The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
34°F
Current Conditions
Broken clouds
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

This day in history: Maxey called prosecutor’s decision a ‘whitewash.’ Boys accused of stealing goose were jailed

Attorney Carl Maxey called the decision of Spokane County Prosecutor Donald Brockett not to charge Spokane police Officer John D. Moore in the fatal shooting of a Black teenager a “whitewash,” The Spokesman-Review reported on Dec. 16, 1975. (Spokesman-Review archives)
By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

From 1975: “Whitewash.”

That was the word Spokane civil rights attorney Carl Maxey used to describe Spokane County Prosecutor Donald Brockett’s decision not to charge Spokane police officer John D. Moore in the fatal shooting of Craig S. Jordan, 17.

“Brockett equates all white with all right,” said Maxey. “Everyone involved in this episode was white except the deceased – a 17-year-old unarmed black man, Craig Jordan.”

Brockett said that all available evidence “indicated that officer Moore thought Jordan was armed and was turning to shoot at Moore when the officer fired.”

From 1925: Three boys were in juvenile detention after they allegedly stole Marie Vetelson’s Christmas goose.

Three boys were arrested after they allegedly stole the Christmas goose from Marie Vetelson who lived in the Briggs apartment, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on Dec. 16, 1925. The newspaper also ran a picture of A.J. Davidson, general manager of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway, and Ralph Budd, president of the Great Northern Railway. The two railroad executives arrived for a meeting of railroad officials at the Great Northern Depot in Spokane. And a truck with a powerful magnet recently picked up 603 pounds of nails and other items potentially detrimental to tires from roads near Mullan, Idaho.  (Spokesman-Review archives)
Three boys were arrested after they allegedly stole the Christmas goose from Marie Vetelson who lived in the Briggs apartment, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on Dec. 16, 1925. The newspaper also ran a picture of A.J. Davidson, general manager of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway, and Ralph Budd, president of the Great Northern Railway. The two railroad executives arrived for a meeting of railroad officials at the Great Northern Depot in Spokane. And a truck with a powerful magnet recently picked up 603 pounds of nails and other items potentially detrimental to tires from roads near Mullan, Idaho.  (Spokesman-Review archives)

One of the boys had volunteered to carry the goose home to her from downtown. He put the goose in the basement of her apartment house.

But the next morning “Mr. Goose was gone,” reported the Chronicle.

Officers “pried in alleys and byways of the city, listening for the quacking of a stolen goose.”

“Their sleuthing ended with the arrest of one boy, who confessed that two others had assisted him in stealing the Vetelson Christmas dinner.”

Police recovered the goose.

The Chronicle claimed the escapade resembled the Mother Goose rhyme, “The pig got loose and stole a goose and the boy got put in the calaboose.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1773: Sons of Liberty protesters throw tea shipments into Boston Harbor to protest the British-imposed Tea Act and escalating taxation without representation in the British Parliament.