50 years ago in Expo history: With talk of post-fair entertainment ongoing, a debate on gambling arose

The debate over developing a post-Expo ’74 economy raised many questions, including: How much, if any, gambling should be allowed in the city?

“I think it’s generally accepted that church bingo and club raffles are desired by a majority of the citizens,” Mayor David H. Rodgers said. “But I am not at all sure the citizens expected public card rooms and pull tabs when they agreed to lotteries. The card rooms are a source of fraud and cheating, but not nearly so much as the pull tabs and punch boards. These latter are subject to an infinite variety of fraud and cheating and – worse yet – can be the basis for organized crime establishing itself in our community. Personally, I would like to see gambling limited to bona fide nonprofit organizations.”

Another Expo-related question had yet to be resolved: What to do with the former U.S. Pavilion?

Suggestions included an ice rink and a “space center” with an “enhanced planetarium.”

From 100 years ago: In a surprise ruling from the bench, first-degree murder charges were dropped in the Louis Luke trial. Luke had been charged with pushing his wife out of a hotel window to her death.

Luke’s attorney claimed that she sat on the window sill “in a drunken fashion” and accidentally fell.

The judge’s decision to dismiss first-degree charges might have been influenced by testimony from a state witness who had been in the room when Luke’s wife fell to her death. The witness, described as an Indian woman, testified that she had been coerced into her written statement by police and prosecutors.

“One of the police told me he would whip me,” she said.

The jury was set to deliberate on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.