One hundred years ago The Evening Herald newspaper reported, “All’s quiet in Klamath criminal circles.” The article’s quaintly worded headline on Nov. 5, 1915, read, “Few Criminals Work in Klamath; City Bastille Almost Empty of Malfactors.”
The article said the police and sheriff’s offices found everything quiet and peaceful in the city and county.
The newspaper said recent prosecutions had reduced bootlegging and the selling of liquor to Indians. It added, “Of course there are the customary number of wanderers and inebriates that seek shelter in the jail these cold nights, but after the state goes dry even this diversion will be eliminated.”
The article said a “few furniture breakers” remained in jail because bottles were being passed through the bars to them. Recalling that the City Council had failed to provide funds for placing screens across the bars, the newspaper wondered whether that only would lead to prisoners using straws to suck booze through the screens.
Speculating winter’s cold weather contributed to the drop in crime, the newspaper article said, “It is thought that most criminals have gone south for the winter.”
Source: "Few Criminals Work in Klamath; City Bastille Almost Empty of Malfactors." The Evening Herald 5 Nov. 1915 [Klamath Falls, Ore.] : 1. Print.
