The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper The Spokesman-Review
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883
Current Temperature
33°F
Current Conditions
Overcast clouds
View complete weather report

Color Scheme

Subscribe now

This day in history: Spokane police officer jumped in and out of out-of-control moving car in attempt to stop it. ‘Baby Spokane’ named

The Spokane Daily Chronicle announced on Feb. 3, 1926, that Kenneth Edward Moore, age 12 months, had been crowned “Baby Spokane – the most attractive baby in Spokane country,” or at least among the 483 babies who were entered into the contest. Four pictures of him adorned the front page. Kenneth was the youngest of four in his family and the son of the manager of the Bluebell Dairy. The newspaper also reported that Spokane’s federal district attorney launched abatement proceedings for two notorious booze dens, the Garni Hotel and the Inland Club. (Spokesman-Review archives)
By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

From 1976: It looked like a scene dreamed up by a movie stuntman, but the incident on Second Avenue downtown was a genuine – and terrifying – accident .

Police arrived in the 1100 block to find a car smashed through the window of an auto parts store, the driver thrown onto the pavement – and the driverless car spinning around Second Avenue in circles backward, “as fast as it could go.”

Spokane police arrived in the west 1100 block to find a car smashed through the window of an auto parts store, the driver thrown onto the pavement – and the driverless car spinning around Second Avenue in circles backward, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on Feb. 3, 1926.
Spokane police arrived in the west 1100 block to find a car smashed through the window of an auto parts store, the driver thrown onto the pavement – and the driverless car spinning around Second Avenue in circles backward, the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported on Feb. 3, 1926.

While one officer tended to the injured driver, Officer John L. Sullivan tried to stop the car, which was careening just inside Second Avenue’s curb lines.

“The door of the car had been ripped open, so I managed to get into the car,” said Sullivan. “I tried the brakes – but they didn’t work. I tried moving the gear shift lever, but it was jammed in reverse, I tried to shut off the ignition key, but it wouldn’t budge. And there we were, going around in circles. We came so close to the injured driver that (officer Roger D.) Bragdon had to pull him out of the way.”

(Bragdon would go on to serve as the police chief from 1999 to 2005).

Sullivan tried one last ploy – jerking out the ignition wires, That didn’t work either. By now the car had mowed down several signs and parking meters, so Sullivan jumped out.

Police finally stopped the car by maneuvering “a police paddy wagon, equipped with a big push bar on the front, in the path of the circling car.”

The driver was rushed to Deaconess Hospital with fractures and internal injuries.

From 1926: Spokane’s federal district attorney launched abatement proceedings for two notorious booze dens, the Garni Hotel at 238 W. Main and the Inland Club at 40 E. Trent.

The government was petitioning for both buildings to be closed to all use for at least a year.

Both had been recently raided and the government charged that they had been routinely selling intoxicating liquor.

In other news, the Spokane Chronicle announced that Kenneth Edward Moore, age 12 months, had been crowned “ ‘Baby Spokane’ – the most attractive baby in Spokane county.”

This was the culmination of a contest run by the Chronicle, in which 483 babies had been entered,

One judge, a doctor, gushed that little Kenneth was “one of the finest looking babies I have ever seen.”