[Two inquests regarding the deaths by morphine of two prostitutes in Montana].

Anaconda, Deer Lodge County, Montana, June–August 1907. 2 typed documents, 4to, 27 pp., purple stamps on verso of last page, with 2 corresponding printed forms, 2 pp., completed in manuscript. CONDITION: One document good overall, old folds, breaks along two folds in last leaf, with loss to a portion of one sentence, dampstain in upper left corner of last leaf; the other document very good, old folds, a few staple stains.

A pair of inquests regarding the deaths due to morphine overdoses of two prostitutes in the same brothel in Anaconda, Montana in 1907 (only two months apart), shedding light on the sad lives of sex-workers in a western mining region.

The city of Anaconda, Montana is located some twenty-five miles from the once-notorious city of Butte, described during its heyday by evangelist W. E. Biederwolf as the “lowest sinkhole of vice in the West.” Butte was home to many saloons, gambling halls, and the red-light district known as Venus Alley, which was one of the last openly tolerated urban prostitution districts in the West. While scant information exists on prostitution in Anaconda, the present documents suggest that conditions similar to those in Butte prevailed there as well. In the 1880s the areas of Anaconda and Butte saw rapid development as a result of nearby copper-mining. While prostitution was outlawed in Butte in 1890 and was further regulated in 1903, bordellos continued to operate clandestinely there well into the mid-20th century, aided in part by bribery of the city police.

The first of two inquests offered here concerns the death in Anaconda of eighteen year-old sex-worker Grace Baker, known in her profession as Eva Gordon. Originally from Mizpah, Minnesota, where, it is suggested, she had worked as a church organist and taught bible class, Baker was said to be very beautiful and had lived in Anaconda about a year at the time of her death in 1907. As documented here, Baker took morphine with a fellow prostitute, Eva Sponsler (also known here as ‘Ella Black’), who survived and testifies that Baker had taken morphine on a number of occasions. According to the testimonies of both Mamie Morris (possibly the madam) and Percy Ingalls (a police officer), Baker had attempted suicide several times before her death, and, according to Sponsler, the incident was not provoked by any “man-lover.” Ingalls notes that the women in the house often confided in on-duty Anaconda policemen and relates that Baker “used to get letters from home [in Minnesota] that made her feel blue, and she used to worry and get dull about them.” The letters evidently alluded to her former life “and when [Baker] read these things they used to make her sad and she said she could not stand it much longer.”

The second inquest concerns the suicide of a prostitue named “Georgette” whose legal name was unknown at the time of her death. As detailed here, a young messenger boy named Campbell procured morphine for her. After she was discovered unconscious, a doctor used a stomach pump on her, but to no avail (she took enough morphine “to kill a person; it is enough to kill a horse”). Georgette left a suicide note, and evidently told others of her plan to commit suicide; she is also said to have suffered from rheumatism. The Anaconda Standard reported on her death as follows:

[The witnesses] all told the same story about the woman [“Georgette”] saying she was going to commit suicide, but they thought that it was all a bluff, as she had threatened to take her life several times previously, and once in Helena [Montana] had taken morphine in an attempt to end her life. She was noticed by her neighbors late Saturday evening to be very ill. They could not find a physician at the time, so they attended her. She rallied during the night and told the watchers that she was tired of life. The bottle which contained the drug was empty. It was presumed that she took a drachm of the powder.

SOME REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES

INQUEST ON GRACE BAKER

Eva Sponsler, June 1907: “Q. What time did you go to bed? A. I couldn’t say. Eve Gordon and I had been drinking some. Q. Take anything else besides liquor? A. Yes, morphine. Q. How much did you take? A. We took a bottle between us. Q. What did you take morphine for? A. I don’t know. Q. You say that neither one of you intended to commit suicide? A: I am sure I did not and I think [Grace Baker] had no intention of killing herself. She sometimes took morphine. Q. Did this dead woman and you have some misunderstanding about some man-lover? A. No…Q. Isn’t it the truth that Eva Grdon and you made an agreement to divide the bottle of morphine, each one taking half? A. No. Q. What was said about taking morphine, if anything? A. She said we are both good and drunk now lets take some morphine and go to sleep. She told me to be careful and not take too much and she said she could take more of it than I could as she was more used to it…”

Mamie Morris: “I knocked at the back door and Miss Ella Black came to the door and as she came to the door to open it she staggered and fell against it…I passed by her and went in there and caught Grace by the shoulder and tried to awaken her but saw right away that she was dead…”

Frankie Richards: “Ella said she took morphine and I said ‘pills, liquid or powder?’ and she said the bottle was out in the street so I went out and picked it up and took it in…”

Percy Ingalls: “Q. What, if anything, do you know about this suicide? A. I don’t know anything very much about this occurrence right now. I know that Grace Baker used to get letters from home that made her feel blue, and she used to worry and get dull about them. They used to tell about when she was organist of the church and she had a bible class, and when she read these things they used to make her sad and she said she could not stand it much longer. She seemed to make a confident [sic] of me and she used to read me these letters…When she was sick… On one or two occasions before she had attempted to commit suicide. I only know of one but there was another one before I knew her, she took carbolic acid I believe… Q. When they would be on that beat they would talk to these girls? A. Yes sir they went to them more or less…they usually make a confident of a policeman and tell him their troubles, they have no one else to take them to … Grace Baker came from Mizpah, Minnesota…”

