The Deadly Loaf of Bread
A betrayal between business partners takes a dark turn in Semiahmoo when a loaf of bread becomes a vessel for strychnine.
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.
From the Semiahmoo Gazette comes the following particulars of an attempt on the part of one man to poison John McSweeney, who has since been murdered by a Pollock: Some cowardly would-be assassin a few weeks ago poisoned a loaf of bread for John McSweeney, a Point Roberts fisherman, and soon after succeeded in his murderous design. It appears that some time ago McSweeney had some trouble with his partner, a man by the name of McAllister, and the latter left, disposing of his interest to the Semiahmoo tackle to John Doe. Shortly afterwards McSweeney made a loaf of bread, which, because of its bitter taste, he gave to his dog. The animal soon died in convulsions. No further attention was paid to the matter, however, until last Thursday when McSweeney made another loaf of bread, which also tasted of soda from the same sack. It was also bitter. In tasting from different parts of the loaf McSweeney swallowed enough of the poison to mimic some of the dog's death throes. This awakened suspicion of the truth, and after drinking freely of dog-fish oil, he boarded with attendants for Semiahmoo. The day was a little rough, and soon the motion of the boat, together with the oil, caused the expulsion of the poison from the stomach, undoubtedly saving the man's life. Dr. Dement was summoned on McSweeney's arrival at Semiahmoo, and pronounced it a case of strychnine poisoning, but the danger was over when he arrived, and by the next day McSweeney was nearly as well as ever.
“Some cowardly would-be assassin a few weeks ago poisoned a loaf of bread for John McSweeney... and soon after succeeded in his murderous design.”
This story of a lethal workplace betrayal, where a food supply was weaponized between business partners, captures a raw, frontier-era violence that contrasts sharply with the sanitized corporate conflicts of modern Semiahmoo. It serves as a grim reminder that in the 19th-century fishing outposts of Washington, business disputes were often settled with life-or-death stakes.
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