100 years ago in Spokane: Cheers erupted in the courtroom as a beloved fraud defendant was acquitted

The acquittal of Jay Hough in a sensational financial fraud case was wildly popular in Spokane.

The Spokesman-Review reported the next day that “a cheer went up from the spectators” when the words “not guilty” were pronounced. The bailiff tried in vain to restore order.

The cheer was renewed when Hough embraced his mother-in-law and his wife.

“For more than a half-hour after court adjourned, the courtroom was like a reception hall,” the paper wrote. “… The crowd declined to leave the room. Spectators jumped over the rail surrounding the attorney’s table to grasp the hand of Hough.”

Hough was acquitted largely because of testimony that showed he was bullied and threatened by his senior partner, John Milholland, into participating in a scheme to defraud an Idaho mining man of nearly $400,000. Hough turned himself in to authorities when the scheme collapsed, but Milholland committed suicide when police arrived at his home to arrest him.

From the opera beat: The San Carlo Grand Opera Company performed “Carmen” at the Auditorium Theater, and the Chronicle’s critic praised it for “acting of a high class.”

The critic also cited the “chorus work of more than ordinary excellence.”

However, this critic was not completely won over. He sniffed that the international cast “could not be classed among the most capable that Spokane has ever seen.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1994: The Church of England ordained its first women priests.