Brutal Attack on Madison Street
A local contractor remains in serious condition after being assaulted for an sarcastic remark made on a streetcar.
John Shaughnessy, a carpenter and contractor, lies seriously ill at his home at the corner of Rose and Filbert streets after a brutal beating by two men. Shaughnessy, who had been drinking, boarded a Madison street cable car on Monday evening. At Jones Street, two inebriated men boarded the car. Shaughnessy remarked, 'I've got my opinion of a man who would ride in a street car when he is loaded.' The men followed him off the car and severely beat him, leaving him unconscious in the mud. Shaughnessy’s assailants are known to live in the 'Nigger Holler' section of the Kenton addition near White Lily Hall.
“I've got my opinion of a man who would ride in a street car when he is loaded.”
This story documents a violent encounter triggered by a seemingly minor social interaction on public transit. The casual mention of neighborhood slurs by the paper highlights the era's pervasive and destructive racial mapping of Seattle's early neighborhoods.
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