100 years ago in the Northwest: Woman suspected of slaying husband made breakfast before reporting dead body

Prosecutors in Montana were moving ahead with first -degree murder charges against Lulu B. Siler, of Spokane, accused of being a party to her husband’s death at a railroad siding near Thompson Falls, Montana.

“The woman’s knowledge that there was a $5,000 accidental death insurance policy on her husband’s life is expected to play an important feature in the state’s evidence to be submitted,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle wrote.

Her husband was found with his throat slashed to the bone. She was the first to find his body, but failed to report it until after she made breakfast for a Western Union line crew.

The preliminary hearing was set for later in the week.

From the Halloween beat: Spokane’s police chief announced some rules to keep Halloween rowdiness under control. He said there was to be no throwing of confetti, no whips and no racing of autos through the downtown streets.

The Chronicle’s editors applauded these rules, saying, “There’s no room for rowdyism if the big night is to win a place on Spokane’s annual calendar.”

A big costume parade was planned downtown.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1896: Amy Beach’s Gaelic Symphony debuts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It is the first major work of an American female composer to receive “public and journalism acclaim.” The Spokane Symphony performed Beach’s symphony with former resident conductor Morihiko Nakahara Oct. 21-22. Nakahara, in an interview with the Spokesman-Review, called Beach’s composition “extraordinary” and having the “drama and that big bone sound of the late romantic period.”