The Cattle Thief Who Disappeared
A man accused of cattle theft in Seattle jumped bail and vanished, only to be tracked down in a Montana prison.
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.
A year or so ago, a number of persons were arrested charged with stealing and killing cattle. Among the number was Tom Murphy, who was interested in a meat market in Seattle when the stolen beef was sold. After being arrested he asked that his bail be fixed at a reasonable sum, so he would not have to go to jail. The amount of bail was fixed at $3,000. Murphy found men willing to become sureties on his bond and was set at liberty. He disappeared, and his bail went by default and was declared forfeited, although, we believe, it has never been paid. Ever since his disappearance Sheriff McGraw has been writing to different sections of the country, inquiring about him. The sheriff received a reply to one of his communications yesterday from the sheriff of Deer Lodge, Montana, stating that Tom Murphy had been convicted of stealing cattle, and sentenced to ten years in the penitentiary, and is now serving out that sentence.
“After being arrested he asked that his bail be fixed at a reasonable sum, so he would not have to go to jail.”
Bail systems were often the primary way suspects avoided incarceration before trial in the 1880s, but as this story shows, the risk of 'jumping bail' was a constant civic anxiety. Today’s debates regarding cash bail reform continue this exact struggle—balancing the right to pre-trial liberty against the risk of flight.
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