100 years ago in Spokane: Codd juror died of heart condition, autopsy says; interest turns to daughter

An autopsy of Edwin P. Botts, one of the jurors who acquitted Maurice P. Codd, showed that he died of a heart condition.

However, because there were questions about his state of mind at the time of his death, doctors were also going to do an examination of his stomach to test for poison. But the doctors believed there was “no doubt as to what caused death.”

Meanwhile, more odd revelations came to light in the aftermath of Codd’s acquittal.

The Spokane Daily Chronicle ran a banner headline that read, “Dead Juror’s Daughter in Granite Block.”

The story said that Botts’ daughter rented a room in the building where the Codd incident occurred, until the day after the acquittal. She admitted that she lived in the building, which was a hotel/boarding house, but said she denied any “interest” in the case.

It is unclear why it would matter whether a juror had a daughter who lived in the building where the death took place, although the defense lawyer had attempted to paint the granite as an unsavory place.

“My purpose in going to live in the Granite Building was to sell hats,” said the daughter.

So on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1507: A world map produced by German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller contained the first recorded use of the term “America,” in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

[1945: During World War II, US and Soviet forces linked up on the Elbe River, a meeting that dramatized the collapse of Nazi Germany’s defenses.