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An Open Secret:
The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos along with a Kindle!
In late 1907, Madam Benny Fowler was in her room at the Mansion Hotel and Bar preparing for an evening out. She and one of her friends had plans to go to dinner and attend a party afterward. Benny had traveled to Deadwood from Belle Fourche where she operated a brothel at the location. The reason for the trip was twofold. Benny wanted to check on her Deadwood bordello and she wanted to get away from a man who had been bothering her.
Prentice Bernard, alias Vinegar Rowan, a cowpuncher and sheepherder from Montana, had spent time with Benny in Belle Fourche and become infatuated with her. He challenged customers who visited her, threatening to beat the men if they didn’t stay away. She hoped when he passed through Belle Fourche again and learned she wasn’t there he would ride on and forget her. That wasn’t the case, however. When Vinegar learned where Benny had gone, he followed her. He was in trouble with the law in Deadwood a few times because he wouldn’t leave her alone. He was crazy with jealousy over the men she met and, on December 7, 1907, pulled a knife on a bartender whom he overheard talking about Benny and assaulted a cook named Dick Moran for the same thing.
Frustrated with Vinegar’s actions and his relentless pursuit, Benny hurried back to Belle Fourche. Again, she hoped her clear rejection would persuade him to drop his fixation and move on with his life. After a day with no sign of Vinegar, Benny thought the coast was clear and returned to Deadwood to continue her visit with friends there. She had no way of knowing that Vinegar had never left Deadwood. He was so distressed over the way Benny had treated him he decided to get drunk and stay drunk. The manager of the Mansion Hotel and Bar where Vinegar was doing most of his drinking demanded the rancher give him his gun while he was there. Vinegar did so but asked several times for the weapon to be returned. His request was denied because he was considered too drunk to handle a weapon.
