Police In The Pay

LONDON'S INFAMY.

The Police in the Pay of the Infamous Women.

The "Pall Mall Gazette Articles."

LONDON, July 11.

The "Pall Mall Gazette" has thus far printed four articles under the title: "Maiden Tribute in Modern Babylon." In its introduction the "Gazette" says: "The fact that the Athenians took so bitterly to heart the tribute of seven maidens, which they had to pay every nine years to the Minotaur, seems incredible in the light of the fact that every night in London many times seven maidens, selected as much by chance as were those who drew the lot in the Athenian market, are offered up as the maiden tribute of this modern Babylon. Unless this tribute is shorn of its worst abuses, the resentment which the reform might appease may hereafter prove the virus of a social revolution. Indeed, it may be the one explosive strong enough to wreck the throne."
The "Pall Mall Gazette's" Inquiry Commission pays a high tribute to the assistance given it by the Salvation Army. The commission would have been almost helpless without that assistance. The London police were not consulted, because of the fear that they would warn the brothel-keepers. The Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London gave hearty support throughout the entire investigation, and were put in possession of many of the appalling facts in advance of their publication. The Commission is prepared to prove crimes of the most ruthless and abominable description, systematically practiced in London without hindrance or even the smallest effort attention.
These crimes are classified as follows: -
First, the sale, purchase, and violation of children; second, the procuration of virgins; third, the entrapping and ruin of women; fourth, an international slave trade in girls; fifth, atrocities, brutalities, and unnatural crimes. It is, in fact, a system of which the violation of virgins is one of the ordinary incidents, and is in full operation. Arrangements for procuring, violating, and then disposing of the ruined victims of London lust are made with incredible efficiency and simplicity.
The East End of London is the great market for children who are imported into West End houses, or taken abroad when trade is brisk. One of these trafficers, living in the odor of propriety with her parents, the other in a position of trust in a well-known linen draper's in Oxford-street, as a "blind" undertake to purvey maidens to an extensive and widening circle of customers. The commissioner visited Miss "Z", who undertook to bring a maid for £5. The following night Miss "Z" brought a fourteen year old child of dark complexion, long black hair and dark eyes, not fully grown, but promising to develop into a woman of striking appearance. She was a dress-making apprentice from the country.
The investigation shows that a majority of the houses and underground rooms, wherefrom no sound was audible. Even some rooms were padded in order to stifle the cries of the victims. The narrative gives instances where mothers were only too anxious to sell their own daughters under 13 years of age for immoral purposes. The narrative througout speaks of the victims as "parcels." For instance, "I have consigned three parcels to So and So," showing the business to be of a purely commercial character. One procuress said: "Nursegirls, shop-girls, sometimes governesses, form our chief supply. We rise often at 7 o'clock in the morning, and scour Hyde Park and Regent's Park; watch nursemaids, and finally secure a victim." One artful procuress advanced money for months to a poor, dying charwoman, in order to secure her daughter when the proper time came. The victim was a little girl.
The "Pall Mall Gazette" published on Wednesday a woodcut of Annie Bryant, aged 5, who was a victim. A penny cake was the lure which enticed Annie to her ruin. She is luckily now in good hands. The "Gazette" proceeds to show how the law facilitates abduction, and instances recent London cases where culprits got off on legal quibbles. Once a girl gets into the toils she is entirely at the mercy of her keeper, who first strips her of her scanty store of money by running up extravagant bills for board and lodgings, and then places every impediment in the way of her finding employment. The ignorant and innocent are the principal victims. Frequently women, disguised as Sisters of Charity, meet trains conveying Irish girls from Liverpool, saying that the Lady Superior is to meet the poor Catholic girls and take them to good lodgings until they find situations. They are forthwith taken to brothels. The Sister of Charity disappears and the Irish girl is entrapped.

Decoying Country Girls.

Another startling feature is the active part taken by young girls who themselves have fallen. They act as decoys at underground railway stations especially, but other railway depots are also frequented by these decoy girls as affording a field for ruining country girls, who generally offer an unresisting quarry. The commission continues: It is easy for a girl to enter a bad house, but very difficult to get out. Besides running into debt, cases constantly occur wherein girls find themselves under lock and key. A young lady recently applied to the proprietor of a provincial music hall for engagement, and enclosed a photograph showing a pretty girl, aged 18. A favourable reply was received. She was allowed to sing only one night. The second night the manager drugged and ruined her. The manager then left her to starve. Her life is saved, although her beauty and eyesight are gone. Another feature is the prevalence of nominally temperance hotels, which are really bad houses where girls are entrapped as servants.

The Police in the Pay.

The "Pall Mall Gazette" concludes by pointing out that it is absurd to attempt to cure the mischief by increasing an arbitrary police power. It proves that police, generally, with some honourable exceptions, receive regular payment from abandoned women, besides insisting on having favours. The lewd women of London fully understand that unless they regularly bribe policemen they must quit London or otherwise be arrested and annoyed by trumped-up charges. The strongest Freemasonry among policemen exists in this direction. One keeper says: "The police are our best friends. They keep things snug, and brothel-keepers are the policemen's best friends, because they pay them. I only keep a small house, but pay the police £3 weekly."
"We have been told," the Commission continues, "that at one famous house in the East End the police allowance is £500 yearly, besides free quarters when wanted. An alliance is thus struck up between the police and procurers. One lady devoted to rescue work, speaking with authority, says that whenever she wished to save a girl, she was compelled to take the greatest care not to allow her intention to reach the ears of the police.
An ex-officer says that policemen and soldiers between them ruin more girls than any other class of men in London. The "Gazette" urges the establishment of local vigilance committees. It also advocates police laws, equally severe as regards men soliciting women as for women soliciting men. "A severe law for the weaker sex and a lax law for the stronger," it says, "is scandalously immoral."

For Export and Import.

Today's "Gazette" deals chiefly with the iniquities of the system of exporting English girls to the Continent and importing foreign girls to England under the pretence of providing them with respectable employment. It adduces many instances, one where a married woman was taken to Bordeaux, kept four years in a brothel, and not allowed to communicate with her husband in London. Another, where an English girl was taken to Bordeaux and afterward shipped to South America. The "Gazette" gives warning tonight that several well known bullies have been seen watching village homes, where they suspect little children, rescued from a life of vice, are in the house. Police surveillance has been ordered, owing to threats used by these miscreants.

A Hideous Traffic.

NEW YORK, July 10. - The "World's" London cable special says: - In regard to the threatened libel suits against the "Pall Mall Gazette," the editor, Mr. Stead, says: - "Let those who do not wish to shake the very foundation of social order think twice before compelling us to confront in court the brothel-keepers with the prices of blood, and prominent public men with the victims of their lawless vice. Mme. Jeffries excercised the utmost care to secure the custom of only men of the highest rank of social position. No one could enter except such as were introduced by persons well known to her. It seemed she would secure through her agents in various parts of Great Britain and the Continent young girls of 13 or 14 years of age, of common parentage, bring them to London and put them in charge of the best masters, not only in literature, but also in every department. They were never allowed to go upon the streets, except under charge of a governess or maid, and when duly educated and refined, they would be introduced into her establishment.
"If one of her patrons happened to know or hear of some girl of the lower orders in whose betrayal he did not wish to be known, the woman would send her agent, generally a woman, to her, and by deception and persuasion only too often managed to secure her as a victim. Her books show that she was the intermediary as well for many women of good and even the highest social position. The exposure in this respect furnishes a shocking commentary upon the condition of morals in the "better circles" of the metropolis. The entries in her books go to show that she kept regular credit accounts with some of her male patrons, the amounts charged in some instances reaching £1,000. Some of the entries show that she would temporarily rent one of her houses to such a patron, with furniture, servants, and a skilled cook - an elegant and complete entourage in fact. No money was paid by any patron directly. She would render her account to him at regular intervals, and he would send the amount due by a messenger."
The article next describes the system of procuration in the West End of London, the most fashionable quarter of the metropolis. There the victims brought much larger sums than those procured in the East End. Purveying was carried on systematically by a firm whom the writer designates as Madames X. and Z. Two girls of the East End fetched only £5 each, while their sisters of the West End brought prices ranging from £10 to £20 . These figures, the writer of the article says, were verified in every instance. Here follows an account of the transaction with Mesdames X and Z, known in certain circlesas the leading procuresses in Europe. One girl said to the commissioner that her mother was lying dead, and that she had gone out to procure assistance, when she fell into the hands of decoys, who took her to Madame X,'s establishment. The Commissioner took the girl to her home, and subsequently had her placed in good hands.
The "Gazette" further says: "We are prepared to submit names, dates, localities, etc., to any of the following gentlemen: -
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Manning, Samuel Morley, member of Parliament for Bristol; the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Earl of Dalhousie, or Howard Vincent, on condition that the information is not used for the purpose of individual exposure or criminal proceedings.

Indictment Against the Aristocracy.

