MOVING HISTORY FORWARD: Post Falls battleground
July 9, 1966, was a hot Saturday in Post Falls when the attractive, 27-year-old female checked into the Satellite Motel on Seltice Way.
Agnes Doty, who owned the motel with her husband, would later describe her as a pleasant blonde who seemed innocent. Looks were deceiving.
Agnes had no reason to suspect that Lillian Jo Ramus was wanted in three states for armed robbery, forgery and passing counterfeit $20 bills. She had escaped from the Spokane City Jail by somehow sawing through her cell’s bars a year earlier while awaiting trial for forgery. Agnes would have been stunned to know about the small arsenal of semi-automatic weapons the 5-foot, 3-inch woman carried into her room.
Detective Alex Solinsky of the Spokane Police had developed a series of leads which would require the help of the FBI to bring Lili Jo to justice.
Lili Jo had no idea that by 10 p.m. that hot Saturday night, there would be an army of law enforcement officers quietly moving people out of adjoining motel rooms, stopping traffic on Seltice Way and making sure all avenues of escape were blocked. They were aware that Lili Jo had made it widely known she would never be taken alive.
Using a megaphone, police announced their presence by demanding she come out. The place was surrounded. She yelled back that she needed time to dress. The police countered by allowing her two minutes before they would storm the room. Moments later a single gunshot was heard followed by Lili Jo exiting the room with a chopped-down .30 caliber M1A carbine in hand, firing wildly at the police. One round struck the ground in front of Special FBI Agent Robert Rockwell from the Coeur d’Alene FBI office and ricocheted into his right knee.
The police answered with a thunderous volley of gunfire that ended with a scream from Lili Jo. She had been hit in the abdomen and head.
She was immediately rushed to a Spokane hospital, where surgery repaired a perforated intestine and some vascular injury. Her head wound was superficial. She survived and would later stand trial for multiple federal charges — the worst of which was attacking a federal officer.
She was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. At her parole hearing in September 1972, she told the parole board that her stay in the Purdy Correctional Center in western Washington had been her turning point: “I have found religion.”
Six months later, and just two months prior to her parole, she escaped from Purdy. She was soon recaptured. She may have found religion, but not rational thought.
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The Museum of North Idaho is grateful to Jack Forest, a resident of Coeur d’Alene since birth, for his generous sharing of North Idaho memorabilia. MONI stands ready to be the local repository for the ongoing, rich history of North Idaho. Keeping alive our history is a gift to our youth and statement of pride in our elders.
