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100 years ago in Spokane: Mrs. Corbin shared how her lover convinced her to burn her mansion down

 (Spokane Daily Chronicle archives)

Anna Corbin, widow of Spokane tycoon D.C. Corbin, told a courtroom that she wanted to give away her landmark home to a hospital organization “and work the rest of her life caring for the children of the Hutton Settlement.”

But her caretaker and lover, Louis Lilge, talked her out if it.

“He became very angry with me,” she told the jury. “… (He said that) if you go out there, people will think that you are trying to marry Mr. Hutton.”

Instead, Lilge told her, “We can burn the place and get plenty of money.”

She was appalled by the idea. She told him she would never burn the place “because of the disgrace that would be brought on me.” But she was running short of money and “worried sick” about how to maintain the place.

Lilge kept insisting that his plan would end her financial worries, and she admitted that “after talking a while, I thought he was right.”

Lilge was on trial for first degree arson, and Corbin was scheduled for trial on the same charge later in the month.

From the bank robbery beat: Two suspects were released from the Yakima County jail after authorities became convinced they were not the Addy State Bank robbers. Then three other men were arrested at a makeshift camp near Toppenish, but they too were released after questioning.

Yet there was one positive development in the case.

Jimmy Hyland, 29, an ex-con, was arrested at his room in downtown Spokane on suspicion of being the getaway driver. Mrs. Ostrum, the wife of the bank cashier, identified him without doubt as the driver of the auto in which she was held captive for hours by the robbers.

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