KETCHIKAN GRAND JURY
ON VICE CONDITIONS
The report of the Grand jury in full
is as follows:
United States District Court for the
District of Alaska, Division Number
One, at Ketchikan. Special April
1925 Term.
REPORT OF THE GRAND JURY
To the Honorable Thomas M. Reed,
Judge of the above entitled Court:
We, the Grand Jury, duly empan
eled for the special April term of
court, 1925, in the above entitled
court, held at Ketchikan, Territory of
Alaska, Division Number One, com
posed of six women and twelve men,
beg to submit the following report,
to-wit:
We have been in session 7 days,
have had under consideration 10 cases.
We have returned 7 true bills, and 1
not true bill; have examined 30 wit
nesses.
When this grand jury convened, if
was instructed by the court as fol
lows:
“It has been publicly stated that
this is a wicked, lawless, community,
and that the law has not been and is
not enforced as it should be. While it
is your duty primarily to indict all
persons who, in your judgment, have
violated the law, you may also inquire
as to whether those charged with law
enforcement have failed in the per
formance of their duty to enforce the
laws of the United States or the Ter
ritory; whether such failure consti
tutes a criminal offense. You have
the power, and it is your duty to en
quire into all forms of lawlessness, if
any, and the conditions which contri
bute to the same, and present to the
court your recommendations for the
suppression thereof. This is not only
for the general benefit of the com
munity but it is to your own benefit
as upright, law abiding citizens there
of. Thus you see, upon you as grand
jurors devolves primarily the welfare
of the community, and the enforce
ment of the laws providing for order
ly government.”
Pursuant to the foregoing instruc
tions of the court, the grand jury has
made an investigation regarding al
leged crime and vice conditions, as
well as the manner in which the of
ficers of the court are discharging
their duties. We believe that a great
many of the so-called sporting ele
ment have flocked here as the result
of the prosperous conditions prevail
ing in Ketchikan. We have subpoen
aed before us representative citizens,
heads of civic bodies, and municipal
and federal officers. It is the opinion
of all but two of the witnesses who
testified before the grand jury, as
kvell as the unanimous opinion of this
grand jury, that the abatement ac
tions prosecuted against certain
houses of ill fame in the town of
Ketchikan in 1923 resulted in aggra
vating, rather than improving, the
situation. At the time these abate
ment actions were started, there were
in the neighborhood of thirty-five
women in Ketchikan who were alleged
to be inmates of houses of ill fame.
These women were all in one segre
gated district of the town and were
under constant police surveillance.
After the houses occupied by those
people were closed under the abate
ment orders, the inmates scattered
throughout the town, and many other
women of the same profession came
to Ketchikan, until the number in
creased to upwards of one hundred,
and they were scattered throughout
the residence and business sections of
Ketchikan. These people then oper
ated under the guise of various busi
nesses, which were blinds for their
real occupation, but in such a manner
as to make it most difficult, if not
impossible, to secure evidence upon
which they could be prosecuted or
abated in their new quarters. Vener
eal diseases also increased three-fohl
in Ketchikan after these abatements.
We find there is now the closest co
operation between the federal and
municipal officers, and all are work
ing actively in the suppression of evils
of this kind. That there have been
efforts made in the past few weeks to
force the women out of the residential
and business sections of the city.
These efforts have met with some suc
cess and should not be dropped until
these sections are cleaned up.
It is the opinion of the grand jury
that the regulations controlling the
prosecution of crimes of this nature
should, as far as practicable, be left
to the local and municipal authorities,
but that the federal officers should
aid when necessary.
The statement has also been made
by men in political life that consorts
of red-light women have become ar
rogant and domineering here and
parade the streets of Ketchikan in
the attitude of a privileged leisure
class; that their two hundred or more
women operate the saloons of the
town right under the eyes of the fed
eral officials. These statements are,
we believe, solely for political and
spiteful purposes.
In the first place, there are not at
this time fifty women in Ketchikan
who are even suspected of being
“red-light” women. This grand jury
has been unable to find any “saloons”
in Ketchikan, but we have found that
as soon as any bootlegging joints are
discovered, and evidence for convic
tion gathered, they are abated by fed
eral officials. After a careful inves
tigation, we have found that there are,
or were, in Ketchikan twenty or more
taxicab drivers who are alleged to
have lived in part upon the earnings
of fallen women. We commend the
work of the federal and municipal
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