A Farmer's Daughter and a Gray-Haired Defendant: The North Yakima Assault Case
Frank Egbert, 50, is held in the county jail for attempted rape of a 7-year-old Sunnyside girl, and his tame statement offers little hope before the next term of court.
North Yakima, June 26. — Special. — In the county jail under commitment for attempted rape on the 7-year-old daughter of Mr. Johnson, a Sunnyside farmer, is Frank Egbert, aged 50 years. He makes a very tame statement regarding the alleged crime, and unless he can do better before the next term of court even his gray hairs will not save him. The evidence at the preliminary examination was given behind closed doors, but this much is known: Mrs. Johnson had left her little daughter in the house while she went to the berry patch a short distance away. Hearing the child cry she hurried to the house in time to see Egbert running away.
“Unless he can do better before the next term of court even his gray hairs will not save him.”
The brief, closed-door handling of a child assault case in 1895 reflects an era when such crimes were often shrouded in silence and shame. The detail that the mother was nearby in a berry patch speaks to the everyday vulnerability of rural families. Today, child sexual abuse is handled with far more transparency and support for victims, though the echoes of silence and stigma remain.
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