This day in history: More than 100 skiers stranded on Mount Spokane chairlift; Alleged master safecracker accused of Paulsen Building heist pleads not guilty to charge of ‘habitual criminal’

From 1976: A chairlift at the Snowblaze Resort on Mount Spokane broke down and stranded more than 100 skiers in midair.

It took an hour to evacuate all of the skiers. About half had to be “lowered to the ground from their chairs with ropes.” The rest were able to get off the chairs at the off-ramp when crews managed to repair the lift enough to go into “slow operation.”

No one was injured. It was the second breakdown at Snowblaze over the winter.

From 1926: Isadore (Izzy) Edelstein – alleged master safecracker – pleaded not guilty on a charge to being a “habitual criminal,” a charge that carried a possible life sentence.

He had been convicted of burglary several times and had recently been convicted of committing the massive Paulsen Building heist, in which he had supposedly netted $25,000.

Edelstein “scoffed at the idea.”

“If I had $25,000, I would be a millionaire,” Edelstein wrote in a letter he provided to reporters. “… The ones that accuse me of robbing the Paulsen building vaults are liars. When I was in Spokane shortly before the robbery, Detective Foster told me the next big job there would be tacked on to me.”

He said he wasn’t anywhere near Spokane when the heist took place.

He also laughed at the police department’s characterization of him as the “second Jimmy Valentine.” Jimmy Valentine was a popular fictional safecracker.

Despite the high stakes in the upcoming trial, Edelstein appeared at the arraignment “as his usual suave, faultlessly dressed, apparently carefree self.”