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

From our archives, 100 years ago

An Idaho district court judge caused a sensation when he pinned part of the blame for a Grangeville vigilante murder on the state’s Board of Pardons.

His point? The board had set aside verdicts in so many cases that the citizenry decided to “administer justice” in a way that could not be overturned.

A week earlier, 15 masked men had broken into the Grangeville jail and shot a suspected wife-beater dead.

Judge Edgar C. Steele made his point in a letter to the Idaho governor, who was a member of the Board of Pardons. The judge said the board had “set aside the verdicts of every jury and the sentence of the courts in every case of any importance that has been tried in the courts in this county in the last 12 years.”

He said scores of citizens have asked him “what is the use” of sending criminals to jail in Boise if they “only stay there a short time” until they are pardoned?

The judge did not condone the mob’s action, however. He assured the governor that “every effort in my power will be put forth to apprehend the men.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1916: The first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, was opened in Memphis, Tenn., by Clarence Saunders.