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An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Brothels

DEADWOOD — For more than 30 years, Chris Enss has been writing about the women of the Old West. She’s written more than 50 books on the subject, earning nine Will Rogers Medallion Awards, two Elmer Kelton Book Awards, and the Laura Downing Journalism Award.

“Usually, when you think about women of the American West, they’re either Miss Kitty from Dodge City, or Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie,” Enss told the Black Hills Pioneer during her last visit to Deadwood. “People don’t think women did much more than that. The truth is, women were just so incredibly well-rounded in a variety of fields.”

Enss plans to return to the Black Hills, beginning Wednesday. That day, she’ll visit the Days of ‘76 Museum for a reading and signing centered on “The Sharpshooter and the Showman.”

Published in March, that title follows Pawnee Bill and May Manning Lillie of Wild West Show fame — exploring their remarkable, true love story.

Thursday, Enss will visit the Adams Museum for a book signing and talk about the cowgirls of the American West.

On Sept. 26 and 27, Enss will launch her newest book, “Meet the Kellys: The True Story of Machine Gun Kelly and His Holl Kathryn Thorn” in Deadwood at the Brothel Museum.

The author plans to host half-hour presentations on the Jazz Age mob scene. She’ll also be on hand to sign copies of her newest book.

Released in May, “Meet the Kellys” explores the life and relationship of George “Machine Gun” Kelly, a bootlegger turned notorious gangster, and Kathryn Thorne, a “mobbed-up Lady Macbeth” who pushed her husband to commit greater crimes.

Enter now to win a copy of

An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos

Enter now to win a copy of

An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos

Among the most notable Deadwood soiled doves in 1876 and 1877 was Jenny Hines. Known by many as Popcorn Jenny, she was apprehended several times for operating a bawdy house. An incident that occurred on February 21, 1877, marked the beginning of the end of Jenny in Deadwood. Police raided her business after a complaint was made by neighbors about the numerous men coming and going from the location at all hours of the day and night.

When the police arrived on the scene, Jenny reluctantly allowed them to enter. Initially they found no one in the home apart from the sporting gal herself. She assured the officers that nothing unseemly ever transpired in her home and that the idea she was exchanging sex for money was offensive. A further inspection of the premises resulted in a unique discovery made in her kitchen. The room was void of the traditional items one would expect to find.

There was no table and chairs, etc. Instead, on the floor was a mattress and on the mattress a man by the name of Joe Hodges. He was under a blanket, curled up in a fetal position hoping no one could see him. He didn’t stir until the police poked him with a cane. Both Joe and Jenny were arrested and taken to jail.

Joe Hodges was brought before the judge not long after the magistrate had dealt with Popcorn Jenny and encouraged her to leave town. Joe was forced to undergo a series of embarrassing questions about why he was doing business with a known prostitute. The only explanation he offered was that he was a “widower and, in obedience to the scriptural injunction, he was seeking a congenial companion.” He claimed when he saw Jenny, he was so charmed by her, he allowed her to lead him astray. He didn’t understand why the city would bother with two lonely people helping one another.

The judge admonished Joe and fined him $10. Jenny was never heard from again in Deadwood.

To learn more about the soiled doves who worked in the various brothels in Deadwood and the number of times they were arrested read

An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos.

Join me at the Brothel Deadwood Museum on September 26 and 27 from 11 A.M. to 6 P.M. for a tour of the brothel and stories of the many raids on the houses of ill repute in the Black Hills.

Enter now to win a copy of

An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos

The National Prohibition Act was passed by Congress on January 16, 1919, and officially went into effect on January 17, 1920. By early 1921, government statisticians reported that prohibition had had a positive impact on the country. It showed that labor was more constant and that absenteeism at jobs had decreased. The same government report showed that prostitution had diminished as a result of the National Prohibition Act. That might have been the case in some cities across the country, but in Deadwood, South Dakota, prostitution continued to be big business.

