100 years ago in Spokane: Questions emerge about candidate’s bribery claim

Considerable mystery still surrounded the identity of Harry Phillips, who supposedly tried to bribe Spokane County prosecutor candidate Harry Cohn.

Cohn continued to enlarge on his claims that Phillips offered to fund his campaign if he would look the other way on liquor violations at various hotels and at the Spokane Country Club’s “19th Hole” (that is, the bar).

Cohn said Phillips informed him he was “making a damned fool of himself” in taking a tough line on Prohibition enforcement. Cohn would win easily if he would play along with Phillips and the “Wet interests.”

However, The Spokesman-Review noted a problem with Cohn’s story.

“‘Mr. Phillips has proved to be a most mysterious and elusive individual,” said the paper. “No one but Mr. Cohn seems to know him and he has failed to produce him in spite of repeated requests.”

An earlier Spokane Daily Chronicle story advanced the theory that Phillips was one and the same as a local gambler who had been arrested twice during gambling raids. The S-R was not buying that theory and neither were the other candidates for prosecutor. The fact remained that no Harry Phillips had surfaced at all throughout the entire controversy.

From the typo beat: The S-R, by the way, had an unfortunate headline in its story about Cohn. The paper was trying to say that Phillips “Also Offered Bribe.” But the headline said that Phillips “Also Offered Bride.”

From the serial killer beat: James F. “Bluebeard” Watson, the most notorious serial killer in Spokane’s history to that date, was in San Quentin serving a life sentence, but he managed to get into some trouble.

He was being sued by his own attorney. His attorney agreed to sell his memoirs to a publisher in exchange for part of the $15,000 advance fee. But then Watson “double-crossed” the attorney and refused to pay him.

The prison chaplain was also fired for his role in sending Watson’s manuscript out of the prison.