The Mysterious Death of 'Pea Soup Chris'
A local longshoreman is found dead in a ditch, sparking initial fears of foul play.
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.
Chris Olson was found dead at 7:30 a.m. today near the Northern Pacific track at Old Town. The body was lying in a ditch with the feet up over a log. Olson was a longshoreman, about 35 years of age. There was a suspicion at first that Olson had been murdered, as what were supposed to be blood stains led from the saloon down the hill toward the wharf. Investigation by Detectives Flett and Sipe proved these to be only stains from wine which Italians there last night were imbibing. Olson was known among the longshoremen as 'Pea Soup Chris.' He was a member of Longshoremen's union No. 106.
“There was a suspicion at first that Olson had been murdered, as what were supposed to be blood stains led from the saloon down the hill toward the wharf.”
The death of a labor union member in an industrial zone like 'Old Town' reveals the precarious lives of transient workers in the early 20th century. The rush to suspect murder, and the subsequent dismissal based on cultural prejudice against 'Italians' drinking wine, illustrates the casual bias inherent in early municipal policing.
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