Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 75 years ago

A crowd of people, many of them neighborhood kids, stood gawking at the front steps of the Manito Pharmacy, 29th Avenue and Grand Boulevard, in 1935.

They were looking at the spot where a clerk, Harry J. Phillips, died after being shot by a man at high noon. An unknown man had walked in the drugstore and apparently got into some kind of tussle or argument with Phillips. The man fired three shots, one of which hit Phillips. The clerk staggered out the front door and died on the steps. The murderer then coolly made his escape by car.

Police ruled out robbery as a motive, since no money was stolen. Their latest theory: that the killer was a dope addict and demanded drugs.

From the dead-on-their-feet file: Contestants continued to drop out of the “walkathon” being held the past two weeks in a tent east of Spokane. It was like a dance marathon, with contestants forced to keep moving all day and night with only short breaks for rest.

The latest photo showed a woman with her face buried in a handkerchief, being tended by nurses. She had “fallen from the race and slept for hours.”

“The disqualification of a contestant is one sad scene,” noted The Spokesman-Review.