100 years ago: Man attempts to kidnap silent film actress from Spokane

Miss Corienne Kern, a silent movie actress from Spokane, was attacked by an unknown man at her Los Angeles home. His intention, police believed, was to kidnap her, but he was frightened away before he could carry out his scheme.

Miss Kern said she was sitting alone in her house while her aunt went to the grocery store. She was arranging her hair when she heard someone come through the door.

“I heard a quick step behind me and a hand was placed over my mouth,” she said. “Almost instantly, a towel was thrown over my head and drawn tight.”

She lost consciousness. He was frightened away, presumably by her aunt, and fled in a car that had been parked in front of the house. Miss Kern was found with the towel knotted tightly around her head and face.

Police believed the assailant was someone who had “become enamored of her charms as depicted on the motion picture screen.” They were staking out motion picture houses in Los Angeles that were showing films in which Miss Kern appeared.

From the tragedy file: A Spokane mother sent her 2-year-old daughter and a 3-year-old neighbor boy into the backyard to “make mud pies.” Moments later, she heard a shot. The boy ran in, crying that he had shot his playmate. The little girl died instantly.

Neither the boy nor the parents could explain how he came into possession of a .38-caliber revolver.