Showing posts with label Prostitution. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prostitution. Show all posts

Sunday, January 20, 2019

One of Locke's Red Light Courtesan's Found Murdered in San Francisco






There are a lot of stories about prostitution in Locke, and most of which solely include Caucasian prostitutes living and offering their services to the men folk there. But why were there so many Caucasian prostitutes in a town that current society believes to have been solely Chinese? Because, our current society's interpretation of Locke's history is wrong.

There were three brothels in Locke that were owned and operated by Caucasian men. This is because there were "white" people living in Locke, as well as Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, Russian, Chinese and of course others, as I have proven in some of my other blog posts based on actual documented census records, voting registries and even draft records filed with the government.  Again, this idea that Locke was solely a Chinese town is grossly misrepresented, almost entirely due to oral histories that were very biased and one-sided that have been taken at face value without anyone actually researching further to see if these people's memories match the factual documented history of the time.

Remember, the older folks who have been interviewed over the years, and many who have passed did not live in Locke in its early years. Many of them came later on, after many of the Caucasians had moved out, as well as others, and the majority left that remained were Chinese. They wouldn't know how it was back then. And the ones who were there in the early days were just children. And everyone knows a child's memory isn't as clear as an adults would be at the time. They only remember glimpses of the past. An elderly person's memory of when they were a mere child is not going to be as accurate as documented, factual evidence from that specific period in time.

Then later on in the 1960's when the beatnik generation stemming from the bay area came out to Locke they just assumed it was all Chinese from the beginning, because the elderly Chinese residents were all that was left there, and the old timers only spoke about their own. Fortunately, I have found enough documentation and even some oral histories that have confirmed Locke was not solely a Chinese town, which I plan to bring to the forefront in the coming future with a more accurate telling of Locke's history in book form.

Getting back to the subject of prostitution, back in 1919 a lady by the name of Ruby Allen came forward to the State of California filing an affidavit accusing George Locke (grandson of G.W. Locke) of operating houses of ill repute in Locke. Within a day the affidavit was published in the newspapers, with the damaging headlines creating quite a stir.


"A little over a year ago, George Locke, furniture dealer on J Street, Sacramento, California, rented to me one of his houses in the town of Locke, County of Sacramento, State of California, and told me to put girls in the house for the purposes of prostitution;

That I did thereupon occupy the house and had girls in said house for purposes of prostitution, in accordance with agreement with said George Locke; that a girl named Ellis [sic] came to the said house and stated she had been sent there by the said George Locke, and he told me that he had sent the said girl Ellis to my house in Locke, to work as a prostitute in accordance with this agreement, and told me to treat her right and that the said said Ellis did actually, in compliance with this arrangement, work in my house at Locke as a prostitute, practising prostitution for money."-- 2/4/ 1919 affidavit of Ruby Allen.




By September 14th, the second affidavit, by another prostitute was published in the paper. It read:

"On or about the months of May or June, 1917, I was directed by George Locke, owner of a house of prostitution known as the White House, located in the town of Locke, otherwise known as Lockeport, County of Sacramento, State of California, to the said White House, the said George Locke telling me that it was a sporting house run by Ruby Allen and that I would make more money at the said White House than I would in the cannery, where I was going to work;

That following the directions of the said George Locke, I went to the said White House in Lockeport, met Bee, the negro maid, and then was admitted to the place by Ruby Allen and that I practiced prostitution in said White House run by Ruby Allen for a period of several months, practicing prostitution with different men for money;

On a subsequent occasion, the said George Locke, being the man who directed me into said house, told me that he owned the said White House, and on several occasions, I saw George Locke in the said White House and at least once, I saw Ruby Allen pay the said George Locke money;

Several months later the said George Locke came to the said White House in Lockeport and asked me in the presence of the landlady, Ruby Allen, to open up a house of prostitution in Sacramento over a firehouse, telling me that I could not keep any other girls there but would have to do all the prostitution myself and that I should be very careful as to whom I let in as there were many stool pigeons around; stating further that I should pay him all the money I made from prostitution."-- 3/3/1919, affidavit of Mae Beach.

