100 years ago in Spokane: Police investigate skull with bullet hole

Spokane police were attempting to solve a mystery: Whose skull ended up in a rubbish heap, and why did it have a bullet hole in the center of its forehead?

The gruesome discovery was made by some boys who were clearing away rubbish between two buildings on West College Avenue. Several other human bones were found nearby.

The skull and bones were found in a 2-foot space between two buildings that had been standing for “probably 30 years.”

Police were working on the assumption “the person had been murdered, the body thrown into the narrow space, and tin cans and other rubbish piled on top of it to cover up the crime.”

It could also have been a suicide. Police and the coroner were investigating, but they were hampered by the fact that the skull had clearly been there for many, many years.

From the presidential beat: Sen. Miles Poindexter of Spokane “electrified” a Republican throng at the national convention, according to Spokesman-Review correspondent J. Newton Colver.

Sen. Poindexter “received one of the most remarkable ovations of his career today from 400 members of the Hamilton Club” in a speech which closed on an anti-union note.

One Congressional leader stood up after Poindexter and the governor of Pennsylvania spoke, saying “the convention would make no mistake if it should select either of the two men we have heard here today.”

The Spokesman-Review continued to promote the idea of a Spokane presidential nominee , but the Spokane Daily Chronicle seemed more sober about Poindexter’s slim chances. The Chronicle’s convention story barely mentioned Poindexter at all .