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This day in history: After plane crash, GOP had no candidate for Congress. Witnesses described shooting of Spokane banker

From 1976: Spokane primary election voters were preparing to vote for the candidate of their choice – and one of them was dead.

Weeks earlier, Republican U.S. Congressional candidate Charles (Chuck) Kimball died in a private plane crash, but it was too late to take his name off of the ballot.

The Spokane County elections supervisor asked voters to disregard that name. Votes cast for him would not be tallied, he said.

State Republican leaders were “expected to appoint a candidate to run against incumbent Thomas B. Foley in the Nov. 2 general election.”

From 1926: The Phineas Saffron trial made a dramatic return after a one-day break for a Jewish holiday (both the defendant and his attorney were Jewish).

A “breathless” courtroom watched as an eyewitness stepped down from the podium, at the request of the defense counsel, and re-enacted the moments after the shooting of R. Lewis Rutter.

“I am pretending to be Saffron,” he said. “In my outstretched hand is the gun. His left hand is over his mouth. He is backing on the street. His face is twitching and his arms and legs are quivering. His eyes are bulging and wild, as he backs slowly up the street, keeping his gun aimed at the entrance to the silk shop (where Rutter had collapsed). Suddenly he backs into a man and stops. Someone takes his arm and I remember him saying in a foreign accent, ‘I geev it up,’ as they reached for the gun.”

Three other witnesses also testified that Saffron appeared “abnormal” at the time of the shooting. Saffron’s attorney was attempting to establish a temporary insanity defense.

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Source: www.spokesman.com

This day in history: After plane crash, GOP had no candidate for Congress. Witnesses described shooting of Spokane banker
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