Listed among bordello owners who competed for business in Deadwood in the 1920s and 1930s was a woman of German descent named Pauline Longland. Born Pauline Wirz on May 22, 1891, in La Salle, Illinois, she came to South Dakota in 1910 and married Burr Longland in 1914. Her bordellos were located at 616 and 618 Main Street. When she was arrested for running a disorderly house in August 1920 and paid a sixty dollar fine for the crime, the court warned her against further offenses. Pauline’s line of work was so lucrative she wasn’t inclined to leave the profession for any reason.

On May 16, 1921, authorities raided her business, along with the businesses of several other bordello owners. She was taken into custody and charged with “keeping a house of ill fame.” Between 1922 and 1930, she was arrested four more times for the same violation and three times for possessing and selling alcohol. In 1930, Pauline was sentenced to ninety days in jail on various liquor offenses and ninety days for maintaining a public nuisance.

Pauline passed away on February 22, 1931, after suffering several months with a serious illness. “Her services, conducted by Rev. Alban Reed of St. Ambrose Catholic Church, were attended by a concourse of friends and relatives, and the casket was buried beneath a profusion of flowers in loving remembrance of the many friends of the deceased,” the February 26, 1931, edition of the Weekly Pioneer Times read.

To learn more about the busts at the Deadwood brothels read

An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos

Join me at the Brothel Deadwood Museum on September 26 & 27,  2025, for a lively talk on the police raids of the bordellos and the various madams who were arrested as a result.

Enter now to win a copy of

An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos

Rosa May sat beside the bed of a dying miner and wiped the sweat off his feverish brow. She looked around his rustic, one-room cabin, past the sparse furnishings, and fixed her eyes on a tattered photograph of an elderly man and woman. “Those are my folks,” the man weakly told her. “They’re in Marshall County, Illinois. Where are your folks?”

The question stunned Rosa. No one ever asked about such things. No one ever asked her much at all. Conversation wasn’t what men were looking for when they did business with her. Rosa glanced out the window at a couple of respectable, well-dressed women. They watched her through the clouded glass, pointed, and whispered. She knew what they were saying without hearing it.
Rosa was just one of a handful of “sporting women” living in Bodie, California, in 1900 and she knew what people thought of her. It used to bother her years ago, but not now. It was an occupational hazard she’d learned to live with.

“Don’t you have people anywhere?” the miner asked. Rosa dabbed the man’s head with a cloth and smiled. “I don’t know anymore,” she answered. “If I did have, they’d be back in Pennsylvania.”
Rosa’s parents were Irish – hard, strict people. Rosa had dreamed of the day she would be out of their puritanical household. She had left home in 1871, at the age of sixteen and soon found there weren’t many opportunities for a poor, petite, uneducated girl with brown eyes and dark, curly hair. She ended up in New York, hungry, homeless, and eager to take any job offered. The job offered was prostitution and five years later she came west with other women of her trade, hoping to make a fortune off the gold and silver miners.

Prostitution was the single largest occupation for women in the West. Rosa hoped to secure a position at a posh brothel with crystal chandeliers, velvet curtains, and flowing champagne. The madams who ran such places were good to their girls. They paid them a regular salary, taught them about makeup, manners, and how to dress, and they only had to entertain a few men a night. If a high-class brothel wasn’t available, Rosa could take a job in a second-class house and work for a percentage of the profits, turning as many tricks as she could each night. If all failed, she could be a street walker or rent a “crib” at a boardinghouse. Cribs, tiny, windowless chambers, had oilcloths draped across the foot of the bed for customers in too big of a hurry to take off their boots.

Rosa May arrived in Virginia City, Nevada in 1875 and went to work for a madam known as Cad Thompson. Cad was a widow who ran several parlor houses in town, including a three-story, brick structure called the “Brick House.” Cad and Rosa became fast friends, confiding in one another and talking about meeting their Prince Charming. “Whores dream of falling in love, too,” Cad frequently told Rosa.

To learn about Rosa May read

An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos

Meet the Kellys is on the rise!

Amazon reports it’s #4 in Crime & Criminal Biographies.

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#26 in United States History.