The Roslyn Bank Heist Goes to Trial
Trial enters third day for two men accused in the Roslyn bank robbery, with witness IDs contested.
The trial of Ras Lewis (alias Diamond Dick) and George McCarthy for the robbery of the Roslyn bank reached its third day. Prosecutors presented a web of witnesses identifying the pair, including accounts of their movements in the Columbia river valley and their possession of horses linked to the crime. Defense attorneys focused on undermining the identification testimony, suggesting that key witnesses—including bank employees—had previously misidentified others as the culprits. The case is expected to go to the jury shortly, amidst high drama in the courtroom.
“The man who did the work weighed 160 or 170 pounds, had brown, curly hair and light complexion; that to the best of his judgment at the time of the previous trial, Cal Hale was the man.”
Bank robberies in mining towns were common in the 1890s, serving as a reminder of the volatile nature of frontier capital. The legal wrangling over 'misidentification' shows that justice was often as much about the skill of the defense lawyer as the truth of the event.
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