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Wicked Tacoma
Jail breaks, kidnappings, and a cult leader.
Tacoma, the city where the rails meet the sails, has always been a place of innovation and rule-breakers. When the railroad came in the 19th century, business boomed, and so did smuggling, bootlegging, and prostitution. Men such as Peter Sandberg walked the line between criminal and respectable. Police in the growing town had their hands full not just with human criminals, but stray cows, ducks, and the occasional bear. Rumor has it that in the 1920s, gangsters Lucky Luciano and Frank Nitti were sent to cool their heels in the port city and may have been behind a smoke bomb attack on a movie theater.
Join author Karla Stover as she delves into the wild and colorful past of the City of Destiny.
Tacoma, the city where the rails meet the sails, has always been a place of innovation and rule-breakers. When the railroad came in the 19th century, business boomed, and so did smuggling, bootlegging, and prostitution. Men such as Peter Sandberg walked the line between criminal and respectable. Police in the growing town had their hands full not just with human criminals, but stray cows, ducks, and the occasional bear. Rumor has it that in the 1920s, gangsters Lucky Luciano and Frank Nitti were sent to cool their heels in the port city and may have been behind a smoke bomb attack on a movie theater.
Join author Karla Stover as she delves into the wild and colorful past of the City of Destiny.
- GenresHistory
176 pages, Paperback
Published June 28, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 21, 2023
A collection of odd stories about some of the characters and events in Tacoma's history. It is well written but some of the chapters leave one wanting more information. Some of it left me thinking: "This doesn't have that much to do with Tacoma." As Seattle's smaller sibling, Tacoma has always been a bit grittier and more disparaged. I am glad the author has tried to memorialize some of the grit.
August 5, 2024
Breezy little book cataloging some of the salacious and the headline fodder.
From this book I learned:
When the documents were presented to President Harrison that would establish Washington as a state, the seal fell off. He refused to sign them, delaying our entry into the union by 10 days (34-35);
We presented the president with a pen made from gold mined in the state to sign the documents with. He declined in favor of his regular steel pen (35);
In 1884, the local justice of the peace shared a building with a brothel. The judge asked to be relocated. Two members of the city counsel got big mad at the judge for that (45-46);
The Tacoma Humane Society was established in 1888, the fourth in the nation. The final straw was public abuse of a bear cub by a drunken logger. (48);
"When the Northern Pacific Railroad finally arrived in Tacoma, the population was 113 white men, 12 white women, and, interestingly, 2.5 Chinese." (69).
Misses a lot of the true awfulness of our history. For example, she discusses the "donation" of land to the military for a base but fails to mention we just took it from the tribes. She touches lightly on the extractive industry that drove and continues to drive species to extinction.
High profile kidnappings get a lot of air time. By the third one, I was skimming.
I was amused that the Java Jive was featured. (115) I don't think it's wicked, but it does look like a coffee pot.
All in all, a good book for a waiting room or a fun way to spend a lazy evening. But it could have been more.
From this book I learned:
When the documents were presented to President Harrison that would establish Washington as a state, the seal fell off. He refused to sign them, delaying our entry into the union by 10 days (34-35);
We presented the president with a pen made from gold mined in the state to sign the documents with. He declined in favor of his regular steel pen (35);
In 1884, the local justice of the peace shared a building with a brothel. The judge asked to be relocated. Two members of the city counsel got big mad at the judge for that (45-46);
The Tacoma Humane Society was established in 1888, the fourth in the nation. The final straw was public abuse of a bear cub by a drunken logger. (48);
"When the Northern Pacific Railroad finally arrived in Tacoma, the population was 113 white men, 12 white women, and, interestingly, 2.5 Chinese." (69).
Misses a lot of the true awfulness of our history. For example, she discusses the "donation" of land to the military for a base but fails to mention we just took it from the tribes. She touches lightly on the extractive industry that drove and continues to drive species to extinction.
High profile kidnappings get a lot of air time. By the third one, I was skimming.
I was amused that the Java Jive was featured. (115) I don't think it's wicked, but it does look like a coffee pot.
All in all, a good book for a waiting room or a fun way to spend a lazy evening. But it could have been more.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
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