Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Miss Jennie Grey, of Yreka, California, was robbed of cash and diamonds worth $950 by a scoundrel named Ray Heasley, who promptly left town.

But Miss Grey was not about to let Heasley off the hook. She took off on a search for Heasley, through California, Nevada and Idaho.

Finally, she received a tip that Heasley was in Spokane.

She contacted the sheriff in Yreka, who contacted Spokane police. They searched for Heasley, to no avail. So Miss Grey took matters into her own hands. She came to town and scoured the city in company with various police officers, but still came up empty.

However, Miss Grey found out that Heasley had recently departed for Seattle. So she hopped on a train and followed him there.

She spotted him in a Seattle restaurant, put a heavy veil over her face and went in. There, she “carried on a flirtation” with him and asked him to accompany her home. He agreed.

Yet instead of leading him home, she led him toward a policeman, raised her veil, revealed her true identity and charged him with theft. Seattle police were holding him on a warrant from California.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1916: Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.