Youthful Crimes Against Nature 1887
In a Salt Lake Tribune Police Beat article, dated November 30, 1886, an expose’ called "The Crowd of Bad Boys" mentioned a gang of youthful hooligans. They had been charged with robbing Independence Hall, the Husband's grocery store and assaulting a Chinese man by the name of Hong Hop by hitting him in the head with a "Boot black's outfit". These street urchins were only referred to by their last names and were probably all between the ages of ten and fourteen. Two of the youths mentioned were [Willie] Paddock and [John] Ledford, who would later be charged with “Crimes Against Nature”. This was not Paddock's first scrape with the law. In 1884 when he was about 11 years old, a grand jury "ignored" a case "under Territorial Law" probably due to the offenders young age. Three boys Thomas Adamson I William Paddock and John Adamson aged 10, 8 and 12 years respectively were arrested on Saturday charged with destroying property Salt Lake Herald March 13 1881
Three years later Willie Paddock had more scrapes with the law when the salt Lake Herald wrote 23 March 1884 that he appeared again in Police Court. His father Alonzo came before the judge and complained that he would not have had to apply for bail if his son would have been treated like the others boys who had been arrested at the same time but turned loose. Mr. Paddock complained that his son was not released but kept in jail in close confinement because "his boy did not belong to the same outfit or denomination." The city marshall however "denounced the statement of Paddock as a malicious falsehood untrue from beginning to end and grew quite eloquent in his defense."
In November 1886 the "youthful thieves" were arrested again and came once more before Justice Pyper. The judge "was again confronted this morning by a row of half a dozen youthful offenders rang ranging from 11 to 17 years of age their names were Dan. Henry, Wm. Paddock, Fred Bubbles, Norton Curtis, Arthur Curtis and Samuel Chatterdon. They were all in a dilapidated condition with unwashed faces ragged clothing and unkempt hair the youngest of the number Dan Henry was without coat, hat, or shoes having only an old patrol stockings on his feet. His parents are both dead and he lives when he is home with an aged grandmother. After the proceedings were over Henry was detained by the marshal and provided with shoes and clothing".
The boys were accused of stealing a gold brooch, a collar button and some papers from "the house of Mrs Jane M Perry on the west side of the Jordan River. The youngest boy Dan Henry confessed the whole affair and the others others corroborated his statements. These were to the effect that at the time of the robbery in november. Samuel Chattedon aged 17 , Dan Henry,Wm and Mudge Paddock went over the river shooting. Two of them young Dan Henry and Wm Paddock proposed going into Mrs Perry's house to get some food while Chatterdon was to keep guard on the outside. Mudge Paddock had nothing to do with the affair and left for home. The boys got in through a window and helped themselves to bread and butter. Henry also appropriating the broach and button the latter of which he afterwards lost and took the former home where it was found today. The boys then went into Mr Whittiker's orchard and helped themselves to apples. young Chatterton wanted the brooch at first but concluding that if his father found it out he would get into trouble and left it alone. The next accusation was against the two Curtis boys, Dan Bubbles, and William Paddock. This was for breaking into Mr. John Clarks cellar and making away with a quantity of canned fruits. Bubbles and Paddock were the ones who went inside while the other two kept a lookout. A plea of guilty was made to this charge. In summing up the two cases judge Pyper expressed strong regret that such a state of things existed. He then took the culprits in succession by closely catechising and explaining the wrongfulness of their course succeeded in making an apparent impression upon them each of the boys promised that henceforth he would lead an honest life and sentence was suspended during good behavior. They were all warned however, that if they engaged in any more stealing, the suspended judgment would fall upon them to the full extent 199 days in jail and they were allowed to depart.
A later report, dated
7 January 1887, called, "A Pitiful Array of Youthful Scapegraces,"
(scapegrace: "graceless and good for nothing") mentioned Willie
Paddock and John Ledford again, along with Dan Henry, Luzon Adams, Willie
Adams, Arthur Curtis, and “George Bubbles.
They were in court for robbing a candy store and assaulting a boy. The
reporter stated that the boy named “Bubbles” spent the afternoon on the court's
bench "chewing gum as though his acquittal depended upon the number of
times he kept his jaws moving per minute." Bubbles, in all later accounts,
is referred to as “Richard Bubbles” or even “Dick Turpin Bubbles”.
