100 years ago in Spokane: Man charged with second-degree murder in shooting at Williams Lake Resort

Chris Hansen was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting of Joe Bowers, 53, at Williams Lake.

Police said that Bowers and Hansen had argued previously when Bowers “tried to force his attentions onto Mrs. Bunker,” proprietor of the Williams Lake Resort where Hansen worked.

After the two argued, Bowers left and returned later, “somewhat intoxicated” and demanded to know the whereabouts of Hansen. Mrs. Bunker told him Hansen was out on a boat. After Bowers went to the dock and counted the boats, he returned to the house and accused Mrs. Bunker of lying. Then he saw Hansen in the kitchen and “made a motion toward his pocket” and said he was going to “get” Hansen.

Hansen grabbed a gun off of a washstand and shot Bowers through the heart.

Police said they found a revolver strapped to Bowers’ hip and also a pint of denatured alcohol in his pocket.

From the medical beat: The medical staff at the Hutton Settlement was back on the job after they resigned en masse a week earlier.

L.W. Hutton did not disclose the details of the settlement other than to say that adjustments had been made. The doctors had resigned because they were alarmed over the fact that some staff members were using Christian Science principles to treat the children.

From the radio beat: The U.S. Forest Service planned to install a high-powered radio receiver at Priest River in order to receive “fire weather reports” and fire warnings from other parts of the West.

Currently, the Priest River district was relying on telephones to report and control fires in the district. But at some point, the forest supervisor said he expected “radio will supplant the telephone.”

In other radio news, the Spokane Daily Chronicle’s radio station, KOE, was now broadcasting a 10-watt signal capable of reaching “several hundred miles.”