Looking back: Two hunters narrowly escape stray bullet, and sheriff gets baffling phone call
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IDAHO FALLS — EastIdahoNews.com is looking back at what life was like during the week of Oct. 16 to Oct. 22 in east Idaho history.
1900-1925
BLACKFOOT — A painting accident at a local high school injured two people, the Blackfoot Idaho Republican reported on Oct. 20, 1911.
Jesse Whitcomb and Harold Barker were painting on the back of the “new high school building” at about 30 feet high when the scaffolding fell.
“Mr. Whitcomb received quite a serious injury at the hip and both were bruised considerable, but no bones were broken,” the newspaper wrote.
The paper said they attached their scaffolding by hangers hooked over the top of the fire wall, the part of the wall that extends above the roof, and it broke off with the weight.
1926-1950
POCATELLO — A local sheriff was left “baffled” after receiving a phone call about an “unknown lawbreaker,” the Idaho State Journal reported on Oct. 16, 1949.
Bannock County Sheriff Alma Marley received a phone call from a woman in Oklahoma who told him her son, Denzal Jordan, was wanted by Pocatello peace officers on a “bad check charge.”
“The woman informed Marley that she and her son were leaving Saturday morning for the Gate City to make the check good,” the article reads.
Marley “investigated his records,” checked with the city police department and justices of the peace and “came up perplexed.”
“No one seems to have any charge pending against the youth,” the Journal stated.
1951-1975
RIGBY — Two hunters had a “narrow escape” after a bullet went through the car they were driving in, The Rigby Star reported on Oct. 18, 1951.
Ed. Hall and Leslie Howe, of Rigby, were “firmly convinced that at least one lunatic was on hand at the opening of the deer hunting season in the antelope section Tuesday morning.”
“Ed. has a neat rifle hole through the back of his jeep and a large hole in the windshield,” The Rigby Star explained. “Leslie has a creased felt hat where the rifle bullet whizzed close by his head as proof of his close call.”
Hall said they noticed a hunter high on a rocky ridge as they drove down a straight road and “both were astonished and greatly surprised a few moments later when the rifle bullet came whizzing through their Jeep.”
Ed. immediately “brought out his field glasses to search the terrain” while Howe made a “rapid climb up the hill to ascertain who fired the shot.” Neither were successful, as the “hunter” seemed to “vanish in thin air” after firing the shot.
“There was no brush in the territory surrounding the road,” Hall explained. “The road was straight, so we are at a complete loss to understand such shooting.”
He added, “We certainly would like to have caught up to the trigger-happy individual.”
1976-2000
POCATELLO — A 29-year-old man was arrested for alleged indecent exposure after an incident at the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office, the Idaho State Journal reported on Oct. 19, 1976.
“The man apparently twice removed his clothes and twice drank from toilets after authorities brought him to the jail for questioning,” the Journal said.