Selling Sex in the Silver Valley

by Dr. Heather Branstetter

  I think that the reason why they re-instituted the old laws involved lewd cohabitation with a minor, and there was a loophole in the new laws that led to a defendant in the Pocatello area going free—that was the catalyst for making the legislature re-overhaul the penal code back to the way it was. The vast majority of people wanted things the way they had been. But it meant that prostitution ended up becoming illegal, according to state law.

  Periodically, the preachers during the ’50s and ’60s would come into town, expressing shock and awe about prostitution, but all of the old church women—didn’t matter how conservative they were—would tell the preachers to back off.

  In 1973, these moral crusaders, maybe Stanley Crowe was a ringleader, they started in Pocatello, moved through Boise, then up through Moscow, Coeur d’Alene and finally over to Wallace, looking for and finding sin under every rock. No trouble finding sin if you’re looking for it. Cecil Andrus was governor then. I got a call from him asking about the houses by the time Crowe and the other guy made it to Moscow. Andrus was concerned about what they would find in Wallace.

  I went down and checked the doors and saw padlocks on them and confirmed to Governor Andrus they were shut down. It was much ado about nothing because they were calling about what had already been closed. In the weeks when the houses were closed then, might have been up to three months, there was probably local access through the back doors. During that time right after they were supposedly closed there were sex crimes, a kidnapping, a child case. There was a direct cause and effect between sex crimes and the presence of the houses. But prostitution had existed for years. In mining towns—Wallace had 3,800 people and lots were single or had families far away or they worked mines in the winter—there often wasn’t the typical family unit.

  After 1973, when the Idaho laws changed, the [local] government had nothing to do with regulating prostitution anymore. The madams continued the system on a voluntary basis, paying money into an account at the bank. When the FBI raid happened, they tried to find it but they couldn’t come up with anything concrete. As for the medical visits, they also continued that on a voluntary basis, because they were as interested as anyone in continuing to make sure the girls were taken care of in that way.

  7

  1973–1991

  After the closure of 1973, things shifted a bit in the upstairs rooms. Since there was no longer written regulation or records, the “facts” become more difficult to track. Oral history stories feature colorful language and off-color humor. This section is incongruous in some ways, with darker details alongside light-hearted stories, but a history of selling sex in the Silver Valley needs to include both realities.

  GINGER AND THE OASIS ROOMS

  From the 1960s through the 1980s, Darlene Murphy, known to everyone as “Ginger,” ran the Oasis and Arment. Ginger was beautiful, even in old age. The girls called her “Mom” and thought of her as a mother figure. As she grew older, she was rarely seen in public.

  A Conversation with Norval and Edith Pennington

  I had the pleasure of talking with Ginger’s son and daughter-in-law, Norval and Edith Pennington. We spoke over the phone because they live in Alabama. They were happy to share their stories; they believe that Ginger “deserves some documentation and credit in history.” Our interview took place on July 20, 2016. The first half of the interview features Norval, and Edith closes the conversation.

  I grew up in Colorado, was born and raised by my grandparents, Ginger’s mom and dad. Because of her trade and business, I wasn’t too involved in that. In 1950, I went to Vallejo, California. She had some houses there in Vallejo, and she was still very active; she was a young lady back then. Of course, she had two houses there. Reason she went there, was the naval base was there. When they brought the ships in to have them worked on, all these sailors had backpay coming. Well, that worked out pretty good.

  One time, she had some fellow come in and he opened up a house not too far from her, a single house there in Vallejo, and she couldn’t figure out why she wasn’t getting any action over at her house where she had working girls. Well she caught one of the cabs, and he said, “He’s paying ten dollars a head for everyone we bring out, and you’re not paying anything.” Well the next day, what do you think she did? She bought the cab company. Put him out of business overnight. That was a shrewd move she made. Mom was a mom, just like any other mom. She just wasn’t home too much because she had other things to do. She married Eddie Murphy, who owned a pawnshop there in Vallejo. He used to play piano for Doris Day. I went to Hogan High School out there while I was there.

  Did you know what she did while you were in high school?

  No, I did not know, just thought she was on a business trip. I was in the military when I found out. Her sister told me. Other than that, I wouldn’t have known. I thought she was out buying stock for the pawnshop. Never did question it.

  How did she get started in the business? Did she ever talk to you about that?

  Oh yeah, she’d go out with somebody and they’d beat the thunder out of her and take advantage of her. So she figured, well, if I’m going to have a boyfriend, he’s going to pay. So that’s how she got started.

  Do you know why she ended up in Wallace?

  She was in Vallejo and she was looking for another place. She went to Vegas for about a year and a half. She heard about Wallace up there being wide open and the last red light on I-90. So she went up there and she bought the place. Went to work, got in with chief of police, made payoffs and everything run smooth. Oasis and Arment, and maybe another place. Know one of them was Arment, because there was a bar and she used to let her dogs out on this roof [of the Gem Cafe]. She could just walk out across the roof and go to the Arment. So she could run both places from one place. If they had trouble over there she could run over and take care of it right across the roof. She bought the Oasis first, and then she bought these other ones.

