Chicago Tribune
NEW LAW INSPIRES WHITE
SLAVE RAID
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Assistant Prosecutor Roe and Sleuths Descend on South Chicago Resort.
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TAKE TWO PROPRIETORS
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Man and Woman to Be Tried for Pandering Under Statute in Effect This Month
Following disclosures in the trial of two alleged procurers, Assistant State’s Attorney Roe, at the head of a flying squadron of detectives, directed a sudden descent upon the South Chicago levee district, with the result that two supposed leaders in the "white slave" traffic were captured. The blow was directed under a new statute which went into effect this month, at the persons believed to be at the head of illegal traffic in young girls who could not be reached by the former law against procuring.
The two persons placed under arrest were Abe Weinstein, proprietor of a saloon at 9010 Strand, and Jennie Sandusky, keeper of a resort at the same address. Weinstein also claims to be part owner of a cleaning and dying establishment at 828 West Randolph street. The Sandusky woman formerly was a west side resort keeper.
They were taken early yesterday morning in the resort on the South Chicago levee on warrants issued from the state’s attorney’s office charging them with the crime of "pandering," or aiding and abetting the procuring of girls.
Hear of Alleged Boast
State’s Attorney Wayman and his assistant, Ben Short, have information to the effect that Weinstein assured his agents who are charged with procuring young girls from amusement parks that "no saloonkeeper could protect them better."
During the raid on Weinstein’s saloon, a search was made by Detectives Louis and O’Keefe for books and records which might show that money had been paid for protection. The books they sought could not be found.
Mr. Roe, who has been the representative of the state’s attorney’s office in the white slave cases, is convinced he has uncovered the system of operation and caught at least certain members of the "inner circle" in the traffic.
In this supposed system young men are employed to "pick up" young girls in amusement parks of the city and other places where they may be found and persuade them to go to places "where they will have a good home and plenty of money." These men, as the system is described, send the girls to resorts in South Chicago, where they remain a short time and are then sent to the Twenty-second street and west side levees.
Finding of Girls is Incentive
The disclosures which formed the immediate incentive for the raid were made during the trial of two young men on charges of procuring. In the Harrison street Municipal court Thursday. Miss Mary McConnell, a 16 year girl, was found in a resort near Twenty-first and Dearborn streets last week by the police.’ She had been induced to leave her parents’ residence at 1242 Forty-second court, together with another 16 year old girl, Miss Adele Shubert, who lives on the west side, were the defendants in the case. Jacobson met the McConnell girl at Forest Park, according to the story told Assistant State’s Attorney Roe. He took here to various shows in the park, it is said, and asked to be allowed to call upon her and bring a friend. She was to get another girl to complete the quartet.
The next time he came, according to the story, he was accompanied by Brodsky, who was introduced to Miss Shubert. After they had become acquainted the girls were induced to go to the resort kept by the Sandusky woman over Weinstein’s saloon.
Resort Keepers Meet Girls
It was arranged that they should be met at the Illinois Central by the resort keeper. The two young men rode with them on the train to South Chicago, but did not get off the train with them for fear they would be seen turning them over to the resort keeper. The girls were met, it is said, by Weinstein and the Sandusky woman and conducted to the resort at 9010 Strand. It was soon after this that one of them was discovered in the Twenty-second street district.
The two men were arrested last Tuesday on charges of pandering and were held by the Municipal court. The two girls are at the Harrison street annex, where they are kept at the request of their parents, who fear they will be kidnapped and taken out of the city if they are released.
After this information had been obtained by State’s Attorney Wayman and his assistants it was determined to raid the resort.
Find Proprietors After Search
Assistant State’s Attorney Roe met Detectives Louis and O’Keefe early in the morning and went with them to South Chicago, reaching the resort about 9 a.m. and hearing caplases issued in the state’s attorney’s office.
The detectives went into the saloon and asked for "Abe."
"He is not here. He is downtown somewhere," said the bartender.
"Where is Jennie, the housekeeper?" they asked.
"She is not here, either," was the answer.
The detectives went upstairs and were met on the stairway by the housekeeper.
"Is you name Jennie ?" they asked.
She made a denial.
"Is Abe in the house ?"
"He is not here. I don’t know where he is," was the reply.
The raiders proceeded to search the house making inquiries of the inmates. Behind a door which was reached by going through the housekeeper’s room Weinstein was found in another small room.
He was taken into custody together with the housekeeper, who finally admitted she was the woman they were after. When asked for the books, they denied any record of the accounts of the resort.
Asks "What is Pandering?"
Weinstein was questioned by the assistant state’s attorney as he rode on the train from South Chicago. The two prisoners were taken to the East Chicago avenue police station, where they were to be kept until today unless they obtained bonds.
"Do you know what your are accused of?" asked Mr. Roe.
"I haven’t any idea." replied Weinstein.
"The charge is pandering."
"I don’t know what that means," said the prisoner.
The charge was explained to him in detail and he was asked about the two girls.
"I don’t have anything to do with the girls," he said. "That is up to the woman. I run the saloon and she runs the house. She pays me $20 a month for rent and gets a commission on the drinks the girls sell.’
"Did you go over to the train to meet those two girls when they came to South Chicago?"
"They were met by the housekeeper. I was there at the station. I just happened to be there."
"You knew they were under age, didn’t you?"
"One of them said she was married and the other said she was 21 years old. The police were not satisfied with their accounts of themselves and they went away the next day. I didn’t send them anywhere."
Both Deny They Paid Tribute
"How much protection money do you have to pay ?"
"I don’t make enough to pay anything," was the reply. "There is nothing of that kind going on down here."
The woman told a similar story. She denied she paid anything for police protection. Both she and Weinstein said they did not know the girls had been brought there by young men. They admitted they knew one of the young men and saw him at the station that day.
"The girls called me up from Chicago and told me they were coming down and asked me to meet them at the station," said the Sandusky woman. "I went to meet them and Weinstein when with me just for the walk."
"Where were you before you came to South Chicago?" asked Mr. Roe.
"I was on the west side."
"Did you keep a resort on the west side ?"
"I did. I was there several years. Everybody over there knows me."
Asks Aid of Louis Frank
Weinstein busied himself during the day trying to get some one to sign a bond for his release and for the woman’s. He called upon several west side saloon and resort keepers. He asked Louis Frank, one of the men indicted by the grand jury last week, to be his bondsman.
He said he had been arrested once before on a charge of gambling, but had never faced a charge like this before. He purchased the saloon in South Chicago about a year ago.
The law under which Weinstein and the woman were arrested provides a maximum penalty of six months’ imprisonment and $300 fine for the first offense and one year and $1000 for the second offense.
The amendment passed by the last legislature makes the law apply to anyone aiding or abetting or employing others in the procuring of girls for immoral purposes.
The former law applied to the procurers only and the employers could not be reached under it. Both laws were based by the legislature through the efforts of State’s Attorney Wayman and Mr. Row.
Plans Other Raids
Other raids are said to be contemplated by the state’s attorney for the purpose of getting information about the white slave traffic. It is believed South Chicago divekeepers will be able to give some more information concerning the methods used in procuring girls for immoral resorts.
Assistant State’s Attorney Roe is also investigating a report that a new "underground railway" is in operation for the transportation of girls from the east side in New York to Chicago resorts. One of the women found in the South Chicago resort yesterday was a new York east side woman, who said she had been in Chicago only a short time. Five girls were found in the resort, but all of them claimed they were more than 21 years old and none of them were arrested.
