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
Rough Housing in Chinatown
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No one was surprised when there was a rough house at the "chop suey" restaurant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, around 1900. Fights, vandalism, commercial sex, and gambling were regular features of the restaurant, boarding house, and laundries that made up this city's Chinatown. Find out more about the immigrant entrepreneurs who ran these businesses and the colorful customers who found adventure and refuge there.
Written and narrated by M. Alison Kibler. Extra voices from Caitlin Bonner, Vinny Smaldone, Sara Smith, and Frances Taylor.
Research assistance from Hope Glidden.
Thanks to staff of LancasterHistory for their assistance with the Law and Order Society Papers. We are grateful for the financial support from Franklin & Marshall College.
Sound engineering by the Institute of the Mechanical Surround and Vincent Smaldone.