Essay Sample on San Francisco's Queen of Vice

Introduction

Iez Burns an arbortionist often had her way when it came to conducting her illegal business in San Francisco. She had powerful friends,loads of money and changed men like hats. The society did not find anything wrong with her conducting arbotions. After all, there was no evidence that she was doing something wrong. It all came to a stop when district attorney, Pat Brown decided to bring her down. His aim to clean up the city by eradicating all the vices began with Inez Burns. The year 1946 signalled the beginning of her end. It was not easy at all.Witnesses and evidence against her disappeared, money exchanged hands and threats were issued to the people involved in her case. All in all, in every race there only emerges one winner and in this case Pat Brown won.

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Retaining Evidence

During the first trial of Inez brown, the defense lawyer accused Brown and Lynch of retaining evidence confirming that they were involved with Shannon’s attempted extortion (6). Brown argued that their testimony only brought out evidence he had already collected. The Shannons were good friends of Inez Burns, and they lived in the lower flat where Inez clinic was. They were well aware of the activities in the Clinic as they had worked there countless times. When they heard that Brown was looking for them to make them his key witnesses, they fled and threw Brown off the trail numerous times. When their savings began dwindling their had no choice but agreed to give out their testimony but not before involving the press countless times (87). Later, their testimony was discredited due to their past issues with the law, and they were removed from Burns cases leaving Brown to depends on the other witnesses.

In September 1945, Brown hatched a plan to raid Burn’s Clinic, and he chooses his most trusted men, but Burns was tipped off. Inspector Ahern decided to lead the group to Burns Guerro’s home. With them hidden in the bushes, Ahern knocked on the front door catching Burns unawares. Inside, they found nurses in their uniforms and recovering patients who had been relocated from the Clinic. Upon further investigations, they found lots of cash stuffed in various places in the house. The cash amounted to millions. With Lynch holding the combination to Burns safe, they discovered that she kept ‘little black books’ containing every patient Inez every procured abortion. Hidden staircases to escape rooms were also discovered (51).

That was the beginning of Brown’s success in getting rid of Burns’s career as an abortionist. The media was continuously on his neck, trying to get him to reveal the prominent people who were once Burns’s clients. Additionally, in his possession, Brown had had records are taken, photographs of the four-story Clinic, expensive sterilizing equipment, and the eight individuals taken from Burns house. With this, he thought he could take Burns down for good. However, It proved harder than that. Burns had prominent backing her, and the citizens of San Fransisco did not see any wrongdoing with her business. They all agreed that Burns was preventing women from suffering and reducing the number of bastards in San Fransisco.

With the continuing case of Burns, Prominent individuals continuously threatened and put pressure on Brown to bury the case. Nevertheless, instead, he promised not to spare any effort to squash the vice (55). His witnesses were not spared either. They received threats or money to pay them off. Brown and his assistant Elkington had long discovered that they needed to pull out the person who was tipping Burns about their raids. A thorough search showed that Bruno was the man behind all. Except being Burns’s middle man, he was also in a mob. They realized that many police officers were entangled with Burns. He had already concluded that an illegal business could not thrive for decades without people being paid off to ignore it (110). Those who were questioned vehemently denied knowing about any unlawful business being performed.

Insufficient Evidence

Brown was determined to dismantle the entire corrupt city network, including the people on Burns payroll. When the jurors refused to charge Burns due to insufficient evidence, after the little black books disappeared only to resurface later- he realized that he did not have the Jurors on his side (64). It took Brown three trials to find a good jury and the third one was because he took part in assessing them.

Brown only managed to bring Burns down during the third trial in which Murphy was the judge. Brown had battled sixty-year-old Inez in court for 20 months without success. With everyone tired of the pulling case, the defense attorney tried to create a settlement with the prosecutor Lynch. He promised Inez was going to plead guilty, but she should not be jailed. She should only pay fines. Judge Murphy had different plans. He put the jurors in protective custody to prevent Inez from tampering with their decisions and only allowed them to recreate with people following them. After all, the evidence was brought out. Inez and her defense team were slapped with jail time without bail.

With that, Brown managed to finish Burns’ business after a long struggle. His attempt to clean the city was indeed a long time since Inez was serving her jail time. Although after a year, he discovered that there was still an abortion clinic running under Inez Burns. She was jailed once again by Lynch after a trap was set for her while trying to procure an arbotion.. She ended up spending most of her money paying taxes after Brown found a way for her wealth to be taken away by the IRS the revenue department (161). Finally Brown had succeeded in bringing Inez Burns down. She spent the last 20 years of her life a bitter person.

