Iowa Old Press

Davenport Democrat and Leader
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
December 5, 1922

WOMAN FOUND AT BOTTOM OF WAR IN NAHANT
    Mexico warred with Africa in darkest Nahant last night and a shot was fired, according to the story told in police court this morning. As has been the case with all the major wars of history, a woman was found at the bottom of the trouble.
    Not a woman perhaps, for Vertemine Brooks, colored, is only 11 years old. Nevertheless she was the object of the affection of 20-year-old Silvio Gonzallos who is also a citizen of the Nahant box car community.
    Ganzallos and his father called on Bud Brooks, the father of Vertemine, and were highly indignant when he refused to give his daughter to the Mexican. "I'll kill you" he is alleged to have stated several times. Both had a drink of "purty good" hooch.
    Then the Mexican went to the Brooks cabin and demanded that the mother give them the girl. Instead she called her son Robert, who put the Gonzellos out of the house. Robert reported that in the evening he was fired at by the Mexicans but could not positively identify his assailants.
    The Mexicans could "not understand" so the case was dismissed.

Davenport Democrat and Leader
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
December 12, 1922

Helen Van Dale Makes Statement Believed to Implicate Former Pals
    Helen Van Dale, alleged white slaver, in her lonely cell in the Scott county jail, has made a signed statement. This became known today. The statement was made to state officials and a department of justice man. But the contents of the statement have not been divulged. Officials refuse to discuss it.
    The woman was grilled by the investigators for three hours before it was made according to attaches of the jail.
    She is downhearted and penitent. More than disappointed at the failure of her "friends" to come to her rescue, she is believed to have told all she knew. She was the alleged sweetheart of Tom Cox, then chief of police of Rock Island and also the proprietor of one of the most notorious dives in the old Rock Island underworld; a dive that was decidedly anti-Gabel. Her place was next door to the Gabel house.
     It was around Helen Van Dale that the alleged enormous White Slave ring was builded. She is supposed to have been backed by Cox and Looney.
    When the sweeping clean-up came she moved to Davenport. She later bought the old Palmer Inn at Nahant and is said to have transported all of her girls to Davenport for use in the Nahant joint. It was here that she was arrested.
    Rumor has it that while she declares herself innocent of the white slave charges she, thru spite, has connected her former lover, Tom Cox, with the ring. She at one time made the statement that she brought no girls from Rock Island. Another statement is that she is alleged to have made is that she had the Rock Island police department in the palm of her hand.
    She is also supposed to have been an eyewitness to the killing of a girl in the underworld in her joint. The girl is supposed to have quarreled with her. She was then with Cox. Cox is said to have taken sides with the Van Dale woman and in a drunken stupor to have hit the girl over the head with a beer bottle.
    Has the woman thru spite and following the old adage "Hell hath no fury like that of a woman scorned", told of the many mysteries the intrigue of which the rulers of the old underworld controlled that powerful invisible empire? Because those she thought were her friends have turned on her now that she is in trouble, she is believed to have told just enough to implicate them.
    R.E. Baker, former proprietor of the notorious Sand bar of Rock Island, was called before the investigators this morning. He told first of buying the place from one of the Looney cohorts. Then of the break with the gang. As long as he paid his tribute he was never arrested.
    When he broke he was arrested and charged with bootlegging. He was brought before Police Judge David J. Cleland for trial and was confronted with a bottle of moonshine liquor as evidence against him.
    It was then that he suspected a frame up. He knew that never since he had had the place had he sold anything except bonded whisky. Every bottle that went out of his place he says had the seal. He contended innocence and was convicted. Baker was prosecuted by City Attorney John K. Scott. He was fined $300 and costs. This he claimed not to possess. He was remanded to jail.
    He laid in the city jail for five days. Then he declares Cox came to him and told him to get out of town. This he agreed to do as soon as he could sell his place. He says that a bartender for Lou Meumann came to him and wanted to buy the place. He asked $1,000. It was refused, but he stood pat.
    Later Meumann himself came to him. Still he held out for the $1,000. This sum was finally agreed upon. Meumann paid him $100 and told him to go to City Attorney Scott and get a bill of sale and he would pay him the balance.
    Instead of going to Scott he went to a justice of the peace and returned to Meumann. He was then paid the balance.
    Baker maintains that it was a frame that he should go to Scott. Scott would then notify Cox who would order his arrest, then collect the $300. After putting the $900 in his pocket he boarded a street car for Davenport and did not return to Rock Island until called today.
    The Rock Island grand jury reconvenes tomorrow morning and will resume its probe. It is then that the sensational indictments are expected. Bills naming the slayers of young Looney are expected as are bills against Cleland.
    H.S. Mosher, chief of the state investigators, was called before Mayor Mueller and Chief of Police Schlueter yesterday afternoon and assured that if he should want help on the Iowa side of the river the Davenport police department would render him any aid possible. The two Davenport officials said that the city police would co-operate with him in every way.
    Mr. Mosher stated this morning that he had little or no need for help from the Davenport police as yet, but might need them before the investigation was completed.

