The Miner Who Vanished—and Came Back With a Shanghaied Story
Cox disappeared before Christmas. Then he turned up in Tacoma with a tale of drugging, abduction, and a vessel that would not let him go.
TELLS A STORY OF BEING SHANGHAIED (Continued From Page One.)
Cox says the vessel on which he was held a prisoner for 48 days will again land in San Francisco, and he declares he will leave for that city as soon as he is able.
Was Big Mystery.
Cox's disappearance, which became known about December 25, when he failed to let the Pittsburg men know why he was delayed, has been a mystery. Business friends in Frisco employed detectives to trace him, but they failed to find a clue; until he appeared here Saturday neither his wife nor his friends knew anything about him.
A lengthy telegram received from his wife yesterday explained that everything about the mining property was in good shape and that certain men interested in it had been there to inspect it.
Cox, according to his own statement, is not a drinking man, and his friends here substantiate his assertion in this respect. He is reputed to be wealthy and has complete control over a paying mining property.
Cox is positive in his statement that there is no scandal responsible for his strange disappearance, and he asserts that he can prove every detail of it as soon as he reaches San Francisco.
Only Slightly Hurt.
Cox is about 32 years of age. On his arrival here he was dressed in the same suit as he wore when he disappeared, and it did not show rough usage. He was not injured in any way except a slight bruise on the shoulder, which, he says, he sustained at the hands of his captors while being put ashore at Des Moines.
Wife Formerly Lived Here.
Mrs. Cox formerly lived in Tacoma and has many friends here. She met Mr. Cox in San Francisco through her brother, who is a civil engineer, and was married there about eight years ago.
“Cox is positive in his statement that there is no scandal responsible for his strange disappearance, and he asserts that he can prove every detail of it as soon as he reaches San Francisco.”
Shanghaiing was a brutal labor practice in which men were drugged or beaten and forced to work ships; it thrived because mobile workers had little protection. Cox's case—a wealthy man whose disappearance baffled friends—shows how easily even the well-connected could be swallowed by the maritime underworld. The story still rhymes with modern concerns about labor trafficking and the vulnerability of workers far from home.
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