"It is estimated," says the "Gazette," "that more than 10,000 little girls in England are completely given over to the practice of crimes which are of too horrible a complexion to give them names. In houses kept by French, Spanish, and English women, in fashionable London it is possible to meet Cabinet Ministers and other men of dignity and reputation. There is now walking the streets a monster, aged 50 years, who has for years amused himself by decoying and ruining children.
London Rascality.


The New York "Sun" cablegram from London of July 11th says: The exposures in the "Pall Mall Gazette" are creating thrilling public interest. The charge that the Police department was suborned in the interest of procuresses and their patrons excites universal indignation against the authorities, and a Government investigation is probable. If the veiled imputations of the "Gazette" can be substantiated, the peerage and throne itself are shaken. The "Gazette" says: - "There seems to be absolute unanimity of public opinion that if the procuresses had not feed the police they would have been gaoled long ago. A great number of members of the police regard this revenue as one of the legitimate perquisites of their office, and act accordingly. The power of policemen over those who fail to "tip" them is absolute. The poor wretch who neglects to pay what a policeman considers his proper fee is hurried from one district to another until she is finally driven out of London. Every bad house is more or less a source of revenue to the policeman upon whose beat the house is situated. One brothel-keeper told the Commissioner that he pays £3 a week to the police and one of the famous houses of assignation in the East End pays £500 yearly, besides giving to certain of the police officials free quarters and accommodations in the house. Rev. Mr. Charrington, a famous London missionary, deposes that the police have interfered in almost every case where he attempted to rescue outraged children, and upon one occasion two policemen actually turned him over to bullies connected with a house from which he was assisting children to escape, telling them to kill him, and that they (the policemen) would go round the corner so they might not see or know of anything that might be done."
The "Gazette" says: "An officer in high standing on the London police force ruined his own sixteen-year-old daughter. His conduct toward his child continued until the girl left home. She led a life of shame until sickness and poverty compelled her to apply to her father for relief, threatening that if he did not come to her assistance she would expose him. Her father at once sent two detectives to the place where she lodged, and they so coerced the girl that she signed a retraction." The facts in this case, the "Gazette"asserts, it supplied the home Secretary, with a view to having the inhuman father prosecuted, but nothing came of it. The "Gazette" cites this case as an instance of the power of the police. The "Gazette" ridicules the police for the little knowledge of public affairs they have, and states, in proof of its strictures on police officials, that yesterday, while the streets were re-echoing with the cries of vendors of the "Gazette" containing the exposure, the procuresses X. and Z. delivered two certified innocents to be ruined, and entered into further contracts to supply girls for export to a foreign house of ill-fame.

Horrible Revelations.

The "Gazette" says that its commissioners frequently saw girls entering houses of ill-fame whose footsteps they tried to arrest, but they were carefully guarded, and the doors closed upon them as virtuous girls forever. They describe the scenes they encountered as heartrending in the extreme, and their feelings they liken to those of spectators watching a shipwreck with straining eyes, trying to snatch a stray swimmer from a watery grave, but throwing to him a rope which he cannot reach.
Under the headline, "How Marguerite Was Ruined," the story is told of a young and lovely French girl who was decoyed to London by a false employment advertisement, swindled out of her money, and ultimately ruined.
Under the headline, "Foreign Exports," the "Gazette" says that girls find a life of shame in England purgatory; in other countries, particularly on the Continent, a hell. The slave-trader collects his human parcels at the great central mart of London and keeps them ready for transmission to the uttermost ends of the earth.

The Trade Checked.

Since the "Gazette's" exposures the purchase of girls has become difficult in London but they are still easily obtained in the provinces. The traffic is entirely in the hands of foreign ex-convicts. A commissioner, with a view of obtaining information would unmask the scoundrels engaged in the traffic, arranged to pay £10 for having his alleged cast off mistress deposited in an out-of-the-way house in Belgium. "With the heroism and self-sacrifice worthy of a sainted martyr, the "Gazette" says "a pure and noble girl volunteered to face the frightful risk of being separated from home and friends in order that she might be the instrument of tearing the mask from the face of the villainy. "God has been with me hitherto," she said; "why should He forsake me if in this cause I face risks? Surely He will take care of me there as well as here." Offer was accepted, but the Commissioner refused to carry the negotiations further.
Under the headline, "An Interview With An Ex-Slave Trader," the following is given: "John S. Gray, a Belgian of noble appearance, who has just served six years in prison in Belgium, states that a score of English girls are exported to Belgium and Northern France monthly for immoral purposes. Two-thirds of these, he asserts, think they are going to situations, and under this mistaken idea, are lured to their ruin. The exporter is paid so much a head if the girls are healthy. The average price paid is £10 per head. The ages of the girls range from 8 to 13 years.

