Bloody Brawl at a Terrace Street Lodging House
A landlord and his tenant end up in a violent altercation involving knives and a police whistle after an eviction dispute.
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.
J. J. Johnson, proprietor of a lodging house at 415 Terrace Street, was stabbed in the left side and slashed across the back of the left hand by Joseph Wilson, a bartender. Wilson, along with a man named Campbell, had been ordered out of the house by Johnson for riotous conduct. According to Johnson, after he requested the men be quiet, they made the house disagreeable. Johnson went upstairs to evict them, but was met with hostility. Campbell allegedly cried out, 'Yes, kill the [expletive],' and grabbed Johnson. Wilson then lunged with a knife, cutting Johnson's hand and side. Johnson fled, eventually retrieving a piece of a child's chair to defend himself. Mrs. Johnson helped by holding the door and brandishing a revolver and police whistle. Wilson and Campbell were later arrested by police at the Mirror Saloon. Wilson claimed self-defense, arguing that Johnson had struck him with a club first.
“Yes, kill the [expletive].”
Lodging house disputes in 1890s Seattle were common, often turning violent in the close quarters of the city's rapidly expanding housing stock. This story captures the volatility of the era's rental economy and the frequent reliance on police to mediate domestic disputes.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.