100 years ago in Spokane: Prohibition agents arrive in Spokane to crack down on illegal booze

The state’s premier “prohibition hounds” — federal liquor enforcement officers — arrived in Spokane to “familiarize themselves with eastern Washington prohibition law violations.”

Donald A. McDonald was the federal chief prohibition officer in the state, and William Griffith was taking over the eastern Washington district.

A photo of the two men carried this headline: “Here They Are: The Men Booze Peddlers Will Try to Dodge.”

From the court beat: The forgery trial of Fay McDonald — one of the notorious McDonald siblings — was underway in Spokane.

The three siblings had been acquitted of the W.H. McNutt murder months ago, largely because they blamed the murder on a fourth sibling, still at large. Now, however, prosecutors were trying to convict Fay McDonald of a lesser forgery charge, involving checks that they claimed the McDonalds stole from McNutt’s corpse and tried to cash.

Testimony from handwriting experts corroborated the allegation that Fay McDonald had endorsed the checks using a false name.

From the orphanage beat: All buildings at the Hutton Settlement were completed and 62 children were now in residence. The Spokane Daily Chronicle reported that gardeners were hard at work, beautifying the grounds.