The Roaring Twenties were now in full swing. Even “respectable” society winked at violations of Prohibition, while the more daring pursued unrestrained novelty and excitement. But that also spurred lawlessness from the fringes of society.
And the crooks saw plenty of opportunity. Consumers spent freely on the wide array of goods that innovative production and a booming economy put on the market. That new lavishness included cigars and cigarettes. By now, machines had made better cigars available to the middle class. Thus, in 1926, a bundle of three “pretty good” cigars could be had for 20¢. Top quality cigars might cost 50¢ for a three-pack.
In Seattle, James R. Brewster became a rich man by opening over twenty cigar stores to feed the demand. (Of course, they sold all kinds of tobacco products, but cigars were still the prestige item.) But on the downside, those shops had to process a continuous stream of small retail transactions. To keep up, the company sent couriers out regularly to deliver change all over the city. Reports suggest that they kept two money teams busy much of the time.
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| White-Henry-Stuart Building, ca 1923. |
One outlet occupied a prime spot right next to the central entrance of the White-Henry-Stuart Building. The Brewster money car, driven by Robert G. Brautigan, parked in front of the cigar store around 10:30. Brautigan alighted and went back to unlock the trunk. The courier met him from the other side and Brautigan handed him the money bag, which contained about $5,000. The store manager could fill his needs and then the car would move on to its next stop.
Seemingly out of nowhere, four armed men appeared. One waved a revolver in Brautigan’s face and shoved him against the car. This must have felt all too familiar for the driver; he’d been robbed at the same time and place a bit over a year earlier. Another bandit accosted the courier and grabbed the money sack.
Bystanders took notice at this point, and there was a lot of stir and shouting … thus, witness accounts varied. But apparently the other two robbers were stationed to discourage anyone from interfering with their plan. They may have even fired warning shots, but witnesses disagreed on that point too.
A bandit tossed the money satchel into a car that had stopped in front of the Brewster vehicle. Then matters got even crazier. As the thieves tried to pile into the getaway car, it began to move. One crook fired into the auto. Did he suspect a double-cross, with the driver trying to run off with the loot? Or was it meant to warn the driver – or the gathering crowd – and just went astray? Whatever the motive, the driver was killed almost instantly. The car glanced off another vehicle passing along the street and then slammed to a stop against a parked laundry truck.
With their escape plan aborted, the robbers scattered, leaving the money bag behind. The shooter was seen to drop a revolver, which a bystander quickly recovered. The fugitive ran around the corner and into an alley, now waving another revolver to discourage pursuit. However, a seventeen-year-old messenger boy – the hero of the moment – tackled him and grabbed his weapon. Then he and some men held the crook until police arrived.
Their captive, William McMahon (aka McMann), was well known to Seattle police. Just the previous January, he had completed a term for an assault conviction. Before that, his criminal record had made him “unwelcome” in his home state of California. He was about 29 years old.
Officers began rounding up McMahon’s known criminal associates, guided by eyewitness descriptions. Authorities ended up with three men in custody: McMahon, Edward J. Devlin, and Theodore H. Hopkins. Devlin was also from California, and even had an open robbery charge pending there. He was about a year older than McMahon, and may have already spent some time in the Washington State Penitentiary. All three were held on murder and robbery charges, but Hopkins was eventually released for lack of evidence.
The driver and murder victim was another small-time crook, Harry Raymond “Ray” Richards. Originally from Missouri, Ray and his widowed mother had moved to Seattle around 1909, when he was about 17 year old. Ray got in trouble early for burglarizing a store. We don’t know if he served reformatory time or received a suspended sentence due to his youth. After that he worked at various odd jobs.
His name does not appear in news reports after that, but he was apparently fairly well known to police. Reports suggested that he might be a drug addict or dealer (or perhaps both). Ray’s wife, who was suing for divorce at the time of his death, stated that Ray, McMahon, and Devlin had been palling around for several months.
Prosecutors hired criminologist Luke S. May to verify the death weapon, help link it to the shooter, and assess the overall crime scenario. News reports of the trial only mention the eyewitness testimony that tied the gun to McMahon. May probably found fingerprints to bolster that evidence, although some would have surely been smudged.
He would have also tracked the bullet trajectory. The missile hit low enough to pass through the right arm (not the shoulder), pierce the victim’s heart, and end up just inside the skin on the left side. Witness testimony could not agree whether the shooter was inside the car, riding the running board, or out on the sidewalk. The consensus – not necessarily correct – put him on the running board. In any case, the trajectory largely eliminated the notion of a warning shot gone wild.
McMahon was convicted on the two counts. He received a twenty to fifty year sentence for robbery, and life on the murder charge. In a separate trial, Devlin was also convicted and received the same sentences. As usual, both convictions were appealed. McMahon’s try was denied. The court specifically noted that the defense suggestion that a bystander shot Richards, was “pure conjecture, with no circumstantial or factual support.”
However, the Supreme Court found a problem in the Devlin conviction. A witness had been shown a photo lineup to identify the bandit. Speaking from the stand in court, he referred to the set as a “rogue’s gallery.” The Supreme Court viewed that as an improper attack on the defendant’s character. They reversed the entire proceedings on that one point, and ruled that the case had to be retried. Prosecutors chose to release Devlin, rather than incur more expense. (They may have “encouraged” him to leave town as a condition, but we can never know about that.)
| References: “[Cigar Store Robbery/Murder],” Seattle Times, Washington (April 1925 – November 1927). |
| Luke S. May, Luke S. May Papers, Special Collections, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington (1969). |
| “Missouri To Front In Criminal Court,” Seattle Times, Washington (January 23, 1910). |
| State v. McMahon 145 Wn. 672, 675 (November 30, 1927). |
| Photo source: Buildings and Building Management, Porter-Langtry Company, New York (January 1923). |
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