A Thief’s Failed Defense in Seattle
A young man attempted to claim he bought stolen goods from a second-hand shop, but the shopkeeper was called to court to prove him a liar.
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.
Victor A. Lieberg, a white-headed Swedish lad about 20 years old, was yesterday found guilty of breaking into the shoe store of John McKinney, on Main street, a few weeks since and stealing a pair of shoes. The trial was had before Judge Humes, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Melvin O. Winstock appearing for the state. Lieberg's main defense was that he had bought the shoes of a Whitechapel second-hand man. Mr. Winstock, in order to give the accused every opportunity to clear himself, had the second-hand man in court, and when put on the stand he denied the boy's story and swore that on the contrary the boy had the same day tried to sell him the pair of shoes. By clever cross-examination the prisoner was led to confess that he had just been released from the county jail.
“Mr. Winstock, in order to give the accused every opportunity to clear himself, had the second-hand man in court, and when put on the stand he denied the boy's story.”
Petty theft and the circular economy of pawn shops/second-hand stores remain persistent themes in Seattle's downtown core, though the language of the 'Whitechapel' district (a 19th-century euphemism for a poor area) captures the period's particular approach to social geography.
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