100 years ago in Medical Lake: Five men kidnap driver and rob bank – but get caught by posse

Five gun-toting bank robbers held up the First National Bank of Medical Lake – but they were captured by a posse less than two hours later.

The posse was keeping watch on the Seven Mile bridge when the bandits approached. One robber drew his gun, but didn’t fire it before surrendering. All five were taken into custody without incident.

They were suspected of being the gang that held up the employees of the bank that morning. One man walked into the bank and asked to see the director. When the director came out of his office, he was confronted by four men, all of them brandishing guns.

They ordered the employees to put their hands up and grabbed money from the cashier’s drawer and from the vault.

Then they raced back to their getaway car and sped off.

After the bandits were captured, police looked in the getaway car and found Joseph DeBall, the car’s owner, tied up in the back. The robbers had commandeered DeBall’s car before the robbery, bound and gagged him, and left him in the car during the robbery.

From the opera beat: A large crowd gathered at the American Theater in Spokane to see the traveling San Carlo Grand Opera Company perform Verdi’s “Aida.”

The cast “won the admiration and devotion of Spokane’s music lovers,” the Chronicle’s reviewer said. The company planned to perform Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly” the next night.