This day in history: Man who kidnapped 2 and killed Canadian sentenced to life. College president held firm on resignation

From 1976: The case of the Liberty Lake hitchhiker/murderer reached its conclusion when David Johnson, 20, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree assault.

Two 19-year-old Canadian women picked up Johnson when he was hitchhiking in Montana. Near Missoula, he drew a revolver and ordered them to drive him to Spokane.

The frightened women exited I-90 at Liberty Lake and attempted to jump out of the car. Johnson fatally shot one of the women, but the other was able to flee.

A massive manhunt ensued, and Johnson was arrested after a waitress at a diner reported a man “acting strangely.” He made a full confession and said he just “had a panic reaction.”

Johnson was sentenced to three life terms.

From 1926: Noah D. Showalter said he would not reconsider his resignation as president of Cheney Normal School (today’s Eastern Washington University), despite the urging of the school’s alumni.

“I sincerely appreciate the spirit of the alumni,” he said. “It would be necessary for me to make application to the new board for the office I now hold if I desired to remain as head of the Normal. I would never do that.”

Showalter announced his intent to resign three weeks earlier, citing a need to go into business and “secure a competence for old age.”

But he also had indicated he was motivated to leave in part based on politics, telling the Spokane Daily Chronicle the day after the resignation that Washington Gov. Roland H. Hartley’s policies would endanger the state’s colleges.

There were also indications that he was unhappy with the board’s refusal to compensate him at the same level as other state Normal School presidents.

Showalter, the namesake of EWU’s Showalter Hall, had been head of the school for 17 years. The Spokane Chronicle reported that “an air of uncertainty and unrest still exists among faculty members at Cheney.”