Scarlett Sisters

Hey true weirdos, thank you so much for all your support because of your support We were able to win some awards with this podcast in the past year and be sure to stick around for the conversation We have after the episode No one expected this pair of sisters born to a life of privilege To wind up running a brothel in a rough part of Chicago. I talked with each Applicant myself She must have worked somewhere else before coming here. We do not like amateurs inexperienced girls and young widows are too prone to accept offers of marriage and leave to get in a girl must have a pretty face and figure be in perfect health and Understand what it is to act like a lady if she's addicted to drugs or to drink We do not water. There is no problem in keeping the club filled. We always Have a waiting list the club the finest in Chicago among the finest in the world No house of courtesans in the world was so richly furnished so well advertised So continuously patronized by men of wealth and slight morals as the Everleigh Club on Dearborn Street A couple of debutantes who refuse to play by any of society's rules take on the oldest profession in the world Welcome to the Everleigh Club Stuff Meet the Sim sisters Ada and Minna their father was a wealthy planter in Virginia He lost his wife who died when Ada and Minna were very small Then tragedy struck again this time taking the lives of the two older Simms girls Still despite it all Ada and Minna were raised to take their place in society Music dance and elocution lessons. They even made their debut They were solidly on track for lives as respectable society matrons The Civil War changed that The family lost all of their money and their plantation home The choices in front of the sisters were limited and marriage seemed the least distasteful of the bunch At 17 Minna married a man named Lester who was jealous Violent and began their married life by nearly strangling his new bride to death Ada married his brother who was no better a man. The brothers were suspicious and jealous Brutes with unbearable characters. We ran away and now their options were even fewer teaching show business Prostitution in the early 1890s Ada and Minna joined a theater troupe and soon found themselves stranded in 1898 in Omaha, Nebraska stranded but not desperate Despite their father's colossal change in fortune. He'd somehow managed to leave his two daughters a pretty good-sized inheritance $35,000 now that's equal to 1.3 million dollars today So Ada and Minna took the money and went in search of a new occupation Omaha was a hopping place in those days host to the Trans Mississippi Exposition this celebration in honor of Nebraska is the first occasion when its grandeur Resources and civilization are to be brought before the people of the world Few can realize the magnificent progress of Nebraska since the day it was organized as a territory

the stormy times of the spring of 1854 Omaha was expected to be overrun by visitors Tourists and cowboys and all of them would need a place to stay Aiden Minna's first attempt at getting into business was to open a boarding house Not just any common boarding house The sisters had the taste and the means to create the most upscale posh boarding house that Omaha had ever seen Entering the front door guests found themselves in a foyer illuminated by a Tiffany stained glass ceiling Gleaming gilt frame mirrors hung on every wall in the parlor a professional musician in full black tie Sat at a 14 karat gold plated player piano To describe this place you have to try it out words like sumptuous and opulent There was just one little detail the sisters missed The other boarding houses in their section of Omaha were racking up bigger profits Even though they were nowhere near as nice and that's because those other boarding houses were actually bordellos Something the sisters realized only after they'd opened up for business. We were unwilling to lose our investment It was simply a matter of doing the right thing When in Rome right or in this case when in Omaha the sisters got into the sex trade They needed women so they started with their own former theater troupe and more than one of those actresses was willing to give it a shot as Work got out more and more women appeared on their doorstep ready to work By the time the trans-mississippi exposition wound down and the tourists and cowboys packed up to leave The sisters had more than doubled their inheritance and they did that all between June 1st and November 1st 1898 Ada and Minna may have never ever dreamed that they would become the proprietors of a fancy whorehouse But now they sat in their Omaha bordello and looked at the numbers in just six months The sisters had added nearly 1.2 million dollars to their nest egg Ada was 34 Minna 32 Neither sister had the slightest interest in marrying again and life on the traveling stage had proven to be dicey at best Now here they were in comfort. No, not comfort splendor Dressed in silks and velvets Surrounded by luxury and comfort selling a product. They were certain would always be in demand Everything they had ever learned from arranging flowers to hosting lavish dinners These were the skills they'd called on to earn a small fortune That fortune probably could have seen them both through the rest of their days, but the success they'd had in Omaha Set a fire in Ada and Minna It was clear to them that Omaha simply wasn't big enough or rich enough yet for the kind of operation they had in mind So in 1899 they hit the road for a nationwide brothel scouting adventure I discovered factor when I was worried about my mom I signed her up for it because I wanted her eating more balanced high-protein healthier meals Then I flew out there for a visit and I ate all of the fact meals because they were all so good like the ginger Teriyaki salmon it's on a bed of forbidden rice with sesame green beans She had this amazing smoky barbecue chicken breast with mashed potatoes and creamed corn and green beans The factor meals are so good and they're so easy because these are high quality ingredients Lean proteins bright fresh colorful veggies whole foods always fresh never frozen The whole thing is ready in about two minutes. No prep. No stress the variety It's delicious head to factor meals dot com slash true weird stuff 50 off and use code true weird stuff

50 off to get 50 off and free breakfast for a year eat like a pro with Factor new subscribers only varies by plan one free breakfast item per box for one year while subscription is active Ada and minna visited san francisco first where the sex trade was established Entrenched and notorious That part of town was nicknamed the barbary coast The barbary coast is the haunt of the low and vile of every kind the petty thief the house burglar the tramp The whore monger lewd women cutthroats murderers are all found here Dance halls and concert saloons where bleary-eyed men and faded women drink vile liquor smoke offensive tobacco Engage in vulgar conduct sing obscene songs and say and do everything to heap upon themselves more degradation are numerous Low gambling houses thronged with riot loving rowdies in all stages of intoxication Are there?

Opium dens where heathen chinese and godforsaken men and women are sprawled in miscellaneous confusion Disgustingly drowsy or completely overcome are there? licentiousness debauchery pollution loathsome disease insanity from dissipation misery poverty wealth profanity Blasphemy and death are there and hell yawning to receive the putrid mass is there also?

