Twisted Tour Guide: Seattle and Puget Sound

By Marques Vickers

Avoid The Tourist Herds.

What could be more uninspiring than seeing the identical attractions that everyone else has for decades?

This Twisted Tour Guide escorts you to the places locals don’t want to talk about anymore...the same places people once couldn’t stop talking about. Long after the screaming headlines and sensationalism has subsided, these bizarre, infamous and obscure historical sites remain hidden awaiting rediscovery.

Each visitation site in this guide is accompanied by a story. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true. The profiled cast of characters feature saints and sinners (with emphasis towards the latter).

Notorious crimes, murders, accidental deaths, suicides, kidnappings, vice and scandal are captivating human interest tales. Paranormal activity in the aftermath is common.

The photography from each profile showcases the precise location where each event occurred. The scenes can seem ordinary, weird and/or sometimes very revealing towards clarifying the background behind events.

If you’re seeking an alternative to conventional tourism, this Twisted Tour Guide is ideal. Each directory accommodates the restless traveler and even resident looking for something unique and different. You will never imagine or scrutinize Seattle or the Puget Sound area through rose tinted glasses again. The contents include:

SEATTLE:
Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, Kurt Cobain’s suicide, Nixon’s John Ehrlichman’s Seattle legal years Seattle’s ethically-flawed founders and historic brothels, Crime boss Frank Colacurcio, Strippergate, Felker House, Chief Seattle, Mercer Girl Brides, Northwest Airline Hijacks, World Trade Center Protests, Seattle Hanging Grounds, Mardi Gras Riots, Madame Lou Graham, Seattle’s homeless Jungle killings, Seattle Fire of 1889, People’s Theatre, Self-defense killing of Seattle’s Police Chief, Triangle Hotel, Starvation Hill, Mahoney murder scandal, Sylvia Gaines incest murder, American teamster President Dave Beck Jr’s embezzlements, Recording artist Little Willie Johns, manslaughter, Lifeline Club infamous bingo raid, West Seattle Bridge ship collision and resulting skipper’s dismemberment, Bruce Lee Memorial, Donut House exploitation operation, Wah Mee Gambling Club massacre, The Monastery disco, Goldmark family murder, Judge Gary Little’s suicide, Pang Frozen Food fire, Assassination of Judge Tom Wales, Wasting away death of Alice in Chains’s Layne Staley, Mia Zapata’s killing, The Gits Mia Zapata’s killing, Capital Hill massacre, Mike Webb’s disappearance, Beating death of Tuba Man, Café Racer shooting, Dinh Bowman’s murder experiment, Seattle Pacific University shooting and Gay hate crime murders...Plus more

BELLEVUE
Prostitution employing contemporary technology applications, Mars Hills Congregational Church collapse, Bellevue’s creepy first mayor and the Rafay and Wilson family murders...Plus

TACOMA
Serial Killer Ted Bundy, The Enterprise crime syndicate, Washington Building, Dashiell Hammett, Rust Mansion, Weaver Film Studio, Little girl’s ghost in the upper restaurant windows, Unsolved kidnappings of Ann Marie Burr and Charlie Mattson, Serial killer Jake Bird’s fatal curse, DNA profiles track down two child killers forty years later, The missing prostitutes along Puyallup Avenue, Coffee shop killing of four police officers, Asian gangland slaying, DC Sniper’s associate killing...Plus more

OUTLYING AREAS
Green River Serial Killer, Jimi Hendrix Memorial, Elementary School teacher pregnancy scandal, A survivalist murders his family, Police shooting death motivated by impatience, Everett dockside massacre...and even more scandal and vice await...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Marques Vickers
• Release date: Jun 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463218129

