The Jailhouse Houdini of Seattle
While awaiting trial for boat stealing, a prisoner named Burton used a hidden knife to fish biscuits through his jail bars and plotted his escape with remarkable bravado.
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.
Burton, arrested on a telegram from Tacoma for boat stealing, proved to be an old hand at crime. Upon his arrest in Seattle, he attempted to draw a knife on the officer, but it was confiscated. Despite a thorough search, he somehow came into possession of another blade. A citizen passing through Painter's Alley on Wednesday witnessed a strange sight: Burton standing at the window of the city jail holding a long-bladed knife in one hand, while reaching out of the window with the other. He hailed a fellow prisoner in the county jail for bread. When the other inmate threw biscuits across the alley, Burton caught every one on the end of his knife without a miss. Burton then boasted to his neighbor, 'You bet your old pal, I'll get yer out o' that; I'll saw yer out... I know just how ter fix them fellers.' Justice Selye later ordered him transferred to the custody of the Pierce County Sheriff. Burton, a talkative and deceptive man, even claimed he had money and offered to pay for a boat he had stolen, though he had none on his person when searched. He was ultimately sent back to Tacoma to face his charges.
“You bet your old pal, I'll get yer out o' that; I'll saw yer out, be d—d if I don't.”
This 1877 account of a jailhouse 'Houdini' highlights the porous, informal nature of early Seattle’s civic institutions. Today, the struggle over downtown public space and jail facility management remains a flashpoint in local politics, echoing the same concerns about containment and public disorder from 150 years ago.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.