Friday, 11th July 1913 Girl Tells Police Startling Story of Vice Ring

The Atlanta Georgian

Friday, July 11, 1913

THREE NEW VICE WAR ARRESTS

Man Prisoner Declares He Will Bare the Whole System if Brought to Trial.

As a result of statements made to Chief Beavers Friday morning by Hattie Smith, the young girl who has been held for the Grand Jury in connection with the vice war, Detective Rosser at noon arrested three persons—two men and a woman—who were named by the Smith girl as contributing to her downfall and being involved in her white slavery charges.

The persons under arrest are Paul Estes, 52 Queen Street; Hoyt Monroe, Edgewood, and Mrs. Lola White, 768 Marietta Street.

The woman is a cousin of Hattie Smith and lives next door, while both Estes and Monroe are in the employ of the Collier Garage at Cone and James Streets, where the Smith girl says she met Lena Barnhardt, who later took her to the Cumberland Hotel.

Says She Went Joy Riding.

In her new statement made Friday morning Hattie Smith declared that she went automobile riding with her cousin, Mrs. White, and Estes and Monroe. The two men were released by Chief Beavers after being given a copy of the charges, and their case set for Tuesday afternoon. The White woman was taken to detective headquarters and will be questioned by Chief Lanford. It was announced by the police that she will be held on heavy bonds.

The arrests of Estes and Monroe are considered by Chief Beavers as the preliminary to the spreading of the dragnet and the arrest of seventeen men,  some of them prominent in business, who, it is alleged, are involved. Estes, when arrested, declared that he intends to make a complete confession and throw new light on the situation.

"I'm not going to be the goat," Estes declared. "I am going to open my mouth and tell everything I know about vice, and I'm going to give names. I'm going to name every girl and man that I know have taken automobile rides and gone to hotels for immoral purposes.

Promises a Sensation.

"And I know enough names to stir up an awful racket if they are all arrested, and I know a lot about vice in Atlanta that no one else knows."

Chief Beavers stated that every man whom Estes names in his proposed confession will be arrested and brought before Judge Broyles for trial. The Chief declares that the developments of Friday in the vice war have placed him in a position where he can put a speedy end to the immoral operations of men and women in Atlanta, and he stated that he intends to continue his investigation with increased vigor.

Sensational revelations involving two more downtown hotels and seventeen well-known men, one of them a prominent business man, were made to Chief Beavers and Plainclothes Officers Green and McKibben Friday morning by Corrinne Wilson, the 16-year-old girl who was arrested, together with 14-year-old Dora Rothstein, Thursday night.

The confession of the Wilson girl, which Chief Beavers regards as one of the most important developments of the vice crusade, and which is even more sensational than the story of Hattie Smith, came at the close of a long examination of the girl by the police.

Accuses Business Men.

The Wilson girl was definite in her accusations. She furnished the chief with the name of a prominent business man whom she said has contributed to her downfall, and told of three others whose names she does not remember, but whose places of…

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GIRL PRISONERS TELL MORE OF VICE RING

Seventeen Men, Some of Them Prominent in Business Circles, Accused by One Victim.

Continued From Page 1.

…business she knows. The chief stated that the girl will be taken around the city Friday afternoon to identify the three men, and that they will be arrested at once after being identified.

In addition to the four men named by the Wilson girl against whom charges will be made, she gave the Chief the names of thirteen others with whom she says she and Dora Rothstein have taken auto rides.

These twelve will be subpenaed as witnesses in the trial of the two girls, which has been postponed until Saturday afternoon, and forced to tell all they know about vice. If evidence warranting it develops at the trial, they will be arrested and cases made against them.

Two men named by the Wilson girl as having kept her and the Rothstein girl in the woods for several nights were arrested by the police Friday morning. They are A. C. Dollar, a shoemaker, living at 69 Davis Street, who is held on a charge of disorderly conduct, and W. W. Suttles, assistant yardmaster of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railroad, who is held on a kidnaping [sic] charge.

Suttles and Dollar were named also in the statements of the Rothstein girl, who named the Wilson girl as a procurer, and declared she introduced her to the two men.

Wilson Girl Denies Charge.

Corrinne Wilson denies the charges made against her by the Rothstein girl and declares that she was led into a life of shame by the latter girl and the two men.

"I met the Rothstein girl at the White City Park last Fourth of July," said the Wilson girl. "I was skating and fell, and she was among the crowd that gathered around me. That is how I met her. We were together all that evening and night in the woods near the park, and the next day we met Suttles and Dollar. Monday night we stayed all night with men at the baseball park.

"Saturday night and Sunday night we spent somewhere in the woods, and Monday night we stayed at the baseball park with some men. Tuesday and Wednesday night we stayed with Dollar and Suttles in an old mill on the Adamsville Road. Yesterday afternoon we came to Atlanta and were arrested last night.

Accuses Her Accuser.

"Dora Rothstein lied when she says I induced her to go with the men. She told me she had been doing it for a long time and that we could have a good time and make some money. I yielded when she told me we could make money, and she introduced me to the men."

The Wilson girl told Chief Beavers also that eight months ago, before she was married, she stayed at a hotel on Broad Street with a man, registering as his wife. She says she is the wife of Andrew Wilson, who now is working in Marietta. She came to Atlanta four weeks ago to visit her mother, who had burned her foot, she said.

Chief Beavers stated that in addition to involving the hotels and the seventeen men, the Wilson girl has told him a lot of things she had heard from other girls. He said she had given him the names of all the girls she knew who made a practice of going auto riding with men and of staying at the hotels with them, and that all of the girls will be brought to headquarters and questioned.

The Wilson girl also give the chief the names of a number of alleged assignation houses which, she asserted, she and other girls had visited, and all will be thoroughly investigated.

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