Old West Prostitutes: The Public Arch Shooting by Ramblin' Bob

El Paso Madams: The Public Arch Shooting

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The incident is reported as follows, “The weapon roared its authority, sending a bullet into Alice’s pubic arch. Clutching her groin, Alice screamed: “My God, I’m shot.” She lurched from the hall and staggered down into the street.” Etta Clark shot again but missed. When Alice looked up, she caught Clark with a smile on her face as she went back in her house.

El Paso could not help but smile at the thought of the diminutive Clark drawing a heavy handgun and shooting the giant Abbot - a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier - in the most delicate of parts. They did more than smile if accounts are recorded right - they guffawed.

Alice survived the shooting, despite the risk of blood poisoning, and a fifty-fifty chance of dying. The newspapers called this the case of ” Public Arch Shooting,” but all who read it knew to what it actually referenced. The widely circulated story caused the public to make fun of Abbot, increasing her anger and hate. To add insult to injury, it only took the jury fifteen minutes to find Etta Clark not guilty on grounds of self defense. Alice Abbot’s humiliation was now complete.

In the early hours of July 12, 1888 Etta Clark’s parlor house caught fire while she and all the girls were asleep. They all managed to escape, but the house and all belongings were destroyed. Later it was determined that Abbot had hired a couple of drunks to start the fire, but gaps in the evidence led to both Alice’s and the men’s acquittal.

Etta Clark and her girls were reduced to the level of street walkers. Her luck changed; however, with the appearance of J. P. Dieter, one of her adoring clients, who built her a new huge parlor. His wife divorced him and took their children back east. Etta and Dieter lived as husband and wife without ever becoming married.

In February, 1890 Alice Abbot leased her brothel to a younger woman, Tillie Howard. Alice spent several lonely and unhappy years and, in her early 40’s, she died on April 7, 1896 of a heart attack. She was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery. Her death went unreported in the papers because of widespread interest in a boxing match and municipal elections, a perfect time to have advertised in earlier days.

In 1904, Etta Clark became ill and decided to run her business from the third floor of the Myar Opera House. The Opera House caught fire and burned down in 1905. Etta barely escaped alive and suffered complications from smoke inhalation. During a trip to her sister’s in Atlanta, Georgia in 1908 she died of these complications..

The first police officer killed in the line of duty in El Paso was Assistant City Marshal Thomas Mode, who was responding to a disturbance at Abbot’s brothel along with jailer, Jim Wheat. During the investigation of said disturbance, Mode was shot several times and staggered out into the mud of Utah Street, where he died. No further details were provided of this July 19, 1883 incident.

The fines levied against the streetwalkers and women of the brothels paid the salaries of the police and fire department, so the town fathers turned a deaf ear to the complaints levied about the brothels. However in 1882 they began enforcing the sections 49 and 73 of the City Charter, ordering the arrest of all wanton women and their employers. Of course, the term “arrest” was a misnomer, what it really meant was that they were fined and turned loose. This was in effect a license to practice their trade.

Madams all over the west ran their businesses successfully and some see them as the feminists of their age.

So pardners I’ve hung with these gals long enough. I gotta scoot afore my wife catches me with them.

About the Author: Ramblin' Bob Young has a love of history and the Old West and has collected numerous books on the both the American West and the Civil War over the years. He has participated in Civil War enactments and is a self-described "wanna-be cowboy" who admits to roping his younger sister when he was a child. Today, he shares his love and knowledge in an interesting blog called www.ramblingbob.wordpress.com Check it out!

Paintings of nude women adorned the walls of the many saloons, as an ever-present reminder.

This image available for photographic prints HERE!

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Great American Bars and Saloons

Great American Bars and Saloons by Kathy Weiser By Kathy Weiser

Owner/Editor of Legends of America

Kathy Weiser's first venture into the publishing world takes you into the many watering holes of America's past, particularly the numerous saloons that sprouted up during our nation's Wild West days. This great photographic review displays hundreds of vintage photographs from California to Arizona, the mining camps of Colorado, all the way to New York and its turbulent days of Prohibition.

Signed by the author!!

New - $17.95 - Item #kw001