A Barber’s Violent Defense in 1889 Seattle
After a shootout on Front Street, the grand jury is tasked with untangling conflicting accounts of self-defense versus malice between two men.
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.
F. B. Hutts, the colored barber who shot at J. Jackson, the colored porter, on North Front street Sunday morning, was remanded to the action of the grand jury by Judge Miller yesterday morning. The inquiry was continued from Monday afternoon, and seven witnesses for the defense and two for the prosecution were examined. The defense made an effort to show that Jackson was a relentless villain who had pursued Hutts until he was forced to fire upon him in self-defense. There was no testimony save that of Hutts himself to support this theory. Judge Miller, after weighing all the evidence, said he could do nothing but send the matter to the grand jury. It was evident the defendant had been altogether too free with his pistol, and the question of justification could be considered in the district court. Hutts’ bonds were placed at $500, which the democratic war horse, H. S. Hudson, and J. Collins, the colored employee at the jail, recognized in the required amount.
“It was evident the defendant had been altogether too free with his pistol.”
This 1889 report from Front Street (now 1st Avenue) captures a moment of legal volatility in a rapidly growing Seattle. The mention of the 'grand jury' process for a street-level altercation mirrors ongoing contemporary debates regarding justice, police discretion, and how civic institutions handle interpersonal violence in a high-density urban core.
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