The Last Bridge Isn't Crossed Yet
A Seattle prisoner reacts to a five-year sentence with a defiant promise to keep fighting, despite the jury's unanimous verdict.
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.
The jury in the Maskin case returned this afternoon after having been out exactly an hour, with a verdict of guilty. The punishment fixed was five years' imprisonment in the penitentiary. As the last words of the verdict were pronounced, Maskin slightly paled and clasped his hands together as if in a spasm of pain, but this lasted but a moment, and he chatted smilingly with a bystander. The jury was unanimous at the start as to Maskin's guilt, and there was very little discussion over the length of his imprisonment. The delay in marking the verdict—an hour—came from the fact that the jury sat and read over part of the evidence. The prisoner was later taken to jail, where he remarked to a reporter who had inquired how he felt about the verdict, 'Well, you know, my boy, there are many changes in many men's lives. I ain't through yet. I'll fight it to the end. The last bridge isn't crossed yet.'
“Well, you know, my boy, there are many changes in many men's lives. I ain't through yet. I'll fight it to the end. The last bridge isn't crossed yet.”
Maskin’s bravado in the face of a five-year sentence reflects the enduring, high-stakes nature of the King County justice system. While his specific case is a relic of 1886, the 'fight to the end' mentality remains a common refrain for those navigating the complexities of the modern Seattle legal landscape.
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