distasteful Appalling the sisters next to her new orleans and new york They paid a visit to washington dc where they met with a brothel operator named cleo maitland Chicago is where you want to be cleo declared so much opportunity Which is how aida and men have found themselves in the levee the windy city's red light district They didn't have long to wait or much searching to do for the perfect location Chicago's most famous madam lizzie allen had died in september 1896 creating an opening in the market Lizzie's legendary establishment was located on south dearborn street After her death a woman named effie hankins took over operations But she was thought to be a little too lowbrow for the house and business suffered enter aida and menna dropping $70,000 for a lifetime lease The first move upon getting the keys was to redecorate As elegant house as lizzie allen had run. It was nowhere near up to the sister standards They spent two-thirds of their remaining money on new furniture carpets fountains gilded cages housing golden canaries There were multiple dining rooms and salons a library containing more than a thousand books There were more than a dozen special themed reception rooms The rose parlor the japanese room where gentlemen would find bowls filled with firecrackers ready to light The persian room the turkish ballroom and the hall of a thousand mirrors The gold plated piano was the centerpiece of the gold room Which was also fitted out with fishbowls rimmed in gold and golden cuspid oars. That's a fancy word for spittoon a pair of mahogany staircases led up to 30 boudoirs Each with a marble inlaid brass bed and some with mirrored ceilings Each had a shower or gold bathtub. Some had both fresh flowers perfumed aphrodisiac spray and imported oil paintings added to the opulence A concealed button allowed guests to signal for more champagne There was a restaurant in the house decorated to look like a luxury Pullman train car And the buffet on offer Was among the best to be found in chicago caviar and lobster deviled crab and fried oysters roast duck and goose capon The wine was the finest and priced like it The sisters hired enough musicians to create their own house orchestra Everywhere you looked was thick plush velvet urns brimming with roses and on special occasions Live butterflies were released to flit from room to room Next the sisters considered the existing employees They replaced nearly every member of household staff hiring only black workers Not because they were some kind of progressive But because they wanted to replicate their own plantation childhood As for the prostitutes employed by the recently fired F.E. Hankins Unschooled strumpets All of them. We held interviews and promised the women that they would retire rich eventually 30 women were hired though. In no time. There was a waiting list of hopefuls that only grew longer and longer Minna was adamant though when it came to certain factors No amateurs and no young widows. The sisters inspected their employees Satisfied that they had surely chosen some of the loveliest classiest most intelligent women in America Each was flawlessly made up impeccably dressed and draped in jewels that belonged to the house, but were made available to the courtesans for their use Each had been carefully instructed by Ada and Minna. Be polite patient

And forget what you're here for Gentlemen are only gentlemen when properly introduced We shall see that each girl is properly presented to each guest No lining up for selection as at other houses remember that the Everleigh Club Has no time for the rough element the clerk on a holiday or the man without a checkbook A checkbook because Ada and Minna found cash to be dreadfully Vulgar it's going to be difficult at first. I know It means your language will have to be more ladylike You have the whole night before you And one $50 client is better than five $10 ones Less wear and tear you will thank me for this advice in later years Your youth and beauty are all you have Preserve it. We know men better than you do Don't rush them or roll them We permit no monkey shines No knockout drops No robberies No crimes of any description We supply the clients You amuse them as they have never been amused before give But give interestingly and with mystery I want you girls to be proud that you are in the Everleigh Club Now spruce up and look your best Ada and Minna had a keen understanding of what we now call branding And just as they carefully decorated and hired and took their time choosing a name for their bordello Inspired by their late grandmother who signed all of her correspondence Everly yours The sisters changed the spelling of the word everly chopping the y for a more continental Eigh and called their business the Everleigh Club The grand opening was a soft launch no press no publicity no advertising It was february 1st 1900 a bitterly cold day even by chicago standards So cold that the batteries and most of chicago's police patrol call boxes were frozen and inoperable Street car lines were delayed if they ran at all Several men were found frozen to death on the streets The first few men that came through the ornate front doors were deemed by the sisters to be Not quite suitable for the Everleigh Club Ada turned them away. I could tell by their startled eyes and by their nervousness That they knew they were in the wrong house You know the old saying begin as you mean to go on while the sisters did Ada and minna alone decided what made a gentleman suitable for admission into the Everleigh Club their standards meant the club was Extremely exclusive a place where only the wealthiest and most influential men were welcome to indulge their desires That first night minna sat in the gold room reading a copy of the chicago daily news A story about the funeral of pd armor jr. Son of the legendary millionaire meatpacker The house was hushed and laden Servants were in position the everly ladies scattered about waiting Waiting minna didn't even notice when one of the women stood behind her reading over her shoulder Pd armor's funeral was a city-wide event the coffin barely visible beneath a mountain of flowers It all looked like a quiet evening in an ornate mansion, but the tension was palpable Every servant every prostitute Had taken the sisters at their word

But where were the customers The ladies were becoming agitated And that's when the woman who'd been reading over minna's shoulder saved the day without even realizing it She told her co-workers that the sisters really were high society. Oh minna knows the swells All right I caught her reading about that armor funeral and she knows him. It wasn't true Minna had never met the man But that little piece of gossip raced through the house and in less than an hour Every single member of staff heard it and believed it. It was enough to quiet a mutiny And somehow despite the cold weather despite a complete absence of fanfare The Everleigh Club managed to take in a thousand dollars that first night Paying each of the 30 or so prostitutes about 23 bucks Which doesn't sound like much until you realize that a thousand dollars in 1900 is worth more than thirty eight thousand dollars And that twenty three dollars was worth about eight hundred and eighty seven dollars Not a bad payday for very little effort Plus on that first night the sisters took no cut for themselves Making sure that every employee walked away Flush with both cash and optimism for the future To call the Everleigh Club a whorehouse Was just really to miss the point Yeah, sex was for sale But sex was only one of the luxury amenities the club offered The sisters created an expensive exclusive experience One designed to appeal to even the most jaded appetite Just walking through the door of the Everleigh Club was an investment Entrance fee was fifty dollars If a man wanted to spend the night and many did the fee was five hundred dollars by spend the night I mean, of course a gentleman would have his pick of the available rooms in which to take his rest Should he desire an evening of comfort in the company of one of our ladies?

One thousand dollars that fifty dollar cover charge. That's nearly two thousand dollars in today's money Ada and minna were Unapologetic about their prices and unapologetic about their snobbery They had created an elite establishment and they were interested only in elite clients They didn't even allow less prosperous men to come through the door The only exception that was made was for newspaper reporters Because minna was a believer in the power of advertising and chicago's journalists gave her that for free The sisters much hoped for elites found the Everleigh Club almost immediately From big hollywood stars like the actor john, barrymore to world heavyweight boxing champion Gentleman, jim corbett to bet a million john w gates the gambling obsessed industrialist who was one of the early cheerleaders for barbed wire fencing of all things Wealthy and powerful men became regulars in the sisters parlors and boudoirs prince henry brother to kaiser wilhelm ii king of germany and prussia Added chicago to the itinerary of his tour of the united states solely because of the club's reputation The Everleigh Club was a place where these men were among their own kind Certain that the unwashed rabble would never make it past the front door What ada and minna had created was a playground for gentlemen And however, those men played all added up to profits from a biography about the sisters written by charles washburn at 1934 in practical terms unchastity was the magnet that drew patronage into the Everleigh Club But the whining dining music and congenial associations Did much to keep the audience from walking listen in no way was prostitution legal in chicago in 1900 The police were in charge of prosecuting vice And the sisters paid for protection racking up about ten thousand dollars per year in bribes and payouts They cultivated close relationships with chicago's most powerful politicians men with nicknames like bathhouse and hinky dink gangsters, too including al capone's predecessor big jim colosimo Who enjoyed popping into the kitchen of the Everleigh Club to make homemade spaghetti for the girls?