Marques Vickers

Visual Artist, Writer and Photographer Marques Vickers is a California native presently living in the San Francisco Bay Area and Seattle, Washington regions. He was born in 1957 and raised in Vallejo, California. He is a 1979 Business Administration graduate from Azusa Pacific University in the Los Angeles area. Following graduation, he became the Public Relations and ultimately Executive Director of the Burbank Chamber of Commerce between 1979-84. He subsequently became the Vice President of Sales for AsTRA Tours and Travel in Westwood between 1984-86. Following a one-year residence in Dijon, France where he studied at the University of Bourgogne, he began Marquis Enterprises in 1987. His company operations have included sports apparel exporting, travel and tour operations, wine brokering, publishing, rare book and collectibles reselling. He has established numerous e-commerce, barter exchange and art websites including MarquesV.com, ArtsInAmerica.com, InsiderSeriesBooks.com, DiscountVintages.com and WineScalper.com. Between 2005-2009, he relocated to the Languedoc region of southern France. He concentrated on his painting and sculptural work while restoring two 19th century stone village residences. His figurative painting, photography and sculptural works have been sold and exhibited internationally since 1986. He re-established his Pacific Coast residence in 2009 and has focused his creative productivity on writing and photography. His published works span a diverse variety of subjects including true crime, international travel, California wines, architecture, history, Southern France, Pacific Coast attractions, fiction, auctions, fine art marketing, poetry, fiction and photojournalism. He has two daughters, Charline and Caroline who presently reside in Europe.

Book preview

TWISTED TOUR GUIDE TO SEATTLE AND PUGET SOUND

Published by Marques Vickers at Smashwords

Copyright 2019-2023 Marques Vickers

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

SEATTLE:

Seattle’s Founding: Feasting On Purloined Funds and Ill-Will

Chief Seattle: City Namesake and Symbolic Character

Felker House: A Proprietress with a Heart of Stone

The East Coast Imported Mercer Brides

At The End of A Noose: Seattle’s Hanging Grounds

The Infamous Seattle Fire of 1889 and Follow-Up City Redesign

The Historic Pioneer Square Houses of Ill Repute

Lou Graham: The Distinctive First Lady of Seattle

Ballard’s Remaining Legacy of Prostitution

People’s Theatre: The Legacy of Seattle’s Private Female Performers and Police Chief Killer

Pioneer Square’s Totem Pole and The Ignored Shame Behind its Acquisition

Murderous Revenge Spawned By The Brides of Christ Cult

LaSalle Hotel: Wartime Fraternizing Prohibition by the US Navy

Lester Brothels: World’s Largest Brothel Felled by an Errant Flight Path

Triangle Hotel and Bar: Flatiron Flim-Flams, Western Union and Flophouse

Linda Burfield Hazzard: A Barbaric Medical Practitioner Dispensing Lethal Salt and Water

Officer Volney Stevens: An Open Season On Shooting Seattle Policemen

The Dredged Trunk Recovery: Seattle’s Mahoney Disappearance Scandal

Sylvia Gaines: The Final Vestiges of Scandal Has Been Uprooted

The Contradictory Legacy of Teamster Dave Beck, Jr.

John Ehrlichman: One of the President’s Men Goes Morally Awry

Seattle Space Needle: Spaceship or Abstract Design?

The Brief Extinguished Flame of Recording Artist Little Willie John

A Civil Rights Assassination or Political Rival Killing?

Lifeline Club: A Bingo Raid Evolving Into a Federal Case

Bruce and Brandon Lee: Father and Son Tragedies

Morris Frampton: The Beast and the Banality of Darkness

A Fatal Copycat Hijacking Following the Legendary D. B. Cooper

West Seattle Bridge: A Collision With An Unanticipated Destiny

Seattle’s Donut House: Exploiting the Victimized With Sanctuary

Wah Mee Gambling Club: A Massacre That Shook The Foundations of An Illegal Seattle Tradition

The Monastery: The Party Relocates

The Charles Goldmark Family Murder: Erroneous Presumptions

The Birthplace of Foam Art At Espresso Vivace

Gary Little’s Dual Role as Adjudicator and Predator

James William Cushing: The Vulnerability of a Fractured Mind

Mia Zapata and the Randomly Silenced Voice of the Street

John Fiori: The Eruption and Rage of an Invisible Individual

Kurt Cobain: The Prelude and the Final Act

Pang Frozen Food Fire: An Empire of Achievement Devoured In An Evening’s Flames

A Very Public Suicide on the Notorious Aurora Bridge

The 1999 World Trade Organization Seattle Circus Sideshow

The 2001 Mardi Gras Riots and Accompanying Violence

Tom Wales: The Perfect Assassination?

