The Tragic End of a Traveling Grifter
A notorious card shark is declared insane by the courts after a life spent deceiving folks from British Columbia to Virginia City.
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.
A man by the name of Malsed was arrested the night before last for being drunk and committed to jail. He was brought into the police court yesterday, and Justice Selye, suspecting that he was demented, transferred him to the Probate Court, where he was adjudged insane and ordered sent to Steilacoom. This man was formerly a notorious monte-sharp, plied his avocation in nearly all the cities on the coast, and was known all over the country from Virginia City to British Columbia. Some four years ago, he lived in this city and was at that time arrested on a similar charge; but in that case, as in this, his sanity was doubted by the justice before whom he was brought, and he was sent to the Probate Court, but was pronounced sane by the examining physician and released. The next day he attempted suicide by leaping from the Seattle Coal Company's wharf to the beach below. He was only slightly bruised by the fall, however, and immediately after was sent to Steilacoom. A short time ago he was released and left for Oregon, where he has remained until a few days ago. His hallucination is betrayed more in his bombastic talk than anything else.
“His hallucination is betrayed more in his bombastic talk than anything else.”
This story highlights the nineteenth-century intersection of criminal justice and psychiatric care, where 'demented' individuals were often processed through the same police courts that handled local drunks. The mention of the Seattle Coal Company's wharf—once a center of industrial life—reminds us that Seattle's shoreline has been continuously reshaped, much like the volatile life stories of those passing through the city’s early downtown.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.