Thursday, 10th July 1913 Chief Expects Arrests in Vice Probe

Thursday, July 10, 1913

MEN NAMED BY GIRL ARE SOUGHT

Chief Beavers Declares New and Startling Arrests Are Near. Alleged Procuress Held

With the principals in the sensational vice case, Hattie Smith, a 17-year-old girl victim; Mrs. Lena Barnhart, a flashily-dressed woman, alleged white slave procuress; Lige Murray, negro ally, and Clyde Cox, the youth who was arrested in the hotel raid, all bound over to the higher courts, the police Thursday turned the full flare of a searching investigation directly on the hotels and alleged immoral resorts, with the result that new arrests and startling developments were expected during the day.

Chief Beavers Thursday morning declared that his crusade would include the men principals in the vice system as well as the women.

A number of names were given him by Hattie Smith. He will use these as a start along this line of his investigation, and sensational results are expected.

Girl Tells Story in Court.

The remarkable case came to a close Wednesday afternoon when the Smith girl told in court her story. She did not mince nor choose words. Looking at Recorder Broyles squarely, she told of her ruin.

It was in a soda fountain on Cone Street, near James, that she first saw the Barnhart woman, she said. Often she stopped in the soda fountain and usually the woman was there, talking with men or preparing to go riding with them in an automobile, she said.

"One day about two weeks ago I asked who she was. She seemed so popular, was dressed so nicely and had so many friends that I just wanted to know who she was. On the same day one of the men asked me to go for an automobile ride with him. I said I would. When we went to the automobile the Barnhart woman was on the front seat. We went for a ride along the Paces Ferry Road.

"When we returned to Atlanta the woman asked me to go with her to the Carnegie Library. Then she suggested my going with her to the Cumberland Hotel, where she said she would give me an apartment and I could live like a lady.

Given New Name.

"The life she painted attracted me. I said I would go with her. She suggested that she go to the hotel first and arrange for me a room. I followed and found that room 43 had been assigned Lucile Evans, my new name.

"Later I went out on the streets and was picked up by an automobile party that carried me to my home on Marietta street. Thursday night I went back to the woman at the Cumberland Hotel and made an engagement with Clyde Cox, who was arrested with me Sunday night.

"The following night, Friday night, I met a man named Brower, who said he was from Washington. I went with him to the Brittain Hotel. He registered as Mr. and Mrs. Brower. The next morning I received a telephone call from Mrs. Barnhart to meet her at the Empire Life Building. I rode over in a taxicab, so as to be there on time. We went from there to the Cumberland. Mrs. Barnhart offered to pay for my room at the Cumberland until I could get something to do."