100 years ago in Spokane: County deputy denies his bullet killed teen car thief

A stolen auto, a drunken booze party in Colbert, and, in the end, a mystery: Who shot and killed Gordon 19-year-old Coldeen?

Coldeen and Glen Stafford were out late that evening at a Spokane pool hall. When they found no streetcars available, they had a bright idea: Steal an auto.

They found one near the Davenport Hotel with the keys in the ignition. They decided to make a run up to Colbert, where they heard about a dance hall that was well-supplied with booze and girls.

Deputies, however, had also heard about the dance hall. They were waiting on a road near Colbert and arresting drunken drivers and drunken passengers leaving the hall.

Deputies already had arrested four young men and two young women, and were preparing to arrest two more, when a speeding roadster zipped by.

It was Stafford at the wheel of the stolen car, with Coldeen in the passenger seat.

Deputies jumped in their car and gave chase. Deputy J.S. Bradley fired two shots at the tires, and the auto skidded to halt.

When deputies approached the car, Coldeen was dead with bullet in the back of his skull. Stafford said that the sheriff’s bullets must have killed Coldeen, because “he was all right until then.”

However, Bradley insisted that he fired only two shots, and that each one penetrated a different tire. His revolver showed only two bullets missing.

A coroner was attempting to determine if one of the bullets ricocheted after hitting a tire, or whether Coldeen was killed by a direct shot from Bradley’s revolver, or if someone else had fired a shot which killed Coldeen.

From the pioneer beat: Eugene B. Hyde, Spokane’s first town marshall and early developer, died in Los Angeles at the age of 68. His body was scheduled to be taken back to Spokane for burial.