Lenin Sculpture in Seattle’s Fremont District

Layne Staley: The Wasting Away of a Rock Frontman

Frank Colacurcio, Sr: Reputed Seattle Mob Boss and Strippergate

Kyle Huff: The Capital Hill Massacre

Edith Macefield House: Development Holdout

Naveed Afzal Haq’s Lone Rampage Against American Foreign Policy

The Abruptly Silenced Voice of Radio Activist Mike Webb

Edward Scott McMichael: The Silencing of A Whimsical Tune

Jennifer Hopper: Devine Forgiveness for an Unpardonable Act

Timothy Brenton: A Police Officer Ambush Motivated By Extreme Hatred

Collective Grieving, Renewal and Hope Following An Unexplainable Rampage at the Café Racer

The Murder Experiment that Concluded Dreadfully Wrong

Aaron Ybarra: A School Shooting Prefaced By A Living Hell

Ali Muhammad Brown: Using Religious Fanaticism As A Pretext For Unspeakable Acts

No One is Welcome in This Jungle

The Lonely Citadel of Seattle’s Unlucky Thirteenth Precinct

BELLEVUE

Charles Boyee: Bellevue’s Creepy Patriarch

George Russell, Jr.: Outsider and Sadistic Serial Killing

Rafay Family Murders: The Damning Conversations That Sabotaged A Perfect Alibi

Alex Baranyi and David Anderson: The Thrill of the Kill

The Rise and Abrupt Fall of the Mars Hill Worship Conglomerate

The Oldest Practiced Profession Amidst the Newest Technological Universe

TACOMA

Alfred’s Café Building: Accommodating Working Mothers

Bodega Bar: A Shanghai Recruiting Outpost

A Western White House:  Suppressing Suicide

When Construction Was Abruptly Halted on A Banking Skyscraper

An Accidental Police Shooting Stimulates A Future Famous Crime Writer

The Lost Dream of Film Producer Harvey Weaver

The Unsolved Kidnapping of Young Charles F. Mattson

The Fatal Curse of Jake Bird

Ann Marie Burr: A Mother’s Torment of Never Knowing Her Daughter’s Fate

John Joseph Carbone’s The Enterprise: Tacoma’s Disorganized Crime

Ted Bundy: The Man Who Lived To Kill Women

Two Child Killers Separated By City Blocks and DNA Profiles

An Asian Gangland Slaying During A Turbulent Tacoma Era

The Invisible Streetwalkers Along Tacoma’s Puyallup Avenue

Lee Malvo: An Assassination Dictated By Subservience

Maurice Clemmons: A Lifetime of Debauchery Ends in Unnecessary Sacrifice For Four Policemen

OUTLYING AREAS

Everett Dockside Massacre: Sunday Bloody Sunday

Jimi Hendrix: Entombing An Icon

The Red Barn Door Tavern Massacre: The Reformation of A Vicious Mass Killer?

Gary Ridgway: The Green River Executioner Appearing As Evil Incarnate

Mary Kay Letourneau: The Publicly Distained Liaison and Aftermath

James Elledge: A Rare Example of Legitimate Remorse?

Niles Meservey Death: A Homicidal Impatience By One of the Good Guys

Peter Keller: The Survivalist Killer Who Ultimately Couldn’t Hide

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My appreciation to the following media outlets providing critical research details:

From the Internet archives of The Seattle Times, The Renton Reporter, The News Tribune, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, The Stranger, Murderpedia.org, Wikipedia.org, FindACase.com, StalkingSeattle.Blogspot.com, HistoryLink.org, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wikiwand.com, University of Washington Library, PublicLibrary.org, Forejustice.org, WashingtonHistoryOnline.org, Everett Public Library, Newstalkit.com, TheNorthwest.com, NWSource.com, CrimeWiseUSA.com, TheEscapist.com, Highbeam.com, BlinkOnCrime.com, Sandpoint.com, Vietnamwar.OurWarHeroes.org, FBI.gov, MyNorthwest.com, SeattleMet.com, FreeRepublic.com, CapitolHill.com, HeraldNet.com, KPLU.org, TheInvisibleJuror.com, Highbeam.com, StalkingVictims.com, SeattlePoliceGuild.org, Heavy.com, Modernnotion.com, Topix.com, StarvationHeights.com, CrimeWiseUSA.com, CrimeMuseum.org, Facebook.com, PureIntimacy.com, Nwestnomad.com, Crosscut.com, City of Seattle, CentralSaloon.com, San Francisco Chronicle,  SandraWagnerWright.com, Seattle Magazine, Washington Inmate Search, Ross Anderson’s 2008 article in Seattle Metropolitan Magazine, Casetext.com,  HistoryLink.org, Puget Sound Business Journal, KOMOnews.com,  NewYorkTimes.com, FearofFlying.com, Heraldnet.com, Seattle historian Bill Speidel’s writings, TacomaHistory.org, CityArtsMagazine.com and SouthSoundTalk.com.

