A Dollar Debt, a Fatal Blow, and a Tacoma Murder Trial
E. R. Capron owed W. T. Taylor a dollar; a street insult ended with Capron dead and Taylor in the superior court.
TACOMA, March 19.—Special.—W. T. Taylor is on trial in the superior court, charged with the murder of E. R. Capron on December 24 last. The case opened this morning and the day was occupied in getting a jury. Capron owed Taylor a $1 bill. When Taylor asked him for money on the street, Capron called him a vile name. Taylor struck him in the face, knocking him down. Capron arose, then fell back, and was picked up dead.
“Capron owed Taylor a $1 bill. When Taylor asked him for money on the street, Capron called him a vile name. Taylor struck him in the face, knocking him down. Capron arose, then fell back, and was picked up dead.”
A dollar debt and a street insult became a homicide case in 1895 Tacoma. The trial—and the paper’s matter-of-fact racial labeling—remind us that criminal courts have long decided whose violence is legible as a crime and whose life is treated as disposable.
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