100 years ago in Spokane: A man who made a name for himself painting Kewpie dolls shifted to a much less innocent artform

Sonny Gordon, 20, had shown a marked artistic talent for painting Kewpie dolls for carnival booths.

When his money ran low, he decided to put his artistic skills to work on a shadier project: making counterfeit bills.

It took him only a half day’s work to produce three creditable $5 bills. When he showed them to his pals, Sylvester (Curly) Sullivan, 26, N.G. Goggins, a cowboy, and Joseph DeFreece, a sheepherder, they convinced him to up his game.

“If $5 bills were good, $20 bills were better,” they decided.

“The quartet then decided that currency offered little play for true genius, and thought $100 Liberty bonds better.”

Unfortunately, Gordon’s artistic skills were not quite as good as the quartet hoped. Most of the attempts to pass the bills failed, and federal agents were soon alerted. The three accomplices were arrested and confessed.

When agents showed up to arrest Gordon, his girlfriend, Zoe Standish, refused to talk at first.

“You might as well come clean,” Gordon told her. “Curly fell like a brick wall and the sheepherder blabbed.”

All four were held on federal charges.

From the accident beat: Two women were injured when a jitney ran into their horse-drawn sleigh in North Spokane. The sleigh was knocked clean out from under the two women, who fell into the road.

Both women were rushed to the hospital, but their injuries were not considered serious.

The jitney driver said the sleigh had no lights and he never saw it. The horse ran away after the accident and had not been found.