Tacoma’s Secret 'Fining' System
Mayor Wright and Chief Malony allegedly operated a shadow tax on gambling and vice, using fake names to funnel illicit profits through the city’s ledgers.
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.
The premiums paid by gamblers, disorderly women and the operators of slot machines into the city treasury for July privileges aggregate $8,770. The big increase in the 'open town' revenues has come principally from the installation of money-paying slot machines owned by F. H. Baldie. There are approximately 135 of these gambling devices in operation, and for each of these, Chief Malony assesses $10 per month. Every fine put down as 'forfeited bail' is paid in at the police station by someone using a fictitious name. The individual credited is charged with being a disorderly person, and his occupation is usually given as that of a logger or a sailor. Chief Malony thereupon fixes the bail of the offender, although the police court judge is the only person authorized to fix the bail of anyone arrested. Once the chief names the bail, the individual is allowed to go, and the affair is practically ended.
“Every fine which is put down as 'forfeited bail' is paid in at the police station by some person who has a fictitious name placed in the police record.”
This article exposes a sophisticated 'protection racket' where public officials laundered bribe money through the court's bail system. It reflects a time when the line between city hall and organized crime in Tacoma was nearly non-existent, a recurring theme in the city's early 20th-century history.
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