You are now standing where a murder weapon was disposed of in 1935 only to be rediscovered in 1989 solving the oldest active murder case in the nation.

In 1935, Newport City Marshall George Conniff was shot and killed while trying to apprehend three men who were attempting to rob the Newport Creamery.

During this decade of economic despair, butter was an expensive commodity and creamery burglaries had become common. Marshall Conniff discovered three men attempting to break in to Newport Creamery, when he yelled for them to stop he was met with a hail of gunfire. Conniff sustained wounds during this shootout which he died from the next day but the thieves got away unscathed.

The Spokane police conducted a quick investigation before they passed the case off to the Pend Oreille sheriffs. A man named Acie Logan was arrested and suspected of being involved in these creamery burglaries but Sergeant Daniel Mangan forced the ending of the investigation and never allowed anyone to question Logan about the crimes. Later though, it came out that Logan had admitted to his part in the crimes and also pointed the finger at Spokane detective, Clyde Ralstin. It seemed that Ralstin was being protected by the code of silence in the Police Deparment.

The case was stagnant until the 1980s when Tony Bamonte, Pend Oreille County sheriff, became interested in the case. When he approached the Police Department, they told him they did not have "employment records for any of the people and officers" and that most of them were dead now anyways. Dan Mangan stepped forward though, now 86 years old. He confirmed the suspicion that Ralstin was involved in a lot of illegal activity, including the creamery burglaries. Mangan even told Bamonte about the Post Street Bridge, where he had disposed of Ralstin's murder weapon in 1935. Bamonte found the weapon in 1989 and it was the same caliber as the murder weapon, a .32 revolver and its condition was consistent with being in the water for 50 years. You can see the rusty murder weapon today in a display case outside the Joel E. Ferris Research Room at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture.

Ralstin died in 1990, in Montana, and he was still a free man.

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In 1883, orphan May Arkwright moved to Idaho from Ohio where she worked as a saloon cook and opened up her own boarding house, where she quickly gained a reputation as the "best cook in the Coeur d'Alenes". In 1887 she met Levi Hutton, a locomotive engineer, and the two soon married. They were able to save enough money to buy a stake in the Hercules Mine where they are reputed to have spent their spare hours working together.

The two were politically active in local labor associations and were sucked into the violent protests by Idaho workers in 1899. Held at gunpoint, Levi Hutton drove a train filled with dynamite that would be used to sabotage the non-union sites of the Sullivan Mine and Bunker Hill. Though Levi was never convicted, he was arrested and lost his job with the railroad.

In 1901 everything changed for the Huttons, the Hercules mine finally struck a rich vein of silver and lead leading to a profit of nearly 2 million dollars. The sudden change in wealth and status, proved difficult for May Hutton. Known for her outrageous sense of style and outspoken nature, it was hard for members of high society to accept her. Over the next few years, Mrs. Hutton began to educate herself became heavily involved with the Woman's Suffrage Movement. Having won the vote in Idaho, May Hutton ran for State Senate in 1904, but was not elected.

Unlike Idaho, Washington State did not recognize women's suffrage, and when the Huttons moved to Spokane in 1906, May Hutton lost her right to vote. Again taking up the suffrage fight, she became the vice-president for the Washington Equal Suffrage Association. The association's president, Emma Smith DeVoe, and May Hutton and frequently butted heads. May accused DeVoe of using tactics that aroused antagonism. According to Hutton, DeVoe's western faction of the association spread scandalous rumors in an attempt to expel her from their ranks. Although there is no supporting evidence, rumors that Hutton was once "Bootleg Mary" who ran a whorehouse in Idaho, to this day the rumor remains. After the State's passage of universal suffrage in 1910, May Hutton claimed to be the first Spokane woman to register.

Although May Hutton was not always a welcome member of high society, she and her husband were known to have served President Theodore Roosevelt coffee at their home in Wallace in 1903, and were hosts to civil liberties lawyer Clarence Darrow and national suffragist leader Carrie Chapman Catt, who later headed a campaign for the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. May Hutton also served as a delegate to the State Democratic Convention in 1910 and the Democratic National Convention in 1912.

May Hutton also supported many charities with both time and money including the Florence Crittenton Home for Unwed Mothers and Spokane Children's Home. She was well known for playing matchmaker to the many unwed mothers she became acquainted with. At Christmas, the Huttons would host a party for children at the nearby orphanage. The couple even provided a home for several children, though the couple never formally adopted any of them.

The Huttons lived on the fourth floor of this building until 1914 when they moved to a mansion on 17th Avenue and Crestline. The Huttons donated a part of the land to the city for a park. Suffering from poor health due to obesity and Bright's disease, a kidney condition, May Hutton passed away in 1915 at the age of 55.

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[PRIVATE RESIDENCE - Do not disturb.]

A shot rang out, glass broke, and down went the former Spokane Police Chief, John Sullivan, in his own living room. On Jan. 5, 1911 the former Chief of Police was assassinated by a gunman in the house that you are standing in front of now. The gunman approached the side of the house and fired a single shot which went through the window and rocking chair, and penetrated Sullivan's back. Sullivan was able to crawl to the telephone to call for help.

Before the assassination attempt, John Sullivan gained many enemies during his tenure as Police Chief. Sullivan attacked the Industrial Workers of the World (Wobblies) during their Free Speech Fight with harsh ordinances which caused great tension between the two parties. The local newspaper, The Spokane Press, supported the Wobbly movement and accused the chief of graft, corruption and misconduct in an attempt to have him removed from office. Sullivan was finally removed from office but retained his duties as a captain.

Another enemy that Sullivan gained during his career was a man named S.J. Hanley that had shot the captain once before during an attempted arrest. Hanley had bragged to other inmates that he would exact his revenge on Sullivan and was released from prison right before the assassination attempt. Dennis Sullivan, John's brother, believed that John was assassinated because John was going to be a witness in a trial against the corrupt city government. John Sullivan though, while laying in his hospital bed (before his eventual death), told people that The Spokane Press was responsible for the shooting. And a man in Alabama even bragged of killing a Police officer in Spokane but that was never proved either. The case still remains open.

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