100 years ago in Spokane: Police investigate death at hotel

From our archives, 100 years ago

Police were puzzled over a mysterious death in the Pedicord Hotel.

A chambermaid entered to clean a room and found a dead man with a bullet in his right temple. An “automatic pistol of the latest English design” was lying nearby, with a cartridge discharged.

It appeared to be a suicide – but who was the man?

He – or somebody – had gone to great trouble to destroy all of the laundry marks on his clothing, which was a common way of identifying people in 1916. There was nothing in his pockets except $3.90 and a few matches.

He had registered as H.C. Warner of Lewiston, but apparently this had not yet given police any significant leads. He was dressed smartly, with “clothing of the finest texture,” a peacock-colored tie and a new fedora from a Seattle hat company.

The coroner was continuing his investigation.

From the war beat: The war of words continued between Spokane’s German-American community and residents of British descent.

A member of the German-American Verein in Spokane refuted a charge by an Episcopal rector that their organization was selling Iron Crosses and glorifying Hindenburg. Instead, they were a law-abiding social club that was merely trying to raise money for the Red Cross to help German victims of the war.

“If a break between the two nations (the U.S. and Germany) should come – we hope and pray it may not come – there would then be no collecting for the Red Cross, as such funds could not be forwarded anyhow.”