With friends like that the sisters were shielded from the worst of the criminal rackets But more than made up for those savings and the donations they had to make to various political candidates an unfortunate cost of doing business steep but manageable After all, they were netting about 120 to 150 thousand dollars per year That's anywhere from 4.6 to 5.7 million bucks a year net to you and me fellow wage slaves Ada and minna took to their new roles with the kind of flair you'd expect from a couple of debutants who'd spent time on the stage That same keen eye and refined taste that turned the Everleigh Club into a sensation Made the sisters into larger than life characters They did their banking for example in the grandest possible fashion They would make their way through chicago's streets in a magnificent carriage pulled by a team of dappled gray horses Their drivers and ballets were elegant green livery And it was the rare day that one of the most beautiful of their ladies Wasn't dressed to the nines seated beside them like a living advertisement for their wares Diamond bracelets my diamond dog collar heavy silks so important to set the tone And what a tone it was The sisters were shrewd observers and had learned more than a few things about men and their appetites for example Their most teetotaling clients were likely to have the most peculiar quirks For a heavy fee the sisters would lock their doors for private parties I know you're thinking orgies But it was often these weird highly specific entertainments that the client was after Like the man they called uncle ned uncle ned never took a drink And he had special notions about sleigh rides Once every winter usually after the first snowfall uncle ned would drive up to the club Write a check for several thousand dollars and ask that all activities be directed in his behalf for the evening The party would begin in the music room Where uncle ned would stand in the warm glow of a spotlight pointed right at him held by one of the girls He would order wine for the girls and for himself sarsaparilla with a half pint of vanilla ice cream. They say he'd chant good As he slurped it up Then his treat finished uncle ned would command the staff to bring two large buckets of ice into the room Insisting that each piece of ice be no larger than two inches The buckets would be placed in front of the large chair where he was seated Two girls one for each foot were requested to remove his shoes and stockings During the undressing one of the sylphs would gently play jingle bells on the piano While the other girls stood at attention draped around the room. It's about to get a little bizarre Amid would approach with jingle bells which were placed in his right hand and a male servant brought a miniature hair mattress Placing it on a small stool on his right Uncle ned then plunged his bare tootsies into the buckets of ice Grasped the bells in his left hand rattling them gleefully pulling his right hand into a torn niche in the mattress shouting There's nothing to equal An old-fashioned sleigh ride After that debauch there was nothing left but to put him to bed where he could sleep it off There was no sex involved with uncle ned, but he's a great example of why sex work should be legal regulated and De-stigmatized even as mild a kink as his can be hard to satisfy on the dating scene

Plus who wants to be made fun of let a brother freeze his piggies and shake his bells without fear of either mockery or rest I stay live and let live and besides people present for uncle ned's parties could talk of nothing else And who can blame them? It was one thing to deal with the law and with the parade of local aldermen and fixers who always had a handout They were part of the game and they knew how it was played Unfortunately for ada and minna the Everleigh Club's heyday coincided with the progressive reform movement in the united states This was a roughly 30-year period spanning the 1890s through 1929 Progressives wanted reforms and how businesses operated They wanted women to have the right to vote. They fought for improved living conditions in the slums and environmental regulations They also Weren't the biggest fans of prostitution Their progressives truly intending to be a force for good were growing in numbers And minna was offended to find the Everleigh Club in their crosshairs a girl in our establishment Is not a commodity with a market price like a pound of butter or a leg of lamb She is much more on the same level with people belonging to professional classes who accept fees for services rendered She charges in accordance with their means She doesn't sell herself as these eggheads keep shouting Such statements are unfair and unjust Minna was just warming up the fish-faced reformer from the time of charlemagne onwards has over and over again Brought his hooks into the evils of our generous catering To nerve-wrack males And he has always made matters worse and not for nothing But by this point there were only two sites in the city of chicago that many wealthy visitors cared to see the stockyards and the Everleigh Club The sisters had come a very long way from their virginia home to become the toast of the windy city Now chicago police called prostitutes Scarlet women and estimated in 1903 that there were only about a thousand working the trade the citizen reformers disagreed Throwing out a number closer to five thousand Given that police were often paid to look the other way and politicians on the take were sure to be all talk The reformers believed that cleaning up chicago was up to them With the help of clergy, of course Like the british evangelist gypsy smith who led a march through chicago's red light district on october 18th 1909 Estimates of the number of people marching swing from 2000 to 12 000. So who knows for sure But it was a crowd their theme song Where is my wandering boy tonight?

My Is My heart Gypsies marcher sang stopped in front of the Everleigh Club prayed and then went away and how was that? well Almost The truth is once the crowd dispersed the red light district had its busiest night ever With regulars commenting on all the new faces in the brothels all these first-timers Huh? How about that? What a coincidence?

So many nice young men coming down here for the first time on the night of gypsy smith's bold foray The police raided a few places on the west side carting their inmates in patrol wagons to jail the old feudal tongue-in-cheek manner of handling vice That might have been the end of it But for chicago mayor fred buss buss was sworn in as mayor in april 1907 He was no boy scout buss was connected every which way and had many allies in the world of organized crime When he defeated the democratic incumbent it was expected that buss would follow through on republican goals of reform instead Chicago got widespread corruption and a mayor whose name was an advertisement for the city's brothels It was your basic case of electing the fox to manage the henhouse But when the pressure got more and more intense Mayor buss caved On march 5th 1910, he formed a 30-member commission of chicago representatives to investigate the vices prostitution and illegal gambling Mayor buss tried and actually succeeded in kind of having it both ways He set up the vice commission sure But then announced that anyone looking for him could find him most evenings at the jc murphy saloon He was the sort of politician whose reputation was shady But he is remembered as being the champion of a plan that shaped the future of chicago architecture and infrastructure And he's also the guy that unwittingly brought about the end of the Everleigh Club Here's what happened Minna, remember believed in the power of advertising Her most favorite kind of advertising was the free kind and so Minna crafted an elegant little brochure for the Everleigh Club Not your basic threefold sheet of paper This was a luxurious little booklet 20 pages bound in velvet and featuring illustrations of the many themed rooms the club had to offer That brochure somehow found its way to mayor buss's desk Maybe by chance Maybe deliberately planned it there by a rival or enemy Either way that brochure was the catalyst that sparked the formation of that vice committee In july 1910 detectives hit the streets They banged on the doors of almost every brothel in the city added up sales receipts for liquor and sex The final result was a 399 page document Blurred enough that the government made it illegal to send it through the u.s. Mail That document was titled the social evil in chicago a study of existing conditions recommendations by the vice commission of chicago Prostitution is pregnant with disease a disease infecting not only the guilty But contaminating the innocent wife and child in the home with sickening certainty almost inconceivable a disease to be feared with the great horror as a leprous plague a disease scattering misery and Leaving in its wake sterility Insanity paralysis the blinded eye of little babes the twisted limbs of deformed children degradation physical rot and mental decay That there must be constant repression of this curse on human society is the conclusion of this commission after months of exhaustive study and investigation Hey See if this part doesn't sound a little bit familiar The commission has carefully omitted from the report all names of offenders against the law as well as addresses It has also refrained from publishing the numbers of police officers who have been actually seen violating police rules Regarding conduct while on duty and here we thought that the powers that be redacting the offenders and the fc files Was something new?

