A Violent Cutting Affray
A preliminary hearing reveals the brutal details of a knife attack at a North Fourth Street restaurant.
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 witnesses for the state gave evidence in Judge Huffman’s court this afternoon in the preliminary trial of Fagin Scott, charged with the attempted murder of George Ortell, a North Fourth Street restaurant keeper. Ortell, who survived numerous knife wounds to his head, back, and thigh, appeared in court to testify. The knife used in the attack, a three-inch blade, was introduced as evidence alongside Ortell’s blood-soaked clothing. Attorney Cain, counsel for the defense, offered no testimony, and Scott was remanded to the superior court for trial.
“The coat and shirt showed where the knife cut through and were plentifully sprinkled with dry blood.”
Local crime reports like this serve as a reminder of the often raw and public nature of 19th and early 20th-century street violence, and the way the legal system processed such incidents with physical evidence presented openly in the courtroom.
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