HUCKLEBERRIES: Rising to the occasion in the line of duty

Sgt. Jim Guy felt lousy about plugging a cop killer who was standing knee-deep in the Spokane River.

Usually, Guy said afterward, he wouldn’t shoot a sick dog, let alone a human being.

But murderer Carl Cletus Bowles was aiming his .38-caliber revolver at Police Chief Del Larson.

So Sgt. Guy fired his snub-nosed pistol, blowing a hole the size of an orange in Bowles’s gut, just above the belt line. On June 16, 1974, Guy’s bullet ended a three-state crime spree that included two murders, seven kidnappings and four vehicle thefts.

Bowles, who survived the shooting only to die in prison 31 years later, had nothing to lose when the two off-duty Post Falls officers chased him to the river near Pinevilla. On May 17, he had escaped prison in Oregon while serving a life sentence for killing a deputy nine years earlier.

Oddly, his warden had authorized a conjugal visit for Bowles with his fiancée at a Motel 6 in Salem, Ore., as a reward for good behavior. Only the fiancée actually was Bowles’s niece. And the two fled through a back door while a prison employee waited outside for Bowles’s return.

Bowles remained on the lam in the hills near Eugene for a month before the FBI closed in. On June 14, he escaped again after a shootout. Then, he kidnapped Earl and Viola Hunter, an elderly Eugene couple who lived nearby, and forced them to help him escape.

The Hunters’ car was found June 18 in Spokane. On July 11, a farmer spraying weeds discovered the couple’s decomposing bodies in a drainage ditch, 75 feet off a rural road near Rockford, Wash.

Meanwhile, Bowles went on a carjacking spree in North Idaho.

First, he abducted at gunpoint a Massachusetts couple in a motorhome at Kingston and forced them to drive to Coeur d’Alene. At the intersection of old U.S. 10 and Northwest Boulevard, the couple refused to go farther. After a scuffle, Bowles jumped out of the motorhome and carjacked a vehicle occupied by Gary Wraspir, of Post Falls, and his father. A mile later, near the old YJ’s on Seltice Way, Wraspir persuaded Bowles to take the car and let his dad and him go.

At Post Falls, Bowles crashed the car into a tree and commandeered a motorcycle driven by Thomas A. Trapp of Spokane. They were spotted by the off-duty Post Falls officers as they drove back roads. Chief Larson and Sgt. Guy were en route to check out a rock festival at State Line when they heard about the carjackings over the state patrol radio frequency.

Larson and Guy chased Bowles to a dead end near the Spokane River. The killer jumped into the river, attempting to swim across. But the current drove him back.

Sgt. Guy later was inundated by letters from grateful people, many from Oregon, thanking him for his courage in bringing a dangerous man to justice.

Interestingly, Guy’s wife had wondered several times why he carried a gun while off duty. And he’d told her that Police Chief Larson wanted his officers to always carry weapons.

It was a good thing Sgt. Guy was packing that fateful day because the chief was unarmed.

Sidetracked

After all the legal wrangling in summer 1999, the Aryan Nations didn’t complete their march on Sherman Avenue as originally charted. Remember? The ACLU successfully sued the city of Coeur d’Alene to allow Richard Butler’s Aryans to march downtown on July 10, 1999. But the Aryans didn’t complete the seven-block walk from Seventh Street to City Park entirely on Sherman. In fact, they never made it past Fourth Street. As some 400 spectators heckled, I and the late Fred Glienna were standing between Third and Fourth streets, watching the approach of the neo-Nazis. Then, all hell tried to break loose. About 16 protesters emerged from the sidewalk directly across from us and sat on Sherman, begging a confrontation. At that point, Fred headed off, saying over his shoulder: “I promised my wife I would leave if there was trouble.” But the local gendarmes were up to the task. They re-routed the racists — all 20 of them, including a baby in a stroller and her 6-year-old sister — around the human roadblock by using a one-block detour to Front Avenue. They also arrested four protesters. And peace prevailed in this City with a Troubled Heart.

