This day in history: Teen escaped before having to testify against his mom. Hunters shot 3 cougars in Stevens County

From 1975: A Spokane judge presiding over a grand larceny case declared a mistrial for an unusual reason: A witness escaped from custody on the way to the courtroom.

The witness was a 16-year-old boy, whose 34-year-old mother was on trial. He was being held in the juvenile detention center for the same theft for which his mother was arrested.

A deputy was escorting the boy to the courtroom when the deputy turned his back for a moment. When the deputy turned back around, the boy was gone.

Prosecutors had expected the boy to testify that his mother “encouraged her children to steal and bring the stolen property to her.”

From 1925: A front page photo in the Spokane Daily Chronicle showed three hunters next to three cougars, which they had shot “in less than a day of hunting in Stevens County.”

Two men from Northport and one from Seattle “were proudly displaying their prowess.” They would receive about $250 for the “meat, the hides and the bounties.”

The Chronicle described this as “not a bad day’s wage for three men and two dogs.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1717: English pirate Blackbeard ransacks the merchant sloop “Margaret” and keeps her captain, Henry Bostock, prisoner for eight hours before releasing him. Bostock later provides the first record of Blackbeard’s appearance and the source for his name

1848: U.S. President James K. Polk triggers the Gold Rush of 1849 by confirming a discovery of the mineral in California.

1792: George Washington re-elected president of the United States.