An Hour From Canada: The Kansas Fugitive Caught in a Bellingham Barber Shop
Frank Greenwood fled Kansas after a seduction charge, hoping to disappear into Washington and then British Columbia. A persistent Kansas detective tracked him to New Whatcom, where he was arrested in his brother’s barber shop—just an hour before he meant to be gone.
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.
Detective O. P. Bruce, of Howard, Kan., arrived in the city yesterday afternoon, having in charge Frank Greenwood, whom he arrested at New Whatcom on a charge of seduction preferred by Amy Ashcroft, of Howard.
The crime is said to have been committed some six months ago, and Greenwood about three weeks since took quiet leave of his Kansas home and hurried to the Northwest. The girl's parents are well-to-do, and the detective was immediately put on the trail. As Greenwood had a brother in New Whatcom, who is a barber, the officer correctly surmised that he would head for Washington. He kept close behind Greenwood, but was thrown off at Denver, and met with a vexatious delay. For a time it looked as if the man had escaped. The officer finally got the scent again, and arrived in Whatcom day before yesterday, to find that he had located his man. It was necessary for him to exercise extreme caution, as Greenwood knew him well, and the detective kept out of sight until he could secure the necessary extradition papers from Gov. McGraw. Day before yesterday the legal formalities were completed, and Greenwood was placed under arrest by the city marshal of Whatcom just in time to prevent escape across the line to British Columbia. He was taken in his brother's barber shop, where he was awaiting the train. His trunk in some manner had been lost, and his attempt to recover it resulted in his capture.
Mr. Bruce is gratified at the capture, but nevertheless reached the city yesterday completely tired out after the two weeks' chase. He will leave with his prisoner by the Union Pacific this morning. The detective has had a long and successful career, and is well known in his state and Oklahoma as a shrewd man, who always nails his man.
Greenwood is a short, compact, smooth-faced fellow of 21, but looks two years younger. He feels uncomfortable, of course, at his arrest, but seems disposed to settle the matter with the best grace he can command. He was locked up for safe keeping last night at the city jail, and took some consolation in reflecting that he nearly escaped the clutches of the law.
'In another hour I would have been gone,' was his quiet remark before falling to sleep in his prison bed.
“In another hour I would have been gone.”
The case is a reminder that 'seduction' charges once carried serious legal and social weight, often shielding family reputation while exposing young women to public scrutiny. The cross-country chase also shows how rail detectives connected Puget Sound to the rest of the country. Today extradition fights and border-flight cases still turn on the same narrow timing.
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