100 years ago in Spokane: A lavish funeral was planned for the Idle Hour killer, while his victim’s body laid unclaimed

John Todej (previously rendered Tody or Todich) was assured a proper funeral with plenty of flowers.

Meanwhile, the body of the man he murdered, Antone Jovick, was lying unclaimed at a Spokane funeral parlor.

Todej’s funeral was being financed by his wealthy brother-in-law and “a group of his Austrian friends.” They had raised at least $100.

A week earlier, Todej had walked up behind Jovick in a crowded cardroom, shouted, “I’ve got you now, stool pigeon!” and shot him to death. Then Todej turned the gun on himself and took his own life.

More details had since emerged at the source of the feud between Todej and Jovick. Todej was a member of the Wobblies, and had been “turned in” by Jovick in Wallace, Idaho, for various violations of the law.

Todej was arrested and jailed for four months.

Not long after Todej was released, he tracked down Jovick and opened fire in the Idle Hour poolroom and cardroom in Spokane.

From the bigamy beat: Attorney George R. Foster found himself in the unfortunate position of “having two wives and five children and facing a penitentiary term,” The Spokesman-Review reported.

Foster had obtained a divorce decree three years earlier in Spokane under false pretenses. He swore that he had no children, and that he had lived in Spokane for at least a year. In fact, he had four children by his first wife, and had been in Spokane only a few days.

Now, a Spokane jury had convicted him of perjury, and he was facing a minimum of one to five years in Walla Walla. Bigamy charges were also pending in Indiana, because he had married a second wife and had a child by her.