Vigilante Mob Executes Prisoners in Oysterville Jail
After the supreme court granted a new trial to two men accused of murder, a Pacific County mob took matters into their own hands, storming the jail and killing the suspects.
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 dead bodies of Mr. Rose and Jack Edwards, the murderers of the Fosterhick family, rest with the marks of a mob upon them in the Pacific County jail at Oysterville. Since the supreme court reversed the decision of the Pacific County court and granted a new trial to the men, there has been a muttering of discontent throughout the country. The guard at the Oysterville jail was startled by a loud knocking on the outer door. He was commanded to open the door, but he refused. The mob told him he had three minutes to open the door or the jail would be blown up with dynamite. He fired his pistol to give the alarm and was then seized by three men. While he was held, shots were fired into the jail. The mob entered the cells and shot the two men. This was apparently the vengeance the mob had in mind.
“The people felt outraged at the action of the supreme court in granting a new trial, and fearing that the justice they deserved would never be meted out to them, they resorted to taking the matter into their own hands.”
This horrific instance of frontier vigilante justice reflects a period of deep instability in the Pacific Northwest’s legal system, where public distrust in judicial technicalities often led to extrajudicial violence. Today, it serves as a stark reminder of the historical evolution of due process and the fragile nature of civic order in Washington’s early settlement period.
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