The judge sentenced the youths to city jail,
remarking "it was like passing judgment on babies, to sentence boys of
such tender years, but nearly twenty houses had been broken into in the last
few weeks, and racket had got to be stopped." Then the reported
"pointed out to the readers" that in the courtroom, "the lack of
Territorial House of Correction was sadly felt, for boys ought to have
different treatment from adults."
"Richard Bubbles, the
chewing gum, stolen money receiving fiend” pleaded not guilty wrote the same
journalist. But in the follow up item, titled "Busted Bubbles", he
reported, "that bold, bad, bumptious boy, Dick Turpin Bubbles, charged
with acting Fagin to Ledford's Oliver Twist, next effervesced to the surface
for sentencing. He burst with a loud explosion when court bound him over in
$100 to the Grand Jury.”
It is ironic that while locked up
in city jail for larceny, on January 8th the jailed youths committed sodomy
with another prisoner named David Prior, for which they were to be charged with
a felony.
"William Paddock, Richard Bubbles, Arthur Curtis, Dan Henry, and John Leadford on the eight day of January A.D. eighteen hundred and eight-seven at the county of Salt Lake in said Territory of Utah in and upon one David Prior feloniously did make an assault, and there and then feloniously, wickedly and against the order of nature had a venereal affair with the said David Prior and there and then feloniously carnally knew him the said David Prior, and then and there feloniously and wickedly did commit and perpetrate the detestable and abominable crime against nature."
On the 21 of January The Daily Enquirer News reported that Willie Paddock's father Alonzo Paddock petitioned the court to have his son placed in the Territorial Insane Asylum in Provo rather than have him tried in criminal court. Evidence given by his parents was that the boy had an "incendiary disposition" and was capable of committing an assault on any person while under one of his "spells" and and he has a disposition to sudden passion. He was judged insane on January 19th and sent to Provo.
In Utah ’s 3rd District Court, Case 388, the youthful miscreants were indicted on 23 February 1887 by a Grand Jury for “Crimes Against Nature. “ The district
court ordered the arrest of the boys with bail set at $500 each. The teenagers,
already incarcerated, were brought before the judge on April 22, 1887. Richard
Bubbles pled not guilty to both charges, of receiving stolen property and
committing sodomy. However since the sodomy charge was the more serious of the
two, and carried a greater penalty, the charges of larceny were dismissed.
Because the nature of the charges was considered so heinous, all persons except
the jurors were excluded from the courtroom during the examination of
witnesses. The Prosecution dismissed the charges against John Leadford and Dan
Henry, both whom were only about 12 years of age and thought to be not old enough to commit sodomy. Thirteen year old William Paddock, was absent from
the courtroom because he "was judged insane and is
confined to the Territorial Insane Asylum." The Deseret News claimed that Paddock's "utterly vile and depraved conduct was condoned by sending him to the insane asylum because there was then no reformatory in which he could be placed."
Only Richard Bubbles and Arthur
Curtis were left to bear the blunt of the prosecutor's case of Sodomy. Oddly there were
only three witnesses in this case, David Prior, the complainant, City Judge
George Pyper, and LeBaron Havington, who was in jail for vagrancy, and who had observed the
boys committing the sexual acts with Prior.
The newspaper journalist did not report
the details of the case, saying that they were of "the most disgusting
character and unfit for publication." Not wishing to offend the
sensibilities of his readers, he was content to flesh out his story, by
mentioning the antics of one of the witnesses, Le Baron Havington.
This witness Havington had prepared an
essay which he wanted read to the court as a "preface to this testimony".
The court denied the request, but evidently the reporter was privileged to it.
The composition was an account of Havington's "persecutions" which he
says were prompted by malice, and that it contained "statement and scrapes
of ancient history …touching upon crimes of the ancients." The reporter mused, "Altogether the
epistle was a curious affair and gave evidence of a peculiarly disordered
mind." Could Havington's essay have been a defense of homosexuality and
thus seen as evidence of a queer or "disordered mind"? Was that why
it was not allowed read in court? The “crimes of the ancients” was certainly
homosexuality and Havington, arrested for vagrancy, states that he had been
maliciously “persecuted”.
The youthful offenders Bubbles and
Curtis were found guilty “on the testimony of witness, the argument of counsel,
and charge of the court”. The jury
however recommended the mercy of the court, “on account of the extreme youth of
the defendants”. Whether the two boys
served any prison time for sodomy is unknown.
