A Cold Case Reopened in the Shadows of Lake Washington
Two men have been transported through Tacoma to face trial for a two-year-old murder, allegedly sparked by a debt between peddlers.
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 Sheriffs Jack Williams and James Lambert, from Seattle, passed through Tacoma last night in charge of Terioza Khan and O. Barbasha, who were taken to Seattle to answer to a charge of murdering Amir Ali Aden Khel, better known as Mereli. Mereli was shot in the back in a dreary spot on the shores of Lake Washington. His body was found three weeks later. That was nearly two years ago. Two peddlers believed to have committed the murder were arrested, but enough evidence to convict them could not then be secured. Several days ago an Asiatic peddler who had fallen out with his fellows told Sheriff Cudihee that the two men who are now under arrest had made a confession to him. The man who was afterwards murdered had come to this country with money sent him by Khan and Barbasha. When Mereli made a great deal of money in this country he refused to pay back the men who had helped him and the bad feeling resulted. Mereli was a giant in stature and neither of the two men he had wronged would fight him single-handed. According to their alleged confession the plan to murder him from ambush was agreed upon and finally carried out.
“Mereli was a giant in stature and neither of the two men he had wronged would fight him single-handed.”
This account reflects the transient and often invisible lives of migrant laborers and peddlers in the early 20th century. While the details of the crime are specific, the underlying tensions over money and survival among isolated communities remain a recurring theme in the history of immigrant labor in the Pacific Northwest.
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