Now the report did acknowledge chicago's double standard The way sex workers on the street typically impoverished and desperate were the targets for law enforcement While high-end brothels like the Everleigh Club were essentially immune to any kind of prosecution Friends and high places power protecting itself and all that The committee's report was super focused on the problem of the so-called white slavers What we now call trafficking as a matter of fact The traffic is not confined to white girls, but to all unfortunate girls and women of all colors races and nationalities any man or woman who induces or accompanies any woman to enter in a moral place is Guilty under the illinois pandering act which put a big old target on the procurers pimps and madams like ada and minna Now one unexpected consequence of the committee's report Was the revelation of just how much money everyone involved in the sex trade was making If you want to discourage young women, for example from applying to work at the Everleigh Club You might not want them to know that they could earn about 21 grand a year That's over seven hundred thousand dollars to you and me Compare that to working in a shop for six bucks a week. That's less than eleven thousand dollars to you and me Throw in the comforts of good food beautiful clothing gorgeous surroundings music and entertainment Poverty is a menace and a snare one who has not beheld the struggle or come in personal contact with the tempted soul Of the underpaid girl can never realize what the poverty of the city means to her One who has never seen her bravely fighting against such fearful odds will never understand a day's sickness Or a week out of work are tragedies in her life They mean trips to the pawnbrokers meager dinners a weakened will Often a plunge into the abyss from which she so often never escapes. Thank you for making our point As we told each of our ladies Do as we instruct and you will retire rich Reading the committee's report. You can almost feel the struggle to condemn the vice of prostitution Even as they accidentally made a case for it again and again and again Are flesh and blood so cheap mental qualifications so common and honesty of so little value That the manager of one of our big department stores feels justified in paying a high school girl Who served nearly one year as an inspector of sales the beggarly wage of four dollars per week What is the natural result of such an industrial condition?

Dishonesty and immorality not from choice, but necessity in order to live not much has changed in 115 years has it? That's because we're just determined to do the same stupid things over and over Until the heat death of the universe it is a man and not a woman problem, which we face today Commercialized by man supported by man the supply of fresh victims furnished by men men who have lost that fine instinct of chivalry and that splendid honor for womanhood where the Destruction of a woman's soul is abhorrent and where the defense of a woman's purity is truly the occasion for a valiant fight women's purity valiant fight Blah-blah-blah The upshot was a proposal to outlaw houses of ill repeat their words Inside chicago city limits and within three miles of the city's outer boundaries the glorious sparkling famous and infamous Everleigh Club Was about to close its doors forever The police department is ordered to close the Everleigh Club Described in the most recent report of the chicago vice commission As the most infamous and luxurious place of its kind in the world The sisters had made so much money in just 10 years in chicago That they could afford to be philosophical about the end of the Everleigh Club you get everything in a lifetime I'm, not going to be sore about it either I'll close up shop and walk out of the place with a smile on my face Minna said this with an airy wave of her diamond encrusted hand The sisters laid off their entire staff giving each employee six months severance Then they took off for europe for a lengthy tour of the continent When they returned to chicago retired from business, they looked forward to living quietly in the city. They'd grown to love That didn't last The sisters were hounded and harassed and generally denied the peace they craved By this point ada and minna could do as they pleased and live as they liked if chicago wasn't it Then maybe new york would be They bought a brownstone near central park and furnished it with many of their favorite things from the Everleigh Club That legendary gold plated player piano made the cut Along with several valuable oil paintings and a hundred thousand dollars worth of minna's beloved diamonds A few of the friends and acquaintances they made in their new york days had any idea That the sisters had once reigned over chicago's most glorious bordello Ada and minna lived out the rest of their days in comfort indulging their passion for theater and poetry They even formed a little poetry club It's a safe bet that most of the guests who rotated through their manhattan salon Had no idea that these two elegant patrician women have once been queens of the red light district in chicago None could have guessed that minna and ada used to drink champagne with gangsters movie stars and royalty They were able to disappear into this genteel anonymity Because they'd never once used their birth names in chicago Everly remember was a made-up name Once in new york, they took the surname lester The world before the internet made this kind of reinvention much easier to pull off Minna passed away first dying at age 82 on september 16th, 1948 ada bereft and recovering from a badly broken leg Sent her sister's body back to virginia for burial Minna was laid to rest beside her parents montgomery and virginia simms and her siblings

willie lula and flora Ada's grief was profound The sisters had lived nearly all of their lives entwined The loss of minna was a terrible blow When ada had recovered sufficiently from her broken leg She left new york city taking up residence in a cottage not far from where her family was buried When she died on january 6 1960 She was 93 years old Her funeral was utterly private and that was ada's wish She managed to live the last 50 years of her life in blessed anonymity And hope that that could continue after her death Because ada suspected how she and minna would be remembered publicly And she dreaded it sin sister dies at 93 It's a good thing the sisters were dead because this is exactly the sort of tawdry judgment They'd had more than enough of and they were alive Ada everly was buried yesterday in her native virginia in near secrecy It was a contrast to her wild bordello days of the early 1900s The sisters went to their graves with seemingly no regrets And what regrets should they have running away from violent marriages failing at show business Running a house of prostitution that catered to the wealthiest men in the land You can take the position that they were criminals plain and simple The sisters were far too well-mannered to argue with you The lives they've been born into have been snatched away The lives they made for themselves were unconventional Outside the bounds of polite society at times wild and chaotic and even dangerous There's a word for the lives ada and minna had lived that word is freedom Ada and minna were free at a time when few women were They were resourceful resilient. They were rich Their fortune was theirs alone. You may not approve of how they made it But as far as they were concerned That's too bad for you Stop now and wonder what you would do if you found yourself in chicago in 1905 You need a job You can stand all day on your feet measuring cloth or weighing sugar and flour at the market for six bucks a week or You can slip into a silk dress with a borrowed diamond necklace clasped around your neck feast on lobster and champagne Float through rooms furnished with rare and beautiful things listening to the sounds of music and laughter And earning as much as three quarters of a million dollars a year more money Than you can even imagine Enough to change your life and the lives of everyone in your family Oh, yeah. Yeah, you'll have to have sex with these men But by the time most of them make it up those stairs They're so full of rich food and expensive wine that well, you know It's not the hardest day's work you've ever done And how many times have you done that very same thing?

for free Upon what meat did the crusaders feed? That they could call us Insurgents and witches they not only filled us with embarrassment and shame They made fools of themselves We were called the real instigators of all that was wrong Of the chicago's vice commission linda said this our feelings were hurt Our sweeter side was a deep secret We made sunday bow night permitting our girls to see their sweethearts Just as they would if they lived at home. Are you a little shocked that a prostitute might have a sweetheart?

