Crime Corner: Poker Game Turns Deadly in Tekoa

TEKOA — Tekoa was a wild-west country during the railroading days of Whitman County’s history. One of the most notorious crimes in Tekoa was the deadly poker game that occurred on August 24, 1912, at Curley’s Bar, a saloon located under the Commercial Hotel.

Four men were killed, including John B. Eastep of Colfax, a deputy sheriff of Whitman County; Grant Dickinson, marshal of Tekoa; Ernest Gardner, a Tekoa saloon man who shot the top of his head off after killing the two officers; and Patrick Collins, a laborer who died from being beaten over the head with a gun in the card game at 2 a.m.

Th...