100 years ago in Spokane: Women’s auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan appear publicly, contribute to unwed mothers home

A shocking sight materialized on the streets of downtown Spokane: a group of six women “clad in white robes and hoods.”

They were the Spokane Ladies of the Invisible Empire, the women’s auxiliary of the Ku Klux Klan. The Spokane Daily Chronicle said it was “their first public appearance in Spokane’s business district.”

The hooded women arrived in the Hutton Building and walked into the offices of the fundraising campaign for the Florence Crittenton Home (for unwed mothers). There, they “made a substantial subscription to the campaign.”

The head of the campaign said “they wore hoods which did not hide their faces.” A “flaming red cross” adorned their white robes.

From the robbery gang file: Two small boys named Jack Estes and Bud Hall uncovered an interstate bank robbery gang.

The boys were playing underneath a Moscow, Idaho, warehouse when they saw some men stash what looked like explosives in a hiding place under the warehouse.

The boys waited until the coast was clear and then ran and notified authorities. Police found fuses, blasting caps and about 6 ounces of nitroglycerine. Police then picked up the men on the streets of Moscow and turned them over to federal authorities.

They believed that the men were responsible for the recent bank robbery in Mabton and also “a large number of robberies and safecracking jobs” elsewhere in Washington and Idaho.