Back Bay Empire – Beach, Brothels and Booze

CAPE MAY — Who says Atlantic City was the only hotbed of illegal action during Prohibition here at the Jersey Shore?
While our neighbor to the north may have its Nucky Johnson, Mickey Doyle and Lucy Danziger, Cape May County had its own cast of characters who brought intrigue and color to our sleepy peninsula during the 1920s and 1930s.
As the Fri., April 13 keynote speaker at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference Michael Conley, a local librarian, archivist and historian, told tales of bathtub gin, brothel raids and a judge who was assigned to keep it all under control.
Conley told the audience how the Cape May of today was different than the Cape May of the Prohibition era.
“People were trying to survive,” said Conley. “And they were trying to survive by any means possible; whether it meant breaking the law or upholding the law.”
In front of hundreds of fellow archivists, Conley told tales of life in the county during Prohibition. Ninety percent of his research was done using archived newspaper stories, which gave first-hand accounts of events.
In the Sept. 7, 1921 edition of the Philadelphia Public Ledger a story was told of an “overseas veteran who was gassed in the World War floated onto the beach at Turkey Gut Inlet, four miles below Wildwood NJ at two o’clock Saturday morning…”
Conley read the harrowing tale of the veteran’s adventure as his plans to go fishing for kingfish were aborted when he was taken prisoner and held at gunpoint by a band of bootleggers, as a witness to two boats unloading bootlegged whiskey off the coast.
“For nearly two hours,” read Conley, “the soldier and his armed captor watched the boxes of whiskey being transferred.”
Once the boxes were unloaded from the boats to trucks waiting on the beach, the trucks prepared to leave and the soldier was told to stand there with his hands up for 15 minutes, lest his captors find him at a later date and kill him.
“This is real,” said Conley. “This is better than the television show or movie. These are first hand accounts. This is what I love. This is what you, as archivists, should love. This is the joy of discovering something that someone hasn’t seen in a long time.”
According to Conley the drinking rate during the Prohibition years of 1920 to 1932, was 2.2 gallons per every man, woman and child in the United States. Today that rate is 1.8 gallons. The county’s year-round population during the 1920s was 19,500 people; or 31 people per square mile.
Conley shared vignettes of Judge Henry H. “The Judge” Eldridge, a judge of the Cape May County Court of Common Pleas.
Eldridge was considered “humorous, he was well-liked and was respected by all for his fairness and honesty,” said Conley. “It was often said in the papers that he would not, and could not be bought. Judge Eldridge always advised those on the jury to withhold their personal views on enforcement of the laws set forth in the 18th Amendment. ‘The law is the law’ was his motto.”
One case the judge presided over was in 1921 where the entire 14 member panel of Cape May County Freeholders was indicted.
“Fourteen men,” said Conley. “And they were all indicted.”
An investigation of the governing body began for malfeasance in office and corruption for kickbacks from contractors for various roads and building contracts.
Over 150 indictments were handed down to the 14 men. One freeholder, a real estate speculator, received 39 indictments. Indictments to the Board of Freeholders included: bribery, conspiracy to defraud the public, abuse of office and the rigging of bids for buildings and roads.
“Judge Eldridge, suggested the trial be held in another county because of the concern that an unbiased jury could not be found,” said Conley.
Instead the trial was held in Cape May County in the building that is now known as the Old Court House.
“So filled was the building that the crowd spilled outside,” said Conley. The trial lasted for months, ending in Oct., 1921.
“Most of the accused either plea bargained to a charge of no contest to the charges, or accepted whatever penalty the court imposed,” Conley said. “Over 150 charges, over half of them led to acquittals. And the rest? No jail time was served by anyone. Just large fines that ranged from $500 to $1,500.”
According to Conley the aftermath of the indictments was the development of the now five-member Board of Chosen Freeholders.
While the Freeholders were cavorting in court and bootleggers were bringing in back bay booze, ladies working in “disorderly houses” were spending their time working in the world’s oldest profession.
Conley explained people reading newspapers understood the term “disorderly house” meant booze and prostitutes were available.
“Upon a study of court cases that used the term “disorderly house,” said Conley, “There were at least 15 to 20 disorderly houses running within the borders of Cape May County at any given time between the years 1920-1932.”
Liquor and loose women seemed to be big business. While a house might be closed down by authorities, another would open up across the street within a week.
Conley said in one case, three disorderly houses on Roberts Avenue in Wildwood were raided on the same day.
One disorderly house of note, the Red Onion, was located on Route 9, a few miles north of Cape May. During the years of 1920 through 1923, the Red Onion was raided five times.
“It is commonly believed that this fine establishment was under the charge of one Miss Florence Howard,” said Conley.
Howard was not present during for most of the raids, said Conley. She was finally arrested in the final raid of the brothel on July 8, 1923.
Arrested with Howard were Peggy “Dizzy Liz” Martin; William “I’m Only the Fixer Guy” Conroy; and two unnamed gentlemen callers.
Each suspect was taken to the courthouse where the gentlemen callers were let go with an admonishment if they ever were arrested again they would have their names published in the newspaper and would be thrown in jail.
In his testimony, Conroy told the court he had been living in the house for three months as a repairman.
According to newspaper reports, Conroy told the court, “I never seen anything suspicious going on.” He was charged with disturbing the peace and given a fine of $50.
Howard and Martin were given two-year sentences and sent to the state Prison for Women.
While punishments for prostitutes were far more severe than the men who employed them, Conley said by far, the worst prostitute perpetrator was Bertha Brown.
“She stood head and shoulders above them all in her brazenness,” said Conley of the Cape May County madam.
Brown had been arrested three times for running a disorderly house and three times for possession of liquor and once for theft. While incarcerated for one of these crimes she beat up another woman because the woman did not keep her mouth shut.
During one of her trials before the judge, Eldridge described her to the jury as a “person who, although her actions appear to be right out of a comedy, she is in fact a sad example of one of the world’s greatest tragedies – brazen, organized lawlessness.”
Brown was accused of possession of liquor and of stealing $20 from a Mr. Johnson of Wildwood. Brown represented herself in court.
“When she was questioned by the judge why she stole $20 from Mr. Johnson, she replied, ‘Well, you see, he gave me the money to buy some gin. But there was no gin to buy anywhere, so I kept it to buy some for him later.”
When Eldridge queried Brown as to the gin that was found in her possession at the time of her arrest, he asked “Was that not Mr. Johnson’s?”
“No,” replied Brown in a huff. “That was mine, not his.”
Brown was found guilty of theft and possession of liquor. She was fined $25 and jailed for a month.
Brown’s last appearance before Eldridge was in 1925. Conley read directly from a newspaper article about that appearance.
”The headline says, ‘Must get out and stay out,’ read the historian. “Under the condition that she leave Cape May County and never come back with a warning that should she ever return, Bertha Marie Brown, perhaps the most familiar figure in the courts of this county had sentence suspended on the charge of maintaining a disorderly house in Wildwood.”
At that time Brown withdrew her previous plea of not guilty, changing it to guilty.
“Prosecutor Campbell,” read Conley, “stated that the prisoner had a criminal record in Philadelphia and she should be sent back to her native town. ‘During the 16 months that I have been a prosecutor,’ Campbell told the court, ‘She has been in jail for a total of 12 of those months and during that time she has been a burden to the taxpayers of the county. If she is permitted to remain in this county she will probably continue to be such a burden.”
Eldridge responded to the prosecutor, “Do you think it is fair to Pennsylvania that we send her back?”