100 years ago in Spokane: 2 of suspected bank robber’s 25 wives follow his case

Two Spokane women were particularly interested in the police investigation of Charles Newton Harvey, alias “Bluebeard” Huirt, for attempted bank robbery in Los Angeles.

They were two of his estimated 25 wives.

Kathryn Wombacher, a Spokane dressmaker, was apparently his most recent wife, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported. She married him a year before when he was using another alias, and she was living with him in California at the time of his arrest.

Elizabeth Williamson of Spokane had married him a few months before – when he was using another alias. She joined him in Sacramento, until he deserted her, stole her money and moved in with Wombacher in Southern California.

Wombacher set in motion the arrest of “Bluebeard.” She became suspicious of his absences from their Hollywood home, and hired private detectives to investigate. The detectives discovered evidence that he might have been involved in an attempted bank robbery.

When her husband telegraphed her and said he was coming home on a certain day, she notified police. When he showed up, police were waiting and they arrested him. He “put up a fight” when arrested, she said.

Wombacher, in a statement to L.A. police, said that he was “always a gentleman to me, and intellectually bright.” However, he left their California home for weeks at a time, and refused to give her any money, which made her angry.

Police were also looking into a possible marriage to a third Spokane woman, Bertha Goodnich, whom “Bluebeard” may have married in June 1919 in Yakima. Ominously, Goodnich was missing, and police were investigating the possibility that a body found in Martinez, California, was actually Goodnich.