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100 years ago in Spokane: Speaker warned residents that movies can ‘breed more criminals than people realize’
Crime should “never be portrayed in moving pictures,” declared William A. Pinkerton, head of the National Pinkerton Detective Agency, while on a visit to Spokane.
“I am a movie fan, but there is lots of good material for clean, wholesome pictures without drawing on the underworld for sensational stories,” he said. “Too often, boys seeing a movie bank robbery or holdup think such a stunt easy and attempt it to their ultimate sorrow. Such pictures breed more criminals than people realize.”
From the missing persons beat: Elliott Michener, the missing 14-year-old (sometimes identified as a 15-year-old) who embezzled $4,300 from his Philadelphia employer, was found and arrested.
As it turned out, he had not embezzled the money in order to afford a trip to see his dying father in a Spokane hospital, as his mother had speculated.
He was arrested in New York, where he was apparently having a high old time with his cash. He had already spent $700 and police found the remaining $3,600 in his suitcase.
He did not sound particularly contrite when arrested.
“I just drew a couple years salary in advance,” he told New York authorities. “Who wouldn’t? I was getting $8 a week as an office boy. They handed me $4,300.”
His father, by the way, seemed to be recovering from his mysterious gunshot wound after an operation to remove his right eye. Authorities in Coeur d’Alene, where he was shot while sleeping, had no suspects.