This day in history: Man accused of kidnapping, killing girl delivering Spokesman-Review arrested. Curbside gas pump ordered removed

From 1976: Spokane police arrested Thomas E. Mahrt, 28, for the abduction and murder of Nanette Marie Martin, 13.

Mahrt’s landlord called police with a tip about possible evidence he noticed when he went to Mahrt’s apartment to repair a broken window.

Detectives obtained a search warrant and found “a newspaper delivery bag, some April 3 newspapers, glasses, and some clothing which officers believe belonged to the girl.” She disappeared while delivering newspapers on her early morning route.

Mahrt was arrested on North Ruby Street as he drove away from his family’s nearby printing company.

He offered no resistance. No clear motive had yet been determined.

Fifty years later Mahrt remains in prison at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Aberdeen.

From 1926: The Spokane City Council ordered a few months’ grace period for removal of an estimated 100 curbside gasoline pumps in the city, but a Spokane judge was having none of it.

The judge ordered W.E. Cooper to immediately remove his sidewalk gasoline pump at Third Avenue and Browne Street. Curbside pumps had proliferated in Spokane, prompting the Spokane City Council to order them removed by the end of the year.

Yet Judge Huneke had no patience with that approach. If Cooper’s gas pump wasn’t removed by the following Monday, he instructed “the five city commissioners to appear” in his court and “show cause why they have not followed” his order.

Cooper’s gas pump wasn’t the only hazard on the curb. Three oil barrels were next to it.

The city estimated it would cost $250 to $500 to remove each pump.