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)

A Forgotten Accident In Locke

Sac Union 6/20/1920

In my research into the history of Locke, I have discovered many stories about various events. Most of the stories are about scandals, crimes, illegal gambling, prostitution and even murder.

Scene of tragic accident

This event was an accidental death of a young boy by his best friend. This story touched me to my core, as any tragedy involving a child is a terrible loss to the world.

According to newspaper reports, on June 19, 1920, the death took place in the rear living quarters of Chin King's Butcher shop building in Locke. According to the book, "Locke and the Sacramento Delta Chinatowns", it states that Chin King was one of the partners who established the Yuen Chong grocery store. King operated his butcher shop inside the building.

King's son, Joe King* (Joe Kung), 6, and pal Fred Gunn, 9, were playing "highbinders," when Gunn decided to run home and retrieved his father's gun from beneath a pillow on his bed, bringing it back to play. He didn't know the gun was loaded and was pretending to shoot, saying "I'll teach you how to shoot!" when the gun fired.  The bullet penetrated his brain killing him instantly. He was brought to Sacramento for burial according to the newspaper accounts.

With all the history forgotten in Locke, let us never forget little Joe King and keep his memory alive.

-(J'aime Rubio, 2015, Copyright)

Newspapers state Joe Kung, however I believe that this may have been in error.

History of Locke - (Part 2)

ARTICLE HAS BEEN SEPARATED INTO INDIVIDUAL PIECES, PLEASE SEE RIGHT HAND COLUMN FOR VARIOUS STORIES.

The True History of Locke, California (Part 1)

ARTICLE HAS BEEN BROKEN UP INTO SMALLER ARTICLES--- PLEASE LOOK TO MY LIST ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THIS BLOG TO SEE INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES----