Two Madams and a Love Pirate

Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul.
By Karen Abbott
Copyright 2007
Random House Publishing Group
ISBN 978-1-4000-6530
Hardcover
356 PP $25.95

The Love Pirate and the Bandit's Son: Murder, Sin and Scandal in the Shadow of Jesse James.
By Laura James
Copyright 2009
Union Square Press
ISBN 978-1-4027-6069-3
Hardcover
306 PP
$19.95

First off, no, this is not the start of a dirty joke. But what it is about are two extraordinary books on a subject I admit I'm fascinated with, the world of the fallen woman.

In the waning years of the 19th Century, few things spoke louder then money. Old money, new money, it didn't matter how you came by it, just that you had it, that you were part of the upper echelons of society, that you lived in the proper neighborhood, knew the "right" sort of people, wore the latest fashions, had a grand house, and had all the luxuries life could afford, including women who practiced the worlds oldest profession. But where to go to get the "proper" kind of lady to satisfy your needs? Why just pay a visit to Minna and Ada, proprietors of the world famous "Everleigh Club" in Chicago's notorious Levee District.

In Second City, we get to meet the two women who put out welcome mat, literally, to the rich and famous. Politicians, titans of industry, heirs to fabulous family fortunes like Marshall Field Jr (who wound up shot after a night at the club), and heads of state including His Royal Majesty Henry, Crown Prince of Prussia.

Minna and Ada Everleigh were sisters of a "aristocratic" background who sought to create the worlds most famous, most luxurious, and most expensive night a man of means could have with the most beautiful woman he could imagine, an Everleigh Butterfly. Women who were not only experience in the languages of love, (and discipline if the gentleman wished it) but also well versed in poetry, music, and current events all of which could be discussed over a gourmet supper in the dining room before heading upstairs. True, there were a few who didn't measure up to the sister's standards, but at the Everleigh Club, you were after all, free to leave at anytime of your own accord. In fact you could go to work for that battle ax down the block Vic Shaw, who ran the worst kind of house, with the worst kind of women, and who had been a troublemaker for the sisters since the day they moved in and stole her thunder.

Locked in battle with Vic Shaw and her counterpart Zoe Millard was one thing however. Doing battle with the forces of the Church in it's war against sin, corruption of young men and the white slavery of innocent young women however was ultimately a battle the sisters lost in 1912, when at last the doors closed for the last time and the sisters entered into retirement.

What makes this a really great book is not just the subject matter, but how the author makes the reader sympathetic to the sisters, and put one in their corner, rotting and cheering for them, hoping that in the end they'll succeed against the forces lined up against them. Miss Abbot has created a world as well, a world that invites us in and draws back the veil on a time and place when two sisters sought to make the world of the demimonde "acceptable".


Zeo Zoe Wilkins was one of those wild women of the day, the kind of woman your mother prayed you didn't get hooked up with. A gold digger par excellence, Zoe went from being a ragged girl born in poverty in Ohio to an osteopath with a degree from the American School of Osteopathy at the age of 17, to become a woman with a dubious practice, to a wealthy woman through a series of scandalous marriages to much older, wealthier men.

He was Jesse James Junior, son of the late Jesse James, the notorious bandit and thief who watched his father being gunned down in their home by James Ford. It was a shock and trauma that haunted Jesse the rest of his days and one he never fully got over. Trying hard to erase the negative image of his famous father, Jesse Jr. became a lawyer specializing in of all things criminal defense. Sadly, no matter hard he tried to wash away the stigma of being the son of a bandit, Jesse's flirtations with the law never brought him the acceptance he so craved.

Things came to a head for Jesse and Zoe in 1924. On March 15th, during the hours of the night Zoe was brutally murdered and $100.000 in jewelery and bonds disappeared. Who killed her and why? Among those brought in for questioning was her new lawyer, Mr. Jesse James Jr. Did Jesse kill Zoe for her money? Was it perhaps a hit from an enraged wife of a man Zoe had flirted with (and there were many)or perhaps one of her myriad of ex-husbands who gave Zoe her millions? The mystery into the events of that night and just who committed the crime are as much a mystery today as they were on the night of March, 15th 1924.

With The Love Pirate and the Bandits Son, I have to admit, just the title alone caught my attention and made me take it back to my table at Barnes and Noble to read as I sipped my coffee. It had me hooked from the start and I ended up walking out with it as a purchase. Once I got it home, I tore threw it like a man starved. At just 306 pages, which for me is a short read, or at least 3-4 hours of laying on the couch I was amazed at how much attention to detail was payed by the author in such a short space, and how she brought all the players to life and left it for the reader to come to their own conclusions as to who murdered Zoe and why. Overall, an excellent read, and one that I'm glad I picked up that night.