Domestic Violence in Pioneer Seattle
A husband is arrested and held on bond after threatening his wife's life in court.
A rather well-dressed, respectable-appearing woman came into Justice Cann's Court on Saturday and entered complaint against her husband, Valentine Stockle, alleging that the said husband had threatened to take her life with a shotgun. The man was arrested and brought into court, and during the examination he arose in a passion and exclaimed: 'I threatened to kill her, and I will kill her.' That settled it. The Judge placed the man under $600 bonds for his appearance at the next term of the District Court. Friends of the man went his bonds, and they are satisfied he is a little off his base. He will be taken care of, and when he regains his reason he will probably be sorry for what he has done.
“I threatened to kill her, and I will kill her.”
This incident highlights the stark difference in how domestic violence was handled in 1882, where threats of lethal violence were framed as a question of the husband's 'reason' or mental state rather than criminal intent. While we now have specific protections like Protection Orders, the struggle to shield victims from abusers who are released on bond remains a persistent and unresolved issue in modern civic life.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.