Tales from Tonopah’s Tenderloin district

Tonopah’s red-light district was a rich source of fascinating tales of life and death in a booming mining camp on the western frontier. What follows are several, plucked from the town’s early-day newspapers.

Attempting Suicide

Attempts at suicide, both successful and unsuccessful, occurred with some small frequency among prostitutes in brothels in early Nye County. One method was to take the “antiseptic tablet course,” which seems to have been bichloride of mercury tablets. Though apparently an effective method for exiting this life, it apparently does not exert the intended effects quickly. As an item in the Tonopah Daily Bonanza, March 30, 1915, stated, this method of suicide “is a very painful one and the would-be suicide usually” results in outcries that “startle the whole neighborhood,” providing opportunity for rescue.

Such was the case of a woman described as being “below the red light.” Apparently, as the newspaper said, she “wearied of existence” and took the antiseptic tablet course. “Her outcries in the first stage of the operation” startled the entire neighborhood and brought rescue. Dr. McLeod was summoned and he administered “apo-morphine,” which made her “a very sick as well as a repentant girl.” She was reported to be out of danger (Tonopah Daily Bonanza, March 30, 1915).

In 1923, “a woman of the restricted district” in Goldfield filled a whiskey glass with bichloride of mercury tablets and attempted to swallow the entire potion. The Tonopah Daily Bonanza stated, “Her mouth was burned and she did not get down all of the fiery tablets, but she did swallow some.”

It seems that the woman, Billie MacDonald, and some friends had gone to Alkali Springs and had been drinking. Upon returning to her residence she apparently fell into “a fit of despondency,” as the Tonopah Daily Bonanza put it. No other motive was cited for her action. Dr. Blake and Sheriff Mercer were called to the scene. Dr. Blake stated that most of the bichloride of mercury tablets were scattered about the room, as Billie was unable to get them down. She was, however, able to ingest enough that she exhibited the symptoms of such poisoning and faced certain death “after an indefinite period of agony.” He said recovery was impossible and her death could take days.

She was being cared for by friends in her crib since “removal to a hospital in order to save her life would have been futile.” Described as “young and attractive,” Billie had arrived in Goldfield only a short time prior to her suicide (Tonopah Daily Bonanza April 23, 1923).

Police Blotter on January 27, 1907, Joseph Robillard was at the dancehall in Tonopah, presumably the Big Casino, and, as an article in the Tonopah Daily Sun put it, “proceeded to assert his authority by hauling off and landing a straight jab on the optic of one of the female fairies.” The woman filed charges and in court the next day presented an eye with a “rainbow hue.” Acting as his own attorney, Robillard was found guilty of the charges. At that point he said he wanted a new trial represented by a “bonafide attorney.” The next day, he was represented in court by an attorney named Reynolds while District Attorney Patrick McCarran prosecuted the case. The judge withheld his decision until Saturday morning. At that time, Judge Brissell addressed the prisoner, noting that he might have been provoked, but that was still no reason to administer justice. The judge warned Robillard of his future behavior and, on motion of District Attorney McCarran, reduced his sentence to $1 and court costs amounting to $26 (Tonopah Daily Sun, January 28, 31, and February 2, 1907).

On May 17, 1907, a dance hall girl was brought into police court in Tonopah by a law officer. He handed the judge a horse whip and asked the judge to “lay it away.” Nothing more was said and no complaint was filed against her. Attorney Bowler appeared at the justice court on her behalf and was surprised that no complaint had been charged. He learned that she had administered a whipping to a male inhabitant of the “under world,” who accused the girl of being unchaste. The woman explained that she would have administered the “thrashing” to the wretch if he had had three cannons on his person (Tonopah Daily Sun, May 17, 1907).

On January 25, 1907, a fracas broke out in Tonopah at the Davenport, a sporting house described as being located in the “bad lands.” It seems that Maggie, “a demi-mondaine,” cast an aspersion on the ancestor of Jimmy McClusky, a bartender at the Tonopah Club. As a result, McClusky knocked Maggie down and Birdie Bernard, also a member “of the oldest profession,” as the newspaper put it, came to Maggie’s aid. McClusky also knocked her down. The two injured women went straight to Judge Brissell’s office to swear out a warrant. They were referred to the district attorney’s office, where they were dissuaded from taking any further steps (Tonopah Daily Sun, July 25, 1907).

Pearl Hart, described as a “habitué of the underworld,” was said to have “paid the penalty of her sins, meeting death through alcoholism.” She died at 7:00 p.m. in one of the cribs of the Tenderloin District in Tonopah. As the Tonopah Daily Bonanza put it in its May 1911 account of her passing, “Away from the surroundings of sympathetic friends and relatives, she departed this life in a haunt of crime, in which she chose to follow as her profession. Somewhere, in all probability, there is anxiously awaiting news of a loved one, gray-haired mother or father, possibly both or even sister or brother. Perhaps they will learn that their ‘favorite’ has crossed over the Great Beyond. Perhaps not. However, it may be better that the unfortunate, who has paid the price, be buried amid strangers… Yet those loving relatives continue to remember her as she ‘was.’” While the funeral was inconspicuous, the few friends who were in attendance were most sincere in their respect for the dead. Someone wrote:

“Through the transom there streams no light,

No noisy callers are there tonight;

A flutter of crepe upon the door

Warns them away from ‘44’” (Tonopah Daily Bonanza, May 4, 1911)

(S“44” is presumably the number of her workplace.)

Raid on Hop Joint

In mid-August 1906, Sheriff McMahon and two deputies, George Swasey and George Logan, raided what was described as a “Chinese opium joint” located on Central Street in Tonopah. Outfitted in a basement were 16 bunks with “opium layouts” and five women, three of them described as married, “laying claim to respectability,” and a boy 17 years old. The other two women were presumably prostitutes. Described as a black hole in a basement, the den was fitted in the expected “Oriental style.” The establishment was kept by a “cadaverous Celestial” named Ong Yang, who was arrested and jailed. Others in the establishment were permitted to leave, as they were not caught red-handed in the act of “hitting the pipe.” Yang, described as a “poor fiend,” after being jailed for a time, “was in such terrible agony for want of his dope that Sheriff McMahon, out of pity for the unfortunate, called in the county physician to relieve his suffering.” The article in the Tonopah Bonanza (August 18, 1906) noted that Sheriff McMahon was intent on breaking up the “disreputable haunts” and “gave the ‘hop fiends’ to understand that there is no room for them in Tonopah.”

In March 1908, an opium den at Millers was raided by Esmeralda County Deputy Sheriff S. A. Frazer. It was located in the cellar of a Chinese laundryman. A white woman, Rose Williams, was arrested. Williams, described as a “former resident of the red-light district of Tonopah,” had moved to Millers recently. After her arrest, she was reprimanded in court and ordered to leave the community immediately and “return no more” (Tonopah Daily Bonanza, March 26, 1908).