100 years ago in Spokane: There were audible objections at one of the high-profile manslaughter suspect’s defense claims

W.J. Van Skike testified on his own behalf in his sensational trial for manslaughter.

“When the deputy sheriffs came to my home and began accusing me of having run over a woman having ‘drug’ her for 13 blocks, they liked to knock me dead,” said the defiant Van Skike. “But I stood right up and looked Deputy Sheriff Hedger in the eye and told him it wasn’t the truth.”

At headquarters, he later had a run-in with a city policeman.

“Policeman Dan Phelan told me I ought to be hung,” Van Skike said. “I told him it was none of his business.”

Van Skike said he later became scared “because I had heard of frame-ups and I understood what the methods of the police are.”

He admitted to lying to police but claimed he was not obliged to tell the truth because they had no warrant.

The courtroom was filled to capacity. The crowd reacted loudly to Van Skike’s assertion it takes his car a quarter-mile to slow from 40 mph to 20 because it is so big and heavy. The judge threatened to clear the room.

From the bank robbery beat: Two men were in custody as suspects in the armed robbery of the Spokane State Bank a week earlier.

Frank Hall, alias Murray, and Frank Kelley were arrested on a downtown corner after a detective believed that they matched the description of the robbers. A witness to the robbery later positively identified Kelley.

Kelley had previously served time in California’s Folsom State Prison for robbery, and he also had been arrested for burglary in Seattle.

“Questioning of both prisoners has resulted in getting no information from them,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle wrote. “Both are old hands at the criminal game, it is said.”