There were dozens of “cafes” in and around Hamilton that flaunted, sometimes openly and brazenly, the laws enacted to codify the great failed experiment of Prohibition, but there were two nightclubs on the outskirts of town that were the hubs of local illicit revelry, White City Park and the Stockton Club.
Both were favorite targets of local Prohibition enforcer Squire Morris Y. Shuler of Seven Mile.
A quirk of the Prohibition laws allowed mayors and justices of the peace to establish liquor courts in which they could prosecute violators throughout the county of their jurisdiction. Morris Shuler of Seven Mile, first as a justice of peace and later as mayor, took advantage of this quirk and for a time held sway over one of the busiest liquor squads in the state of Ohio. Sometimes working in collaboration with state and federal agents, sometimes leading squads that included moonlighting police and sheriff deputies — and for a time, even the county coroner — on his own. Until the U.S. Supreme Court struck down that portion of the law, Shuler and his small army were the scourges of bootleggers and cafe owners throughout Butler County.
Along with a cadre of 18 state agents, Shuler raided both White City Park and the Stockton Club, among a handful of other establishments, on consecutive nights, November 2 and 3, 1922. The raids netted Squire Shuler’s court ove $8,000 in fines, the largest being levied against John Rose, then the proprietor of the Stockton Club, for $500, with his two bartenders also ponying up $100 each.
Probably the biggest catch of the day was the discovery of a still along the canal near the Dixie Highway in White City Park that was said to be operated by Carl Bley.
Squire Schuler reported that 150 gallons of the finished whiskey was uncovered in a pile of lumber, that a still was found out in the open behind a sign board with nothing over it but an improvised roof, and that a quantity of mash was found in a concrete basin built into the ground.
Although there were dozens of such raids on White City during the Prohibition years, one of the most notorious cases came to light in the spring of 1923, but it originated not in the park, but in the Globe Hotel, located on South Fifth Street near the B&O Railroad station when probation officer Hattie S. Clark went there to retrieve Ethel Hallam, 23-year-old a married mother of two, who had been carrying on in one of the rooms there.
Alvin Dunlap, the proprietor of the Globe, told her of other girls, some of them underage, registered there and behaving inappropriately by staying out very late and allowing men into their rooms. The girls had no luggage when they registered at the hotel, but Dunlap would later tell the juvenile court that he thought it was all right because they were all together.
This led to the discovery of three minors, Alice, 16, who had been named a ward of the court in 1917, Marion and Dora. Also taken into custody were Edna Tuley, 18, of Lindenwald, daughter of a policeman, and Eva Babcock, 20, Symmes Corner.
The girls had met at the Saturday night dances conducted by the Labor Temple on Maple Avenue, and it was following one of these dances that the girls formed the proposition of renting the room. Charles Vaughn, leader of the temple, was named as one of several men who visited the girls. The warrant charged that some of the girls entertained men in the room, but all but one of the girls denied this, but Dunlap told of finding two men in the room one night and said he had told them twice to come to the office if they were waiting for the girls.
The first night the girls were provided with two separate rooms but following that two beds were placed in the same room which was occupied by all six girls for a time. Some of the girls remained longer than others. One of the girls told her mother she was working in Newport, Kentucky. The mother of another was in Dayton at the time.
The girls told of going to the White City Park resort, returning as late as 5 a.m. and then sleeping until two in the afternoon.
Dunlap denied furnishing the girls with whiskey but testimony from one of them was that they had obtained liquor from him.
Dunlap was fined $1,000 and costs and given a one year sentence in the Dayton Workhouse, suspended on the condition that he get out of the hotel business within 30 days.
At this hearing Friday the three minor girls were sent to the Delaware reform school, three elder girls given suspended sentences to Marysville and the keeper of the hotel given 30 days to get out of business or pay a fine of $1,000 and spend a year in the Dayton Workhouse.
Tuely and Babcock were put on probation on the conditions that they attend church every Sunday morning and refrain from going out after 9 p.m. unless accompanied by their parents. They were given suspended sentences to the Marysville reformatory for women and were required to report to juvenile court once a week.
Probation officer Shirley spoke of the reports that he had received for some time in the past concerning the minors who were permitted in that place and of the harm that might come to them through environments that were said to be there.
The finishing touches were put on the evidence when the three young girls testified that they had gone there at least three times, leaving the hotel at about ten o’clock and getting back at some time between midnight and morning. The girls told of the use of the park of slot machines and one stated that she had been given small amounts of money by me there to play the machines. The evenings were spent in playing the machines and dancing and drinking soft drinks.
“It was immediately after the hearing Friday,” said Judge Woodruff, “after those minor girls had testified concerning things that had happened at White City Park that I gave orders to Sheriff Laubach and my chief probation officer L.K. Shirley to see that the place is closed until after the trial of the two me Tuesday morning.”
While all of this was going on, while the girls were confessing their sins in juvenile court, the case against White City Park was heightened by a shooting incident involving an on-duty Hamilton police detective, unrelated to the trouble with the girls.
Detective Herman Dulle said that he and fellow detective Al Mueller, had earlier in the week received a tip that a certain individual had been selling stolen silk shirts at White City Park. On Friday, April 13, even while warrants were being prepared to padlock the resort on the testimony of the teenage girls, Dulle and Mueller were eating a midnight meal at an uptown restaurant and Ella DeMont, aka Ella Westfall, part owner of White City Park with William “Pat” Gradolph, was in the restaurant at the same time. Dulle said they told her about the silk shirts and she told them to go on over to the resort, located just off Dixie Highway on Bobenmeyer (now Bobmeyer) Road to find their suspect.
