The End of the Road for the 'Manitot' Bunco Ring
After weeks of shadowing, Spokane detectives cornered three notorious confidence men in a hotel room, closing the book on a string of swindles that had plagued the city.
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.
Detectives Burns and Parrish arrested Harry Gordon, Hugh Trainov and James Shen, known as 'Four-Eyed Shehan,' today at noon, charging them with being implicated in bunco games. The suspects were cleverly caught in a room in the Manitot block by the officers, who took them by surprise. They had no time to make a fight. The patrol wagon hurried the prisoners to the city jail, where they were locked up. This arrest begins the last chapter of the well-known Gower bunco case, as Gordon in particular is suspected of being implicated. Mr. and Mrs. Gower will be called upon to identify him. Shen, it is said, is wanted in Seattle by the authorities in connection with a swindling case. The authorities profess to well know the business followed by these men and the entire police department has been shadowing their movements the past week. Their hearing will take place as soon as telegraphic communication can be had with the authorities in outside towns where men tallying with the description of the prisoners are wanted.
“The authorities profess to well know the business followed by these men and the entire police department has been shadowing their movements the past week.”
Bunco games—the confidence tricks of the early 20th century—were the precursors to modern digital scams. Much like the 'Manitot block' suspects who traveled between Spokane and Seattle to dodge law enforcement, today's bad actors often exploit jurisdictional boundaries, proving that the hustle remains a constant feature of urban growth.
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