The Hotel Room Assault That Sent Seattle Detectives on a Weeklong Manhunt
After Ruby Stanley was found beaten and bloodied at the International Hotel, police hunted John Diegan until a Tuesday-night struggle ended in his arrest.
After a sharp fight last Tuesday night, John Diegan was placed under arrest. Philbrick and William Diegan—described as “vicious as always”—bit Williams on the arm, but fortunately not seriously.
The detectives had been hunting for their man since a week ago last Sunday morning, when he beat Ruby Stanley, formerly his mistress, insensible, and left her lying covered with blood on the floor of her room in the International Hotel. When the detectives were called into the hotel they found the woman’s room looking like a slaughterhouse, the blood being spattered all over the walls. The character of Diegan’s work may be imagined when it is known that he kicked her until she was black and blue on bosom, stomach, neck and face. Some time ago Diegan slashed her on the face with a knife.
“The detectives had been hunting for their man since a week ago last Sunday morning, when he beat Ruby Stanley, formerly his mistress, insensible, and left her lying covered with blood on the floor of her room in the International Hotel.”
In 1895, a brutal domestic assault was reported as a lurid police brief, with the victim’s relationship to her attacker offered as context. Seattle today still confronts domestic violence in courtrooms and patrol cars, and the story is a reminder that what the era called a private quarrel was always a public crime.
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