Davenport Democrat and Leader
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
November 15, 1922

WHITE POWDERS, HOOCH AND 13 PEOPLE NABBED
Donahue Place Raided by Government Men and City Police

     One of the biggest steps toward a clean up in the city of Davenport was made, according to Night Police Captain Walter Homeyer, when he, one government narcotic agent, two prohibition agents and Police Officers Kuehl and Dietz swooned down on the resort said to have been operated by Mrs. Ella Donahue at 420 West Fifth street at 8:30 o'clock last night.
     Five capsules and a box of white powder which the government say is cocaine was confiscated, as was more than a gallon of moonshine liquor, nearly three gallons of wine, four quart bottles and four pint bottles of home brew and a quart bottle of Kimmel.
     The powders are to be sent to the government chemists in Minneapolis for analysis. If the chemists report that it is cocaine, new charges will be filed on all of those taken in the raid.
     A total of 13 people found in the house at the time were subjected to a severe questioning. They were, Mrs. Donahue, the alleged proprietor, Robert McGrath and Thomas Hines, said to be the two bartenders and Loretta Donahue, alias Loretta Hassan, a daughter of Mrs. Donahue, Mrs. Ed. White, who gave her address as 1305 Second avenue, Rock Island, and who claims to have operated the Market Square hotel on Seventeenth street in that city, Mrs. Gene Johnston, 113 Brady street, Mrs. Ebba Munson, 619 Iowa street, Hilda Witt, 528 West Sixth street, Margaret Donahue, another daughter of Mrs. Donahue and George McDermott.
     Mrs. Donahue, Hines and McGrath were arraigned before United States Commissioner A.G. Bush this morning and bound over to the federal grand jury under $2,000 bonds. These  three will all of the others were arraigned in police court on charges of operating and being inmates of a disorderly house and the cases continued. The alleged proprietor was released under $50 bonds and the others under $25 bonds. Louis Roddewig appeared as their attorney.
     Captain Homeyer said that for the past six months this place had been an eyesore to the city, that time after time officers have picked up drunks who told him that they bought the booze of Mrs. Donahue and  that several of them had signed affidavits to that effect. He told of several raids that the police had made and when they reached  the place they found that it had been cleaned and the liquor dumped. One dope addict told police that there was dope sold there as well as booze.
     The government came and secured several "buys", then went  to police headquarters and asked for help. He said that the police department was only too glad to give it to them.
     The house was full of people at the time of the raid. It was given a thoro search by the raiding party. The powder which is said to be quinine and the full capsules and several empty capsules were found behind one of the pictures that was hanging on the wall.
     The quart of Kimmel, made in 1906 in Berlin, Germany, was found concealed in the piano. It was only after the piano was dragged from the wall by Officer Kuehl that the liquor was discovered. 