When Willie Paddock was released from the
insane asylum the following summer, he had an arrest warrant issued by the 3rd District
Court against him. By July 22, 1887 Paddock was in the custody of the Utah County sheriff
In conclusion these bad boys did
not stay out of trouble for long. In 1888, William Paddock, Arthur Curtis, Dan
Henry, and Luzon Adams were all indicted for burglary in Case File 448 in the 3rd
District Court. Bubbles is not mentioned again in criminal court records, which
does not necessarily mean that he left his life of juvenile crimes behind. I
suspect that Bubbles is simply an alias for a Gay teenager who loved to chew
gum. each for being.
Arthur and Norton Curtis and John Ledford were arrested again in 1890 "called youthful incorrigibles" for burglarizing The Waldron Store. Norton who was just a month shy of his 18th birthday was sentence along with his cohorts John Tremayne age 15 and a black youth named George Johnson age 17 who said his parents lived in Butte Montana to the state's reform school.
The Deseret News reported on 11 March 1893 that William Paddock was in trouble again with a new gang of teenage were arrested for stealing $200 worth of Carpenter tools in the Avenues
In March 1898 Norton was sentenced to six months in the city jail for petty theft. The crime reporter wrote that he was "though young in years is old in crime. The police think him the toughest of the tough and extremely shrewd." After Norton was released from jail he and his brother Arthur were arrested and tried for theft and assault. The Brothers sent to prison in Sugar house were called depraved and there Norton Curtis died 27 May 1901 age 28.
Arthur and Norton Curtis and John Ledford were arrested again in 1890 "called youthful incorrigibles" for burglarizing The Waldron Store. Norton who was just a month shy of his 18th birthday was sentence along with his cohorts John Tremayne age 15 and a black youth named George Johnson age 17 who said his parents lived in Butte Montana to the state's reform school.
The Deseret News reported on 11 March 1893 that William Paddock was in trouble again with a new gang of teenage were arrested for stealing $200 worth of Carpenter tools in the Avenues
In March 1898 Norton was sentenced to six months in the city jail for petty theft. The crime reporter wrote that he was "though young in years is old in crime. The police think him the toughest of the tough and extremely shrewd." After Norton was released from jail he and his brother Arthur were arrested and tried for theft and assault. The Brothers sent to prison in Sugar house were called depraved and there Norton Curtis died 27 May 1901 age 28.
Arthur Curtis died 25 March 1948 in Salt Lake City at the age of 77 years.
Arthur and Norton's father's Blacksmith Shop
NOTES:
 |
| Norton Webster Curtis Senior |
 |
| Margaret Sprague |
Arthur Curtis born Aug. 15 1870 in Humboldt Nevada, and Norton Webster Curtis Jr. born Jun. 9 1872 in Salt Lake City were the sons of Norton W. and Margaret Ann Sprague Curtis. Norton W. Curtin Sr. was a Union Civil War veteran who after the war was stationed at Fort Douglas where he married Maggie Sprague daughter of a Mormon Utah Pioneer. Norton was a blacksmith by occupation and owned a house at 514 South Eight West. He owned a blacksmith shop. After his death his widow rented rooms at 632 West 1st South until her death. Arthur Curtis lived at 1535 West 9th South in 1923. Arthur Curtis in April 1931 was arrested for disorderly conduct with three other men booked for "loudly singing" on the corner of 1st South and west Temple.
William H. Paddock was born 1873 in Salt Lake City, Utah and was the son of Alonzo Gates Paddock (1847-1910) and Cornelia Hill (1839-1899). The Paddocks came to Utah from Omaha Nebraska in late 1870 and by 1872 Mrs. Paddock turned her speaking and writing skills to anti-polygamy. She wrote a series of articles in the Salt Lake Tribune arguing against polygamy and in 1873 wrote a series of the horrors of polygamy which became an expose in 1879 called "In the Toils: or Martyrs of the Latter Days. The 1880 Federal Census for Utah shows her living in Salt Lake City, with her "miner" husband, Alonzo G. Paddock, and their four children. In 1884 she helped draft a letter to Congress asking to repeal women suffrage in Utah. Cornelia Paddock was the author of such Mormon expose books as: In the Toils, or, Martyrs of the Latter Days (1879), The Fate of Madame LaTour, Tale of Great Salt Lake (1881), and Saved at Last From Among the Mormons (1881). See Richard S. Van Wagoner's "Sarah M. Pratt: The Shaping of An Apostate" (in Dialogue, Vol. 19, No. 2), for further information on Cornelia.
