The crime that put Tacoma on the map: Death of a timber scion hearkens back to city’s past
For better and (often) worse, Tacoma has taken no shortage of strange, sometimes tragic turns in the national spotlight.
There was the public transportation catastrophe that marred July 4, 1900 — when an overpacked trolley on its way to Tacoma’s annual holiday parade jumped the track and plunged 100 feet into a ravine, killing 43 people.
There was the 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, captured on film, resulting in worldwide notoriety and the death of a three-legged Cocker Spaniel named Tubby.
There was Jack the Bear, and later, Ivan the Gorilla.
But, according to local historian and former Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma, one event in the city’s past stands above the rest in terms of the white-hot attention it garnered: the kidnapping and eventual safe return of 9-year-old George Weyerhaeuser in 1935.
“In Tacoma’s history, that’s probably the biggest story,” Baarsma said this week, noting that the crime and subsequent trial brought reporters from around the world to the City of Destiny.
“It was a huge story, on the front pages of all the major newspapers,” Baarsma said.
On Saturday, June 11, Weyerhaeuser died at the age of 95. As Paul Roberts of the Seattle Times wrote in a lengthy and fitting obituary, not only did Weyerhaeuser spend nearly six decades working for the timber company that bears the family’s name — including nearly 30 years as CEO — he made numerous valuable civic contributions across the region during his long life. Here in Pierce County, Weyerhaeuser played a role in some of Tacoma’s biggest victories, Baarsma told me, from the Foss Waterway cleanup to the development of the University of Washington Tacoma.
It was the week he spent in captivity as a young boy, however, that made Weyerhaeuser a household name.
In the process, the shockingly brazen crime and Wererhaeuser’s safe return — all of which followed on the heels of the Lindbergh kidnapping — helped put Tacoma on the map.
“In my opinion, it’s the most fascinating crime story in Washington state history, by an absolute mile,” said Bryan Johnston, who published a book on the ordeal just last year.
Weyerhaeuser kidnapping
Johnston told The News Tribune on Wednesday the Weyerhaeuser kidnapping had all the elements of a classic Hollywood movie. That’s what attracted the 59-year-old author to the story.
It began on May 24, 1935, around noon, as the young Weyerhaeuser walked to the family’s home on North Fourth Street from the former Lowell Elementary school for lunch. In broad daylight, two men forced the boy into the backseat of a 1927 Buick sedan. Weyerhaeuser was soon taken into the woods near Issaquah and chained up, while his kidnappers sent off a ransom letter, signed by George Weyerhaeuser in schoolboy cursive for authenticity, demanding $200,000 in small, unmarked bills. Today, the kidnappers’ demand would be roughly $4 million.
What followed, according to Johnston, is a tale more captivating than fiction.
George Weyerhaeuser was transported to a rental house in Spokane, while his parents — John and Helen Weyerhaeuser — worked to collect the ransom money on short notice, which was no small feat even for a family of considerable financial means. At the same time, the FBI prepared to put its full weight on the case, employing a small army of agents in hopes of tracking down the kidnappers.
As the ransom letter instructed, when they had the cash, the Weyerhaeusers placed a personal ad in the Seattle PI, communicating, “We are ready,” and signed using the code name, “Percy Minnie.” John Weyerhaeuser soon received a set of instructions from his son’s abductors, which included taking the money into the woods in the dead of night and looking for a series of stakes driven into the ground marked with white cloths. Each marker, according to Johnston, revealed a new set of instructions, eventually leading to a drop spot for the cash.
According to Johnston, on the first night John Weyerhaeuser failed, unable to find all the markers. His son’s captors gave him a second chance the following evening, and on Thursday, May 30, 1935 — in the woods near Angle Lake — he left the money in the front seat of his running car and walked away. Moments later, the car sped off, and Weyerhaeuser hitched a ride back to Tacoma.
As Roberts perfectly summed up in the Seattle Times, “On June 1, after eight days imprisonment in earthen pits, car trunks, closets and even a Uneeda cracker carton, George Weyerhaeuser was left on the side of a forest road near Issaquah with two blankets and a dollar.”
Meanwhile, the captors escaped with the money, at least for the moment.
Johnston, who interviewed the historically tight-lipped Weyerhaeuser for his book, “Deep in the Woods,” said he asked the timber scion whether the ordeal had been traumatizing.
“He said, ‘Nope.’ Pretty point blank,” Johnston told The News Tribune, noting the intense media frenzy that followed his release, which included a reporter from the Times weaseling an interview scoop from the 9-year-old on his way back to Tacoma.
George quickly became a darling of the rampant and often salacious press of the era, Johnston said, while his father quickly became weary of the attention.
“George’s dad was not in love with the media at all, because they were camped out in their lawn for a week,” Johnston said.
While George Weyerhaeuser rarely talked about the ordeal in the years that followed — and long maintained that it didn’t leave him scarred — Johnston believes it influenced his view on life.
“I know his daughter has said that he had a much more forward view (after the kidnapping) — you know, always look ahead, don’t look back on the past. I suspect that’s right,” Johnston said.
“He didn’t talk too much about it,” Johnston added. “He basically said, ‘All’s well that ends well.’”
Manhunt, trial and the impact in Tacoma
If the kidnapping put Tacoma in the spotlight, so did the trial that quickly followed — which was held at the U.S. District Court downtown.
Following the safe release of George Weyerhaeuser, federal law enforcement launched what was described at the time as “the greatest manhunt in the history of the Northwest,” according to HistoryLink.org. FBI agents had compiled the serial numbers of the 20,000 bills included in the ransom money, according to the site, and before long they began to surface.
On June 8, 1935, Harmon and Margaret Waley were arrested in Salt Lake City, after Margaret attempted to use a $5 bill for a 20-cent purchase at a local store. The couple implicated a third kidnapper, William Mahan – real name was William Dainard, according to HistoryLink.org, and considered the brains of the operation — who was captured the following year.
Before Mahan was captured, the Waleys returned to Tacoma to face justice. Harmon Waley pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 45 years in prison. Margaret Waley went to trial — at the insistence of the judge, since it appeared the 19-year-old had no real involvement in the crime and never saw George Weyerhaeuser during his captivity — and eventually received a sentence of 20 years.
According to Johnston, the media circus during the five-day Waley trial was intense.
“I mean, they sent over a reporter from the London Times to cover the trial,” Johnston said. “So, yeah, it was a big deal.”
Baarsma, the city’s former mayor, attended Lowell Elementary in the 1940s — just a few years after the Weyerhaeuser kidnapping.
While memories of the crime that put Tacoma in the worldwide spotlight might have faded since then, Baarsma said, the impact was lasting, and in the years that directly followed the ordeal remained top of mind for many Tacoma residents.
“So many of these copycat kidnappings after the Lindbergh kidnapping did not turn out well, and this one did. That’s another thing that made the story so big,” Baarsma said. “I mean, if you were born and raised in Tacoma, as I was, you knew about it.”
With news of George Weyerhaeuser’s death still fresh this week, Baarsma also said that the famed kidnapping isn’t the only way we should remember a man who made considerable contributions to the city we know today.
“(Weyerhaeuser) made such a difference for the city of Tacoma as a person,” Baarsma said.
“He went on to live a long, incredibly productive life. I think that’s an important part of the story as well.”
This story was originally published June 18, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
