100 years ago in Spokane: Four men arrested in string of Spokane burglaries

Police believed that they had solved “more than a score” of Spokane burglaries, after arresting four men and recovering $5,000 in loot.

“Full confessions” had been obtained from three of the four, police said.

The case was solved in an unlikely fashion. F.O. Hattel was arrested for a “statutory crime” against his 14-year-old stepdaughter, and after his arrest police discovered stolen property in his home. He was sentenced to 15 years on the statutory charge, and he admitted to the burglary charges.

He apparently named his accomplices, because the other three men were arrested shortly afterward. Among the stolen items recovered were a piano stolen from a church and a phonograph and carpet stolen from the Marshall school.

From the justice beat: The scandal involving the Maurice P. Codd murder trial kept expanding.

Now, officials from the Washington State Bar were examining reports that Codd’s attorneys were involved in attempts to bribe witnesses.

From the kidnapping beat: Myrtle Olson, 14, was kidnapped from her Spokane home by a woman believed to be a sister of the girl’s father.

The girl was playing outside when a woman drove up in a taxi and “induced her to enter the machine.”

Authorities caught up with them on an eastbound Milwaukee Road train at Three Forks, Montana. The woman was taken back to Spokane on a kidnapping charge, and the girl was apparently returned home.

“It is said the sister had often expressed a desire to have the child to care for,” said the Spokane Daily Chronicle.