Photography shot between 2015-2022. Some of the locations may have altered with time and ownership changes. Many of the locations are still privately inhabited. Please don’t disturb the residents.

TWISTED TOUR GUIDE TO SEATTLE AND PUGET SOUND

Avoid The Tourist Herds.

What could be more uninspiring than seeing the identical attractions that everyone else has for decades?

This Twisted Tour Guide escorts you to the places locals don’t want to talk about anymore…the same places people once couldn’t stop talking about. Long after the screaming headlines and sensationalism has subsided, these bizarre, infamous and obscure historical sites remain hidden awaiting rediscovery.

Each visitation site in this guide is accompanied by a story. Many of the narratives defy believability, yet they are true. The profiled cast of characters feature saints and sinners (with emphasis towards the latter).

Notorious crimes, murders, accidental deaths, suicides, kidnappings, vice and scandal are captivating human interest tales. Paranormal activity in the aftermath is common.

The photography from each profile showcases the precise location where each event occurred. The scenes can seem ordinary, weird and sometimes very revealing towards clarifying the background behind events.

If you’re seeking an alternative to conventional tourism, this Twisted Tourist Guide is ideal. Each directory accommodates the restless traveler and even resident looking for something unique and different. You will never imagine or scrutinize the Seattle and Puget Sound area through rose tinted glasses again.

Seattle’s Founding: Feasting On Purloined Funds and Ill-Will

A recreational drive or stroll through downtown Seattle is likely to prompt the recognition of familiar surnames including Denny, Boren, Maynard, Yesler, Stone, and Stevens. Each is prominent in Seattle’s early establishment. Some have whiffs of scandal attached to their name. These individuals sometimes resemble more of a rogue’s gallery of opportunists than farsighted visionaries to revere.

In 1851, Arthur Denny headed a wagon train party west from Illinois arriving in Portland during August. He sailed north in November to Puget Sound in what he later described as a desperate venture. The party landed at Alki Beach in West Seattle. Alki Point suffered from destructive waves when the winter north winds howled. Denny and his party relocated onto the more hospitable eastern shores of Elliot Bay where Pioneer Square exists today.

The ever-ambitious Denny immediately established commercial operations selling cargo on commission for ship captains. During his lifetime, he opened a merchandising partnership, fought in several territorial skirmishes with the less welcoming Native Americans, invested a half interest in the Seattle-First National Bank, became postmaster and served nine consecutive terms in the territorial House of Representatives.

Denny was a devout, conservative Christian who never drank. He married Mary Ann Boren. He was credited with supporting the rights of white women over 18 and older to vote and even introduced enabling legislation. The measure was unsuccessful. By most accounts, although excessively protective of his own interests, Arthur Denny was held in generally unblemished esteem.

Unfortunately his younger brother David T. Denny would later tarnish the family name. He had likewise married a Boren, his stepsister Louisa. On September 12, 1893, Seattle Treasurer Adolph Krug was discovered missing along with $125,000 in city funds. He was observed later that day crossing into Canada and within a week was arrested in St. Paul, Minnesota boarding a train to New York.

On October 31st, Krug and five prominent Seattle businessmen including David Denny were indicted for using public money in a manner not authorized by law.  Krug was convicted in March 1894 of using $10,000 for profit and sentenced to seven years at hard labor. One of the indicted was acquitted at trial and the other cases including Denny’s were dismissed.

Krug served only two years before being paroled by the governor. He returned to Seattle and with the assistance of a local brewery, he purchased a saloon. The City eventually recovered its losses from the debtors through the sale of building lots offered as collateral.

1893 was not a kind year for David Denny. He had been considered one of the city’s wealthiest men residing in a mansion at the base of Queen Anne Hill. The nationwide Panic of 1893 devastated Seattle financially and particularly David Denny. He lost everything to bankruptcy and was exiled to a lone track of land he had previously given his daughter in northern Seattle.

The financial humiliation forced him to take a job at age 67 overseeing improvements on the Snoqualmie Pass road (currently Interstate 90). An errant backswing of an axe by a careless worker severely cut his scalp. He bandaged his own wound and returned to work. He would later briefly become a gold prospector. He died within four years following the axe injury never regaining his wealth or reputation.

