The Notorious Mrs. Rauloff Returns
Fresh from a trip to Victoria for the Queen’s birthday, the subject of a grave-robbing and arson case is back in Seattle.
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.
Mrs. Rauloff, the subject of a high-profile arson and grave-robbing case, returned to Seattle from Victoria, British Columbia, to resume her residence at the Lyndhurst House on Third Street. Dressed in a cart-wheel-sized hat adorned with white feathers, she appeared unbothered by her legal jeopardy, claiming she went to Victoria to celebrate the Queen's birthday. While she remains under bond, she refused to divulge the contents of a recent letter from her fugitive husband, asserting that she would never 'tell' on him. Despite the gravity of the charges, she seemed to enjoy the notoriety surrounding her case, even as her bondsman, William Behring, faces scrutiny for his assistance.
“I made up my mind to go, and I went; that was all there was to it.”
The public fascination with Mrs. Rauloff’s style and legal defiance illustrates how sensationalist journalism of the 1890s centered on 'notorious' figures, a precursor to modern tabloid culture surrounding high-stakes legal cases.
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