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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A young Italian named Pasquale Pancrazio was boarding with the Guandagnolo family in Hillyard when he fell in love with Jessie Guadagnolo, 13.

Her father, Tony Guandagnolo, found out that the two were planning to elope via “a rumor current in the local Italian colony.” So he ordered young Pasquale out of his house.

A few days afterward, Jessie left the house with her mother’s permission, ostensibly to visit a girlfriend. She did not return. She was with Pasquale.

A few days later, a friend of Pasquale approached the Guandagnolo family and opened negotiations “to win the father’s consent to the marriage.” Tony Guandagnolo seemed conciliatory and said, “Why should I not give my consent, that she (her mother) may see her daughter again?”

The father and Pasquale met over “several social drinks,” after which Pasquale took him to a house in Hillyard where young Jessie was hiding. She was not willing to come home with her father, so her father made arrangements to meet Pasquale again the next morning, ostensibly to discuss marriage arrangements.

But that’s not actually what Guandagnolo had in mind. He brought the Hillyard city marshal with him and had Pasquale arrested for kidnapping.

Jessie, meanwhile, was taken to the juvenile detention center.