Dulle said that he and Mueller along with detective Giles of Indianapolis who was here on vacation, then went to the park in an automobile belonging to cafe owner Lymon Williams. After remaining at the park for an hour and a half waiting for the thieves to appear, Dulle said he gave up hope of catching them and notified Mueller that he was going back to the city. He went in a different car.
Although Dulle said he did not see Mueller drinking any liquor, that Pat Gradolph “had been drinking and was becoming a little wild and I thought it would be better if we left. Mueller evidently did not give much thought to Pat’s drinking and remained.”
The shooting occurred about a half-hour after Dulle’s departure.
Mueller would later tell his superiors, “About 4 o’clock, trouble started in a small side room. Yes, this room is used for gambling. I went in to investigate the trouble and succeeded in getting the parties on the outside. We settled the trouble and went back into the place.”
The story from a habitue of the resort leads to the impression that the trouble started over a crap game. A man shooting the dice protested he was short-changed. Harry Gradolph, Pat’s brother, was running the game. Trouble loomed and Mueller acted as peacemaker. Harry Gradolph told his brother of the affair.
“A short time later there was a disturbance out on the road,” Mueller said. “I did not go out and investigate. I later learned that police had been called but could not find the troublemakers. Then after the trouble apparently had been settled, that Pat Gradolph came up to me and wanted to know why I had put a gun on Harry Gradolph.
“Pat was drunk and pulled out a revolver and started to shoot. One of the bullets hit my right foot.
“I did not shoot at Gradolph.”
Chief of Police Charles Stricker and Detective Chief W.C. Herrmann verified the story of Mueller that the detectives were detailed to investigate the tip that stolen shirts were being peddled at the park and exonerated him of any culpability, though he would soon be suspended for working security at the Stockton Club during his off-hours.
“At this time,” Hermann said, “we do not care to give the name of the party who tipped us off, but be can do so if pressed.”
Herrmann also said that police reports show that headquarters received a call from the vicinity of the park early Saturday morning telling of the disturbance. Herrmann said officers went to the scene but could not find participants in the trouble. No report of the trouble is contained on police reports.
Herrmann and Stricker took warrants to Mueller’s home Saturday morning charging Pat Gradolph with shooting with intent to wound, but orders to close the resort had already been issued to Butler County Sheriff Rudy Laubach following the sensational expose by the six young girls of vices indulged in at the notorious resort.
Harry and Pat Gradolph were arrested Saturday afternoon by L.K. Shirley, chief probation officer in the juvenile court of Butler County and Sheriff Laubach.
“It came to the point where something had to be done,” said Sheriff Laubach shortly after the park had been closed and the proprietors placed under arrest. “And it also reached the stage where sufficient evidence had been gathered against the place.”
Both Sheriff Laubach and Officer Shirley had made thorough investigations before a step was taken toward the placing of a lock on the White City gate. Both me reported that it came to the point where some step had to be taken and to the place where something could be done.
“I’ve been watching the place for some time,” said the sheriff, “but for the most part it was almost impossible to get any definite evidence against the happenings down there. People in the neighborhood did not bring me any complaints that could be followed and I stood watch for the right opportunity. After hearing the testimony by those girls in juvenile court Friday, I went into conferences with juvenile authorities and we decided to take action immediately.
Harry Gradolph was the first to be arrested after he had been found in bed at the park. Pat Gradolph surrendered himself at the jail later in the morning.
The affidavit signed by Shirley charged Pat Gradolph with selling and giving the minors intoxicating beverages, permitting the minors to operate gambling devices known as nickel slot machines, and permitting gambling in the presence of minors.
The Gradolphs’ trial on April 19 included sensational testimony from Marion French, 17, who described in some detail the girls’ visits to White City Park.
Sometimes the fellows who took them to the park had liquor and the girls would take a drink before they got there. No one ever asked their age, but French said she did see the signs that read, “If you are not 21, your presence is not required.” She said that from 10 a.m. until 3 or 4 a.m., sometimes until 6 a.m., the girls sat at tables, talked, drank, smoked, ate sandwiches and played the nickel slot machines.
“They had big games on Saturday nights. You could not get into the room and you couldn’t see for the people… We would dance and when that wore off we would go into the barroom and get more liquor.”
“They felt pretty good lots of times but they were not real drunk,” French said.
On the stand, Pat Gradolph said his business was operating a soft drink stand known as White City Inn. He denied knowing the girls and denied giving them whiskey. He said he had seen them there drinking pop and eating sandwiches. He admitted there were slot machines in the barroom and one in the dance hall, but that he never saw the girls playing them.
“They are mostly for the men,” he told the court, but the women slip in unbeknown.
Pat Gradolph was sentenced to a year in the Dayton Workhouse and fined $1,000, $500 of which was suspended on condition that he closed White City Park. His brother Harry was fined $100 and costs and sentenced to one year in the Dayton Workhouse, suspended on the condition that he return to his trade and “refrain from such activities as has characterized his work at White CIty Park or any other place.”
The following week, Ella Westfall was also convicted on similar charges and sentenced to a year at Marysville Reformatory for Women.
The Stockton Club’s most notorious moment came the following New Year’s Eve when a free-for-all broke out during a dance. The Wolverines, led by Hamilton pianist Dud Mecum and featuring famed cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, were playing when “some two score revelers ‘opened up’”at the club, in which a dozen or more persons were injured, although only one person was reported to have gone to Mercy Hospital at 4 a.m., which the hospital denied, but many persons were seen out and about in Hamilton with bandages on their heads and with scars and bruises.
There was no official report or investigation of the incident, but the club closed in order to allow the alleged “rough-house” a chance to blow over.
It remained closed for several weeks, but soon was back in action and was subsequently raided many times for both liquor and gambling violations.