This day in history: New Vietnamese refugees welcomed baby in Spokane. Safecracker found guilty in Paulsen Building burglaries

From 1975: A Spokane Chronicle reporter visited a Vietnamese refugee family and found that they had a new addition: Joseph August Nguyen, age 4 days.

“He left the (Holy Family) hospital Monday in a Christmas stocking and wearing a red cap,” the Chronicle wrote.

The family was sponsored by the St. Thomas More Catholic Church. The parents were both attending English classes several nights a week, and their older children were attending Audubon School.

The father said he was “imprisoned for a month by the North Vietnamese, but managed to escape and his family was one of the last evacuated.”

From 1925: Alleged ace safecracker Isadore Edelstein was unable to convince a Spokane jury that he was half a continent away when Spokane’s biggest-ever heist was committed at the Paulsen Building.

A jury found him guilty after a seven-day trial.

“I’m as innocent as a newborn babe,” Edelstein declared after the verdict was read. “Why should I suffer for the crime committed by someone else?”

He said that if he was such a “master mind” safecracker – who could break into all of the Paulsen safes and vaults – then why is it that he can’t even break himself out of his prison cell?

His attorney planned to move for a new trial. But the prosecutor planned to file a “habitual criminal charge” against him, based on convictions in three states.