This day in history: Spokane’s new downtown detox center was booming with guests

From 1975: The Spokesman-Review paid a visit to the county’s new detoxification center at Edgecliff Hospital and reported that it was doing robust business.

The center had been open for only four days but had served more than 50 intoxicated persons.

Police were picking up drunk people, “primarily from downtown,” and taking them to the detox center instead of the jail’s drunk tank.

Upon arrival at the detox center, patients were interviewed about their “drink history,” and then “bathed and put in pajamas and either put to bed or allowed to relax in a day room.”

An inebriate was allowed to stay for a maximum of three days.

From 1925: Frank McAndless pled guilty to the daring robbery of the Guy Riegel home on the Little Spokane River, but he blamed it all on his accomplice “Curly” Richardson, “who engineered the whole deal.”

In fact, McAndless claimed he wasn’t even aware of what city they were in.

“I thought we were in Tacoma,” he said.

McAndless said that they had met in California, where Curly told him they were going to drive to Tacoma because he knew a place where they could steal 25 cases of bonded liquor.

They drove up from California in a stolen car. The next morning, they went to the isolated Riegel estate, beat and tied up a caretaker, and herded the women employees into a room and tied them up.

McAndless searched for the 25 cases of booze, but was disappointed. He still thought they were in Tacoma and had come for liquor.

Curly was upset that “Mr. Riegel didn’t have near as much stuff as he thought,” but he loaded the car with jewelry, silverware and furs. Then they drove straight back through Spokane and back to Los Angeles.

Curly was arrested in Los Angeles for assaulting a police officer and was serving a 20-year sentence.