The Deputy Auditor Who Wept for His Young Wife
A Spokane County official admits embezzlement, gets two years—and promises he'll be out in eighteen months.
Spokane, March 14.—An interested audience assembled in Judge Mack's court this morning to hear the case of W. O. V. Renwick, late deputy in the auditor's office of Spokane County. Attorneys for Renwick notified the court that they had concluded to carry the case no further, as their client pleaded guilty to embezzlement. Judge Kirk then sentenced the prisoner to two years in the penitentiary at hard labor.
Renwick said: "I have sinned. I know, without sufficient thought for the consequences, I succumbed to temptation. As to my past services since I came here from Puget Sound in 1889, my friends and intimate acquaintances are well acquainted. I introduced the best method of an expert accountant for keeping books that there is in the state. My work was always thorough. My only fault is that I was tempted and fell. I assure you that I will never be guilty of a like offense again. My greatest sorrow is for my young wife. I expect to be out in about eighteen months."
“I have sinned. I know, without sufficient thought for the consequences, I succumbed to temptation.”
Public officials stealing from the till is an old story, but Renwick's courtroom confession—self-pitying, self-justifying, and oddly confident about his release date—could be ripped from a modern corruption case. It also catches early Spokane's county government at a moment when railroad-era migration and public money were colliding.
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