Doctor Stevens: “About 4 o’clock I was called on the north side of the track to see someone sick over there. … I went in the house and saw a lady on the bed. I jammed her and found her dead. The people around there said she had been drinking and they had found a bottle of morphine, an empty bottle, there. The evidence looked like she might have died from morphine… The other lady they said was in the bed with her I examined, and she was very weak and the pupils of her eyes contracted. She was dull and did not seem to realize what was going on. … Anyone in that condition drinking whiskey and all, it is absorbed very readily. Death by morphine is generally 6 or 8 hours if you have no assistance. … The woman alive did not answer me at all, just in a maze you know…”

INQUEST ON GEORGETTE

Mr. W. L. Chatelle, 31 Aug. 1907: Georgette, whose true name is unknown, deceased “Q. What time Saturday night did you find her taking poison? A. I found she took poison about half past ten o’clock, and there was a few people in there, and Zurie told me she had taken poison… Someone rang the bell, and I went in there, and she called for drinks, and paid for them, and then I went back, and sold drinks again. And she said to me there was two parties there: there was a man by the name of Baiila, and Zuie, and she pulled out this watch and says I will give you this watch for a present, and ring I give you a present, and I thought it was only a bluff at the time, and I didn’t know she had taken poison: this Zuie woman she showed me the bottle, and it was like that, and she said she had taken poison, and I did not believe it … She took the poison there when she sent for this poison. There is a young ‘kid,’ his name is Campbell, a messenger boy … She rung the bell, and I went in there, and I served whatever they wanted: she gave me a dollar, and I gave her the change… the messenger boy told me he got morphine for her; finally I went to work, I knew the woman pretty well; I left this Zuie woman [to] take care of her…”

Mr. Chatelle: “When I got off shift, and she was much worse when I went to see her; she was pretty bad, and then I could not find a doctor; Bruno Manville got on his bicycle, and told me he was going to get the Doctor, and asked me to take his place, and he got one of the Doctors and he worked on her, and while he was working on her, she died. … she says ‘it is all off; it is the last time I will talk,’ the last words she said. … Q. You are perfectly satisfied no one else gave her this poison? A. No one else, I don’t know… I have known her for twenty-one years…”

Willie Campbell: “Q. Where did you get that morphine? A. I don’t know which store it was; I was very busy getting other things, and I do not remember … it was either the Smith Drug Store or the City…”

Dr. W.H. Stephens: “I saw on the bed a lady, under the influence of morphine: Dr. Carman at that time was using a stomach pump, and I went to help with the case, and the woman was so completely exhausted: ___ blue, pupils contracted, respiration was verbal, seven or eight a minute, completely unconscious. We applied the different antidotes for morphine, and I worked with her two hours; she died … There was a small morphine bottle…18 ounces… this is enough to kill a person; it is enough to kill a horse…”

Zuie Dargent: “She had taken poison. I joshed her and thought she was only joshing, as she had often said that before. I told her I will cook for you and I cooked her supper. Then she went to sleep and I tried to wake her up. … She took morphine in Helena [Montana] once. She ordered by a messenger boy: she told me lots of times she would commit suicide. Q. Did you see the note she left? A. Yes, I found it. She wrote well in French and English… She could not take poison while I was with her for I watched her closely. The ‘poor devil’ was suffering from rheumatism and I guess she was tired… she never drank much…”

Bruno Mainville: “Q. Where were you last Saturday evening about nine o’clock? A. I was behind the bar in the saloon. Q. Do you remember ringing up for a messenger boy over there? A. I was over there, and found her in bed, and she was sick and I could not telephone for your Doctors in town, I could not find any one: I was behind the bar. … Q. Did she tell you about taking poison? A. She did not say that at the first time, seven or eight minutes after she said she was taking poison and it was going to ‘finish’ her up. … I guess it was about nine o'clock or ten: it was the time she commenced to get sick. Q. Did you see any bottle around there? A. I never looked after that, I was in there a couple of times: I was very busy, and I never see anything there: there was a woman there to take care of her, her name was Zuie. … I went to see her Sunday… she looked as if she was ‘going’ and I went to the City Hall, and I went to the County Jail, and I met Taylor and he went for the Doctor. Q. Could she talk at that time did she say anything? A. No, she looked as though she was pretty sick…”

REFERENCES: Baumler, Ellen. Devil's Perch: Prostitution from Suite to Cellar in Butte, Montana at mhs.mt.gov; Strahn, Derek. “Tycoons in Petticoats” at distinctlymontana.com; Great Falls Tribune Great Falls (Montana, 24 Jan. 1921), p. 7; The Anaconda Standard (Anaconda, Montana, 7 May 1907), p. 2; The Anaconda Standard (Anaconda, Montana, 11 June 1907), p. 5.