That a man could bear to love a woman in the sex trade be careful now Those puritanical roots are showing Prostitution is the world's oldest business for a reason Sex is a basic human need There will always be customers In millennia, no law has ever succeeded in ending it and no law ever will Aiden minute understood this basic truth Professionals rendering a service for a fee That's how they saw it Still they knew they knew the law was coming and when it became inevitable that the Everleigh Club was doomed The sisters were ready. They even joked about it. What did the bandit say when he was shot to death?

They got me Let's say something different, you know when they get us Ha ha ha ha and so when the law finally arrived to close the glorious Everleigh Club down Retirement is like going from bodge worse Next time on true weird stuff We need a man who really wanted to help people He wanted to heal people He took over a state mental hospital and he made a big discovery Insanity lived not in the brain. No It lived in the teeth Which meant that the cure was, you know, well Yank them all out Open wide on the next true weird stuff special Thanks to our voice taunts on this episode Frances Jorgensen carolyn thornton Erin Cox Kary "Doc" Bowser lamar richardson and sam moore There was an elderly woman I knew one time and she told the story that when she was a young woman Her grandmother caught her smoking a cigarette and her grandmother said to her Smoking leads to drinking drinking leads to prostitution and then she paused and say well, I was never paid But it's true like Look, listen, I don't personally want to get into the sex trade But um, and I apologize I've coughed up my mouth but you're There's a bottomless market for it And I think it should be legal and destigmatized and I know that it is in some places um but for the most part, um You know like the city I live in recently had a big local tv news story about a high-end uh house of uh prostitution Near like a big fancy mall where they have louis vuitton and stuff And you know the they shut it down and you know the men oh who what prominent local men were going there blah blah You know what like none of my business. I don't care I think there are men who should be allowed access to sex for hire there are men who And women too, but we're really when we're speaking about the sex trade. Can we all just acknowledge that most of the customers are men?

Do I have to keep tripping over? The both sides here, can we just agree? That for for the largest part of human history the bulk of our clients and brothels have been men Is that okay to say yeah without making you feel attacked? Okay There are men there are men who simply struggle For to to have sex with the women. I mean we wouldn't have the incel movement if that wasn't true We wouldn't have the male loneliness epidemic if that wasn't true So Men should be allowed to go somewhere and pay for sex and the people that provide that service their industry should be regulated They should have adequate resources protection all of the things they need in order to safely dispense that service I am team legalize this Because in the absence of legalization, we have a black market and that's where all kinds of hinky terrible things can happen That's where you see people being pulled into the sex trade and trafficked and Abused battered. This is where the bad pimp stories and bad madam stories come from So i'm a fan right up front of this stuff being legalized And I don't really understand other than you have to trot out, you know This becomes like a religious thing people trot out their religious beliefs to argue against it And I understand that and I respect it. You don't have to Um patronize a brothel or be a sex worker You know The people that shout the loudest at this sort of thing. I'm always suspicious of Get dog hollers because yeah Because I always feel like if you care that much about your religion go help Go help people that need help don't rail against this, you know That was one of the things the other thing is You You as you would say there's no way that you can stop this because even I mean Any place that i've ever lived? I mean there are massage parlors There's one there's one that's like on on a main road near where we live right behind a restaurant And it's been there since i've lived here So obviously the police department knows what's going on there. There's something going on there there's something sexual going on there, but Nobody cares enough about it to really say. Ah, just just leave it go. Just let it go Ada and minna were kind of ahead of their time They were really ahead of their time in their views on this and on paper They shouldn't be these were a couple of privileged southern debutantes from a wealthy virginia family You would not expect them to have such Broad-minded Views, would you I mean if you really like if you want to be stereotypical about things Especially when you look at the era in which they this was all happening So think about the situation they both found themselves in when they got married And i'm sure that because both of them found themselves in the same situation That that created even a stronger bond between them as sisters and I suppose That that bond that what the two of them were able to accomplish Would maybe not be done by each of them individually, but because they had each other had that similar experience Perhaps that is what fueled that I think that they uh the way that their lives turned out um It's such an interesting story that most of the sim sister stories That you can find in the world revolve around prostitution But there's another dimension to their story, too So remember that um ada and minna, yes, they were born into wealth and privilege, but their mother died They lost siblings there. They lost in the civil war. They lost everything so you you have to remember that their story is happening against that backdrop as well and that That matters because a lot the civil war displaced

so many people rich poor Oh black white the displacement of the civil war the loss of life the grief the economic hardships They this is all happening around them and these two they were very young They were in their early 20s when they found themselves in omaha These two sisters looked at each other And said do you want to go? I don't want to get married again. I don't want to get married again What can we do now? They did have something going for them that most of us don't and that's an enormous inheritance Yeah, that didn't help that didn't hurt. So they had that seed money, but they didn't take that seed money and you know Disappear with it. They took that seed money and became capitalists. They became Entrepreneurs and at first they had no intention of going into the sex trade They thought that they would run a genteel boarding house, which was a dignified and socially acceptable Occupation for a spinster or widow or woman of means that was one of the job pathways over the women, right?

And and that was their intention and who knew better How to set up an absolutely exquisite environment than a couple of cotillion trained debutantes who grew up on a plantation in a mansion It was only after they caught on to the fact That they weren't getting customers Because they were the only boarding house that wasn't a brothel that they sat down and looked at each other and went Well, what do you think? I don't know. What do you think?

And they decided to go for it I I think that the The stories about the sim sisters are so caught up in they were madams That you don't really give these two women their due For being business people. Yeah, that's the thing. I mean they understood they understood the business part of it and I think the idea that they set it up that we're going to charge the most we're going to have the best We're going to have this and that I think is the thing that probably kept them in business for 10 years which In that business is a really pretty long time, you know, if you think about it And the only reason they went under Is because the progressives were pressuring the City government in chicago to clean up the streets had their had their Appearance on the scene not coincided with that. They probably would have been in chicago running that brothel The new york chapter of their lives may never have happened But they even took like they even took that beating, you know, pretty gracefully and why not they had tens of millions of dollars as a result of their Um Everleigh Club. I wanted to ask the question about they didn't believe in cash. They did things with checks Well, I would think that would create a problem wouldn't you and here here are the problems not only do you have a paper trail?

but uh for To the clients, but then you have a paper trail of money That's going into banks That is income and taxable and all of those things. I I think it's very interesting that they decided to do it that way well, I think that was part of um Their intention to run this very much on the up and up ada was the business brains of the like Like some people are just born with extraordinary natural talent and sometimes it finds an outlet and sometimes it doesn't it's like the The janitor at the school who's an incredible singer and nobody ever knows right, right?