Not  much was done to George Locke, and prostitution continued in the town well into the 1950's, until Governor Pat Brown finally went around to the small towns raiding them and putting an end to the oldest profession in California towns, (well at least publicly that is).

So what happened to Ruby Allen? Well according to her affidavit, she claimed to have married a Mr. C. Smith and changed her name, but no records have been found that confirm this. Perhaps she wanted to look as though she had cleaned up her act in order to approach the courts, and be taken seriously, but it doesn't look like she really did. If by some off chance she met a gentleman (or even perhaps one of her Johns), and married him in a spontaneous act, it looks like it didn't last, because records show she returned to the oldest profession, this time in San Francisco.

By October 20, 1920, that was the end of the line for Ms. Allen. On the morning of October 21, 1920, a maid at the Knickerbocker hotel (now the Post Hotel) in San Francisco discovered the body of Ruby Allen, who had been bound, gagged and strangled.  After the authorities began investigating, it was discovered that Ruby had invited a gentleman up to her room with her the evening before, and he had registered under the name R. E. Donaldson.

It was later learned that Donaldson was actually E.R.E. Dugal, a former soldier in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces who fought in France. He had returned from battle with shell shock. He had been working in construction in Newcastle at that time, and on the day of Ruby's murder, he had cashed his check (check no. 350) at a local bank and he allegedly paid Ruby Allen with a $20 bill that was marked #350 on it. (This was stated by the police). Immediately the police issued a warrant for his arrest.

One of the chauffeurs at the hotel, William T. Diggins, who positively identified the murdered woman as Ruby Allen, claimed he knew her, and that she was originally from Mobile, Alabama, where he was also from. He claimed he knew her there, and detectives noticed how deeply affected the sight of her body was to Diggins.

Just hours after Ruby's body had been discovered, the police learned of a body of a man that was found on Thornton Beach (Daly City). He had been found with a bullet in his head, no weapon anywhere, and female footprints in the sand leaving the scene. The police were certain there was a connection, and after some digging it appeared to be true.  The night clerk at the Knickerbocker, Edward Cosgrove, positively identified the body of the man to be the same person he saw with Ruby the night she was murdered.

What is even more odd is the fact that the very next day in Oakland, a gentleman working for the Salvation Army, Richard Skelland, claimed he saw Donaldson very much alive. In fact he was reading a newspaper about the discovery of the man's body on Thornton Beach when Skelland attempted to stop him. The man immediately broke free from his grasp and ran towards the waterfront. Police was dispatched and there was a search for this mystery man, but nothing I could find ever came of it.

Did Skelland mistake this random person as Donaldson? Or was it really him? If so, who was the man who was murdered on the beach? And most importantly, why were there female foot prints in the sand leaving the body? With one question comes another, and another....leaving this story to literally be one of those mysteries that I haven't been able to solve, yet.

At one point the police thought it was possible that the murderer of Ruby Allen was Bluebeard Watson, a serial killer but he was serving a life sentence in San Quentin at the time so that wasn't possible. There were others such as "Jack the Strangler" who sent letters to the police claiming he murdered Ulla Carlson in March of 1920  on the corner of Lafayette and Crocker Avenue in Piedmont, but even that murder seems to have never been solved either.

As far as Ruby goes,  according to Halsted & Company Funeral Records, Ruby's real name was Scurah Allen aka Ruby Allen, and she was actually born in Canada in 1895. She was only 25 years old at the time of her death. It is unknown whether she is buried at a cemetery or was cremated. Given the fact she was also from Canada, makes me wonder if she might have known Donaldson? Also, could there have been some sort of jealousy between William Diggins (who claimed he knew her in Mobile, Alabama) and this Donaldson fellow? There are just too many unanswered questions to this one. However, I felt that Ruby's story should be told, regardless of whether we know for certain who killed her, or why, for that matter.

Rest in Peace, Ruby.

(Copyright 2019 - J'aime Rubio - www.jaimerubiowriter.com)

Sunday, October 25, 2015

In Deep Water- George Locke Accused Of Pandering

In my earlier posts, I have established that the town of Locke (originally Lockeport) was built on the property of George G. Locke. He had initially inherited the property after his father's death. George W. Locke was the original owner. After the Walnut Grove fire in 1915, George Granville Locke allowed Chinese from Walnut Grove to come and live on his property as tenants.

