100 years ago today in Spokane: Police arrest ‘stink-bomber’

Police arrested Art Fisher, alias Otto Fisher, on suspicion of being Spokane’s stink-bomb mystery man.

Months earlier, several people had detonated stink-bombs, or “gas-bombs,” in four crowded Spokane theaters, sparking panic and held-noses.

At the time, police arrested several people who said that they had been recruited by a man working for the motion picture operators union to cause trouble for non-union theaters.

This mystery man fled before police could nab him.

Now, word came from Portland police that they had found Fisher and arrested him. He was working, ironically, as a strikebreaker on the waterfront.

Spokane police sent a man to Portland to bring Fisher back for trial for conspiracy.

From the military beat: Fort George Wright’s army population grew by three officers and 81 enlisted men when a new detachment arrived from Fort Lewis.

This brought the total to 419 officers and enlisted men.

Spokane boosters found this to be an excellent indication that Fort George Wright would be retained as an army post. They had feared it might be jettisoned in the aftermath of the recent war.

Under a reorganization, the fort’s unit would be renamed the Second Battalion of the Fourth Infantry Division. It was formerly known as the 58th Infantry Regiment.