David Doc Maynard today is soundly regarded within Seattle founding circles. He developed a friendship with local natives and specifically the Duwamish tribe’s Chief Seattle. He was responsible for suggesting the city’s name after the chief. Maynard was the settlement’s first doctor, second lawyer, Justice of the Peace and general negotiating agent at large.

Originally raised in Vermont, he earned his medical degree and married his first wife Lydia in 1828. Four years later, they moved to Cleveland and established a family. He apparently made and lost small financial fortunes along with the fidelity of his wife. He remained with her until his vagabond calling pushed him westward. The couple never finalized their divorce. Heading for California, he diverted his routing through the Oregon Territory ultimately ending up in undeveloped Puget Sound.

En route, he fell in love with a widow Catherine Troutman Broshears. They consummated a common law marriage that would endure until the remainder of his life. The pair ultimately opened up a two-room hospital in Pioneer Square that failed to prosper. The Maynard’s insisted on serving both settlers and natives much to the bigoted disgust of the former.

The unconventional Maynard was an anomaly during his era. He was more needed than liked. He had a reputation for intelligence, dexterity, honesty on his terms, fairness and tolerance towards the outcast natives. He openly disregarded bigamy laws and established drinking and prostitution within his commercial establishments.

Towards the end of his life, Maynard was immersed in numerous litigation proceedings over a variety of land and commercial issues. One involved his original wife’s share of his estate. She reportedly arrived into Seattle penniless to testify on Maynard’s behalf. She remained welcomed, accommodated and on friendly terms with the current Mrs. Maynard. Seattle historian Bill Speidel, who shared a genuine affinity towards Maynard, noted that when Maynard was seen strolling around town, he was the only man in Seattle with a wife on either arm.

Who couldn’t appreciate such a peacemaker?

The Seattle topography was originally considered unsuitable for building. Reports confirmed there weren’t eight level, usable blocks in the entire community. Over the subsequent decades, enormous land masses were shifted, flattened and subdued to enable construction.

During the early settlement years, Henry Yesler found an ideal track on Seattle’s waterfront to operate a steam sawmill. The major problem became financing his dream. He was acknowledged as having wrangled a half-acre of prime land from some of the original settlers.

Two intriguing tales account for his ultimate financing scheme with neither elevating his ethical scruples. One coup involved manipulating Washington’s first lottery in July 1876. The winner was supposed to be given his sawmill. Yesler canceled the drawing and pocketed over $30,000 reportedly invested by gamblers. His legal penalty amounted to a $25 fine, a substantial return on investment.

The more accepted version involved a $30,000 loan at 8% interest (borderline usury) from capitalist John E. McLain based in Massillon, Ohio. Yesler was sluggish in repayment and had to be taken to court on three occasions to finally satisfy the debt.

His initial mill was destroyed by fire in 1887 a foreshadowing of the Great Seattle Fire two years later. The replacement mill was built on the north shore of Union Bay on Lake Washington (currently the University of Washington’s Urban Horticulture Center). It was also burned completely down within 30 minutes by another inferno in 1895.

Seattle’s third Mayor, Corliss Stone was notorious for having embezzled money from his business partner removing cash from their safe and money from their bank account. He left the explanations for his actions to his partner who fortunately maintained title to property owned by the firm. Stone didn’t travel alone. A married woman accompanied him to San Francisco for an extended roadtrip.

Stone was the developer responsible for subdividing Seattle’s Wallingford and Fremont neighborhoods. A shrew negotiator, he crafted a settlement enabling him to return to Seattle without prison time and engage in business independently once again. He remained active in real estate until his death. His traveling companion remained discreetly unnamed in the press.

Perhaps the worst public relations offender of all was Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens who did the maximum to damage relations between the early families and natives. Stevens put bounties on scalps of bad Indians and kept individuals in prison for exhibiting sympathy or assistance towards their plight. His worst fault was his dishonesty in treaties. Stevens specifically ignored federal government instructions and often stipulated oral promises that were not identical to the written terms.

