100 years ago in Spokane: The star witness against Maurice Codd admitted to ‘improper living,’ but things still weren’t looking good for the defense

Beatrice Sant, 22, star witness in the Maurice Codd subornation of perjury trial, finally left the stand after six grueling days, “her main story still intact.”

Her story was, in essence, that she was bribed by Codd’s attorneys to lie on the witness stand during Codd’s murder trial, and that she never even saw the fatal fight between Codd and Frank Brinton.

Her subsequent confession resulted in perjury and subornation of perjury charges against 15 people, all associated with Codd’s defense.

The defense tried to get her to recant her confession, without success. The defense also tried to get her to admit she changed her testimony through “fear of the Ku Klux Klan,” also without success. She said it was her mother who convinced her to confess.

The defense also tried to paint her as an immoral woman, with some success. She admitted to “improper living.”

From the weather beat: Spokane had the heaviest single-day December snowfall in 16 years – 3.7 inches.

Wet snow covered the streetcar tracks and froze some of the switches. It also caused a few power poles to collapse.

Also this day

(From onthisday.com)

1847: Frederick Douglass publishes first issue of his newspaper “North Star.”

1946: U.S. government asks UN to order dictator Francisco Franco out of Spain.

1989: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and U.S. President George H.W. Bush declare the Cold War over.