What is left out of the story is that he had already established Lockeport several years earlier, having several buildings on his property to accommodate the railroad workers and laborers in the area. Locke's packing house, the Lockeport Hotel, including the two businesses ran by Tin San Chan and Wing Chong Owyang, and a few other buildings were among the first. The NCCSAH has even stated that the "Locke Boarding House" located on Locke Road predates all of the buildings, having been built around 1910, while the State Parks website notes the Locke Boarding House as having been built in 1909.  This structure more than likely was used as lodging rooms for the railroad workers and also laborers working for G. Locke.

PROSTITUTION IN LOCKE

There were several residents of Locke during this time period, including Grace Melbourne, the madam of the houses of ill repute. I have traced Grace to Locke as early as 1916.  After the fire in Walnut Grove, many Chinese moved to Locke, but they were not the only ones living in town. By 1919-1920, the town had a notorious reputation for illegal gambling, prostitution, and drugs. Grace was not the only prostitute during this time either. So far I have found several painted ladies who lived and walked the streets of Locke.  The prostitution became so bad by this time that Senator E.E. Grant finally decided to charge George Locke** with illicit operations in the town of Locke (Lockeport), shedding light on some of the practices going on in Locke at the time.

Here's just a few of the women involved in prostitution in Locke:

  1. Grace Melbourne
  2. Dora Burns
  3. Mae Beach
  4.  Ruby Allen
  5.  Ellise (misspelled Ellis)
  6. Mary Roe 
  7. Grace Poe  
  8. Clara Smith
As I do more research, I will add more names I find to my list.

In April of 1919, both Mary Roe and Grace Poe, some of Locke's prostitutes, had warrants issued for vagrancy. In September of 1919, Dora Burns was also arrested for prostitution. She had rented a back room out from a Chinese merchant for the purpose of prostituting herself. The man ran the Opera House. The September 30, 1919 issue of the Sacramento Union newspaper states that Burns admitted to renting out a room in the back of the store under the Opera House building. The paper states she was using one of the "dressing rooms" for her immoral acts.  Pleading guilty in front of Justice of the Peace O'Brien, she was given a six month suspended sentence and basically banned from the Delta area.

The real scandal started in February of 1919, when Ruby Allen testified in front of the grand jury, speaking for over two hours about George Locke and his dealings with prostitution. Besides Ruby Allen taking the stand, Senator Grant also took up some of the grand jury's time, trying to convince them to take action against Locke. The story really made headlines a few months later, when prostitutes came forward with affidavits published in the local papers throwing George Locke under the bus and painting a picture of the situation in Locke.

"GIRLS ACCUSE GEO. W. LOCKE - Furniture Man Narrowly Escapes Grand Jury Indictment for Pandering-

George W. Locke, J Street furniture dealer and large property owner in Lockeport, narrowly escaped indictment yesterday by the county grand jury on a charge of sending girls to a life of prostitution in houses owned by him at that place.

Two affidavits were submitted by girls who swore that he directed them to houses of ill-fame, in which he is alleged to have said they could make more money than by working in a cannery. The affidavits which are in possession of the Union, contain detailed statements relative to time, place and money to be  paid for rental."----- Sac Union, 9/12/1919




Sac Union 9/13/1919

 By the next day, one of the affidavits had been published (see above). Ruby Allen  stated:

"A little over a year ago, George Locke, furniture dealer on J Street, Sacramento, California, rented to me one of his houses in the town of Locke, County of Sacramento, State of California, and told me to put girls in the house for the purposes of prostitution;

That I did thereupon occupy the house and had girls in said house for purposes of prostitution, in accordance with agreement with said George Locke; that a girl named Ellis [sic] came to the said house and stated she had been sent there by the said George Locke, and he told me that he had sent the said girl Ellis to my house in Locke, to work as a prostitute in accordance with this agreement, and told me to treat her right and that the said said Ellis did actually, in compliance with this arrangement, work in my house at Locke as a prostitute, practising prostitution for money."-- 2/4/ 1919 affidavit of Ruby Allen.

