The Bailiff Who Lost a Prisoner
A procedural mishap in the municipal court leads to a humiliating embarrassment when a defendant simply walks out of the custody line.
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.
In checking up the accounts of Bailiff Wheeler of the municipal court yesterday, City Jailer Sheehan found a discrepancy which caused great excitement. Bailiff Wheeler took up seven commitments and said to his collection of 'drunks' and 'disorderlies,' 'Come along.' Down Third street and up Yesler avenue, to police headquarters, they followed. Sheehan checked them off until he came to the seventh man. He was not there. It was reported that Frank Williams, a good-looking fellow who always wears good clothes, walked quietly along with his overcoat over his arm until he came to a crowd of loungers at the entrance to the court. Then he turned like a flash, became one of the crowd, and disappeared up Jefferson street.
“The bailiff figured several hours endeavoring to make seven commitments account for six prisoners, but there was always a remainder of one.”
The mix of 'drunks and disorderlies' and the casual nature of police custody at the turn of the century highlights how different early municipal justice was compared to modern booking procedures, though the 'disappearing suspect' trope remains a fixture of urban crime stories.
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