Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Thomas (Red) Laird, 20, of Spangle, was so overcome with remorse that he summoned police to his rooming house in Portland and confessed to armed robbery.

He told police that he and two other masked men entered a Spangle mercantile store, held customers and clerks at gunpoint, fired three shots into the air, and left with a bag of loot. 

They escaped on horses and rode 3 miles out of town. There, they heard an auto approaching. They held up the driver and made him drive them 50 miles before they turned him loose.

Laird said he was confessing because his “conscience was stricken” that he might have killed someone. However, there were other possible reasons he came forward. First, he said one of the customers identified him and said, “It’s Red and Brownie!” 

Also, his mother, who was with him in Portland, apparently encouraged him to come clean.

From the school beat: The Spokane school superintendent said local schools were preparing to comply with a new state law requiring a U.S. flag to be displayed every day.

In addition, at least once a week, each student would be required to repeat a pledge, printed as follows: “I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands. One nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice to all.”