100 years ago in Spokane: Spokane stockbroker missing; wife believes he was abducted and killed

Spokane was transfixed by a new mystery: What happened to W.H. McNutt, well-known Spokane stockbroker?

His distraught wife was convinced that some unknown men had abducted him, murdered him and taken his body away in his own car for disposal.

She told police that her husband had disappeared from his offices in the Rookery Building two weeks ago and she had not heard a word since. She said there had been no estrangement between them and he was devoted to her and their three children. He had never gone away without leaving word of his whereabouts. It was her firm belief that McNutt had met with foul play over a dispute over a debt. McNutt was a stockbroker specializing in mining stocks.

She said that at the time of his disappearance, he had been driving a fancy Belgian blue Stevens car, which he had just bought from a Spokane car dealer. Friends familiar with the car reported that they had seen it on the streets two or three times since his disappearance, but McNutt apparently was not at the wheel.

Police were gearing up for a wide-ranging investigation that might include other cities.

From the wildfire beat: Fires continued to rage in North Idaho and Western Montana, and the supply of firefighters had become scarce. The head of the Forest Service employment office in Spokane said he had recruited about 150 men per day over the last week or two, for a total of about 1,400 men. But now labor was becoming short and it was hard to find any more men. He said he had asked to be relieved of calls from Montana, because he needed to send all available men to North Idaho.

Lightning strikes began more fires overnight, making a bad situation worse.