A newspaper photo of Margaret Mary Mosely, alias Mary McNamee, a 21-year old Philadelphia woman who was arrested in February 1936 for being the “chief of procurement” for a vice ring that operated in three states (New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) and was said to hold 2000 young women as involuntary prostitutes. Mosely, dubbed the “Vice Queen” by authorities, lured and tricked young women primarily from the anthracite coal regions into “white slavery.” At her arraignment a specific charge was made that she transported a girl from Schuylkill Haven to Camden, New Jersey, for “immoral purposes.” [Photo From: Philadelphia Inquirer, February 4, 1936].
Mosely’s arrest and conviction in 1936 brought to light the economic plight of many young women in the coal regions of Pennsylvania, who fell for the recruitment tactics of Mosely and others and then found themselves bound in “white slavery” in houses of prostitution in New Jersey and New York.
Much of the history of the women who found themselves victims of “white slavery” is covered up by family histories that ignore such unpleasantries. But with the estimate of 2000 women being involved, most of whom were from the anthracite coal regions, surely many families in the Lykens Valley area were involved in and hurt by this tragedy. When the Lykens Standard reported on the arrest of Margaret Mary Mosely, it did so with a two-column headline on page one.
The story is told here through newspaper articles and begins with the New York Daily News, February 3, 1936. The Lykens Standard article of February 7, 1936 follows. Additional articles describe Mosely and her criminal career. Finally, the punishment, a sentence of one-year-and-one-day, in a state reformatory for women.
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From the New York Daily News, February 3, 1936:
NAB 77 BOSSES IN 41 VICE RAIDS
The complete smashing of New York’s $12,000,000-a-year vice racket was claimed yesterday by Special Prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey after 41 perfectly timed mass raids in two boroughs. Only a handful of scared patrons and defiant prostitute were caught by mistake in the spectacular dragnet that snared 100 women and 10 men – and they were released. But the seventy-seven thrown into jail embraced the real profiteers and big shots of the grisly racket – bookers, house managers and madams, according to Dewey. Seventy of those held are women, seven are men. The latter are gangsters and gorillas, far overshadowing in evil importance the recently convicted Nick Montana and Cockeyed Louie Wiener, Dewey said. All were held in $10,000 bail as material witnesses. Their names were kept secret….
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From the Lykens Standard, February 7, 1936, with two-column, front-page headline:
FIND GIRL 21 ‘BRAINS’ BACK OF ANTHRACITE VICE RING IN PHILADELPHIA
Federal Agents worked with police of eastern cities Tuesday to crush a highly organized vice-mob operating in three states, with an estimated annual “take” of $12,000,000.
The ring, officers said, held 2,000 women as virtual slaves in 200 houses.
In an unprecedented late night session of his plue panel vice grand jury, Thomas E. Dewey presented information against 11 alleged “masterminds” of the ring who were held in a total bail of almost $500,000.
One indictment was returned against Peter Balitzar, alias Peter Harris, , who was arrested in Philadelphia for extradition, and charged with compulsory prostitution. He is alleged to have made $1,000,000 in vice.
Federal agents in Philadelphia also arrested a 21-year-old girl as the “chief of procurement” of a syndicate operating in New Jersey from New York headquarters.
Charged with transportation of a minor for immoral purposes from Schuylkill Haven to Camden, New Jersey, the woman was said by Federal Agents to be the “brains” of a mob that lured girls from the Pennsylvania anthracite regions to houses in New Jersey.
The agents would not say is she was sought in connection with the New York raids over the weekend, but the New York organization was described as… linking four separate… inter-related gangs in the metropolitan area.
Seventy women and seven men were held as material witnesses.
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From the Philadelphia Inquirer, February 4, 1936:
WOMAN, 21, ARRESTED AS VICE RING ‘BRAINS”
Linked to Tri-State Gang Transporting Girls From Coal Regions to N. J., N. Y., “Big 11” Member Seized First
City police and Federal agents here yesterday contributed two yeomanlike blows to the general offensive against commercialized vice being conducted in New York City by Special Assistant District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey.
Held here for extradition to New York was Peter Balver, alias Peter Balitzer, alias “Pete” Harris, 33-year-old leader of the group named by Dewey yesterday as the “Big Eleven” of Manhattan’s vice empire.
The other 10 were arraigned in New York before Supreme Court Justice Philip McCook and held in bond, which ranged downward from $75,000 to $25,000 each.
Meanwhile, Deputy U. S. Marshal Charles J. Schock placed under arrest Margaret Mary Mosely, 21-year-old West Philadelphia woman, known as “Mary McNamee.”
He declared that she is the “finger woman” or procurer for a large New York vice syndicate which recruits inmates of its vice dens in the anthracite section of Pennsylvania.
Although but 21, the not unattractive woman, who is said to be married, but estranged from her husband, allegedly has been a figure in the machinations of various white slave gangs since she was 16.