  Gem Cafe and Oasis on Cedar Street. Historic Wallace Preservation Society.

  Do you know how she recruited women or found women to come work for her?

  I think it was all word of mouth. Cause she had them out of Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon. [There were also a lot of them from California.] She was pretty well known. A couple of them came up to visit after Mom passed. Don’t know where they all are now, a bunch of them scattered with the wind. Both of them married, one lives in a state on the East Coast, is actually a welder. The other lady married, is a housewife. Her husband has a contract for a state prison system, furnishes concessions.

  What was her name to you?

  Ginger, that’s what she went by everywhere. Even though her real name was Darlene, nobody called her by that name. Everybody knew her as Ginger. She stayed married to Eddie and worked in Vegas first and then went up to Wallace. She married another fellow by the name of MacMillan. She wound up with him for probably seven or eight years. So she did get her divorce from Eddie Murphy.

  What was she like as a person?

  Very good, very stern, very direct about everything. Well, she had to be. She had to keep everything under control, including me.

  We sold the home over in Coeur d’Alene this year. Used to go there and stay for six months of the year and then come back to Alabama. That was Ginger’s old home.

  Did she just move there after she left Wallace or did she live there part of the time while she was in Wallace?

  She bought that house and just come over maybe once a month and stay two or three days and then go back over to Wallace. She stayed in Wallace because she had to keep her hands in everything.

  Do you know how much money the houses brought in?

  I guess it must have been all right because I never heard of her missing a meal. I know she must have been making pretty good money because she bought the high school football uniforms and bought a car for the police. After the mining [disaster] up there [in 1972], she put all the ladies up. She just closed down the house, opened all the bedrooms up and told the gi
rls to take off the month and let all the ladies in whose husbands were trapped down in the [Sunshine] mine up there. She sent food to all the workers who were fighting the fire and working in the mine. So she had to be banking a little bit of money to be able to do that.

  What did she look like?

  There’s a picture of her there in the museum.

  Is that what she looked like?

  Yeah, sure was.

  [At this point, Norval passed the phone over to Edith.]

  They called her Ginger because her hair was just a beautiful light cinnamon color. She was just a tall, lanky, beautiful woman. Her wit and her personality made her more beautiful. Minds make people more beautiful, is what I should say. When I look at her pictures, I found her to be quite striking and beautiful as a young woman. She sure had a good mind, I’ll tell you.

  Ginger, 1970s. Oasis Bordello Museum display.

  [Edith passed the phone back to Norval.]

  Did you know why she shut down the Oasis and the Arment?

  The feds came in and really gave her a once over. She had to go down to Boise two or three times. She always paid her taxes, and she kept a record on everything, and they didn’t find anything else wrong with her. And, too, that venereal disease was coming into play. And she said, by gosh I can’t fight everything. So she just closed up.

  Are you talking about AIDS?

  Yeah, yeah, you know when it was just getting started, she had all these ladies working for her. She said, “I’ve got to shut the doors. I can’t put up with that.” She always had sent her ladies over to the doctor to get their monthly clearance and she just said, “AIDS is going around; it’s running rampant from what I hear, I’m just shutting down.” I don’t know if any of the girls ever showed up with any AIDS. I don’t think they did, that I heard of. I think she just did it because it was coming in and there was no cure for it and they said you could get it for saliva or tears or whatever and she said, “By gosh that is too much for me now.”

  Do you know why there were so many belongings left?

  Hey, she just grabbed what she could carry and out of there she come, said, “That is it.”

  I heard the same was true for the Arment, that there was a lot of stuff left up there.

  Yeah, she just told her girls, “Hey, I’m closing, get your stuff and get out.” Of course they didn’t come with a whole lot of stuff to begin with. And that was it. Whatever was left was left. She just washed her hands of it. But that’s why all that stuff was left in there.

  Do you know how much money she was paying to operate? Was she paying for police protection? Was it extortion or a reciprocal arrangement? Do you know what the system was?

  I don’t know how all that come about. That was all a quiet ordeal that was taking place. I just heard that it had to be paid and that was it. I don’t know how it was done or how much.

  Did she ever tell you any stories about things that happened up there?

  No, she was a closed-mouthed lady. If the place would burn down, she wouldn’t tell you nothing about it. She just didn’t talk about it. When she got out of there and come over to the house, it [was] all about how pretty the place was and, “Leave me alone, I’ve got to rest.”

  Do you know what kind of childhood she had?

  Well, I guess she had a pretty nice childhood. She was raised on a ranch in Colorado. When I was born, she packed up and her and her sister went to Oregon, to work in a café up there. I don’t know what happened from there because I was just a baby. Heck, I didn’t have anything to do with that. Her mom and dad raised me.

  [Norval passed the phone to Edith, who continued the rest of the interview.]

