The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1888-11-21
MYSTERIOUS MURDER.
An Indian Woman Found Dead in
q Cabin.


street bridge. was snySteriouSiy muf'
dered some time last evening by some
party or parties unknown.
Directly after 9o'eiock Harry Miller,
q sawnil, man. who has rooms at the
Commercial hotel. determined TO pay
q visit to a longshoreman friend
living along the edge of the bay above
the gas works. Hefound his friend gone
and no light in the cabin. Turning
around he started on his return. and
in passing the cabin of Annie, about
80 feet distant from the ladder reach
ing up onto the bridge, he noticed the
door ajar and light feebly burning
Within Curiosity impelled bin TO
shove open the door a little further.
and his vision was startled with a
scene that must have chilled his blood.
Lying on the floor in the marrow
precincts OF the drift wood, but, fiat
on her back, with her left arm extend
ed full length and the right arm crook
ed curiously, was the body of Annie,
the occupant of the cabin, murdered
by blow on her forehead made by
some blunt instrument Near her head,
on box, was candle Pickering un-
certainly in response to the draught of
wind created by the open door, while
to her right was a single bed, from
which the covers had been thrown
back. and upon her left, enclosing the
dead body in a narrow space between
itself and the bed was new trunk,
evidently pulled back from its station
against the wall.
Miller left the cabin. and called to
three men whom he noticed ON the
bridge above, to come TO his assist
ance. About the same time he
knocked at the door of the cabin ad-
joining the one in which the
murder had occurred, and through
the crevices of which rays of
light were streaming and summoned
the occupants to the outside. Receiv-
ing no definite response from either
the men above or the inhabitants in
the cabin, he climbed the ladder and
going down street met Officer Peer and
communicated to him the information
of his discovery, and the two returned
and made an investigation into the
surroundings and circumstances of the
murder.
MOTIVE FOR THE CRIME.
From appearances it would seem
that the crime had been the result of a
quarrel between the woman and her
murderer, the nature of which can be
little more than conjectured. When
found she had on well-worn print
dress, black stockings and button
shoes, and, though the bed was dis
turbed as if some one had been lying
in it, it would not seem that she
had recently occupied it. Her rigid
position closely wedged between the
trunk and bed, would indicate that she
had been laid there by her murderer
after the blow had been struck. The
skull was crushed in horizontally Just
above the left eye. to the length of
several inches and the width of three
quarters of an inch. The wound was
not badly confused, but it must have
been instantly fatal.
No evidences of any death struggle
were visible, the small stove, the cook
ing utensils, and other apparatus of the
cabin appearing to be in their usual
places. When the discovery of the
murder was made by Miller. the can
die was sticking on the box and was
yet quite long, appearing to have been
burning not more than an hour. The
body of the woman, however, was
quite stiff and cold, and the spark of
life had been extinct quite that length
of time.
WHO THE WOMAN Is.
The murdered woman hailed from
Fort Rupert, Alaska, and was prob
ablo 80 years OF age. She is said to
have been the wife of man named
Dickinson, who works in the mills at
Port Blakeley. Her reputation was on
a par with other sklootchmenr OF her
class and her murderer may have
been one of her own race, who was
living with her, or some degraded
white man, who made her the unfor-
tunate victim of his murderous pas
sion.
Mr.. MILLER's STATEMENT.
Harry Miller, who is a good type of
the hardy coast pioneer of the woods,
and who runs camp for the Kent Mill
Company, was seen at his house, the
Commercial hotel, early this morning.
He told a very straight, matter-of-fact
story from beginning to end. said he: :
Il .was just down alongshore to
visit a friend, and | saw that there
wasn't any light burning in his place,
SO | turned back. Coming by this
cabin | noticed light burning, and
the door was open little. looked
in, as any one might, naturally, out of
pure curiosity, and noticed the
woman lying down on the
floor. supposed it was moth
ing more than a drunken sauaw.
so | kicked her lightly on the arm and
said, Get up here; what are Won doing
down there?' She didn't move and /
thought il was rather singular
Then | noticed that she
was stuff. went away
to report il. | noticed a light in the
next cabin too, and tried to get the
parties up in there. bnt couldn't. Then
J saw three men coming down the hill
and ! holloed to them that there
was squaw murdered. They
woaldt come down, 50 | went
up 10 find an officer. These fellows
said they didn't want to come down
because they didn't want to be mixed
up as witnesses. | found Officer Peer
and told him. suppose il was
about half past . when I
discovered the murdered woman
Officer Peer and | went down, and we
tried to get the parties up in the next
cabin. We couldn't make them omen
the door. | told Peer to break open
the door, but he didn't want to.
Then We heard them whisper-
ing inside. and pretty soon the
light went out. Officer Peer
reported the case TO Capt. Briggs. and
he broke open the door of the cabin
where these other people were. There
was man and a woman there, YES.
both white At first they were asleep.
then they pretended they were drank
Both 81 them were arrested
and taken up 10 the Jail. The woman
wouldn't say anything at first about il.
but afterward She said She aid hear
the murdered squaw cry out: Give me
back my money. This white woman
has husband who Is now
IN the county jail for robbery
Another man came down there short
" after the murder was discovered
On, Know him; yes, his name is
Brown. As soon ss he heard of il, he
ran up the hill and got some other
fellows
oTEEE srATENENrs.
Officer Nick Hanna was noticed sit
ting on a piece of drift wood