100 years ago in Spokane: The South Hill oil frenzy was back, just as the Maurice Codd saga was likely to finally end

Despite years of fraudulent reports and dashed hopes, Spokane still had dreams that it was sitting atop a rich oil field.

The Spokane Daily Chronicle ran a front page story claiming that “two tubs of black crude oil” had come out of an exploratory well on Southeast Boulevard.

The oil, said a geologist with the Eastern Washington Oil Co., is the same “found in the wells of Texas.” He said he was confident that there would soon be “a good flow of oil.”

The Chronicle reported that “considerable excitement prevailed” among local stockholders of the company.

As in Spokane’s previous episodes of oil fever, this would come to nothing.

From the court beat: Beatrice Sant pleaded guilty to committing perjury in the Maurice Codd murder trial and was sentenced to two-to-15 years in the state penitentiary.

However, because of a plea bargain, her sentence was suspended and she walked free.

The judge told her he was going to give her “another chance” because of the recommendations by her attorney and the prosecutors. She had apparently been offered this deal when she agreed to turn state’s evidence. She became the star witness in the ensuing subornation of perjury trial.

This marked the likely end of the long-running legal drama that began when Codd was arrested for allegedly throwing Frank Brinton to his death over a railing.

Sant was planning to move to Montana with her husband.