Women Drug Traffickers
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55. “Daniel Curiel Rodríguez,” vol. 356, exp. 144, Dirección General de Servicios Coordinados de Prevención y Readaptación Social, AGN.
56. See Elliott Young, Catarino Garza’s Revolution on the Texas-Mexico Border (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004); and B. Carmon Hardy and Melody Seymour, “Importation of Arms and the 1912 Mormon ‘Exodus’ from Mexico,” New Mexico Historical Review 72, no. 4 (October 1997): 297–318.
57. Elizabeth Salas, Soldaderas in the Mexican Military: Myth and History (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990), 53–54.
58. Steven Topik, Carlos Marichal, and Zephyr Frank, eds., From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500–2000 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006). During the 1920s and 1930s, many popular magazines in Mexico focused on the smuggling and at times glorified the Border Patrol. See Frederick Simpich, “Along Our Side of the Mexican Border,” National Geographic 38, no. 1 (1920): 61–80; “The Border Patrol,” Popular Science Monthly (June 1928): 933–35; and “Border Guard Wages War on Smugglers,” Popular Science Monthly (November 1934): 26–28.
59. It is difficult to tell what happened to the confiscated merchandise.
60. “Guadalupe Navarro de Cons,” vol. 359, exp. 327, Dirección General de Servicios Coordinados de Prevención y Readaptación Social, AGN.
61. “Ola McDonald,” vol. 361, exp. 465, Dirección General de Servicios Coordinados de Prevención y Readaptación Social, AGN.
62. See also “Lauren O. Scott,” vol. 361, exp. 475, Dirección General de Servicios Coordinados de Prevención y Readaptación Social, AGN.
63. “Guadalupe Chavez,” vol. 361, exp. 466, Dirección General de Servicios Coordinados de Prevención y Readaptación Social, AGN.
64. “Winnifred Chapman, C. & N. D. Act, Vancouver BC,” report by C. J. Harwood, file 21, correspondence, box 2, Anslinger archive, Penn State University Special Collections.
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid.
67. Bureau of Social Hygiene, series 3, box 1, folder 105, Rockefeller Archive Center (hereafter RAC), Tarrytown, New York.
68. This was a highly sensational case due to the involvement of the police with organized crime. Rosenthal had gone public with the fact that Becker was extorting from his bookmaking business. In response, Becker hired Rosenberg, Harry “Gyp the Blood” Horowitz, and other members of the Lenox Ave Gang to take care of Rosenthal. At the time of their capture, they were photographed in the police station. See “Gyp and Lefty Caught at Last Here in Town,” New York Times, September 15, 1912. Also see their trial transcripts, New York Supreme Court v. Whitey Jack, Dago Frank, Frank Cirofisi, Howard Horowitz, Frank Muller, Louis Rosenberg, 10/07/1912, trial 3200, reels 387–388; and mug shot of Louis Rosenberg, Lewis Lawes Collection, at http://dig.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/Greenstone/collect/newcrime/index/
assoc/HASH828d.dir/1100051a.jpg, Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York (hereafter LSL). Rosenberg, Horowitz, and Becker were executed in 1915.
69. Bureau of Social Hygiene, series 3, box 1, folder 105, Rockefeller Archive, Tarrytown, New York.
70. The term “moll” refers to prostitutes who were associated with male criminals. Early studies on such women were highly sensational and moralistic in tone. See Otto Pollak, The Criminality of Women (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1950); and Otto Pollak and Alfred Friedman, eds., Family Dynamics and Female Sexual Delinquency (Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books, 1969).
71. This continues to be a common practice today. Anthropologist Patricia Tovar has noted a similar trend among Colombian women who work in the drug business that echoes what Campbell described in Ciudad Juárez and El Paso. Tovar argues that, like women who followed male guerrilla fighters for love, women in the drug industry also may begin their careers as mules and carriers of drugs for men in their families or lovers. Conversation with Patricia Tovar, May 13, 2009, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York.
72. H. J. Anslinger, “Notice to District Supervisors and Others Concerned, attached is Amelia B. de G. to Immigration Office, San Isidro CA,” Censorship Office of the United States, “Mexican Border Resident Reveals Names of Persons Alleged to Be Smuggling Drugs into the U.S,” folder Mexico no. 4, 1944, RG 170, BNDD–DEA, NAII.
73. “Josefina Lara Paredes,” vol. 1059, exp. 1560, Dirección General de Servicios Coordinados de Prevención y Readaptación Social, AGN.
