The Lancaster Vice Files
Each episode opens the secret files of anti-vice investigators to piece together the portrait of a person from the hidden history of prostitution, gambling, and drinking in Lancaster, Pennsylvania around 1900.
A century ago Lancaster was known as a "wide open" city for prostitution, gambling, drinking because city officials encouraged and participated in vice. An undercover investigation of vice in 1913 left behind extensive records documenting the personalities and politics of Lancaster's underground economy. Using these files, this podcast unearths the surprising variety of people who struggled and sometimes succeeded in vice.
The Lancaster Vice Files
Fair Elise and Mary: You'll be all right now
This is the second of two episodes about Fair Elise, a toddler who spent several years in a brothel. Listen to this episode after Fair Elise: Child of the Brothel. She ended up in a brothel in 1913 because of her parents' financial struggles and illnesses. At this point, brothels ran "wide open" in Lancaster, with the encouragement of city officials. Learn what it was like to live in a brothel and see how Fair Elise's life turns out. You might be surprised.