100 years ago in Spokane: Woman who assisted robber sentenced to 2 years in prison

From our archives, 100 years ago

Mrs. Emma McCambridge, 20, was sentenced to two years in the penitentiary for luring a fruit stand owner into the woods, where he was robbed and shot by her boyfriend.

In a jailhouse interview, the tearful mother of a 3-year-old said that her “confession,” read in court, was “fixed up” by police.

The “confession” contained “ a lot of stuff” she never heard before the trial.

“Don’t you know they just fixed up that statement, then only read a part of it to me, and I supposed that was all there was to it,” she said.

She said her husband had deserted her for the army, and she had subsequently “led an improper life.” Her mother planned to raise the toddler while she was incarcerated.

From the murder beat: The jury in the Alfonso Pansieri murder case deliberated for seven hours and eventually retired for the night. They were ordered to try again the next morning. Pansieri was accused of shooting a hat store owner in a dispute over money.

The defense “sprang a surprise” earlier in the day when it immediately rested its case without calling Pansieri to the stand. The defense strategy was to prove that Pansieri was a “simpleton” and not guilty by reason of insanity.

The prosecution had earlier called two “alienists” (what we would today call psychiatrists) to the stand to testify about Pansieri’s mental health. Dr. J.M. Semple, former superintendent of the Eastern Washington Hospital for the Insane at Medical Lake, said that when he examined Pansieri, “he did not exhibit the apparent coma in which he sat through the three days of his trial.” Pansieri had to be roused from sleep at least once by the court clerk.

The other doctor, Dr. N.M. Baker, concluded Pansieri was “mentally deficient.”