By September 14th, the second affidavit was published in the paper. It read:

"On or about the months of May or June, 1917, I was directed by George Locke, owner of a house of prostitution known as the White House, located in the town of Locke, otherwise known as Lockeport, County of Sacramento, State of California, to the said White House, the said George Locke telling me that it was a sporting house run by Ruby Allen and that I would make more money at the said White House than I would in the cannery, where I was going to work;

That following the directions of the said George Locke, I went to the said White House in Lockeport, met Bee, the negro maid, and then was admitted to the place by Ruby Allen and that I practiced prostitution in said White House run by Ruby Allen for a period of several months, practicing prostitution with different men for money;

On a subsequent occasion, the said George Locke, being the man who directed me into said house, told me that he owned the said White House, and on several occasions, I saw George Locke in the said White House and at least once, I saw Ruby Allen pay the said George Locke money;

Several months later the said George Locke came to the said White House in Lockeport and asked me in the presence of the landlady, Ruby Allen, to open up a house of prostitution in Sacramento over a firehouse, telling me that I could not keep any other girls there but would have to do all the prostitution myself and that I should be very careful as to whom I let in as there were many stool pigeons around; stating further that I should pay him all the money I made from prostitution."-- 3/3/1919, affidavit of Mae Beach.

** Records show that original owner of Locke, George W. Locke died in 1909, thus the George Locke that is accused for pandering and running prostitution houses in Locke would be his grandson, George R. Locke, since his father had moved away by this time.

--(Copyright 2015, J'aime Rubio)





Locke's Notorious Prostitution Scandals


George Locke was not the only one getting in trouble with the Red Light Abatement Act. Other Chinese residents of Locke operating "immoral" houses of prostitution were mentioned in the newspapers of the time, including Mar Lung.

 According to the October 24, 1919, issue of the Sacramento Union newspaper,  Judge Peter J. Shields granted a permanent injunction on one of the houses of ill-repute in Locke whose business was owned by Mar Lung, and built on land of George Locke.

District Attorney Hugh B. Bradford pressed charges on both Mar Lung and George Locke. As the story is reported, Mar Lung was able to remain at the building so as long as he only occupied it as a residence, and nothing  more under a $2,000.00 bond.

This was not the first, nor would it be the last of newspaper headline scandals regarding Locke's morally loose view of prostitution, or blatant disregard for the law. In fact, just a few months earlier in the same year, the headlines reported an extortion scandal which was allegedly claimed by Grace Melbourne, one of the madams of Locke (Lockeport).

The April 3, 1919 issue of the Sacramento Union newspaper states that Grace Melbourne had been paying for protection from the district attorney and sheriff's office. Within a six month period she had paid out approximately $1,500.00.  A former sheriff's deputy, J.C. Calvert testified in front of Judge Busick on this matter. Calvert, a resident of Walnut Grove, had only been on the job as a sheriff's deputy for 10 days before being forced to resign because of his stance on the matter.

"About a year ago I had a conversation in the White House with Grace Melbourne and she said: 'I'm getting -- --- good and sick of running a house of prostitution. I have been under heavy expenses here.'  

"She said she had paid within the last six months $1500 for protection from the distric attorney's and sheriff's offices." 

"I was appointed last January by Sheriff Jones as a deputy and held the position for 10 days. Jones requested me to resign...for the good of the sheriff's office and the district attorney's office."---  statement by J.C. Calvert (Sac Union 4/3/1919)


Only two days after the story broke, the newspaper ran another piece, this time with Melbourne adamantly denying she ever made such statements to Calvert.

 "Miss Grace Melbourne, whom A. C. [sic] Calvert said in the redlight abatement cases before Superior Judge Charles O. Busick last Wednesday, had told him that she had paid within six months the sum of $1500 for "protection" from the offices of the sheriff and the district attorney, yesterday came out with a denial of the statements attributed to her.

Miss Melbourne said she is ready to go before the grand jury at any time and will be glad to tell what she knows.

"Calvert told an untruth," she said. "I never gave a cent of money to anyone for protection. At the time Calvert said I made the statement I did not know any of the county officials."