74. Ibid.
75. “María Albina Flores,” vol. 1053, exp. 455, Dirección General de Servicios Coordinados de Prevención y Readaptación Social, AGN.
76. “Queria meter droga a la prison militar,” El Nacional, February 23, 1940, DEA-BNDD.
77. “C. Zepeda Morantes,” vol. 4, exp. 8, Estupefaciantes Drogas, Dirección General de Gobierno, AGN.
78. Dr. José Siroub, “The Struggle Against Toxicomanlas,” Pacific Coast International (November–December 1939): 19–25.
79. Alvin F. Scharff, U.S. Customs agent, memorandum for Consul General James B. Stewart concerning conversation with LSV, file Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra, RG 170, DEA-BNDD.
80. Scharff maintained a close relationship with José Siroub, minister of public health, and Ignacio Téllez, attorney general of Mexico, during the early and mid-1930s.
81. “Traficante de drogas sorprendido,” El Nacional, January 20, 1940.
82. People of New York v. Lulu Hammond, February 2, 1914, no. 1828, reel 231, Crime in New York, 1850–1950, LSL.
83. Walter C. Smith File, Anslinger archive, Penn State University Special Collections.
84. See Howard Abadinsky, Organized Crime (Chicago, IL: Nelson Hall, 1985), 13; and Donald Cressey, Theft of the Nation: The Structure and Operations of Organized Crime in America (New York: Harper and Row, 1969), 175–76.
85. Eloise Dunlap, Bruce Johnson, and Lisa Maher, “Female Crack Sellers in New York City: Who They Are and What They Do,” Women and Criminal Justice 8, no. 4 (1997): 25–55.
86. Terry R. Furst, Richard Curtis, Bruce Johnson, and Douglas S. Goldsmith, “The Rise of the Middleman/Woman in a Declining Drug Market,” Addiction Research 7, no. 2 (1999): 103–28.
87. “La Esposa de Uriquijo y Pascual Miravete, presos, son traficantes de drogas,” James B. Stewart, American Consul General, to Secretary of State, February 28, 1940, translated new clippings, RG, 170, DEA-BNDD, NAII.
88. Dai, Opium Addiction in Chicago, 44–46.
89. “A Marijuana Addict Is Injured,” Excélsior, December 24, 1939.
90. Nancy Campbell, Using Women, 71.
91. H. J. Anslinger to Francisco Vásquez Pérez, November 16, 1934, file 20, box 39, SJASS, Mexico City.
92. Loeffelholz-Brandstatter’s name also appeared in the documents and newspapers as Loefelholz-Brandstaner and Lefenholtz Branstatter.
93. See Garland Roark, The Coin of Contraband: The True Story of United States Customs Investigator Al Scharff (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964), 326. Scharff, a smuggler turned customs agent, worked closely with Roark on this biography.
94. H. J. Anslinger to Francisco Vásquez Pérez, October 1934, file 20, box 39, SJASS.
95. To H. J. Anslinger, 1934, file 20, box 39, SJASS.
96. The MV Heiyo Maru routinely appeared in the files of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics as a drug-transporting vessel in the 1930s. The ship’s reputation may have contributed to a closer inspection of its passengers.
97. “Questioned in Smuggling,” Los Angeles Times, August 8, 1936.
98. Daniel Bailey, customs agent in charge, Intelligence Bulletin, report 9, September 26, 1936, Henry Morgenthau Papers, FDR Library. Wurthmueller’s name also appears as Wirthmueller.
99. Ibid.
100. United States v. Maria Wendt, statement of Maria Wendt taken at Los Angeles Hospital, Los Angeles, California, December 1936, RG 21, Record of the United States District Courts, Criminal Case Files, box 738, file 12845 (hereafter Maria Wendt testimony). “Jews in Shanghai,” audio
tapes, Dorot Jewish Division, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library. The expatriate Jewish community in Shanghai emerged after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. By the 1930s, newly arrived Jews from various origins argued that the Russian Jews who had preceded them had an agreement with the Japanese, who by then had occupied Shanghai, allowing them to maintain their businesses. According to German, Polish, and Austrian Jews, the older Russian Jewish community was composed of wealthy business owners.
101. Maria Wendt testimony.
102. Ibid.
103. Memorandum of Conference in Secretary’s Office, August 12, 1936, Morgenthau Diary, FDR Library. See also “Net Closes in Dope Hunt,” Los Angeles Times, August 11, 1936.
