100 years ago today in Spokane: Killer escapes from Medical Lake asylum

Five inmates of the Medical Lake insane asylum (as it was known in 1917) escaped through a hole in a fence — and one of those inmates was Chester Thompson, the slayer of Judge C. Meade Emory in Seattle 11 years before.

The inmates were exercising on the baseball field at the Medical Lake hospital. One of their number knocked a board off of the fence. He and the other men, sensing an opportunity, then disappeared through the gap.

Evidently, they were under only scant supervision at the time. The asylum attendants said that the “escape was due to the shortage of guards.” They said the institution was short by nine guards.

Thompson was clearly considered the most dangerous of the escapees.

More than a decade earlier, he become infatuated with Judge Emory’s niece, and he rushed into Judge Emory’s house and shot him dead. Then he barricaded himself in a room with the judge’s wife and children and threatened to kill them. Eventually, he surrendered, but was later acquitted by reason of insanity.

Deputies immediately “scoured the county.” One man was recaptured near Silver Lake, almost immediately. Another was recaptured at Deep Creek.

Thompson went to a farmhouse in search of water and told the farmer who he was. When the farmer telephoned for the guards, Thompson offered no resistance and “calmly awaited their arrival.”

He was returned to the hospital, but the two other escapees were still at large.