100 years ago in Spokane: Responding to aliases and disguises, police opt to fingerprint arrested women

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane police were using a relatively new technology – fingerprinting – to identify “every woman, white or colored, arrested by police during the last three months.”

The issue, said police, is that some of these women, many arrested for prostitution, not only habitually changed their names, but also their appearance. They “use all manner of wigs to prevent identification.”

Some even resorted to using hair from part of a “hair mattress” to effect a disguise. So not only were these women fingerprinted, they were also photographed “without their adornment.”

From the court beat: Two neighbor women ended up in court when their longtime spat turned vulgar and racially insulting.

One woman called her “colored” neighbor a “black-faced (n-word).” The other responded by calling her neighbor “white trash” and an “old white Irish watchdog.”

This ongoing dispute apparently escalated when one woman accused the other of throwing rocks and wood at her across their shared alley. Then one woman turned a hose on the other, which caused her red sweater to fade. Both women allegedly threatened to shoot each other. One said the other used such vile language that “she vomited.”

The judge “observed strict neutrality,” lectured both of them to “quit their cross-alley hostilities” and sent them home.