The Great Seattle Manhole Swindle
A persistent insurance claim agent uncovers a ring of traveling grifters who fooled the city council into paying thousands for imaginary injuries.
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 city of Seattle was buncoed out of $2,000 thirteen months ago. The chief bunco worker is now in the city jail at Astoria, Oregon, with a confederate on charges of perjury. Seattle is only one of a number of cities victimized by this same trick. The game might have been worked indefinitely had not some disagreement induced one of the members to give enough of the scheme away. It is doubtful if anything would have been known but for the persistency of the city's claim agent, J. H. Dennis, who followed the claim to the bitter end. One John B. Mayers, an alias, filed a claim for $10,465 in 1902 for injuries alleged to have been received on Fourth Avenue between Seneca and Spring streets, having fallen into a coal hole in 1900. Developments indicate that a stool pigeon was actually hurt just enough to fool a doctor, then disappeared. Later, a second man appeared claiming to be the victim and exhibiting a permanently disabled knee. Despite the efforts of the claims committee, the council voted to compromise for $2,000. Meanwhile, the gang tried the same swindle in Astoria, where officials became suspicious and arrested the men. The Astoria officials learned both men had previous records in San Quentin prison.
“The success which attended the game here would indicate that Seattle was dead easy.”
This 1903 investigation into municipal fraud highlights the perennial struggle between city halls and those seeking to exploit civic coffers through bureaucratic loopholes. The story serves as a reminder that local government accountability has historically relied on the persistence of individual whistleblowers or sharp-eyed civil servants.
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