The Shadowy Dealings in the Wickersham Case
A US Attorney and a secret testimony attempt reveal the underbelly of Seattle's political and legal machinations.
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.
United States Attorney W. H. White returned from his farm at Rosedale and addressed his connection to the Wickersham-Brantner affair. Mr. Wickersham had informed White that Miss Brantner desired to change her testimony regarding a homestead entry case, claiming she would make a different statement than the one she gave the grand jury. White initially declined, but eventually, after Wickersham’s insistence, agreed to hear her in his office with a court reporter present.
However, upon meeting with Miss Brantner, White changed his mind, dismissing the reporter and telling the woman that if she had a new statement, it must be made in open district court before Judge Hanford. White later informed Wickersham that the girl's statement was a privileged communication and refused to disclose what she had said. The affair involves a cast of 'woman detectives' shadowing participants and ongoing legal disputes over homestead entries, suggesting a wider web of influence surrounding court proceedings in late 19th-century Seattle.
“I did not think it is proper to take the statement of the girl under the circumstances; but will lay the whole matter before Judge Hanford.”
The struggle over land claims, 'shadowy' detectives, and judicial intervention mirrors the intense pressure and civic disputes over Seattle’s development and housing that continue to dominate local headlines today. Much like the 1889 legal atmosphere, the city’s growth often turns on who owns the land and which institutional figures hold the keys to its use.
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