100 years ago in Spokane: A county prosecutor candidate’s criticism of the Ku Klux Klan was blamed for his primary loss

Carlton H. Knight, a prominent Spokane man, said he knew exactly why Arthur L. Hooper lost the Republican primary for county prosecutor: He offended the Ku Klux Klan.

Knight, who admitted he was a “member in good standing,” said that Hooper made a mistake in calling the Klan un-American.

Knight claimed that the Klan had between 1,200 and 1,300 members in Spokane. He said he joined because “its principles appealed to me and were along the lines that I had always advocated.”

From the Pullman history beat: The Artesian Hotel in Pullman was destroyed by fire two weeks earlier – and it brought back memories of two of the most sensational crimes in Pullman’s history.

A correspondent noted that when people reminisced about the now-smoldering Artesian Hotel, the following two stories “have occupied the limelight.”

The first was the 1893 murder of Amos Cooper, a respected Pullman citizen. A burglar entered his room at the Artesian Hotel and shot Cooper in cold blood.

The second was the 1894 lynching of George F. Parker, who was accused of being Cooper’s murderer. During Parker’s trial it appeared that there was not enough evidence to convict. So a masked mob of between 150 and 200 people stormed the county jail in Colfax, took Parker and his cellmate, another alleged murderer, from their cell and lynched them from a second-story window at the courthouse.

“Two distinct indentations in the cornice of the courthouse where the ropes had drawn taut, long remained as mute evidence of the lynching,” a correspondent said.