ada was a born business person And she understood that you could make even more money By spending more money to make your product nicer And also paying for the protection politicians police And paying your taxes Making sure that you're that you're running the place appropriately So the the checkbook thing they thought that um Cash was disgusting Like they didn't want to touch it. They didn't want their girls touching it cash was dirty and gross and only a poor man carried cash But that is not how a rich man rolled and you'll notice that their insistence on being paid by check didn't slow anybody down Apparently it didn't wasn't that how jerry springer got caught didn't he he It was a check I think to a prostitute and that's how he got busted and I think he was a politician at the time So he was he was he was the mayor of cleveland or cincinnati. I think it was cincinnati. Yeah I don't remember exactly so So everything was different back then you have to remember they launched in 1900 and they were gone by 1911 It was a different world in every possible way but they they Understood the idea that you have to spend money to make money and they also understood something this branding idea, which is They were early on this idea of branding they understood that If you created the perception of an experience you could charge anything So if you remember it was 50 bucks just to walk through the door It was 500 if you wanted a room for the night, but if you wanted a woman in there with you it was a thousand They made money off of men who never went upstairs men would come to the Everleigh Club to eat dinner and You know smoke cigars and drink port or whatever the hell it is men do um it the the the sex trade was very much what the Everleigh Club was here for but That was just one thing that the Everleigh Club had to offer if all minute and ada had were beautiful Prostitutes they would have been just like every other brothel in the levy in chicago at that time They created exclusivity. So if you were a fan of the tv shows the sopranos I don't remember what season it was but um, john heard the actor the late actor john heard played a local politician who hung out at a Brothel in the newark area and of course prostitution is not legal in new jersey But this brothel was not advertising itself as such. Do you remember this these this arc of episodes? Yeah, I do The madam was a beautiful woman who understood that the men including tony soprano and his crew and the local Politicians and the chief of police and all of it She understood that these men needed a place where they could play without fear of being ratted on revealed blackmailed in any way That brothel in that season of the sopranos was very much what the Everleigh Club was all about This was a place where incredibly wealthy powerful men movie stars royalty gangsters everybody They could come and once they came through that door They knew that they were absolutely guaranteed their privacy And that whatever their kink was and look at uncle ned with a jingle bells fetish of all the damn things They would be So if you think about it, like it's very easy if you put on your black hat and your buckled shoes and your puritanical Ancestral personality you can say they were whores. They were having sex for money Isn't it interesting how we always have the conversation and we flip it to the woman she was having sex for money Yeah, well who was paying her like it takes two, right?

Right in the in the Everleigh Club whether those men wanted sex or not and often that wasn't what they were there for They were among their own kind in an environment where they were protected That was the genius of what ate in minute did And that's why I say to just reduce it to they were a couple of madams running a whorehouse is to completely miss What they created with the Everleigh Club?

Um, it it really is a fascinating story and um How did you how did you come upon this story did were you down a rabbit hole for something else and came upon this Oh, no. No, this is the kookiest. This is the kookiest impetus for true weird stuff So if you remember, um, we did an episode on the donner party called the littlest survivor, right?

And I was this was back in the fall of 2025. My mom had gotten hurt and was sort of Immobilized and I came I went out to stay with her and I wanted to cheer her up She was struggling And I needed to give her a distraction. So I said, hey mom, do you want to play a part in our podcast? So I wrote the donner party for her Well her bestie and her other friends at church Were like can I want to be on your podcast?

I was like, well, do you know what my podcast is about like? And this one woman who played minna carolyn was like, oh, yeah, I said I I'll try to find you a part where you're not a bad girl and she was like, I want to be a bad girl I went on the hunt for A story of two women who were bad girls, but not so bad That they were killing people or eating people Because I didn't want carolyn's first experience as a podcast voice performer carolyn is like the best Person that you know, she is a devout member of the lds faith alcohol never touches her lips I don't know that she sleeps She is always out doing something for someone else and I could not bring myself to cast her as a knife-wielding psychopathic killer so we So my job is I have to record them and coach them a little bit And so I hadn't added to I haven't had a chance to talk to you. We've been so busy We've been so wall-to-wall busy. I haven't had a chance to tell you this but I'm having to coach her through the part of the script where minna is describing That it's better to have one fifty dollar client than five ten dollar clients And i'm having to say these words and then have her say the words Knowing that she is this devout member of lds I There was a part of me and at one point along the line. I said, I feel really weird about this I said that to her because it was so Strange to me to be saying these words about you know sex to this woman Oh my god I was surprised when I went look that they wanted to be bad girls. Um so when I went looking for Because I had to find a story That would be that wouldn't be two women And they would be of a certain age like it couldn't be two teenage girls Like a picnic at hanging rock, right? They had to be two mature women And yet I didn't want I didn't want um you know like I didn't want them being cannibals or devil worship. I didn't want to cross too many lines right for them So, um, they had so much fun. My mom loved doing the donner party the littlest survivor. She did a great job with it She really did They had so much fun that when I left Utah to come home. I said goodbye to carolyn and she was like I want to do it again I said all right. I'm gonna find you a real bad girl this time like maybe a nurse that kills people kills her own patients What do you think about that?

So i'll write for i'll write for them again But it was so so so fun and I can't even tell you Like what a hoot it is um to Hand your mom and her bestie scripts where they're playing a couple of debutantes running a brothel I mean, it's a fun part of this job. Is it not? It is a fun part of this it is and um, they both I mean they both did a really good job and um, I've got to tell you that some of the ways that I was coaching through this it was Oh Just a little uncomfortable. That's all I can say I left the room so that you know when people are recording I don't stay in the room with them because you know You don't want people to be self-conscious, but I was imagining you just tied up in knots Could you sound sexier could you sound sexier a minute? Oh, I know Okay. Now say this this way. Oh my god So I want to tell you a couple things about the Everleigh Club Um that didn't make it into the episode because you know, these are there's not so much time. Um There were a lot of A competing madam started a vicious rumor that a man was murdered in the brothel I mean The ada and men took chicago by storm as the saying goes and the competition wasn't thrilled Because you simply no matter how nice your operation was Don't even bother it looks like nothing compared to the Everleigh Club So there's a lot of resentment and there are some infamous chicago stories about the so-called violence, you know that went down there Um, but more and more interesting to me is the fact that Ada and minna were sort of rediscovered Very recently as pioneers of Incredible entrepreneurial capitalism as women business owners at a time when that was not common And they were bold. They were visionary They were creative and they treated their employees like gold Which I gave them six months when the place closed they gave them six months severance. I mean That's amazing not only that but where do you think the I don't know if it was clear to you But if you worked for the Everleigh Club you lived at the Everleigh Club And you ate the same food as the customers?

