100 years ago in Spokane: Jury examining woman’s death grows suspicious of last man to see her alive

From our archive, 100 years ago

A coroner’s jury believed that Charles Keller held the key to solving the mystery of Mrs. Margaret Braun’s death at the Tourist Hotel in Spokane.

In fact, the jury issued a statement saying that, in their opinion, Keller “knows more about the woman’s death than he told on the stand, or to the police.”

Mrs. Braun (whose name the paper had previously spelled as Brown) was discovered on the floor of her room, apparently the victim of homicide. A towel had been wrapped around her feet and her room had been ransacked.

Keller was the only other occupant of the hotel – and the last one, by his own testimony, to see her alive.

At the inquest, Keller said that he had known Mrs. Braun for years, but had only lived in the hotel for a few days. He said he went there to “take care of the house and look after Mrs. Braun, who had been drinking heavily.” She told him she “was alone and sick and needed him about the house.” She was the Tourist Hotel’s landlady.

On Saturday night, after midnight, he went to a Riverside “noodle joint” and bought a carton of noodles. He took them up to her. After she ate some, she “began to act like she was very sick.” Twice he tried to put her on the bed, but “she began to thrash around and fell on the floor.”

He said he was afraid she would die, “and that I might be accused of her death.” So he left.

A police detective told the jury that Keller had changed his story three times.