Denny Family Burial Plot at Lakeview Cemetery

1554 15th Avenue E, Seattle

Yesler Family Burial Plot at Lakeview Cemetery

1554 15th Avenue E, Seattle

Chief Seattle: City Namesake and Symbolic Character

Pioneer David Doc Maynard is the reason that the city currently named Seattle derived its name. Maynard cultivated an unlikely alliance and friendship with Seathl, a Suquamish and Duwamish chief. Seathl was later anglicized into Seattle. As a recognized leader, he straddled the divide between representing his own people and maintaining cordial relations with the increasing migration of white settlers.

His pragmatism towards accommodating the incoming hoards was borne of necessity. His tribes were in the process of losing land to the Patkanim tribes of the Snohomish. Other warring tribes were being exterminated by the American military and their lands confiscated by governmental treaties. Seattle kept his warriors out of the settler skirmishes that raged throughout the territory.

As a consequence to his restraint, Doc Maynard was able convince to his fellow pioneers that Seattle would be a suitable namesake for the settlement. Many founders had referred to the region previously as Dewamps. Chief Seattle’s name was attached sometime between April and October 1852.

Seattle was born in 1786 near the Black River (currently named Green River) in Kent. He claimed that as a boy to have viewed Captain George Vancouver’s original expedition ships in the Pacific Northwest. He inherited his leadership position from his maternal uncle. He was feared as a warrior and reputed for his ambush raids on tribal enemies.

Physically he was six feet tall and built sturdy. Hudson Bay Company traders nicknamed him The Big Guy. He earned a reputation as a skillful orator with a projecting voice. He married twice and his first wife, La-Dalia bore him a daughter, Kikisoblu, before dying at childbirth. The daughter would become known as Princess Angeline courtesy of Doc Maynard’s second wife. She would live in a Seattle waterfront cabin where the Pike Place Market is currently located. She strolled the city, bent and wrinkled with a cane during her later years. She wrapped a red handkerchief over her head and a shawl about her.

Angeline did laundry and sold handwoven baskets while living in poverty. She converted to Catholicism and was frequently sighted on the sidewalk rubbing her beads while devoutly reciting her rosary. When she died on May 31, 1896, the city conducted a lavish funeral for her at the Church of Our Lady of Good Help. She was buried in a canoe shaped coffin in Lakeview Cemetery near the family monument of pioneer Henry Yesler. Years later, Seattle schoolchildren raised money for her headstone.

With his second wife Olahl, Seattle would have three sons and four daughters. None of these children ascended to prominence.

The general consensus towards Chief Seattle was that his character was beyond reproach. A widely publicized speech that he reportedly gave argued in favor of ecological responsibility and respect for Native American land rights. In 1848, he converted to Catholicism by French missionaries near Olympia. He was given the baptismal name Noah.

His life however was far more complicated and less heroic. Before his religious conversion, he led a Suquamish attack in 1847 upon the Chimakum tribe near Port Townsend. The merciless assault annihilated the Chimakum. As was the custom with his contemporaries, he owned slaves generally captured as prisoners during his battles.

As he aged and his influence waned, Doc Maynard persuaded governmental authorities to allow Seattle to live in his father’s longhouse on Agate Passage near Bainbridge Island. He visited periodically the town named after him. In 1865, E. M. Sammis took the sole known photograph of him. The following year, he died on June 7th at the Suquamish reservation at Port Madison. His grave is the centerpiece of a tribal cemetery adjacent to a Presbyterian Church.

Chief Seattle’s Gravesite: 7076 NE South Street, Suquamish

Princess Angeline’s Gravesite: Lakeview Cemetery, 1664 15th Avenue East, Seattle

Felker House: A Proprietress with a Heart of Stone

It seems only appropriate that the tiny village of Seattle’s first hotel, the two-story Felker House, ultimately evolved into a renowned brothel. The Madame, Mary Ann Boyer became legendary during her lifetime and also following her death and reburial.

In 1853, Boyer was abandoned in Port Townsend, Washington by her Alaskan whaling lover, Captain David Bull Conklin. He reportedly had tired of her persistent nagging. She migrated her way to the Seattle settlement and found employment as the matron of the Felker House. Financially shrewd, she eventually converted the upstairs bedrooms into a brothel.

Mary Ann Boyer maintained her thorny nature throughout her lifetime and earned the nickname Madame Damnable based on her demonic character and foul vocabulary. Her temper and abrasiveness were evidenced by her habitual tendency to accumulate rocks in her petticoat apron for hurling at the passing curious. She seasoned her assaults by cursing at them in five salty languages (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese).

Anecdotes