104. United States v. Maria Wendt, Reporter’s Transcript of Proceedings.
105. Ibid.
106. Maria Wendt testimony.
107. Memorandum of Conference in Secretary’s Office, August 12, 1936, Morgenthau Diary, FDR Library.
108. “Net Closes in Dope Hunt,” Los Angeles Times, August 11, 1936.
109. Scharff asked novelist Garland Roark to write his biography when Scharff came to investigate a screenplay that Roark was researching. Roark had written a number of novels that were adapted to the screen, with John Wayne playing lead roles. With Roark, Scharff formed a company, Al Scharff, Inc., hoping that his biography, The Coin of Contraband, would end up on the screen. That didn’t happen, and the company was disbanded when it looked as though the book would never be optioned. Garland Roark Papers, East Texas Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas; and ongoing conversations with Harrison Reiner, 2010–2013.
110. Philip Nichols Jr., preface to Roark, The Coin of Contraband, xix.
111. See Friedrich Katz, The Secret War in Mexico: Europe, the United States, and the Mexican Revolution (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1984); and Charles H. Harris and Louis R. Sadler, The Secret War in El Paso: Mexican Revolutionary Intrigue, 1906–1920 (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2009).
112. Douglas Valentine, The Strength of the Wolf: The Secret History of America’s War on Drugs (London: Verso, 2004), 25.
113. Gene Fowler and Bill Crawford, Border Radio: Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, and Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2002), 199–200.
114. Gary Cartwright, Galveston: A History of the Island (Forth Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1998), 210–11.
115. Valentine, The Strength of the Wolf, 24.
116. Al Scharff, deposition, Departamento de Salubridad Pública, Fondo Lázaro Cárdenas, exp 22, September 21, 1936, AGN.
117. José Siroud to the President of Mexico, Fondo Lázaro Cárdenas, exp. 422, October 30, 1936, AGN.
118. Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, Wendt could not remain in the United States; however, like all Chinese in transit, she could disembark in the United States and take a train or another ship to Mexico. For a discussion of the Chinese and Mexico, see Robert Chao Romero, “Chinese Immigrant Smuggling to the United States via Mexico and Cuba,” in Smugglers, Brothels, and Twine, ed. Carey and Marak, 13–23.
119. “Wendt Girl Tells Dash,” Los Angeles Times, August 19, 1936.
120. The Heiyo Maru was built in 1930 for the NYK Line. The vessel’s ports of call in 1936 were listed as “Hong Kong, Moji via Japan, Ports Honolulu, Hilo, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Manzanillo, La Libertad, Balboa, Buona Venture, Callao, Piso, Mollendo, Iquique, and Valparaiso.” “N.Y.K. Line,” Straits Times (Singapore), January 13, 1936.
121. “Smuggler Pursuit Ended by Suicide,” New York Times, September 5, 1936.
122. “Dope Case Up Today,” Los Angeles Times, August 24, 1936.
123. “Fete in Nanking Is Staged by Japan,” New York Times, March 29, 1938.
124. “Accused in Narcotic Plot,” New York Times, August 30, 1936.
125. “Smuggler Pursuit Ended by Suicide,” New York Times, September 5, 1936.
126. Kenney, From Pablo to Osama; and Moisés Naím, Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers, and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy (New York: Anchor Books, 2005).
127. Abraham and Van Schendel, “Introduction: The Making of Illicitness,” 14.
128. Ibid., 15.
129. For a brief discussion of the Wendt case, see Valentine The Strength of the Wolf, 23–24. Robert Stevenson, To the Ends of the Earth, Columbia Pictures, 1948.
130. To view the trailer and a brief clip of To the Ends of the Earth, see http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/3733/To-the-Ends-of-the-Earth/, accessed November 4, 2013.
CHAPTER THREE
Note to Title: A version of this article was previously published as “ ‘Selling Is More of a Habit Than Using’: Narcotraficante Lola la Chata and Her Threat to Civilization, 1930–1960,” Journal of Women’s History 21, no. 2 (Summer 2009). The “white lady” reference comes from a published open letter written by Dr. Leopoldo Salazar to Lola la Chata, James B. Stewart, American Consul General to Secretary of State,” Head of Narcotics writes open letter to Lola la Chata,” box 22, RG 170, DEA-BNDD.
1. S. C. Peña, special employee to the commissioner of customs, July 7, 1945, Drug Enforcement Administration, Subject Files of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, 1916–1970, box 161, RG 170, DEA-BNDD.
