This day in history: Wanted disbarred attorney found in Alaska, pleads guilty to grand larceny. Mystery of fair safe cracker who stole $18k remains unsolved

From 1976: A disbarred Spokane attorney – who had been sought by the FBI for more than six years – pleaded guilty to grand larceny for misappropriating clients’ money.

Prosecutors said Walter F. Pool, 53, had misappropriated money from at least 13 of his real estate clients.

He had first been charged with misappropriating funds in 1968, at which point he fled the state and disappeared. He was disbarred in absentia in 1970 for the same charges.

FBI agents finally found him in Anchorage, Alaska – under the name Paul Frank Walters – where he was working as a maintenance man. He was extradited to Spokane.

Pool had been, in his younger days, a Spokane police officer.

From 1926: A trial began over what might be called the Mysterious Case of the Interstate Fair Safecrackers.

Two years earlier, someone sneaked into the interstate fair’s office, drilled a hole in the safe and made off with $18,000.

Nobody was arrested in the theft. Police were at a loss to explain how someone could sneak in and open a safe by force without attracting the attention of the guards and night watchmen.

The Interstate Fair Association was suing a Maryland bank and insurance company for restitution of the funds. The insurance company said it would not pay up until it was convinced it wasn’t “an inside job.”

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1349: By this date, at least 200 people a day were being buried in London as a result of the Black Death.

1653: the city of New Amsterdam is established. It is later renamed New York City.