Gamblers Threaten a Crusading Preacher
A Tacoma clergyman and the local newspaper face death threats after exposing a thriving municipal gambling underground.
Rev. J. W. Patterson of the First Presbyterian Church and the Sunday Herald are facing direct threats from Tacoma's gambling underworld. After Patterson denounced city officials for their failure to enforce anti-gambling laws, and the newspaper published exposures of local gambling houses, the parties received notes warning them to 'come off the porch' or be 'plugged.' The Herald has promised further exposés despite the intimidation.
“If you and Peterson cut loose on us again you get plugged. Gamblers got it in for you sure thing.”
The tension between moral reform crusades and entrenched illicit economies is a recurring theme in Washington's history, moving from the open gambling of the 1890s to the broader fights over vice that eventually led to Prohibition.
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