Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

All through the night, deputies had tracked a mysterious tramp who shot and killed logger George Archer near Harrison, Idaho. They discovered that the man and a companion had broken into a cabin and stolen some provisions. Then they tracked them up the St. Joe River to a wooded thicket about 5 miles from St. Maries.

The officers pursued them into the trees. Suddenly, they saw two men lying on the ground, brandishing weapons. The deputies yelled for them to put up their hands. Both men opened fire and one made a dash for a tree. Deputies returned fire and shot one of the men, hitting him in the leg. The other man soon surrendered and was handcuffed.

The wounded man bled to death, but not before he denied any involvement in the shooting of Archer. The other man, identified as S.S. Burke of Rockford, was arrested and taken into custody. He claimed that he knew nothing about his dead pal, except his name was “Bob.”

From the murder beat: Robert Miller, described as a “Negro chauffeur,” age 25, was found murdered in his bed above the Spokane garage where he worked. He was employed by the Charles Jackson family, and Mrs. Jackson began to worry that she had not seen him for two days. They checked his room and found him dead with a bullet hole in his forehead. The room had been ransacked and his money was missing.

His sweetheart, Daisy Campbell, said he was a cheerful man with no enemies.