The Audacity of Inez Burns by Stephen G. Bloom

Author:Stephen G. Bloom
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regan Arts.

Pat announced that he personally was committed to providing the Shannons with around-the-clock police protection when they returned to San Francisco (whether they needed it or not). For her part, Gloria Shannon promised the reporters that her soon-to-be-published revelations would “finish abortions in the United States and the butchery that goes with them.” She closed with a line spun from a very bad pulp-fiction magazine: “I’m Rasputin Jr. I’d get chummy with Jack the Ripper. I’m not afraid of any living person.”23

While all this was going on, back at the preliminary hearing in San Francisco, Police Inspector Frank Ahern had testified about the bribe Inez had offered him upstairs at her home. “Mrs. Burns asked me to take some of the money in the safe and let everything go,” the officer testified.24 Ahern told the court the piles of cash amounted to $289,217.25 This was the first public disclosure of Inez’s attempt to bribe to Ahern and it, too, made headlines.

The preliminary evidence against Inez was overwhelming, and on December 5, 1945, Judge Neubarth surprised no one when he ruled that Inez and the four other defendants would be tried for felony conspiracy to commit abortion, as well as practicing medicine without a license. Two potential defendants in the case were excused, part-time clinic employees Madeline Rand and Virginia Westrup, for “lack of evidence.”26 Both women had traded their alleged culpability to turn state’s evidence.

Trials with so many defendants—there would be five—are not daily legal fare. Prosecutors try to turn defendants against each other by offering plea deals, including immunity, in exchange for incriminating testimony. But no way was Pat Brown going to offer any deal to Inez. She was to be his prize. That’s why Pat had busted Inez in the first place—to get the headlines that would bury his opponent Fred Howser in the upcoming election for attorney general.

It was her codefendants that had Inez worried; any of them might flip against her to save themselves from a prison term. Each was playing a game of chicken: It was a test of nerves and loyalty, perhaps with the perception of fear tossed in for good measure. A friend of Inez’s utility man, Joe Hoff, said, “I asked him to have a beer when I saw him in a bar, and he nearly jumped off the stool.”27 In the end, all four defendants stayed true to Inez.

Even for the well-connected Inez, shimmying out of the charges would be near impossible, and Inez responded the way any defendant with money does: She shopped around for the best attorney, one with pull and prestige, far more than stand-in James Brennan had.28

Although her safe had been emptied, Inez still had plenty. She asked for names from her brain trust of Wednesday-evening confidants. At the time, San Francisco’s biggest defense attorneys were Vincent Hallinan and Jake “The Master” Ehrlich. Both were occupied. Hallinan was lead counsel in a blockbuster case, defending socialite Irene Mansfeldt, charged with murdering her husband’s nurse, with whom she suspected he was having an affair.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.