House call

The Really BIG Raffle of North Idaho College has come and gone for 31 years. And unearthed many compelling backstories. But the annual house giveaway of July 7, 1994, was special. It came with a dollop of a mother’s love. And provided housing for a young man beginning to make his mark in the world. To show her love for family and to support a worthy cause, Jean Reagan bought $100 raffle tickets for each of her eight kids. The winning ducat fell to son Pat, then 28 — for a house of 1,875 square feet in Hayden’s Loch Haven subdivision. Built by NIC carpentry students, the house was worth $165,000 at the time. Pat Reagan, who had just returned from California, joked that his mother was kicking him out of her house. But Jean objected: “He’s easy to live with.” Said Pat who had lined up a job with a local realty: “If ever I get desperate for a listing, I guess I can create my own.”

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: Amid high peaks in Andes mud/the Incas learned to raise the spud,/and tubers then for years they grew/while folks in Europe had no clue — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“Potatoes”).

• Brand New: A new name was waiting for Kootenai Memorial Hospital at the opening of its $21 million, three-story addition July 15, 1984: Kootenai Medical Center. Administrator Joe Morris rechristened the modern hospital before a crowd of about 500. Now, Joe has retired, and the hospital is called Kootenai Health. But the good work continues.

• Factoid: The Warner Gardner Memorial, located east of The Coeur d’Alene Resort, weighs 480 pounds. It features a bronze hydroplane with a jet plane flying from an aluminum rooster tail. On July 13, 1969, it was dedicated to the memory of popular Diamond Cup racer Col. Warner Gardner, who died after a crash on the Detroit River in September 1968.

• Funny Girls: As he neared retirement July 27, 1964, Police Chief Reine Schmidt fondly recalled the night he stopped two 15-year-old girls. Chief Schmidt told The Press: They were driving backward of East Lakeshore Drive. Seems they had put too many miles on the family car. And thought they could reset the odometer by driving in reverse.

• T-A-L-E-N-T: How talented was Red Halpern’s parks and rec staff 60 years ago (July 13, 1964)? So gifted that Red counted Charlie Nipp and the late Tom Robb among his workers. Charlie, who directed Memorial Field, later developed business and medical buildings. Tom, who supervised Person Field, owned the iconic Iron Horse restaurant most of his adult life.

Parting shot

Julie Powell knows the show must go on, trials and all. A School District 271 music teacher and occasional actress, Julie once lost her skirt on stage while performing in “Funny Girl.” In an interview with The Press 20 years ago (July 9, 2004), Julie recalls being on stage, five months pregnant, when a snap gave way. Said she: “I was wearing tights, so I was decent. I just held up the skirt and kept telling myself, ‘It’s OK, Julie; nobody saw you. Nobody’s looking at you.’” Afterward, her concerned husband expected to find her in tears. But she was fine. Said Julie: “You know, the world doesn’t stop when you make a mistake on stage. People are dying in (the US-Iraq War), and your skirt falls off. Big deal. You just go on.” Words to live by.

• • •

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria can be contacted at dfo.northidaho@gmail.com.

    Sgt. Jim Guy, right, and Police Chief Del Larson look at the spot in Spokane River where a triple killer was shot and captured.
  

    Killer Carl Cletus Bowles
  

    Protesters stage a sit-in at the Aryan Nations parade.
  

    North Idaho College spokesman Steve Schenk hands keys to the Really BIG Raffle house to Pat Reagan.
  

    Administrator Joe Morris is shown prior to the opening of the vastly expanded local hospital that will be rechristened Kootenai Medical Center.
  

    On July 13, 1969, retired Col. Tracy Petersen dedicates a memorial statue to popular hydroplane racer Warner Gardner.
  

    Police Chief Reine Schmidt
  

    Red Halpern’s parks and rec staff in July 1964 included, back row, from left: Halpern, Tom Robb, Bob Ely, Charlie Nipp, Jimmy Johnston, Dave Bro, Lynn Prosser and Bill Lindsey; front row: Don Broughton, Lorraine Ursaki, Jim Barlow and Dean Shockley.
  

    Julie Powell knows the show must go on.