Due to the fact that members of the gang by whom she is allegedly is employed have not been arrested, Federal authorities declined to say whether there is a connection between Balver’s arrest and the detention in bail of Mrs. Mosely.
Wanted in Trenton
However, the fact that Mrs. Mosely is wanted for trial in the Federal District Court at Trenton for the alleged transportation of a 19-year-old married woman from Schuylkill Haven to Camden last November, indicated that there may be such a connection.
Schock arrested the young woman at the the home of her parents on Lancaster Avenue near 47th Street yesterday afternoon, after a search which had been conducted for almost two years, following her disappearance while at liberty on bail, pending trial for a similar charge.
He said that about two years ago she turned State’s evidence and gave testimony in court which resulted in the conviction and sentencing of Joseph Tazzaro, alias “Joseph Gibbons” and Joseph “Joe the Boob” Santaro. Both men were recently discharged from the Mercer County prison, after serving 18 months each.
Subsequently, she was arrested on an additional charge, involving violation of the Mann Act, but “skipped” after bail had been posted for appearance.
Balver’s arrest on Saturday night was made after New York police had requested his detention. He was arraigned before Magistrate James J. Campbell in the 32nd Street and Woodland Avenue Station yesterday, and though at first seemingly willing to waive extradition and return to New York, he changed his mind and asserted that he will fight it.
Dewey’s lightning-swift offensive against brothel-keepers and those who stock their dens with women forced into prostitution resulted in the arrest of 88 men an women, and his disclosure that commercialized vice in New York annually grosses $15,000,000 for its operators. He declared that Balver’s annual income was estimated to be upwards of $1,000,000.
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The Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader, February 4, 1936, printed a wire service story on Mosely’s arrest:
ALLEGED VICE ‘BRAIN’ HELD
21-YEAR-OLD WOMAN ARRESTED IN PHILADELPHIA IN EASTERN ROUNDUP
Philadelphia, February 3 [1036] — Federal agents stepped into the drive against Eastern vice conditions today, arresting a 21-year-old woman, of a powerful ring operating in New Jersey with headquarters in New York….
The woman arrested was said by deputy U. S. Marshall Charles J. Schock to be Margaret Mary Mosely, alias Margaret McNamee, and was alleged to have been a fugitive from vice charges for the last two years.
The Federal agent said she is believed to have been the “chief of procurement” for the ring, but he would not state whether she had been sought in connection with the same ring as was rounded up in New York over the week end….
Federal agents said the mob lured girls from the Pennsylvania anthracite regions to houses in New Jersey, but that the headquarters of the band was in New York.
The Mosely woman was taken into custody at the home of her mother in West Philadelphia. Federal agents said she is married. She was arrested on a warrant charging her with transportation of a minor, for immoral purposes, from Schuylkill Haven to Camden, New Jersey.
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From the Pottsville Republican, February 4, 1936, and the Harrisburg Telegraph, same date:
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Federal agents arrested a woman booked as Margaret Mary Mosely, 21, as one of the “brains” of a vice ring operating in New Jersey with headquarters in New York. She was charged with transporting a girl from Schuylkill Haven to Camden, New Jersey, for immoral purposes.
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An editorial from the Harrisburg Patriot, February 11, 1936:
SMASHING VICE RING
One of the gratifying results of the attack on crime is the apparently successful effort to smash a Nation-wide vice ring. Arrests in New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere with accompanying raids on houses seems to indicate that the police have done a good and certainly a necessary job.
Commercialized vice in any form is intolerable, but when it is organized on the basis of “big business” with branches in different cities, with procurers scouting the land for innocent victims and all the other other features of a gigantic conspiracy, it especially deserves eradication.
Naturally this or any other form of organized crime cannot thrive long except under police protection. There must be an alliance between the criminal and the politician for a vice ring to maintain itself. As a matter of fact the ring flourished in New York until a special prosecutor was named to smash it. in other words the evil existed under ordinary police routine.
While “white slavery” is a sort of recognized institution in many nations of the world, it seems like an alien growth in the United States. Its backers, as their names are revealed on police records show the foreign background and genesis it has. This Nation is by no means spotless, but it specially despises the traffic in women and to that end public opinion is organized to root it out and commend the police who do it.
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Finally, from the Camden Morning Post (New Jersey), May 26, 1936:
Margaret Mosely, 22, alias Peggy Gallo, of Trenton, was sentenced to a year and a day in the state reformatory for women when she pleaded guilty to an indictment charging her with conspiracy to violate the Mann Act. She was arrested February 19 [sic]. Joseph Sepicato, alias Joe Romano, was sentenced to a year and a day in state prison when he pleaded guilty in a similar charge. Sepacato and the Mosey girl previously pleaded not guilty.
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News articles from Newspapers.com and from the on-line resources of the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Corrections and additional information should be added as comments to this post.