A Boy, a Boarding House, and Two Stolen Diamond Rings
A missing quilt unravels into a ring theft, a confession behind jail bars, and a man bound over for the January court term.
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.
Wednesday evening Mrs. Murry, who keeps a boarding house near the new court house, made a complaint to Justice Rathbun that a quantity of bedding was stolen from her house the night before. A boy named Frank Brodwell, who had been boarding there, was missing, and suspicion attached to him and George Clark, who was an associate of the boy. A search warrant was issued to search Clark's float. The search revealed nothing but the boy, who was with Clark. He confessed that he had taken the clothing and said Clark urged him to do so. While the two were having a conference in the jail an officer overheard Clark ask the boy what he did with the rings; the rest of the conversation was not intelligible. Early yesterday morning one of the inmates complained to the police that two diamond rings were stolen from her room Sunday night. Officer Mack went to the jail and asked the Brodwell boy for the rings he stole. He unhesitatingly gave them up and told how he came by them. Justice Rathbun issued a warrant for Clark's arrest, and this morning he waived examination and, failing to furnish a $500 bond, was committed for trial at the January term of the superior court. As the Brodwell boy tells the story, he and Clark were at the house of ill repute Sunday night, and while the girl was out of her room for a few minutes, Clark ordered him to search her bureau and the rings were found. The case against the boy was continued until Judge Robinson returns from Seattle, when steps will probably be taken to send him to the reform school.
“He unhesitatingly gave them up and told how he came by them.”
The case turns on an adult directing a boy to steal — a dynamic that still shapes juvenile-justice debates today. The lurid 'house of ill repute' framing also shows how the era's press policed poor women's lives, while a pair of stolen rings managed to entangle a whole cast of characters in Thurston County's courts.
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