100 years ago in Spokane: Heavy snow collapses hangar roof, destroys 4 airplanes

Spokane’s brutal winter claimed more victims – four airplanes.

Heavy snow caused the roof of the United States Aircraft hangar at Parkwater to collapse, crushing the planes and destroying the building.

“The planes were smashed flat,” said the company’s president.

He vowed to replace the planes and build new hangars.

From the court beat: Prosecutors sharply questioned Fred Botts, one of the defendants in the Maurice Codd subornation of perjury trial. He admitted that he took the state’s star witness, Beatrice Sant, to a dance hall, and that he asked another witness to go to a show with him.

When asked his purpose in doing that, Botts replied, “I just wanted to take her to a show.” He denied trying to pump them for information about their testimony in the Maurice Codd murder trial.

Botts occupied a curious position in the entire affair. He was employed as a detective by Codd’s defense team – but he was also the son of Edwin T. Botts, one of the Codd murder trial jurors.

Readers who have followed this tangled saga might recall that Edwin T. Botts was the juror who died just days after delivering the not-guilty verdict –and that his son speculated that he had poisoned himself.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1843: Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” is published, and 6,000 copies are sold.

1950: Chinese invasion of Tibet forces the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to flee Lhasa for Yadong on the Tibetan-India border.