100 years ago in Spokane: A drug defendant’s attorney argued that “confessed addicts” were seeking revenge on his client

The state narcotics case against Napoleon Hendershott took an unexpected turn when Hendershott claimed he was actually working undercover for state narcotics officers.

Or, to use The Spokesman review’s more colorful language, Hendershott “roared at the gang, and now the gang, Spokane’s elite sleuths and snowbirds, are out to get Napoleon.”

This comes after four “confessed addicts” testified they bought cocaine from Hendershott. But Hendershott’s attorney said he would prove “that Hendershott is the victim of a conspiracy among underworld regulars to punish him for giving information to police and federal officials.”

Hendershott was the owner of the Brooks Hotel on Howard Street. He had been arrested months earlier in a raid that seized more than $300 worth of cocaine.

One of the four addicts who testified against him was “petite Ruth Ellis, who admitted to being a mother of two despite looking like a cute girl with a degree.”

From the music beat: Opera star Madame Schumann-Heink “won the hearts and affections of a tremendous audience in the Auditorium Theater”.

One reviewer said that at one point it “sent a thrill and shiver through the audience.”

This came shortly after she confessed in an interview previewing her performance that she believed women should “make the home happy” rather than focus on their makeup or career aspirations.