Davenport Democrat and Leader
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
November 19, 1922

Alleged Opium Joint, Hooch Palaces Raided by Davenport Police
More Than a Score Arrested in Clean-up of City Saturday Night; "Hop" Pipe Found in Dresser Drawer Furnishes Evidence of Dope Rendezvous; Officials Kept Busy Booking Inmates and Storing Varied Receptacles of Liquor; Lone Officer Stages Raid.

     Federal agents and Davenport police joined hands to clean up the city Saturday night, raiding an alleged opium joint, gin palaces, and houses of ill fame, arresting twenty four persons and confiscating opium smoking apparatus and a large quantity of liquor.
     Held either on government or city warrants are Mrs. M. Brown, 208 East Fifth street, Mrs. Clara White, 614 West Fourth street, Lill Maloff, wife of the proprietor of the notorious Hollywood Inn, and Mrs. May Arnold, 1125 West Second street.
     While desk sergeants at the city police station worked to place inmates at these places in cells or to send  them to the house of detention, a squad of officers was busily engaged in finding nooks in which to stow carboys, kegs, cases and bottles of illicit liquor. Orders were given those arrested to line up and a long queue leading to the booking slate was formed.
     It was at Mrs. Brown's place, which has been under surveillance for a long time, that police and federal agents obtained the biggest haul. The most important find here, however, was an opium pipe, secreted in a dresser drawer-evidence which will be turned over to narcotic inspectors in an effort to obtain substantiation for the police that the Brown place was a rendezvous for drug addicts. 
     The liquor obtained at the Brown place consisted of four ten gallon kegs of wine, nine quarts of gin, two gallons of moonshine whiskey, several jugs and bottles of wine, a number of cans of cereal extract and a quantity of whiskey mash.

Booze in Chicken Coops.
     This booze literally filled every crevice of the East Fifth street house. Officers Dietz and Kuehl and Federal Prohibition Agent Roy E. Muhs removed from mattresses, drawers, closets, ice boxes and other cubby holes, ransacking the place from top to bottom and always finding more liquor. The whiskey mash was discovered in a chicken coop. Officers found the opium pipe in Mrs. Brown's bedroom, but were unable to find any narcotics.
     Federal Agent Muhs stated last night that he has obtained evidence of sale on Mrs. Brown, and will file charges against her in federal court. Following the discovery of the opium pipe, the woman was subjected to a rigid examination by police authorities, with somewhat unsatisfactory results. The grilling is expected to be continued today.

Kept "Bar Tender."
     Those arrested as inmates of the Brown place gave their names as Betty Jerome, Maurice Hanson, John Smith, and W.M. Chalupa. Hanson is alleged to have had charge of the liquor-dispensing end of the establishment, and appears to be well known to the police.
     Simultaneous raids were made on the Clara White and Lill Maloff places by officers who, called to raid one place, found two.
     The White house was raided under government warrant, and yielded two jugs of wine, drinking utensils, and several hydrometers, used in ascertaining alcoholic content of liquor. At this place, it is claimed, a pitcher of hooch was poured out of a window by panic-stricken inmates. Besides Mrs. White, four inmates who gave their names as C. Endorf, P. Canary, John Gray and Ed Murphy, were arrested.

Nicknamed "Buckskin"
     Mrs. White is a well-known police character and is known affectionately as "Buckskin". Charges of sale of intoxicating liquor will be filed against her, Federal Agent Muhs says.
     At the Lill Marloff home, Night Captain Walter Homeyer and his aides found a merry party in progress and proceeded to break it up as quickly as possible. Besides Mrs. Maloff, seven inmates calling themselves Ed O'Connor, M.D. Coburn, A. Hebbeln, J. Rowley, J.H. Reistoffer, H.P. Kerr and Edna Smith were found drinking or indulging in other forms of vice, police say.
     The Maloff place was raided under a city warrant, the woman being arrested on a charge of keeping  a disorderly house. Two cases of beer were seized, but it is not probable that federal information will be sworn out against her.
     Mrs. Maloff is also known as Lill Tank, and is supposed to have acted as an agent for John Looney, vice ring leader.

