10 for maintaining disorderly houses, 7 of which were Raines-Law
Hotels;
6 for the violation of Section 2460 of the Penal Law, entitled
"Compulsory Prostitution of Women."
We have found no evidence of the existence in the County of New York
of any organization or organizations, incorporated or otherwise,
engaged as such in the traffic in women for immoral purposes, nor
have we found evidence of an organized traffic in women for immoral
purposes.
It appears, on the other hand, from indictments found by us and from
the testimony of witnesses that a trafficking in the bodies of women
does exist and is carried on by individuals acting for their own
individual benefit, and that these persons are known to each other
and are more or less informally associated.
We have also found that associations and clubs, composed mainly or
wholly of those profiting from vice, have existed, and that one such
association still exists. These associations and clubs are analogous
to commercial bodies in other fields, which, while not directly
engaged in commerce, are composed of individuals all of whom as
individuals are so engaged.
The "incorporated syndicates" and "international bands" referred to
in published statements, we find to be such informal relations as
have just been spoken of, while the "international headquarters,"
"clearing houses" and "pretentious clubhouses" mentioned are cafés or
other so-called "hang-outs" where people interested in the various
branches of the business resort. These and the houses of
prostitution are also referred to as "markets."
The "dealers" and "operators" are the so-called "pimps" and
"procurers," the "pimp" being referred to as the "retailer" and the
manager of houses as the "wholesaler."
The only association composed mainly or wholly of those profiting
from vice, of the present existence of which we have evidence, is the
New York Independent Benevolent Association, organized in this city
in 1894 and incorporated in 1896. This association has had an
average membership of about 100. Its alleged purpose is to assist
its members in case of illness, to give aid in case of death, and to
assure proper burial rites.
After an exhaustive investigation into the activities of the
association and of its members we find no evidence that the
association as such does now or has ever trafficked in women, but
that such traffic is being or has been carried on by various members
as individuals. We find that the members of this association are
scattered in many cities throughout the United States. From the
testimony adduced it appears probable that the social relations of
the members and the opportunity thereby afforded of communicating
with one another in various cities have facilitated the conduct of
their individual business.
On one occasion where a member was convicted of maintaining a
disorderly house and a fine of $l,000 was imposed upon him in the
City of Newark, New Jersey, the association voted $500 for his aid.
On another occasion in the City of Newark, New Jersey, where several
of the members of the association were arrested on the charge of
keeping and maintaining disorderly houses, and one member was in
prison, the then President went to Newark, declared to the Under
Sheriff that he was the President of the New York Independent
Benevolent Association, and entered into negotiations with the
authorities in Newark on behalf of the members who had been arrested.
We have, however, no evidence of any such instance in the County of
New York.
It appears from the testimony of various members and ex-members of
the said association that its membership is almost entirely composed
of persons who are now or have been engaged in the operation of
disorderly houses or who are living or have lived directly or
indirectly upon the proceeds of women's shame. None of these
witnesses, in answer to specific questions, could name more than one
or two present or past members whose record did not show them to have
lived at some time upon the proceeds of prostitution in one form or
another. They claim, however, that all members who have been
convicted of a crime are expelled from the organization when the
proof of that fact has been submitted, the offense apparently being
not the commission of a crime, but conviction. It would appear that
this procedure is for the purpose of protecting the individual if
possible, and, failing in that, of freeing the association from
criticism.
Finding no evidence of an organized traffic in women, but of a
traffic carried on by individuals, we have made a special and careful
investigation along this line. Owing to the publicity given to the
inquiry at its inception, it has been difficult to get legal evidence
of the actual purchase and sale of women for immoral purposes, and
our investigators have been informed in different quarters that a
number of formerly active dealers in women had either temporarily
gone out of business or had transferred their activities to other
cities. However, five self-declared dealers in women had agreed upon
various occasions to supply women to our agents, but because of their
extreme caution and the fear aroused by the continued sitting of this
Grand Jury, these promises were fulfilled in only two instances, in
each of which two girls were secured for our agents at a price, in
the one case of $60 each and in the other of $75 each. Indictments
have been found against these two persons; one pleaded guilty and the
other was convicted on trial.
