The Fugitive Baker of Puyallup
A Montana sheriff tracks down an embezzlement suspect hiding in plain sight within the Puyallup labor movement.
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.
Sheriff H.W. Thompson of Missoula, Montana, arrived in Tacoma Saturday evening and has identified the thief captured recently at Puyallup as Theodore Fischer, wanted in Missoula for embezzling $500 belonging to the Sons of Hermann. For a long time, Fischer had been identified with the labor organization of Missoula and was favorably known. He disappeared several months ago and because he had brought upon himself the dislike of the Chinese in that city, it was thought he had met with foul play. An examination of his accounts shed light upon the reason for his sudden departure and he has been dodging the authorities ever since. He came to Puyallup and identified himself there with the Bakers' union, using his real name, which was copied in a trade paper. In this way a baker in Missoula happened to see it. The officers here were notified and his arrest followed. Sheriff Thompson went to Olympia yesterday to have the governor sign the requisition papers. He will probably return to Montana with the prisoner this evening.
“He came to Puyallup and identified himself there with the Bakers' union, using his real name, which was copied in a trade paper.”
Fischer's story highlights the interconnectedness of turn-of-the-century labor movements, where a name in a trade journal could reach across state lines. The mention of 'foul play' regarding the local Chinese community serves as a grim artifact of the era's xenophobia, which colored local assumptions about missing persons.
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