A Terrible Experience.

Under the headline of "An Interview With a Party Shipped to Bordeaux and Madrid," the "Gazette" states that a woman who was forced by her husband's ill health to seek a situation, was told by a friend, who was a girl in an honest situation, that a certain Greek keeping a cigar store on Rent-street knew of a situation as barmaids for four girls at Bordeaux. She saw the Greek, became convinced of his honesty, and left for Bordeaux. Arriving there on Sunday evening, she was taken, without suspicion being aroused, to the house of the notorious Mme. Suchou, 36 Rue Lambert. She was taken to a doctor and was alarmed to find that he spoke no English, while she spoke no French. Her appeals to him for an explanation were fruitless. The next day she found that her clothes had been removed and silk dresses substituted. Then followed the old story. She was forced and bullied into compliance with the wishes of the madam's patrons, and she led a life of shame in Bordeaux for nearly four years. One of her companions was sold as a slave, to be sent to South America; another died at Bordeaux. The heroine of this story was finally bought from Mme. Suchou by an admirer, and at last reached London leaving the fourth girl bitterly crying for death.

A Hint To The Prince Of Wales.

LONDON, July 13. - The "Pall Mall Gazette" this afternoon, in response of a request for its opinion as to the nature of the change in the English criminal law, makes several important suggestions. It advocates first, an addition to the Criminal Act, raising the age at which female children may legally consent to sinful conduct from 13 years, the present period, to 16; second, the extension of the law prohibiting soliciting to both sexes; third, the denial of any additional power over women to the police that will be aimed at the suppression of crime, and not at the suppression of vice; that is, complete legal liberty for voluntary immorality between adults contracting on equal terms, but the vigorous repression of sexual criminality in all cases in which the parties are underage, or the elements of a full, free, and intelligent consent are absent; fourth, a greatly increased stringency in the laws against prostitution.
The "Gazette," in an editorial, commenting on the results of the revelations, declares that its trumpet blast has roused the world. "No word was raised yesterday in the churches against us," continues the paper, "but all the forces of wickedness in high places are arrayed against us. The Hon. W.H. Smith and Son, possessing the monopoly of the news stands on the railway systems of England, have suppressed their sales of the "Pall Mall Gazette." The Prince of Wales has stopped his paper, the Right Hon. Mr. Bentinck is posing in Parliament in the name of an "outraged morality" and clamors for our extinction. The "Gazette" did not take this inquiry to unearth the vices of the great, but if we are driven to bay we will be compelled by the action of our assailant to speak out and spare not."

An Important Conference.

LONDON, July 15. - A conference for the protection of young girls opened this afternoon in Princess Hall. The chief promoter of the conference is the Salvation Army. The Hon. Samuel Morley, Liberal member of Parliament for Bristol, presided, and made an address on the subject of the iniquity exposed by the "Pall Mall Gazette." He declared that the condition of things in London as that revealed by that paper, was a scandal to the Christian nations. "The people must speak out," exclaimed the orator, "if their homes are to be kept sacred from this surrounding pollution. I believe there is one law for the rich and another for the poor in these matters. It should be a felony to steal a poor person's child." Professor James Stuart proposed a vote of thanks to the proprietor and editor of the "Pall Mall Gazette" for the assistance their work has rendered to the cause of Christian morality. This proposal was unanimously adopted, as was also a resolution urging Parliament to raise the "age of consent" from 13 to 18 years.

Source: Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 118, 5 September 1885, Page 3

Note: Having just read this expose, do you now understand what the reasons were for the Ripper's murders and just how much the Cleveland Street brothel was tied in with the case? I wonder if Mary Jane Kelly, who stated that she went to France with a gentleman but left because she did not like the "situation" was referring to this sort of "child-sex trade" in Bordeaux or another area of France. Also, these particular types of brothels which served a mostly aristocratic and influential clientele were under surveillance for years.

Maybe Mary Jane O'Brien/Kelly was the pure and noble lady who volunteered to leave her "people, family and friends" to infiltrate the East End child-sex trade. Inspector Abberline, who was put in charge of the Cleveland Street Scandal explained in his diaries that Mary Jane O'Brien was a P.A. which was an acronym for a Police Agent. If she supplied information about this child-sex trade, she would have been protected. I don't think that Mary Jane O'Brien/Kelly was murdered in that shabby room in Miller's Court on the 9th of November 1888. She was an important informant to Scotland Yard and was sent to Canada for her own protection. It is not known if she ever returned to England.