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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

100 years ago today in Spokane: Sheriff busts Montana bootleggers

From the April 11, 1918 Spokesman-Review. (S-R / S-RThe Spokesman-Review archive)

The Spokane County sheriff stopped an auto in Mead, driven by a local building contractor. The sheriff had been tipped off that the auto was bringing in some contraband from Montana.

The driver looked into the sheriff’s car and exclaimed, “(That’s) the sheriff and his men in a Hudson. I am afraid it is ‘goodnight.’ ”

Then he gunned his powerful Willys-Knight auto and raced away into the night.

The sheriff’s car took a moment to get turned around and then “followed the dust” of the other car. The sheriff caught up with the car at Dartford.

The car turned sharply into the woods and skidded to a stop. Then the driver leaped out and dived into the brush. Two passengers, a man and a woman, were desperately trying to throw items out of the car when the sheriff arrived. As soon as they saw the officers, they dived into the brush, too.

Why? Because the car was loaded with 266 pints of whiskey, 16 quart bottles of whiskey, three quarts of port wine and assorted bottles of brandy and beer.

All three were arrested and charged with bootlegging.

From the dog beat: Several members of the North Central High School band were marching in a Liberty Loan parade, when a “thoroughbred Yankee bull pup” ran out of a yard and attacked the drummers. Two boys were bitten badly enough that they were unable to go to school the next day.