100 years ago in Spokane: Swift and severe justice was delivered after the latest booze raid, and a county prosecutor candidate refused to condemn the KKK

Every deputy in the Spokane County sheriff’s office took part in a series of nighttime booze raids targeting 30 hotels, pool halls and “soft drink stands.” More than 40 suspects were in custody.

The roundup came at a time when booze was in especially high demand. The city’s hotels were full of visitors to the Interstate Fair.

The sheriff said he knew which places to target because of information gleaned from a series of arrests in Ferry County. He had obtained a list of the bootleggers’ biggest customers. He also had the assistance of a team of private detectives who had been quietly gathering evidence for weeks.

The prosecutor later filed charges against 31 of the 40 people arrested. Within 24 hours, two were sentenced to one-to-five years at the Monroe Reformatory. One of the men wept as the sentence was delivered. A number of the arrested men and women were repeat offenders.

From the Klan file: Frank H. Kinsell, a candidate for Spokane County prosecutor, denied that he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, but said he would not refuse an endorsement from the local chapter.

In a contentious interview with the Spokane Daily Chronicle a day earlier, Kinsell said he understood that the Klan “stands for the Constitution of the United States,” and “the purity of the home.” Kinsell said the Klan told him it stands “for Americanism in its highest and truest sense.”

“Would you advise me to refuse the endorsement of a body of men standing for the above principles, and, if so, which tenet or principle would you suggest should be eliminated?” he asked.

The other four candidates for county prosecutor all answered “yes” when asked if the Klan was un-American.