Lone Officer Raids.
     Officer John McDermott staged a lone raid early in the evening when he was called to the May Arnold home, 1125 West Second street, to investigate a call which had been received at the police station. A woman had stated over the phone that Nick Johnson, a man living at that place, had been slugged.
     When McDermott arrived at 1125 West Second street he at first could find nothing wrong. Finally, in the rear, he discovered Mrs. Arnold washing dishes in her kitchen, while Johnson, his head bleeding, was leaning against a door. In the kitchen were John Phillips, Mrs. Nick Johnson, and Martin Blanick, and Austrian. Mrs. Johnson and Phillips appeared to be intoxicated.
     In response to questions they asserted that a man named "Jimmy Smith" had slugged Johnson and had struck Blanick on the mouth, following an argument.

Escapes Thru Window.
     While they were talking, "Jimmy Smith" himself entered thru an outside door, and was promptly apprehended. He appeared willing to remain under arrest, and Officer McDermott, after locking the kitchen door, started to investigate other rooms of the house.
     After he had gone into the parlor, "Jimmy Smith" made good his escape thru a window. It is expected he will be arrested soon, as his whereabouts are known.
    Fifty bottles of home brew beer were found in the Arnold cellar by the officer.
    Mrs. Arnold was taken to the police station where she was booked on a charge of running a disorderly house. The rest were booked as inmates. All will appear for trial in police court Monday morning.
     The hectic evening began with the somewhat sensational arrest of H.W. Michaels, No. 12 Petersen building, caught with a pint bottle of moonshine at the corner of Third and Brady street by Federal Agent Muhs and Officer Pete Kuehl.
    Mr. Muhs has been trailing Michaels ever since he was fined $500 and costs on a liquor charge at the last term of federal court here. He suspected that the fine had not curbed Michaels' liquor dispensing proclivities, he states, and therefore determined to watch him closely.
     Another reason why Michaels was watched was because he had failed to pay the $100 installment of his fine within the 30 days given him by Federal Judge Martin J. Wade.
     Saturday evening, Mr. Muhs asserts, Michaels was on his way to deliver the liquor to a customer. Evidence of sale of liquor may be produced against the man, who is now being held in the county jail pending a conference between Judge Wade and Mr. Muhs.

Davenport Democrat and Leader
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
December 7, 1922

D. SCHROEDER PUTS IN HIS RESIGNATION
Suspended Fireman, Accused of Possessing Hard Liquor, Quits

     Dave Schroeder, suspended from the fire department last week because several bottles of alleged hooch were found in his boots at the Harrison street hose house, handed his resignation to Chairman John Meier of the board of police and fire commissioners this morning.
     His resignation put an end to speculation as to whether or not he would appeal his case. The charges were the first black mark against Schroeder in more than 24 years of service.
     Mr. Schroeder rates a pension under the commission law regardless of his suspension.

ST. JOHN, TAKEN IN RAID ON INN, FURNISHES BOND
    Arthur St. John, bar tender at the Crow Creek Inn, taken by Federal men in a raid upon the place last night, furnished $500 appearance bonds in commissioner's court this afternoon and was released  from custody pending a preliminary hearing on the charge of selling liquors.

Davenport Democrat and Leader
Davenport, Scott, Iowa
December 10, 1922

Nienstedt Bar Raided by Pros: No Booze Found
     Armed with a government search warrant, Federal Prohibition Agent Roy E. Muhs, assisted by Police Officers Gubser and Gords, searched the William Nienstedt bar, 1138 West Third street, Saturday night, and found-nothing.
     "There wasn't a drop of intoxicating liquor in the whole place," Mr. Muhs said, after the raid. "Nienstedt's bar sure was a disappointment."
     Which, according to a citizen's mood, is an advertisement- or not.

Submitted by C.J.L., July 2005 & Dec. 2006