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100 years ago in Spokane: The mothers of a missing woman and her husband had wildly different views on what must have happened

The mothers of the late Mary Fett and the late Charles Fett delivered markedly different messages to reporters while police continued to search the Spokane River for Mary Fett’s body.
Her mother said, “How can I believe other than that he killed my daughter?”
His mother said, “He shot himself because of grief over her suicide. He would never do what the police say he did.”
What police said he did was murder his wife and dispose of her body in the Spokane River. The next day he shot himself when police arrived at his home to question him.
“Would he have done that if he was not guilty?” Mary Fett’s mother asked.
From the vaudeville beat: Heavyweight champ Jack Dempsey’s vaudeville show at the Pantages Theater was “a clever intermingling of burlesque and science that brings roars of laughter as well as the admiration of the ring fan.”
After some clowning, the main part of the show consisted of Dempsey in a three-round sparring match. He was introduced while “clad in a maroon suit of full-length tights, with the American flag around his waist.”
Also on this date
(From the Associated Press)
1973: “The Godfather” won the Academy Award for best picture of 1972, but its star, Marlon Brando, refused to accept his Oscar for best actor. Liza Minnelli won best actress for “Cabaret.”
1995: “Forrest Gump” won six Academy Awards, including best picture and a second consecutive best actor Oscar for Tom Hanks.