Idanha Hotel: With private telephones, electric intercom, pharmacy, soda fountain, and Otis elevator, the 1901 hotel was, said the Statesman, "the acme of perfection."

Frank Steunenberg (top center): Months before his death the former governor stayed at the Idanha where Orchard allegedly made his first assassination attempt. Ironically, just hours before his death, Steunenberg renewed his life insurance policy worth some $4,500.

William "the lion" Borah (left) with Senate colleague Henry Cabot Lodge: Elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate in January 1907, Borah earned national attention for his fiery attack on radical labor.

Charles Angelo Siringo: Formerly a spy for the Pinkerton agency during the Coeur d’Alene labor wars, Siringo patrolled the hotel during the trial.

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          The turreted hotel on Tenth and Main buzzed with excitement during the trial. Guests included attorney Clarence Darrow, Governor Frank Gooding, actress Ethel Barrymore, publisher S.S. McClure of McClure’s Magazine, superintendent Gifford Pinchot of the U.S. Forest Service, socialites, gossips, armed detectives, and jaded trial reporters. A shock went through the hotel when assassin Orchard confessed that, two years before, he had rigged the place with a bomb. On September 5, 1905, said Orchard, Steunenberg on a visit to Boise had stayed in his

favorite hotel. Orchard had rented an adjacent room. Wiring dynamite to a clock, he had unlocked the door with a skeleton key and placed the device under Steunenberg’s bed. But the clock was ticking loudly. Orchard, afraid of being discovered, reentered the room and defused the bomb.
          Hotel legend has it that a beautiful chambermaid had fallen for the mysterious Orchard. The legend says that the killer was likewise smitten and spared the hotel to save the chambermaid's life.

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