All of these parties boasted to our investigators of their extensive
local and interstate operations in the recent past. They
specifically mentioned the cities to which they had forwarded women
and described their operations as having at that time been free from
danger of detection.
Our investigators also testified as to the methods and means used by
these people in replenishing the supply of women and in entrapping
innocent girls.
Quoting again from Your Honor's charge:
"This traffic in women, it is charged, follows two main objects:
First, the procuring of women of previous chaste character, who
through force, duress, or deceit are finally made to live lives of
prostitution; second, the procuring of women who are already
prostitutes and placing them with their consent in houses where they
may ply their trade."
Under the first heading, namely, the procuring of women of previous
chaste character, we find the most active force to be the so-called
"pimp." There are in the County of New York a considerable and
increasing number of these creatures who live wholly or in part upon
the earnings of girls or women who practice prostitution. With
promises of marriage, of fine clothing, of greater personal
independence, these men often induce girls to live with them and
after a brief period, with threats of exposure or of physical
violence, force them to go upon the streets as common prostitutes and
to turn over the proceeds of their shame to their seducers, who live
largely, if not wholly, upon the money thus earned by their victims.
This system is illustrated in an indictment and conviction where the
defendant by such promises induced a girl of fifteen to leave her
home and within two weeks put her on the streets as a common
prostitute.
We find also that these persons ill-treat and abuse the women with
whom they live and beat them at times in order to force them to
greater activity and longer hours of work on the streets. This is
illustrated in the case of another defendant who was indicted and
convicted for brutally slashing with a knife the face of "his girl"
and leaving her disfigured for life, merely because she was no longer
willing to prostitute herself for his benefit.
In this connection mention should be made of the moving picture shows
as furnishing to this class of persons an opportunity for leading
girls into a life of shame. These shows naturally attract large
numbers of children, and while the law provides that no child under
the age of sixteen shall be allowed to attend them unaccompanied by
parent or guardian, it is a fact, as shown by the number of arrests
and convictions that the law is frequently violated. Evidence upon
which indictments have been found and convictions subsequently
secured, has been given which shows that, in spite of the activities
of the authorities in watching these places, many girls owe their
ruin to frequenting them. An instance of the above is the case of a
defendant indicted by this Grand Jury and convicted before Your
Honor, where three girls met as many young men at a Harlem moving
picture show. At the end of the performance, the young men were
taken by an employee of the place through a door in the rear into a
connecting building--used as a fire exit for the moving picture
show--where they met the girls and all passed the night together.
The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has furnished
statistics showing that since the 13th day of December, 1906, 33
cases of rape and seduction originated in moving picture shows, in
some instances the perpetrators being the employees of the shows.
It is not the purpose of this reference to bring an indictment
against the moving picture show, which under proper restrictions may
be an important and valuable educational and recreative factor, but
rather to point out possible dangers inherent in performances carried
on in the darkness and the importance of the observance of safeguards
by parents or guardians, and of the strict enforcement of the law for
the protection of children.
Under the second heading in that portion of Your Honor's charge
quoted above, which refers to the procuring of women who are already
prostitutes and placing them with their consent in houses where they
may ply their trade, the Grand Jury has made a special study of the
class of disorderly houses commonly known as "Raines-Law Hotels," the
chief business of many of which is to provide a place where women of
the streets may take their customers. The testimony given shows that
girls who brought their patrons to certain hotels of this class were
allowed rebates on the amount charged their patrons for rooms. Upon
the evidence brought before us, indictments were found against seven
of the most notorious of these hotels.
