100 years ago in Spokane: Juror intentionally deadlocks liquor procurement case 11-1

From our archive, 100 years ago

It took only one juror, Mrs. G.A. Clark, to hopelessly deadlock the jury in the J.G. Simpson liquor procurement case.

The other 11 jurors were adamantly in favor of conviction, but she refused to change her vote – or even to explain why. A fellow juror said she just sat back and said “it was her business.”

She later said she wanted “to hand the prosecutor’s office a lemon.”

Simpson was charged with running a liquor permit operation from the Spokane Hotel, in which he brought in liquor from out of state.

The jury was dismissed by the judge after it became clear that Clark would never change her vote. The prosecutor announced his intention to retry the case.

From the wheat beat: Spirits were soaring in the Inland Northwest – because that’s what wheat prices were doing.

Wheat prices were breaking all-time records, with Red Russian wheat hitting $1.43 a bushel, and one quote for a prize lot coming in at $1.48 a bushel.

These prices were nothing less than “sensational,” and “grain men estimate that fully four-fifths of the crop has been sold” and the holders of the remaining 20 percent were in no hurry to sell on a rising market.

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(From the Associated Press)

1940: Italy invaded Greece during World War II.