Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The body of Antone Warger, 66, a Spokane landscape gardener, was discovered May 13, 1912, washed up at Seven Mile Bridge on the Spokane River. Foul play was suspected.

Imagine the confusion, then, a week later when another body washed up at Long Lake on the river. In the corpse’s pockets were bank books and papers bearing the name “Antone Warger.”

The sheriff was scratching his head.

Police were investigating two theories. Maybe the man who murdered Warger stole his papers and later succumbed to his own injuries and fell in the river. Both bodies showed evidence of a struggle.

Or maybe a third man murdered the man who robbed and murdered Warger and later dumped him in the river.

There was, of course, a third possibility. Maybe the body already buried under a headstone labeled “Antone Warger” wasn’t Warger at all.

Police were looking into it.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1902: The United States ended a three-year military presence in Cuba as the Republic of Cuba was established under its first elected president. … 1927: Charles Lindbergh took off on his historic solo flight to France … 1959: Nearly 5,000 Japanese Americans had their U.S. citizenship restored after renouncing it during World War II.