The Fire Station Vigilante
When a man was beaten and robbed behind a local bar, a civilian known as 'Red' grabbed the police chief's spare revolver and hunted the suspect down.
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.
Henry Moore, familiarly known as 'Red,' armed with one of Chief of Police Copeland’s big six-shooters, this morning apprehended a fleeing hold-up and after some difficulty landed the culprit in the city jail. While going down Front street to the fire station, Moore heard a man’s cry for help. In the rear of the Rainier Bar he saw an old man being beaten by two strangers. He immediately 'beat' it for the fire station, where he knew the chief kept an extra gun. Arming himself with this he gave chase and brought one of the offenders to bay in L. G. Moore’s barn. The other one took temporary refuge under a string of box cars in the O-W yards and later made his escape in spite of the vigilance of John Harrison who patrolled the tracks with his lightning express. Chief Copeland was out in Section 7 at the time and Patrolman Haydon was off duty. 'Red' marched his prisoner up and, being unable to gain access to the jail, delivered him to Mayor Richardson who in turn handed him over to Police Justice Staser, to await the return of the chief. The victim of the assault was a stranger named John R. Hanson and the prisoner gave the name of Ed. Kelleggy. Hanson claims that Kelleggy and his companion attacked and robbed him of three dollars while the three were having a friendly sitting over a can of beer. The case was called for hearing this afternoon but was postponed to await a sobering up of the participants.
“Arming himself with this he gave chase and brought one of the offenders to bay in L. G. Moore’s barn.”
Public safety in Kennewick in 1914 relied on a loose patchwork of deputized civilians and available hardware. Today, the corner of Front Street and the former O-W railroad yards (now central Kennewick) is the subject of ongoing urban revitalization, a far cry from the days when box cars served as hideouts for fleeing suspects.
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