100 years ago in Spokane: A witness detailed how a certain type of glasses was supposed to help her deceive a jury

Beatrice Sant, star witness in the Maurice Codd perjury trial, testified that Codd’s attorneys coached her on what to say, what to wear and how to get sympathy from the jury.

“They told me to cry on the stand; that it would make a better impression on the jury,” she said. “… They told me to wear steel-rimmed spectacles that went back over my ears, a long coat and long skirts because my husband is a farmer and I ought to look like a farmer’s wife.”

The Spokesman-Review said that “speculation is rife as to how the defense expects to meet the Sant testimony when the time comes to put in its defense.” The paper surmised that the defense might put Bernadine (Bennie) Collins on the stand to contradict Sant. Sant was visiting Collins at the Granite Block when the lethal fight took place between Codd and Frank Brinton.

In a related story, the judge dismissed a contempt of court charge filed against the Spokesman-Review by one of Codd’s attorneys.

The attorney charged that the paper made it impossible to get a fair trial because it published an article detailing the history of the case.

The judge ruled that the article clearly attempted to avoid “anything which would prejudice a court or a jury in any way.”

From the police beat: A 72-year-old man ordered a coffin one day before he was found dead in his hotel room – with an empty bottle of poison lying next to him.

Not only had he ordered a coffin, but he had arranged for his funeral details and even asked the undertaker to prepare a will. The undertaker said the man told him he had a heart condition and didn’t know how much longer he would live.