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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Esther Elven, 25, woke up in her room at the Garni Hotel and discovered two men beside her, one dead and one dying.

She claimed this was a complete surprise, but according to police her veracity was questionable since “she was incoherent with drink.”

Spokane police and other witnesses said that John MacKinnon, 30, a lumberjack, was in Elven’s room near midnight. Another man, Leo Hull, 38, a machinist, came roaring into the hotel hallway, banged on the door and shouted, “Open the door or I’ll break it in!”

He kicked in the door and two shots were fired in rapid succession.

The hotel’s other residents called police, who found Hull collapsed in the hallway, unconscious with a bullet in his head. They found MacKinnon dead on the floor of Elven’s room, a bullet hole in his temple, a gun near his hand and two empty shells.

Police believed that MacKinnon shot Hull and then shot himself.

Hull died hours later in the emergency hospital.

Elven was in jail and had “babbled” to the coroner that the two men were in love with her and that she loved “Mac,” who worked in a lumber camp and gave her all of his money. However, she said that she remembered nothing of the shooting because she “swooned” as soon as Hull kicked in the door.