Miss Melbourne said there were other things at the bottom of the whole affair, a difference between Calvert and George. W. Locke [sic] for one, regarding payment for a pump installed the the request of one of Locke's tenants at Lockeport."--- Sacramento Union,  4/5/1919

Whether Grace Melbourne was being extorted by the city officials and Calvert had the conscience to tell on them, or like the latter article describes, there may have been an actual personal vendetta against George Locke that brought this whole ordeal to the forefront, we may never truly know. As I will show you in future posts, the town of Locke was full of notorious scandals, and George Locke had a part in a lot of it.

You must remember though, this was not the original George W. Locke, he had died in 1909. The George Locke you will be reading about in future posts that are tied to scandal would be his grandson, although the newspapers of the time more than likely assumed they all had the same middle initials.

(Copyright 2015- J'aime Rubio) 


Cracking Locke's Secret Past


Something that I found quite interesting while researching Locke's history was the fact no one had written in depth about Locke's history of prostitution . The soiled doves lived in the town, and from my research, the majority were Caucasian. It wasn't until the 1950's that Chinese prostitutes were more prevalent in Locke, but prior to that all the prostitutes in Locke were always Caucasian.

Documented news articles around 1918-1920, reporting court cases against George Locke, (grandson of George W.), show that he was in charge of the area, not only as the owner of the town itself, but as the "Vice King" as one newspaper dubbed him.

I believe that when the opportunity arose to have the Chinese move to Locke, George G. Locke decided that he would make his property into a bustling place to serve the needs of laborers in the area. I also believe that his son, George R. Locke wanted to oversee that town and make money without all the rules and regulations that other Delta areas enforced.

He knew that all Caucasians were banned from gambling in Walnut Grove, and many laborers felt that was not fair. You can find that in several newspapers of the time period.

The Chinese, Japanese and even Hindu could gamble but the Caucasians could not. George Locke saw a need, one that would make him a lot of money, and he was simply filling the need.  So he let the Chinese set up gambling halls in various buildings that allowed anyone to gamble there, but he also had buildings he owned himself (records show this) where he operated houses of ill-repute under the guise of "boarding houses."

The White House was one of the houses of ill-repute located in the Historic District of Locke. One of the earliest Caucasian women in Locke was Grace Melbourne. Voting Registries of the time period going back as early as 1916, has her listed as a resident of Locke.

Although she was the "madam" of the boarding house, she listed herself as a "housewife" more than likely to avoid suspicion.  There is also a record of one Ruby Allen acting as a madam for the White House as well. Hiring her would prove to be a terrible mistake for George Locke in the near future.

Another one of George Locke's establishments was the New Home Hotel, and then of course the Lockeport Hotel, as newspapers confirmed. According to the National Registry for Historic Places, the listing for the town of Locke claims that the "boarding house" located where the Lockeport Hotel stands, was built by Wing-Chong Owyoung and is one of the original buildings constructed around 1912.  That is very possible, but newspaper clippings with legal notices, such as the request for liquor licenses and such, list George W. Locke & Son as the owners and proprietors of both the hotel and restaurant which they refer to as the Lockeport Hotel. There is also a newspaper clipping mentioning the Locke's requesting to have their Lockeport Hotel reopened after it had been closed down for violating the red-light abatement act.

There are plenty of other newsclippings showing other various Chinese merchants "owning" businesses and even houses of ill-repute in Locke, just not the three listed above (Lockeport Hotel, New Home and White House), owned by George Locke. It seems interesting to me that there are two stories going around about the Lockeport Hotel, yet the documented information of the time period show George Locke and family were the proprietors. (I will be doing more investigating into this buildings history in future blog posts).

The Lockeport Hotel (or the Lockeport House) was and is still located on the corner of Levee and River Road. It is the one that is boarded up across from the Chinese Garden Restaurant. When the lighting is right and the weather is good, you can still see an outline of the words "Lockeport Hotel" on the side of the building, too.

At one time, before the levee was raised, this building had a deck that stretched outward west, and a view to the river could be seen from it.  It appears that at some point the levee was raised about 10 feet or so, leaving all the front facing buildings in Locke to appear to be built up on a hillside, having their first floors to appear underground.

(Copyright 2015- J'aime Rubio)