100 years ago in Eastern Washington: A clever thief lured officers away from the Lincoln County jail to steal cases of confiscated booze inside

A resourceful thief broke into the Lincoln County Jail at Davenport and made off with 30 cases of high-grade booze.

In the minutes before the burglary at 1 a.m., the thief called in a report of a terrible auto accident near Creston. This was a fake call, and it lured the county officers away.

When the officers returned, they found that someone had somehow worked out the combination of the office safe, taken the jail keys and then cleaned out the cabinet full of confiscated liquor.

There were no prisoners in the jail at the time. Suspicion immediately centered on a former jail trusty, who might have had the inside knowledge to pull off the heist.

From the university beat: Whitworth College lost its accreditation following turmoil amongst its faculty and staff. This meant that it no longer had the power to grant teaching certificates in Washington.

The state board cited “too frequent changes in the faculty” as the main reason for the decision.

“The college has been involved in financial difficulties, resulting in a recent report that the entire faculty had been asked to resign,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported. “This report was later denied. ”

The chairman of the college’s board said he was taken completely by surprise by the decision.

He said he did “not see how we can be held responsible for action taken when we were not given our day in court.”

This turned out to be only a temporary crisis since Whitworth College, now Whitworth University, is thriving 100 years later.