2. The history of crime and women as an academic topic has developed in the past fifteen years. In many of these pioneering works, it has been observed that when female offenders—whether prostitutes, street vendors, or violent criminals—are perceived as not absorbing the cost of their deviance, their actions constitute a disproportionate threat to themselves, to other people, and to their nation. For example, see Bliss, Compromised Positions; Buffington, Criminal and Citizen in Modern Mexico; Nancy Campbell, Using Women; Donna Guy, White Slavery and Mothers Alive and Dead: The Troubled Meeting of Sex, Gender, Public Health, and Progress in Latin America (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000); and Judith Walkowitz, City of Dreadful Delight: Narratives of Sexual Danger in Late-Victorian London (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1992).
3. Marston, María Full of Grace; Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Queen of the South, trans. Andrew Hurley (New York: Putnam, 2004; originally published as La reina del sur, Madrid: Alfaguara, 2002). The arrest of Sandra Ávila Beltrán, “la reina del Pacífico,” and the death of “la güera polvos,” Rosa Emma Carvajal Ontiversos, in 2007 reveal that the facts are ever closer to fiction. See “Por narco, capturan a la llamada Reina del Pacífico,” La Jornada, September 29, 2007.
4. The production and distribution of alcohol and narcotics has long been an economic activity that is shared by men and women. See, for instance, Astorga, Drogas sin fronteras; Gootenberg, ed., Cocaine; and George Peter Murdock, Social Structure (New York: Macmillan, 1949).
5. For a discussion of the reasons for feminine addiction in the United States in the 1930s, see E. Mebane Hunt, executive secretary, Women’s Prison Association of New York, “The Experience of the Women’s Prison Association with Women Drug Addicts,” paper presented at the American Prison Congress, October 5, 1938, box 42, File Female Addicts, DEA-BNDD. For a discussion of feminine addiction and behavior in Mexican prisons, see H. J. Anslinger, commissioner of narcotics, to James Bennett, attachment “Letter to the President from the prisoners of the penitentiary, Mexico City,” May 18, 1948, Drug Enforcement, box 23, DEA-BNDD. For a contemporary discussion of women falling prey to the vices of narcotrafficking, see Gabriela Vázquez, “La población feminina, escudo de narcotraficante,” La Jornada, March 25, 2002; and Margath A. Walker, “Guada-narco-lupe, Maquilarañas, and the Discursive Construction of Gender and Difference on the U.S.-Mexico Border in Mexican Media Representations,” Gender, Place, and Culture 12 (March 2005): 95–110.
6. Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (New York: Routledge, 1999).
7. See Nancy Folbre, Why Pay for Kids? Gender and the Structure of Constraint (New York: Routle
dge, 1994). For a discussion of women’s addiction as a threat to U.S. civilization and “structure of constraint,” see Nancy Campbell, Using Women. The concept of constraint and restraint within the bourgeois class in Mexico and its support of the creation of working-class “family values” may be found in Mary Kay Vaughan, The State, Education, and Social Class in Mexico, 1880–1928 (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1982); and William French, “Prostitutes and Guardian Angels: Women, Work, and the Family in Porfirian Mexico,” Hispanic American Historical Review 72, no. 4 (1992): 529–53. In 1933, the Academia Mexicana de Ciencias Penales published Criminalia, which reflected a growing concern over crime and policy.
8. For a discussion of the FBN’s agents in Mexico, see William Walker, “Control Across the Border,” 92–93. See also Josephus Daniels’s autobiography, Shirt-Sleeve Diplomat (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1947). Daniels was the U.S. ambassador to Mexico in the 1930s.
9. Biographical material on la Chata is available in Jorge Robles García, La bala perdida: William S. Burroughs en México, 1949–1952 (Mexico City: Milenio, 1995); and Michael Spann, William S. Burroughs’ Unforgettable Characters: Lola la Chata and Bernabé Jurado (Providence, RI: Inkblot Publications, 2013). Leopoldo Salazar Viniegra, “Open Letter to Lola la Chata,” box 22, DEA-BNDD.
10. Piccato, City of Suspects, 30.
11. For a study of La Merced, see Enrique Valencia, La Merced: estudio ecológico y social de una zona de la ciudad de México (Mexico City: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 1965). Valencia noted that as the commercial activity grew, so too did the criminal element. The increasing markets also brought pulgerías, piqueras (illegal alcohol vendors), cantinas, billiard halls, cabarets, and “hoteles de paso” that offered prostitutes (92).
12. Peter Landesman, “The Girls Next Door,” New York Times Magazine, January 25, 2004. Landesman’s article covered contemporary human trafficking in La Merced.