The Case of the Resurrected Steer
A cattle theft trial in Olympia falls apart after the alleged victim's 'slaughtered' cow walks 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.
After what was supposed to be its hide had been brought into Justice of the Peace Giles' court as evidence against Edwin Riggs and Henry Young, charged with stealing and killing a steer belonging to Robert A. Ayer, the steer turned up safe and sound at Ayer's farm. The young men had been bound over to the superior court, but the case was dismissed this morning at the request of the County Prosecutor. Friends of the accused are now demanding restitution for the suffering and inconvenience of their wrongful imprisonment.
“The steer turned up safe and sound at Ayers' farm and disproved all charges of its having been killed.”
Wrongful accusation based on flimsy physical evidence is a timeless legal struggle. Today, DNA and surveillance video might resolve such a dispute in hours, but in 1904, the simple presence of the living animal was the only thing standing between these men and a criminal conviction.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.