knife which apparently had blood upon it.
McDonald is inclined to think Joe, one of the first two suspects arrested, knows considerable about the murder, because he was found conversing with Aoki privately the next day after the deed. McDonald is not sure the knife he brought home was the weapon used.
“He said in broken English that if they did not get the money, “Charley die.””
The case turned on a tiny debt and a neighbor’s fragment of testimony—a reminder that immigrant communities in the Puget Sound region were often treated by the era’s press as a single, suspicious bloc. Today, King County courts still grapple with language access and cross-cultural evidence in criminal cases.
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