100 years ago in Spokane: Police search for inmates, including “gentleman burglar,” who escaped jail

The Spokane Daily Chronicle ran front-page mug shots of all four of the inmates who escaped from the Spokane County Jail two days earlier, including Jerome Kirk, described as “the gentleman burglar who entertained Mr. and Mrs. Fred Skadan at the point of his gun for five hours.”

Kirk sneaked into the back door of the their home while trying to elude police. After five hours he forced Skadan to drive him to the city’s outskirts, where he jumped out of the car and fled into the night.

Police were still searching for him and the others, but so far in vain.

Kirk had pleaded guilty to a burglary at the Corbin residence and a number of other burglaries, and was awaiting a move to the state prison at Walla Walla. He told the Skadans that he had once served five years in Walla Walla and that if he went back they would kill him, because one of the guards “had it in for him.”

Police were offering a reward for the capture of Kirk or any of the other three escapees, but so far police had scant leads.

From the museum beat: The Eastern Washington Historical Society announced plans to raise funds for a municipal museum.

“If plans are successful, the municipal museum will have a building of its own, constructed to permit additions from time to time,” said the Chronicle.

“A small building site is a mistake,” said the secretary of the society. “We must get a site large enough to permit us to make a building which will meet the needs of the museum as it grows larger.”

One member of the society said, “If we can not make definite plans and put a museum on its feet now, we might as well close up at once.”