100 years ago, 1916
The Lewiston police are looking for a mysterious woman. She is familiar with the streets and alleys and by-ways of both cities, for after returning stolen property to Ernest E. Emmons, 27 High street, Lewiston, she led him a chase he will never forget. This woman is a part of the story relating to a daylight robbery at the Runnells home last Saturday afternoon. She is not accused of having taken anything from the house, but she is charged with bringing back the things, or nearly all of them, that other persons had taken. She told Runnells that she was doing it for the sake of her 13-year-old son who had been urged into the unfortunate affair of carrying away about $126.00 worth of the Runnells jewelry together with some cash, a revolver, fountain pen. etc. She didn’t want her son to get into any trouble.

50 years ago, 1966
The general membership of the Lewiston-Auburn Shoeworkers Protective Association will vote Thursday night on a new labor contract which union officials said will put an additional $1,000,000 a year into the pay envelopes of the workers. LASPA directors, at a meeting late Wednesday afternoon, approved the contract terms which provide for an 18-cent hourly increase in three steps between Jan. 30, 1967 and Jan. 28, 1968.

25 years ago, 1991
Welder Guy Villeneuve, armed with his torch, bends at the waist a little as he applies heat to an assault rifle police seized during a routine motor vehicle stop in 1988. Seconds later, the butt of the rifle joins others on the floor of the Public Works garage as the welder makes quick work of destroying hunting rifles, shotguns, revolvers, automatics, an aluminum baseball bat, a pellet gun, a sword, brass knuckles and slingshots, along with switchblade, butterfly, hunting and survival knives. The locker at the Lewiston Police Department that holds weapons destined for destruction had become full. Detective Paul Harmon and Capt. Edward Carpenter III loaded the guns and knives into an unmarked police cruiser and drove them to the garage, where they were cut to pieces.

The material in Looking Back is reproduced exactly as it originally appeared, although misspellings and errors made at that time may be edited.