Monday, 14th July 1913 Girl Bares New Vice System

Monday, July 14, 1913

Young Woman From the Country Says She Was Lured to Resort on Peters Street.

Raid Frees Victim of Alleged Gang From a Resort on Peters Street.

Five White Men and Dozen Negroes Arrested in Raid Are Convicted in Court.

*Editor's Note: This article was also published under the headlines "Police Hunt Vice Band's Leader" and "17 Caught in Vice Drag Fined," the latter article containing the following six paragraphs in brackets. The sub-headlines for each article are listed above in the same order. There is also a continuation of the article on a second page, which does not show on the scanned source text.

[The police crusade against vice resulted Monday afternoon in the conviction and fining of five white men and twelve negroes who were caught in a raid on a negro dive at 76 Chestnut avenue early Sunday morning.

Judge Broyles sharply scored the existence of such alleged dives, and declared every effort must be put forth to close them. Chief Beavers has ordered the house closed immediately.

The trial created a stir in police court, as eight of the negroes were chauffeurs for some of the most prominent men in Atlanta, who were on hand to make bond for them.

The white men, who were fined $15.75 each, are C.F. Smith, clerk, of 54 Angler avenue; S.B. Moore, clerk, of 131 South Pryor street; A.B. Arnold, of Macon; J.W. Little, of Macon, and C.D. Kirk, of 348 North Jackson street.

Eight of the negro men were fined $10.75 each.

Eilene Lester, who, it is alleged, runs the place; Henry Lester, her husband, and Theresa Gilbert and Minnie Jones, two other negro women implicated, were bound over to the Superior Court under $500 bond each.]

General Order Issued.

As a result of a sensational story told in police court Monday morning by Effie Drummond, a 20-year-old country girl, who was arrested Saturday when the police raided the boarding house of Mrs. Lulu Bell, at Fair and Peters streets, Chief Beavers at noon issued a general order for the arrest of Joe North, named by the Drummond girl as a "white slaver."

The girl charges that North, after he had promised to marry her, lured her to the Bell woman's place, and after giving her liquor until she was stupefied, forced her into the companionship of men whom he and the Bell woman had brought to the place.

Chief Beavers thinks the testimony of the Drummond girl forms an important link in the chain of evidence he is weaving around members of the vice ring said to exist in Atlanta.

The testimony of the girl indicates, the police believe, that North merely was the agent of men higher up, and that he acted on their instructions in luring the Drummond girl, and possibly others, to the Bell woman's place.

Tells All to Court.

The Chief has announced that every phase of the girl's story will be investigated thoroughly. Some of the things she has told dovetail into statements made by other girls who have been lured to ruin by the band which is alleged to have its headquarters in Atlanta.