So this was in the situation where the girls, you know left the Everleigh Club handed over their borrowed finery and went to some hobble No If ada and minna hired you you moved into one of the most spectacular mansions in chicago you lived in breathtaking comfort and privilege You ate food that you didn't even know existed until you got hired there and on sunday nights if you had a boyfriend He was welcome to come and have dinner and listen to music and hang out with you Do you have any idea how unheard of all of that is In in this world at that time. Well, it was a beautiful building and it was beautiful Yeah, it was it was so um, it has its own wikipedia Uh entry the Everleigh Club that's how big this place was it has its own Wikipedia entry and if you look in there you can see you can get it's they're black and white pictures But you get an idea of just how elegant and posh this was And the and the the workers the sex workers lived there Ada and minna didn't have to do that They didn't have to feed their entire staff the same lobster and steak They were feeding their customers, but they did And when they were forced to close down six month severance There are companies in america right now that don't do that much less a brothel in 1911 in chicago Hey companies we've worked for Yeah, I mean you have to you have to give credit where it's due and they were they were incredibly generous employers and um really ahead of their time, you know in so so many ways and I think because they were women who'd had Some pretty negative experience with men um ada so minna minna got married first and minna's husband he Strangled her nearly to death on their honeymoon leaving her neck covered in bruises That's a that's what we call a negative experience with a man And his brother was no better. They were they were brutes So ada and minna were women who knew what it was like to be on the wrong end of a violent man's temper And they were very protective of the women who worked for them You got to hand it to them you do and you can and you can all day long with well They were whores and they were this and they were that but i'm here to tell y'all Um, i'll just say I won't even ask you to say it. I'll just say it man. I've done it for free Okay When I didn't particularly feel like it So I think and I think every woman could say that I think that we maybe want to judge less Because they provide those women provided a service and there were men who needed it. You look at uncle ned How many rooms?

Could that man walk into with that specific akink and not be mocked and left out of town? I mean, you know It's true, but he also he paid to close the place down so I guess if you know as long as you have the money, you know um, I think that the thing that they Understood from a business standpoint was not only charge the most but treat the employees. Well which is um, and I suppose that Because they were women running the business only not just running the business but owning the business um, they perhaps were um, more sensitive to the women and realizing that if they had women who were willing to do this and They were good earners that It was worth them to treat them. Well Well and think about it one customer per night Not five. Yeah Right No sloppy grope in an alley, you know, no being punched in the face and left for dead. None of that And if you misbehaved at the Everleigh Club That was it for you. You were done. You're blackballed and nobody wanted that Nobody wanted that um, so when you think about some of the you know, the famous people that came through those doors and then people that are not household names like um, al capone's predecessor big jim Most most people unless you're like a real mobster fishing. I don't have or a chicago resident. You don't know who that is, right?

He was the al capone of um, the Everleigh Club's day And he's coming into this brothel Heading into the kitchen rolling up his sleeves and making his mama's homemade spaghetti sauce for the girls Is that not a movie scene? It is it really is. Um, apparently there was a play That was produced in chicago about them in like Maybe 15 12 years ago something like that It's unfortunate the building that this was in is beautiful I mean the architecture chicago architecture. There are the architecture is so interesting and ornate and artistic They have tours just for the architecture in chicago and this building was no exception to that Unfortunately, it's not there anymore. It's gone. It's really kind of sad I'm, glad you brought up the uh architecture the general vibe in chicago. Chicago. I know is one of your favorite places in the world. Absolutely So remember that the very same man that ended the Everleigh Club Is credited with and responsible for the way chicago looks today and that's that's bus mayor bus because he He set all of that into motion. And if you've never been to chicago, I mean Chicago looks only like chicago, you know, some places you go. They look like other places. Yeah Yeah, chicago looks only like itself. Yeah, and it's spectacular and all of that Preservation and that architecture those buildings that vibe, you know that all began with the very same Hard drinking whore and hound dog that put the Everleigh Club out of business And it is widely believed although we don't know That it was one of ada and min as competitors that was so sick of Watching them just raking in the money That they brought the Everleigh Club brochure to The mayor's office and once the mayor had that on his desk like politicians love plausible deniability if they can pretend That that something isn't happening then they don't have to take uncomfortable action, right?

But if you shove it in their face, then they've got to do something because otherwise they're yeah, I look to see if there was um, The brochure from the everly, uh club was on ebay just to look and I couldn't I couldn't find it But I thought that's an interesting little artifact that somebody might be interested in. Yeah I found um, and I can't remember where I found it if it was library of congress or somewhere else But I found a digitized copy of it It was something. Oh, I would love to see that This little velvet bound booklet was passed from You know gentlemen to gentlemen And the Everleigh Club it was not a secret. It was the least secret thing in chicago, right?

Why do you think the prince of bilhelm? What's his head? Right made built his u.s. Itinerary to include a trip to it. I mean it was a it was a big deal and they were they were Whatever else you want to say about ada and minna They were survivors and they were smart and they knew how to um capitalize on an opportunity And they lived Absolutely as they pleased At a time when that was not a thing most people could do much less women Yeah, and you know it is They were I know somebody will dispute what i'm what i'm about to say, but nobody's nobody's getting harmed in this situation Everybody willingly everybody's willingly engaging in it. This isn't trafficking. This isn't that sort of thing This is a situation where all of the all the participants in this are willing and you know I they've just they're they're not evil people Well, the person who's kicking your ass will say well that's great for them but what about for other sex workers who are This that and the other well, that's because it's an illegal black market and in the absence of any sort of regulation or oversight terrible things happen This is why you see a big difference in states where for example Cannabis is legal versus states where it isn't in a legal state people walk into a store in a strip mall And part of their purchase is taxi is taxed and goes to the state in a state where it isn't legal You know you're calling your plug Or texting your plug and meeting somewhere and buying drugs and you don't even But this drives me, you know as a parent. I was constantly saying to my my kids You don't know what you're what you're doing. You don't know what you're getting. It's not You have no idea what it is. You have no idea if it's laced with anything like I now I sound like an after-school special, but Yeah, well, but it's but it is true. I mean, that's the one thing. I mean You can't it's always compared to the liquor business so i'm going to do that but at the least the liquor business is regulated and if Something is amiss with whatever you've purchased you have some recourse The the idea um That like if I walk into a dispensary I can speak to a knowledgeable salesperson who's going to hand me a sealed bag of product that has been grown under controlled Conditions it's been inspected Everybody's getting paid. I'm not i'm not buying from a cartel. I'm buying from a legal grow operation, right?

I I don't have to worry. Ooh, is this laced? Now i've paid more for it than you're going to pay on the street But part of what you're paying for is everything I just said, you know what you're getting You know the people involved in the whole chain of custody from seed to Bag it being put in your hand You understand that this is a legal regulated operation. These are jobs These people are paying taxes and having 401ks and all of it, right?

