VICE RING GRAFT

Hawera Star, Volume L, 21 February 1931, Page 16

VICE RING GRAFT

woman is safe on the streets of Now York.”

This phrase tersely sums up the startling situation revealed by the official investigation of '“the girl racket’ now being conducted in New York. •Scores of innocent girls have lost their reputations, been imprisoned, and reduced to beggary.

Evidence so far given before Referee iSealmry in the Appellate Division’s inquiry has been supplied by the startling confessions of John 'O. Weston, who for eight years was prosecutor in the women’s court, and by the soft-spoken ■Chilean stool-pigeon Acuna, who has declared himself to be the instrument in the evil machinations of the vice ring that has brought so many girls to shame and ruin. One alleged victim, Miss Siegred Johnson, aged 25, has given evidence which w r as described in court as “the

No Woman Safe in New York

most outrageous ever brought to light.” .Miss Johnson, a pretty blonde, said she fell into the hands of the vice ring in August, 1928, when she was arrested and taken to a police station. She explained: “While there a bondsman named iSteiner walked in and said to me, ‘lf you have 500 dollars (£100) everything can be fixed up and you don't have to go to court.’ ” She admitted having £9O in the bank, and next day Steiner took lier to a lawyer, who demanded a fee of £2O. Before she secured her release. Miss Johnson testified, she had paid out most of her savings. Acuna has testified that the graft was split five ways; four went to the police, lawyers, stool-pigeons and bondsmen. "Who received the fifth? Rumour says that tho fifth share went to . the magistrate hearing the eases.