The abuse which has grown up in the conversion of the so-called
massage and manicure parlor into a disorderly house, frequently of
the most perverted kind, has received our careful study under this
same heading. A special investigation has been made of some 125
massage and manicure parlors, in this county. Less than half of
these establishments were found to be equipped for legitimate
purposes, most of them being nothing but disorderly houses. The
operators in such places had no knowledge of massage treatment, and
in certain cases where certificates of alleged massage institutes
were on the walls of the premises they frankly admitted that they had
no training in massage and did not even know the persons whose
signatures appeared on the certificates.
In view of the above, it would seem important that these parlors
should be licensed by the Health Department of the city and that all
operators in them should also have a license from some approved
health or medical authority, and further, that proper supervision
should be exercised to insure their operation for the legitimate
purposes for which they are licensed.
The spreading of prostitution in its various forms from the
well-known disorderly house into apartment and tenement houses
presents a very grave danger to the home. It is inevitable that
children who have daily evidence of the apparent comfort, ease, and
oftentimes luxury in which women of this class live should not only
become hardened to the evil, but be easily drawn into the life. The
existing laws for the suppression of this vice in apartment and
tenement houses should be most rigorously enforced and if necessary
additional legislation enacted.
But of the evils investigated under this head, the most menacing is
the so-called "pimp" who, as already stated, while often active in
seducing girls, is, to what seems to be an increasing extent, living
on the earnings of the professional prostitute, constantly driven by
him to greater activity and more degrading practices.
We do not find that these persons are formally organized, but it
would appear that the majority of the women of the street, as well as
many of those who practice prostitution in houses or flats, are
controlled by them and usually pay their entire earnings to them.
They prescribe the hours and working places for these women, assist
them in getting customers, protect them from interference when
possible, and when the women are arrested do what they can to procure
their release. While "their women" are at work, they spend much of
their time in saloons and other resorts where they gather socially.
Although operating individually, their common interest leads them to
coöperate for mutual protection or for the recovery of women who may
desert them, and for the maintenance of their authority over their
particular women. It is an unwritten law among these men that the
authority of the individual over the woman or women controlled by him
is unquestioned by his associates to whatever extreme it may be
carried.
To obtain a conviction against one of this class is most difficult,
for through fear or personal liking, "his woman" is loath to become a
witness against him, and without her evidence conviction is almost
impossible.
Whatever one may think of the woman who adopts the profession of a
prostitute by choice, all must agree that the man who in cold blood
exploits a woman's body for his own support and profit is vile and
despicable beyond expression. Only through the arousing of an
intelligent and determined public sentiment which will back up the
forces of law in their effort to ferret out and bring to justice the
members of this debased class, is there hope of stamping out those
vilest of human beings found to-day in the leading cities of this and
other lands.
--------
In view of the foregoing we recommend:
1. That no effort be spared in bringing to justice the so-called
"pimp." When the character and prevalence of these creatures are
more fully realized and public sentiment aroused regarding them, the
inadequate punishment now imposed should be increased and every
legitimate means devised and put into execution to exterminate them.
2. That the existing laws be more rigidly enforced to safeguard the
patrons of the moving picture shows, and that parents and guardians
exercise more careful supervision over their children in connection
with their attendance upon these shows.
3. That vigorous efforts be made to minimize the possibility of the
Raines-Law Hotel becoming a disorderly house, and that where
necessary proper supervision and inspection looking toward that end
be provided.
4. That the so-called massage and manicure parlors be put under the
control of the Health Department; that a license from this department
be required for their operation; that certificates be granted to
operators only by some approved medical authority, and that proper
measures be taken to enforce these laws.
5. That the laws relating to prostitution in apartment and tenement
houses be rigidly enforced, and that the present laws be supplemented
if necessary.
6. That a commission be appointed by the Mayor to make a careful
study of the laws relating to and the methods of dealing with the
social evil in the leading cities of this country and of Europe, with
a view to devising the most effective means of minimizing the evil in
this city.
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, JR.,
Foreman.
GEO. F. CRANE, Secretary.
Dated, June 9, 1910.