Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Murderous ruffians seemed to be operating all around Spokane.

First, an Italian immigrant named Frank Pasquale was found with a bullet in his skull outside his house. Police believed it might be the work of a Black Hand gang (a criminal society, which we would call the Mafia today). Police received information that Pasquale himself might be a member of a criminal gang.

There was another, more mundane, possibility: That he had been murdered by a jealous spouse. Mrs. Pasquale reported that she called the bar to ask after her husband and the bartender said, “I guess he is with another woman,” and then laughed.

Locked in a closet: In another incident, an 18-year-old cigar-stand girl at the Ridpath Hotel came home to find a masked man in her house demanding money and jewelry and brandishing a gun. He heard her uncle enter the house, at which point he hustled her into a closet and locked it.

A tussle ensued between her uncle and the burglar. She heard shots ring out. She later emerged to find her uncle, on the floor, shot to death. Police were pursuing several leads.

Summit Avenue murder: Police had no new leads in the mysterious murder of Anna Weber the week before.