An Escape Ends in the Sound
A teenage prisoner, wanted for larceny in Everett, chooses the water over custody and drowns while fleeing transport.
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.
Jack Landers, a 19-year-old waiter recently arrested in Seattle on a warrant from Everett for grand larceny, drowned yesterday morning near Mukilteo while attempting to escape. While being transported on the steamer Fleetwood, Landers jumped overboard into the water. Despite efforts by the deputy sheriff to intercept him with the steamer, Landers headed for deep water and disappeared. Landers had recently confessed to his involvement in the theft of an $80 watch and $100 from a station agent in Everett.
“He jumped overboard about three miles from Mukilteo, and three-quarters of a mile from shore.”
The desperation of the young prisoner jumping from a steamer into the cold Puget Sound water reflects the perilous conditions of 19th-century prisoner transport and the finality of attempts to evade a justice system that offered little mercy to the marginalized.
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