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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

100 years ago in the Inland Northwest: ‘Airplane bootleggers,’ a rum-running sheriff and the ‘Ford fracture’ were making headlines

 (Spokane Daily Chronicle archives)
By Jim Kershner The Spokesman-Review

Frank Kepl, one of two convicted “airplane bootleggers,” was denied in his request for a new trial.

The other, Benton Werner, was out of luck for a different reason.

He had been shot to death a week earlier by the Okanogan County sheriff during the big “liquor caravan” shootout. Werner had been released on a $2,000 bond, and he used his temporary freedom to resume his activities as one of the masterminds of a rum-running business from Canada into Okanogan County and on to Spokane.

Werner and Kepl had both filed motions for new trials.

Also from the bootlegging beat: Bonner County Sheriff William Kirkpatrick was convicted of conspiracy to procure and sell intoxicating liquor.

He had been arrested in May 1923 for seizing 118 cases of bonded liquor from a freight car and then selling it and dividing the proceeds between himself and a co-conspirator.

Kirkpatrick was fined $1,000 and sentenced to 12 months in the Kootenai County jail. He was freed on bond pending an appeal, and he said he had no intention of giving up his office.

From the accident beat: A modern type of injury, a “Ford fracture,” had entered the lexicon.

Walter Wilson suffered one when he was crank-starting his Ford machine. The engine backfired, causing the crank to jerk in his hand.

A Ford fracture was apparently a broken right wrist.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1887: Sherlock Holmes first appears in print in “Study in Scarlet” by Arthur Conan Doyle.