Smelter Workers Robbed at Gunpoint
Nine men and one woman were held up by masked bandits near the Tacoma Smelter on payday night, but clever victims managed to hide their cash.
The story, cleaned up
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Three heavily armed bandits held up and robbed a party of nine men and one woman near the Tacoma Smelter last night at 10 o'clock. Two were masked, but the third hid his features with a hat drawn well over his face. Eight of the party had just come from Tacoma on the street car and the other two happened along just in time to be caught. The hold-up occurred at a dark place on Fifty-first street, about half-way between the Point Defiance car line and the Tacoma smelter. The victims were relieved of $100 in cash and jewelry amounting in value to about $150. After taking everything they could find, the three men started the party toward the smelter, while they disappeared in the direction of the car line. One woman in the party, Mrs. Ulrich, successfully saved her $10 purse by dropping it in the grass when she saw the robbers. Another victim, Ira Williams, managed to hide $15 in the crease of his hat while keeping his hands raised. The robbers appeared to be small men, possibly intoxicated, and may have been stalking the smelter workers on their payday.
“My hands are getting pretty tired up there.”
The Tacoma Smelter, a massive industrial site that long defined the city's North End, is now the site of the Point Ruston development. This story illustrates the era's vulnerability of laborers who were targeted on their way home on payday, a recurring tension in the city's industrial history.
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