The Unlucky Forger Caught in Puyallup
After jumping from Seattle to Oregon, a man wanted for forgery and a Seattle jailbreak is apprehended at his parents' home.
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.
Clinton H. Campbell was put behind the bars of the county jail yesterday by Sheriff Denholm. He is accused of taking a $110 certificate of deposit from a room and attempting to cash it in Auburn with an unknown woman. Campbell was already a suspect in a local jewelry theft. After hiding in the Puyallup valley for two days, he surfaced in Auburn, where the bank cashier grew suspicious of the certificate. When it was discovered to be a forgery, a warrant was issued. Sheriff Denholm, having tracked the suspect across the state and into Oregon, finally received a tip from Marshal Mickens that Campbell had returned to his parents' house in Puyallup. Campbell, 25, is also reported to be one of the five men who broke out of the Seattle jail just before Christmas, and authorities suggest his mental health may have suffered following military service in the Philippines.
“While on duty in the Philippines he went crazy and was sent home. Although he has apparently recovered the use of his mental faculties, he has never been the same man.”
Public safety and mental health support for returning veterans remain as complex a challenge today as they were in 1904. The story of a local man caught hiding in his childhood home speaks to the transient and often desperate nature of life for those falling through the cracks of the turn-of-the-century economy.
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