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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

The exceptionally tiny feet of Leo Atento, 24, resulted in his arrest for the murder of Dr. R.P. Sims, a Spokane druggist.

Atento, a native of the Philippines, and Fred Neville, 19, the son of a Spokane barber, confessed to the ambush of Dr. Sims as he walked home from his drugstore.

The two men told police that they believed Dr. Sims carried home all of his store’s cash at the end of every day. They had planned out the ambush carefully. They lay in wait on either side of the sidewalk and jumped him. They insisted that they did not intend to kill him, only rob him. However, Neville had armed himself with a “broken flagpole” and he wielded it with lethal effect. Neville was a former baseball player.

They left Dr. Sims bleeding on the sidewalk, where he died.

As it turned out, the robbers found he was carrying only $4.10 in cash.

Two weeks later, Atento was arrested for possession of stolen property from another robbery. A detective noted that Atento had exceptionally tiny feet. Then the detective remembered that the footprints in the snow near Dr. Sims’ body were also notable for being tiny, “as small as a woman’s.” 

They questioned Atento, and he implicated Neville. Before long, both had confessed.