  Heather, I’m prompting him a little bit, because where he was raised, of course, it was the same ranch his mother was raised on, it was just all flatlands in Colorado, and there was just nothing as far as the eye could see. When I met my husband, he told me, “You need to see where I grew up because the only thing I had to play with was tumbleweed and prairie dogs.” I mean, it was just flatland and no trees just as far as the eye could see. I think she was fifteen when Norval was born. She just spread her wings and went to Oregon.… Whatever lumber they used to build that house had to be hauled there because there weren’t trees to cut down and mill to build a house. Her daddy homesteaded that land; it was a section of land that they homesteaded when Colorado was giving away land. If you would homestead and go and fence and make whatever required improvements, then you could gain ownership.

  At one time Mom was a call girl in Vegas. I don’t know if anybody’s ever given you that tidbit of information or not.… I remember a few things that she told me. She got in really good with the police there and so if there was going to be a raid or a bust they would just casually come to her and say, “Ginger, tonight would be a good night to go play Keno.” She was pretty well respected.… In Vegas she was good friends with Sammy Davis and all the Rat Pack guys; she knew Frank Sinatra and Bennie Goodman, and she knew all their wives and all their kids’ names, and she was a $25,000-a-night gal back then.

  Twenty thousand dollars a night, is that what you said?

  Twenty-five. And I got that tidbit of information from actually her accountant after Mom was totally retired, and she asked me if Mom had ever told me the story and, of course, Mother had never confided in me about that. But Mother was very tight-lipped about any of her past because she did know a lot of very wealthy and famous people and did hobnob with them a lot in Vegas.

  I had heard that she was in good with the police in Vegas, which was why she ended up leaving because they told her it was not going to be a good place for her to work anymore.

  Mother was very well respected, and they did watch out for her; 1961 was when she was in Vegas.

  Did you get the impression that she was happy with her life choices? Did she ever feel guilty about anything? Did she have an ethical code of some sort?

  She had some real ethical codes as far as when she operated her houses. She never allowed her girls out on the street, if it was their day off, no no no, you get out of town. It would be cause to be excommunicated if you didn’t do what Mom said. She had some real hardline rules, and she did rule with an iron fist. And absolutely no drugs. She would not have any girl who smoked any marijuana or did any kind of pills. It was absolutely forbidden. Later, two of the girls came to visit quite a bit, and I really think they came because they thought there’d be some inheritance there. They said they would probably be dead if it wasn’t for Mother. Because she just laid down the rules, and she made them follow them, and it really made them more aware of their surroundings and made them think and instilled some worth in them.

  Ginger, 1980. Richard Caron Collection.

  Instilled what?

  Some worth, some self-worth. They said they’d have been drug addicts or dead or both.

  So Ginger was responsible for helping them have self-respect, is what you’re saying?

  Absolutely. Absolutely. You find that interesting?

  Yeah, I do.

  Well, if you’re gonna give it away, why not sell it and get something for it, you know? Basically, she would take girls that were, you know, they could have been drunks or drug addicts and been with a different guy every night, but she instilled in them pride and value and how to handle themselves. Yeah, she was profiting from it. They were both profiting from it. But it was—it is what it is.

  Very pragmatic.

  Yeah. She was very good to her girls.… They would call from all over the country, just checking in on her. They all had a good deal of respect for her.… All the way up to the time of her death, she had girls calling and checking in on her, and I thought it was a very admirable thing.

  So it’s kind of like they were family?

  Mmm hmm.

  Did they call her “Mom”?

  They did.

  What do you guys think, personally, about her profession?

  Well, you know, Mother said a very wise thing to me about Wallace.
She said, “You know, as long as I had a house in town, men weren’t beating their wives and raping their daughters. And some of the sickest sons a bitches that ever walked the street were your judges and your attorneys.” And those were her words.

  Did she ever tell you any stories about what went on up there?

  That’s one thing I can say about Mom, is she never shared names. Never, you know, it’s a small town. And of course me being an outsider. I met Norval in Michigan and he lived in Oklahoma and we came to Alabama and got married because I went to school in Auburn and I wanted to come back to Alabama. So, I was kind of an outsider, and maybe that’s why she would, you know, talk a little bit, but she never ever named any names.

  And I remember the one story. I was kind of prodding Norval to say something. You know history is history, but you asked him why did she close the house? Or why was there so much clothing left? I believe she got a phone call telling her that the FeeBees [FBI agents] were coming and she needed to get out, so she just grabbed what she could and got out. Later in life, she developed agoraphobia, so she never wanted to go out in public because she would get very sick. I remember she had to go to Boise, and it was very upsetting to her that she had to go. She just toughened up and went because she had to do what she had to do. But that is why there was so much stuff left in the house.

  She had to go to Boise, was that to testify [in the corruption case against the sheriff]?

  It was. [But it may have been Moscow.]

  What am I not thinking about to ask you that might be relevant or that people might be interested in?

  I would suspect that most people told you she was really a very generous person. At least I would hope that they would have. She did a lot for people who didn’t have things. Boy Scout uniforms, Girl Scout uniforms, baseball uniforms and she gave money away at Halloween. One of the neighbors said, “She was the madam! We loved to hit the house. They gave five-dollar bills away!” So I thought that was a pretty interesting story that Mom did that and I didn’t know.