Deseret Evening News, 1898-01-27 Mrs Cornelia Paddock Dead
Cornelia Paddock wife of Alonzo G Paddock the mining man and matron or the Rescue Mission for Wayward Girls died at her residence 1340 South 10th East Street at 7 o'clock last evening as a result of a surgical operation for the removal or a cancer. The operation was performed on Monday last and the patients Condition grew steadily worse until the end came. Mrs Paddock was 58 years orfage and a native of King's County New York. She came to Utah with her husband from Nebraska in 1870 and continued to reside in Salt Lake City up time of her death The deceased was an active worker in the field of charity and had many friends. She leaves a husband two sons and a daughter to mourn her demise.
Woman's Home
Association Tried to Help the "Fallen"
by Jeffrey D.
Nichols History Blazer,
February 1995
The late 19th
and early 20th centuries witnessed an international campaign to eradicate
prostitution, the "social evil." Locally, the Woman's Home
Association began in Salt Lake City in 1894 as an interdenominational church
program to rescue "fallen" women from a life of prostitution. Lack of
funding and support from the surrounding community prevented the association
from achieving its original goal, but the organization did provide employment for
poor women for a number of years.
The
association's president and chief spokesperson, Cornelia Paddock, was well
known for her charitable work and her authorship of anti-Mormon novels. The
wife of Alonzo G. Paddock, who was engaged in mining, Cornelia had a city
directory listing under her own name in the 1890s as an "authoress."
Two of her works, The Fate of Madame La Tour and In the Toils, helped to fuel
the national debate of the 1880s over Mormon polygamy and church political
control of Utah Territory.
According to
Paddock, the Woman's Home Association spent months attempting to find a
suitable location for a "home for erring girls" where they could be
reformed. A committee reportedly investigated about thirty suitable homes but
could not find an owner willing to rent a building for such purposes. While
condemning Salt Lake City's lack of compassion for "women who are
destitute and homeless," Paddock wryly noted that "there have always
been some property owners willing to rent houses to those [women] who do not
wish to reform." Blocked in its effort to change the lives of prostitutes,
the association decided to concentrate instead on providing employment training
for poor women.
By January 19,
1895, the association had opened offices in the Alexander Block at 372 South
Main Street. The WHA operated a free employment agency, receiving applications
from women who desired work and from persons wishing to engage them. By the end
of the month Paddock could report that between 30 and 40 women had applied for
work and that the association had successfully placed many of them, mostly in
domestic, laundry, and sewing work.
Paddock
continued to plead for donations of food, clothing, and equipment, especially
for the WHA's immediate goal of establishing a sewing room on the premises so
that the association could directly employ applicants. By late February the
sewing room had been completed, and a number of women were engaged in
"plain sewing" jobs for individual customers.
The association
continued to live a precarious financial existence, surviving on contributions
ranging from fifty cents to twenty-five dollars. Paddock reported in March that
while applications and walk-ins continued to pour in, the WHA did not have enough
funds to continue beyond the end of the week and still lacked the facilities to
provide overnight shelter for the homeless. The association was forced to give
up its sewing room, but its first annual report indicated that 139 women and
167 girls had registered for employment.
Paddock
persisted in her efforts to aid "fallen women" and reported in 1896
that sixteen had been cared for, including eight who had been sent to the Home
for the Friendless in Ogden. She became a familiar figure in Salt Lake City's Police
Court, exhorting women arrested for prostitution to allow the association to
help them reform and gain honest employment. After her death in January 1898
Paddock's associates tried to continue the work, but the association was
apparently disbanded by 1901.
Ironically,
seven years later, in December 1908, the Salt Lake City Council, then dominated
by members of the American party, took the opposite approach to prostitution
and welcomed the opening of a red light district called The Stockade on the city's
west side (between 500 and 600 West and 100 and 200 South), operated by the
notorious Ogden madam Belle London. Widespread opposition to this officially
sanctioned "sin district" forced its closure in September 1911.
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