This updated and revised edition of Hell's Belles takes the reader on a soundly researched, well-documented, and amusing journey back to the early days of Denver. Clark Secrest details the evolution of Denver's prostitution, the gambling, the drug addicts, and the corrupt politicians and police who, palms outstretched, allowed it all to happen. Also included in Hell's Belles is a biography of one of Denver's original police officers, Sam Howe, upon whose crime studies the book is based.   The popular veneer of Denver's present-day Market Street - its fancy bars, posh restaurants, and Coors Field - is stripped away to reveal the street's former incarnation: a mecca of loose morals entrenched in prostitution, liquor, and money. Hell's Belles examines the neglected topics of vice and crime in Denver and utilizes a unique and invaluable historic source - the scrapbooks of Detective Sam Howe.     "...loaded with spicy information...engaging, lively and informative, highly professional but written for popular consumption." — Boulder Daily Camera "...the definitive work on prostitution in the West, not to mention one of the best-written, most enjoyable reads in Western history." — The Denver Post Clark Secrest retired in 2001 as an editor with the Colorado Historical Society. There he researched and wrote numerous articles for the society's quarterly journal Colorado Heritage. Helle's Belles PROSTITUTION, VICE, AND CRIME IN EARLY DENVER With a Biography of Sam Howe, Frontier Lawman By CLARK SECREST University Press of Colorado Copyright © 2002 University Press of Colorado All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-87081-633-8 Contents Preface....................................................................ixAcknowledgments............................................................xvNotes to the Reader........................................................xixPart I: The Policeman......................................................11 Meet Sam Howe............................................................32 A Frontier Detective.....................................................17Part II: The Indulgences...................................................553 "Hordes of Villains and the Wages of Sin"................................574 "She's Pretty Near Dead Now".............................................735 "Her House Is the Way to Hell"...........................................1016 The Unlucky Pathway of Life..............................................1297 The Recording Angel Gave Them One White Mark.............................1558 "Here She Is. Now Give Me the Five Dollars.".............................1819 Mattie Silks and Jennie Rogers: Queens of the Denver Row.................20910 "I Have No One to Love Me"..............................................24711 "All Ze French Ladies Vill Be Glad".....................................29112 "Mayor Speer Was a Wonderful Man. He Kept Market Street Open."..........30113 That Is Good............................................................311Appendix A: The Howe Methodology...........................................317Appendix B: Denver Criminal Activity, 1916–1929............................319Appendix C: A Market Street Prostitution Census............................325Bibliography...............................................................329Index......................................................................337 CHAPTER 1 Meet Sam Howe "Sam House will get you if you don't be good." Such was the admonishment directed towardmischievous youngsters by exasperated parentsduring the decades when Sam Howe wasone of the two most famous "coppers" in Colorado—theother being David J. Cook. Dave Cook wasdaring and chased crooks and then wrote a book abouthis adventures, titled Hands Up; or, Twenty Tears ofDetective Life in the Mountains and on the Plains . Subsequently,Cook was the subject of a biography by WilliamRoss Collier and Edwin Victor Westrate called Dave Cook of the Rockies . Sam Howe wrote no booksand nobody prepared his biography, probably becausehe was less daring and colorful than Dave Cook. YetHowe's long-term and lasting contribution to the historyof law enforcement in the West may surpass thatof Dave Cook. Sam Howe's dedication to Denver law and orderbegan in 1873 when there was no police department,and lawmen had to marshal the Denver streets withwhatever little authority was afforded them. Coloradowas still a territory and would not become a statefor three more years. Howe became among the mostenduring lawmen in Colorado and the West and, somesaid, in the nation, retiring February 1, 1921, at ageeighty-one after forty-seven years on the job. Much ofthat was during an era when a one-year policemanwas considered an old-timer—and a lucky one at that. Within two decades Howe saw Denver grow froma mining-supply camp full of dirty-fingernailed, marauding,armed fortune seekers to a sophisticated cit