100 years ago in Spokane: Bootleggers went to shocking new lengths to hide their whisky in a hotel

The region’s bootleggers showed a new level of creativity when it came to ingenious hiding places.

The city’s “dry squad” raided a room in the Roberts Hotel and chopped up nearly all the furniture in search of booze. Detective Fordyce was standing on a chair, tearing away at molding, when he happened to look down at the top of the door.

“I noticed a little crease about 2t inches long … and with a knife, I dug down and lifted out a piece of the door, revealing a small hole, from which arose a strong whisky odor,” he said. “… We took the door off the hinges and poured out about 3 gallons of moonshine.”

The door had been hollowed out and lined with copper. By sticking a siphon down one of the holes, “whisky could be withdrawn at will.”

The hotel proprietor was arrested for Prohibition violations, his third such arrest.

From the court beat: The father of Carl Sorenson, 19, a Lewis and Clark High School student, begged the judge for leniency when his son was sentenced for being part of a downtown burglary ring.

“Carl has always been a good boy,” his father said. “He has lots of friends and it is a mystery to me and to his friends and to himself, why he did this.”

The judge was unmoved. Carl Sorenson had admitted he had committed daring burglaries at several downtown stores, along with two older accomplices. The judge sentenced him to four-to-16 years at the Monroe Reformatory.

When the sentence was pronounced, Carl went to his father and put his arms around him.