Jim Kershner’s this day in history

Sat., May 26, 2012

By Jim Kershner jimkershner@comcast.net

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Case of the Missing Lawyer was getting even more mysterious.

Attorney J.C. Howe had gone off to work earlier in the week and had never returned home. His distraught wife was certain that he had met with foul play. Police were scouring Spokane.

However, after the story appeared in the paper, she received a phone call. An unidentified voice said that she need not fear, that Howe was alive and well and would return home soon. Then the caller hung up.

Mrs. Howe and the police were still trying to determine if it was a prank call or whether the caller actually knew where Howe was.

Police were still pursuing the theory that Howe might have met a violent end. But they were also pursuing another bizarre possibility: “That he may have been kidnapped by some of his friends and taken away for a few days.”

What evidence they had was not clear.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1521: Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms because of his religious beliefs and writings. … 1952: Representatives of the United States, Britain, France and West Germany signed the Bonn Convention ending the Allied occupation of West Germany. … 1972: President Richard M. Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

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