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100 years ago in Spokane: ‘Never again with this moonshine stuff,’ a bootlegger vowed after his arrest
The Spokane police “dry squad” staged “a regular old-fashioned Kentucky moonshine raid.”
Although it wasn’t in Kentucky, of course. It was on Fairview Avenue in north Spokane.
In the dark hours of the night, three officers burst into the small shack occupied by Charles Quinette. Once inside, they saw two moonshine stills and two men running out the back door.
“With their revolvers, the police officers opened fire on the fleeing men,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle wrote. “They both halted.”
One man convinced officers “he was just there to get a drink,” and was released. The other was Quinette, who was taken to jail and brought to court the next morning.
“This will be a lesson to me,” Quinette told the court. “Never again with this moonshine stuff. I’m going to start my sentence and get it over with.”
His sentence was 90 days for manufacturing liquor.
From the oil-fever beat: The new oil rigs on the South Hill were bringing up some oil – but only traces.
The head of the newly formed Washington Consolidated Oil Co. tried to make the best of this news.
“This is encouraging,” he said, “but too much importance should not be given it.”
On this day
(From Associated Press)
1929: “Black Tuesday” descended upon the New York Stock Exchange. Prices collapsed amid panic selling and thousands of investors were wiped out as America triggered the Great Depression.