100 years ago in Spokane: Justice came for the ‘king of the Spokane dope peddlers’

Arthur Wilmering, the alleged “king of the Spokane dope peddlers,” was found guilty and sentenced to two years in the McNeil Island federal prison.

Several witnesses testified that they had purchased dope from him at the Atlantic Hotel.

He wasn’t the only one found guilty of narcotics charges in federal court that day. Six others were found guilty and sentenced to terms at either McNeil Island or the county jail.

From the divorce beat: Several intriguing details emerged in the divorce suit brought against the Rev. John F. Rice by Ethel Rice.

She produced letters written by him in which he told his wife that “I have not been true to God’s commandments, acting the way I have.”

She was trying to prove that he was not telling the truth about a tryst in a cabin with a neighbor woman.

Her attorneys also introduced evidence that the pastor had hired detectives to spy on his wife, and that they had perched on sawhorses outside her window to “see if her conduct was proper.”

The pastor admitted he hired detectives, but denied the sawhorse part.

From the transit beat: A “test ballot” – the 1920s version of an election poll – indicated that the controversial Spokane streetcar merger would easily win approval in the real election a week away.

The test ballot showed the measure winning by a 4 to 1 margin.

Also on this day

(From the Associated Press)

1521: Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan was killed by natives in the Philippines.