When you walk into a legal brothel, whether that's in nevada or amsterdam or some other place it's the same thing you are paying a little more for that handy, but You are in an environment where you are safe Things are clean. You don't have to worry about getting knifed or rolled or I love that term knockout drops from that. I know That's a great old-fashioned expression that'd be a good name for a band the knockout drops. Yeah You understand that you're paying a little more But um, it's in a control an environment that's controlled and the girls you were not allowed if you worked at the Everleigh Club You were not allowed to play fast and loose with the johns Um, that's why men said we don't steal no knockout drops. We don't do anything underhanded These are gentlemen and you treat them like they've never been treated before and you'll get rich and she was right those Many of those people who worked for eight and minute were wealthy when that brothel shut down So I think um something that made such an impression on me and I must have been I couldn't have been very old Like maybe a teenager maybe in college. Do you remember the tv show that hbo had called real sex? Oh, yes. I remember that Um, you can see it you can pull it up on demand or find it on youtube or whatever But they they had an episode At the bunny ranch in nevada where prostitution is legal, right?

And I think the the guy that ran the bunny ranch was a guy named dennis Does that sound familiar? I think yeah. Yeah. Yeah Now the bunny ranch was not the Everleigh Club the bunny ranch looked like it should be called the bunny ranch It was not up to ada and minnes aesthetic standards But I saw one episode and one of the clients was a veteran a disabled veteran and he had a Favorite worker at the bunny ranch and he was a regular customer and he agreed to be interviewed and filmed By hbo and I can't remember it's been a long time I can't remember his exact words or his exact circumstances, but the takeaway for me was this this man this man who He yearns for the same thing. Anybody does love connection Some laughs a good time peace love to be seen right This man had so many injuries and he had so many physical issues That the only place that he felt comfortable taking off his clothes And allowing himself to be touched and seen and held was at the bunny ranch And he understood that it was a business transaction And that was okay for him He really liked her. She adored him He she made him comfortable. He didn't have to feel self-conscious about his scars or his his inabilities And I I watched that episode and I remember thinking like I was in tears watching that yeah, and I remember thinking First of all, my heart is broken that this man is carrying so much pain and shame About his appearance or what he can and can't do That broke my heart But then I became like righteously indignant That that man feels like he needs to be sheepish about going to the bunny ranch Because I don't think he does. How about you?

Yeah, I mean I remember that episode. I remember feeling all those things that you're feeling about the situation because I think that there is this, um You know this adolescent little snickering when we talk about sex or when we talk about situations like this And what it does it? it negates The human side with people who are as you said longing for for touch People need it. I mean as human beings like babies who aren't held children who aren't nurtured with physical touch and affection Sometimes they die They develop failure to thrive. We have remember in the 90s the realization that all of these children in your in eastern european orphanages Had reactive attachment disorder because they've never been held. Yeah human beings We need contact with each other. We need we need to touch each other. We need to be held and nurtured And if you have to pay for that, okay Some of us pay a person to listen to us talk about our struggles. That's called therapy right Um, some of us pay people to clean our houses or take care of our kids or groom our dogs Ada and Minner were right. Why can't this be a service that is professionally rendered for a fee?

Why why can't it? So i'm a huge advocate for legalization at the rate We're heading in this country right now. Not only is that not going to happen But i'm going to be burned at the stake as a witch pretty soon anyway anyway besides anyway Besides all that. I want to say one last thing about prostitution So people will say yes you and max I hear what you're saying, but it is so dangerous Look at the look at the serial killers who target prostitutes Folks serial killers are not targeting the women who work at places like the Everleigh Club They're targeting women who work on the street, right?

And in like parking lots, they are they are attacking people who are the most vulnerable. It's not because of what they're Yeah They'll they'll find anybody that's desperate or vulnerable. It doesn't matter what they're doing And because of the way our society views the sex trade even serial killers know that sex workers Are a cheap and disposable commodity And very often when they disappear their deaths aren't really even investigated all that much. No, you know The long you get the long island killer that guy. I mean he was they were and because Because of that, um His name's escaping me. Um You know those women were all procurement They were all marginalized because of what they did and because I mean so this went on a lot longer than it ever should have But it was because of what they were doing and the ways in which they were marginalized One dead prostitute that's something for the coroner to deal with two dead prostitutes. What a pain in the ass for the cops Three dead prostitutes. What the what?

Four dead prostitutes now. It's in the new york post five dead prostitutes. Now. It's on the six o'clock news But do you see this is how devalued these? Human beings are that we need to get a good solid half dozen of them before we go. I wonder If we might have someone preying on sex workers We have right now We have uh law enforcement looking at a potential serial killer in arizona And those victims are not city council members. Are they? No, they are vulnerable marginalized people look at aileen warnos the um prostitute killer You know, she's made out to be some sort of a villain But if you really dug in and looked at her story, she was a victim and I think some I think I think Has been very poorly treated um by the public because of our distaste and our loathing of people in these professions, which is interesting because Most adult human beings are like sex. That's a good thing. I like it And then the minute somebody needs to pay for it now now we're puritans again sherry What's interesting is that many times people out of desperation do that and then later?

Find a way out of it and then lead normal lives and many many have Been in that kind of a situation So you don't just see who the person is and what they're doing right now see the potential for what they can become You know Yeah And um judge not right, right. Um, maybe life Handed you a little bit of a smoother path to walk and yay Um, I just I just think I mean there are a lot of lonely sexually frustrated men out there and I look at their posts And I think well david you deserve to be lonely you freak but Um, if they could maybe pay for it somewhere, that'd be great Who knows who knows if that could make a difference or not?

So that is the story of the simms sisters ada and minna And I want to thank all of our voice talents on this one and shout out carolyn thornton for making her Acting debut as minna in this episode. You'll hear from her again And next time on true weird stuff um I gotta tell you You know people are like ew a hooker and i'm over here going. Oh my god. Ew a doctor Because some of the things doctors get up to that blow your mind true stuff. Yes Yeah on true word stuff The madams are like here's six months severance and the doctors are like I need to pull out all your teeth Like this guy no, he meant well as people often do what's that expression max about good intentions Oh, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Yeah He meant well people often do Um, but and he had a theory and he believed his theory. He believed that insanity lived in your teeth not in your brain Which made it pretty simple to cure the insane, right? I mean, I can't remove your brain But I can take out all your teeth Open wide that's the next true weird stuff And if you listen to us on apple podcast hit the plus button in the top right corner And now it helps an independent podcast like ours to get discovered and we really appreciate it if you subscribe Rate and review true weird stuff hit our website true weird stuff.com for show notes and photos and videos When we have it and bonus content everything true weird is waiting for you at true weird stuff.com And follow true weird stuff on instagram true weird stuff is a Now! Media production Our executive producer is anthony garcia The show is written and hosted by me Sheri Lynch along with my deeply weird director Max Sweeten Our equally odd producer is Kary Bowser additional production by the mysterious steven kahl Our digital witch and social media cult leader is Heather Furr original graphics by kevin nash original artworks Excellent true weird original music composed and performed by jack griffin and Zane Nash copyright 2026 Now! Media all rights reserved all wrongs remembered You