The Dangerous Whiskey of Washington Street
A domestic dispute turns criminal in 1887 Seattle, as a man is accused of spiking his partner’s drink with a lethal dose of sulphate.
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.
Yesterday morning we published the particulars of the poisoning of a Washington street resident of colored extraction, named Mamie Goodrich, and the arrest of Richard M. McCracken, better known as 'Miskey McCracken,' on a charge of having committed the deed. The examination of the defendant was set down for 7 o'clock last evening, before Justice Mill. During the day, the police officers were busy gathering as many facts and as much information bearing on the case as they could get hold of. The parties in court last evening, McCracken is a tall, spare-faced young fellow, while Mamie Goodrich is a short, pathetic-looking woman, of very dark Kanaka extraction. In her complaint, which was read, she alleged that the defendant, Richard M. McCracken, did, knowingly, attempt to poison her at her residence on Washington Street, on the 4th day of January, by administering to her a drink of whiskey, in which was stirred a quantity of sulphate. After arraignment, the defendant asked to have the case postponed till such time as he could arrange with his counsel. The motion for continuance was resisted, and the examination postponed till Monday next, at 1 o'clock p.m. The defendant's bail was fixed at $500.
“In her complaint, she alleged that the defendant... did, knowingly, attempt to poison her... by administering to her a drink of whiskey, in which was stirred a quantity of sulphate.”
This 1887 account captures the volatile intersection of domestic violence and illicit trade in pioneer Seattle. While our modern legal systems have evolved to better protect victims of domestic abuse, the vulnerability of marginalized residents—like Mamie Goodrich, who appears to have been of Native Hawaiian ancestry—remains a persistent echo in the city’s ongoing struggles with housing and safety.
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