Burns defies the expected roles of women in a few ways. Childbearing should be considered as a gift from God and not as a problem. By procuring these abortions, Burns deemed the gift that God gave women of carrying children and birthing them useless. She spent all her life taking away lives instead of nurturing them. Burns also encouraged corruption by buying political and police protection with wads of cash. To keep her abortion clinic open, she spent almost half of her earnings paying bribes to the elected politicians and police officers. Burns changed men like hats. Her first husband was known as William. She divorced him after her Clinic started bringing in money. She then married an Italian whom she picked due to his good looks. She cheated on Him with Burns, and he divorced her. She was then married to Joe Burns. In her early years, she also procured an abortion. Burns continuously defied the expectations of women in society.

Feminist

Inez Burns was a feminist. She felt that men were using women and giving them pregnancies that they were unwilling to take care of, thus her abortionist tittle. She thought that she needed to give women the freedom to live their lives. Women in Lisa Riggins’s book did not see it that way, in any case. They were not willing to take precautions to avoid pregnancies. All they did was rush to her when they got pregnant. When Burns’s trials came up, Inez had helped testify against her, yet she had never revealed any of their details to anyone. It feels like the worst form of betrayal.

The Shannons were good friends of Burns. When their cigar store went crumbling down, they ran to her for help. She gave them a place to stay, opened an automobile business for them, and gave Gloria Shannon a job in her Clinic. However, Gloria decided to leak how Burns ran her Clinic when Brown charged her without remembering their friendship. She wrote a manuscript about the activities carried out in the Clinic and shamelessly added salt to injury. Her greed for money made her drag Burns’s name on the mud without any apologies. She was also willing to testify against her, but her testimony was discredited after discovering they had rubbed shoulders a few times with the police earlier on in their lives.

Although Inez Burns was known as the queen of vice, she has her successes. When she was first trained by her mentor Dr. West, she made sure to learn everything, including how to deal with his failures as an abortionist. It enabled her to get her first big break. The tools she used for her work were always sterilized and kept well. It shows she valued the tools that helped her build her empire. She was not ready to lose the lives of women; hence she learned to perfect the art. It is one of the main reasons why she has sought after.

With the money she made from her business, she invested in homes and other valuable materials. Her Clinic was tastefully decorated, welcoming, professional, and full of expensive equipment. She made sure to give her husbands money that made them seem rich and flamboyant. Even with her illegal trade, Burns did not shy off from helping her friends. Whenever her friends were stuck, she was always ready to uplift them by starting a business for them. One of the beneficiaries was the Shannons, who received support from her. She had favorable terms in her business. In case an abortion brought about complications, she was always willing to use her cash to pay the extra charges so that the women could get better.

Contributing to Suffering

Her work helped women take charge of their bodies in a world dominated by men. She noticed that the church treated women unfavorably, contributing to their suffering. Years of watching Catholic women troop into her Clinic, trailing six children behind, desperate to prevent giving birth to a seventh one, encouraged her to continue with her business. According to her, the church prioritized the pleasures of men over the reproductive control of women. Inez Burns was a tough nut to crack for Brown. She was a smart woman that knew how to plan strategically. She was always ready for the raid. With all her escape routes, it was difficult to find fault in her.

With all her successes, Burns had her failures too. Inez Burns made her biggest mistake when she decided to hide her wads of cash and ‘little black books’ in her home. These small things led to her downfall. They gave Brown a chance to get incriminating evidence against her and led thieves to break into her home, stealing valuable items. By keeping records of the women, she had procured abortions on, and she dug her hole. When Ahren and Brown searched the house, he was able to note that that was Burns handwriting.

Burns also failed while choosing her husband. She was more interested in the looks rather than the financial background. Burns Ended up using her money to spoil her husbands instead of investing in valuable schemes. She wasted her money doing surgeries to make her look younger than she was, adorned expensive jewelry, and purchased other homes that she did not need. Burns also spent considerable amounts of money trying to please her husbands by buying them good cars and giving them money to use for them to be respected. Inez Burns did not also realize that she spent more money paying off politicians and police officers the whole time she carried out her business.

Conclusion

After locking up Inez Burns, Brown did not stop there. In November 1948, Brown personally joined his team in raiding abortion clinics. It resulted in the arrest of five men and three women. It included Joseph Burns, husband to Inez Burns. They also caught dr Malcolm Hoffman, a physician that once worked with Burns. They realized that Burns was still running an abortion while in prison, and they suspected that Hoffman was the one who was helping her. They discovered that Gus Oliva was paid protection money to protect the abortionists as they carried out their raids. This revelation led to his arrest (158).