Safe-Cracking Ring Brought to Justice
Four suspects, believed to be part of an organized safe-blowing gang, are in jail after a chase involving the robbery of a Kennewick lumber company.
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.
Four individuals were lodged in Sheriff Murphy's steel hostelry last night following an exciting chase at Toppenish. When taken into custody by Deputy Sheriff John Edwards and members of the Toppenish police department, the men were all heavily armed and had in their possession a quantity of tools used by safe crackers. In the arrest, Sheriff Murphy is confident that he has the 'yeggmen' who wrecked a safe in a Kennewick lumber company's office October 3. A letter written by one of the men indicates he is a member of an organized gang of safe blowers that has been operating out of Seattle for six months past.
“Four of the hardest looking individuals that have graced the interior of the county jail in many months were lodged in Sheriff Murphy's steel hostelry.”
This report captures the era's fear of 'yeggmen'—itinerant safe-crackers who traveled by rail. The story highlights the reliance on regional cooperation between county sheriff's offices to track transient criminal activity in the pre-digital era.
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