Wicked Women of Detroit by Tobin T. Buhk

Author:Tobin T. Buhk
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2018-02-21T16:00:00+00:00

The twenty-nine-year-old Queen of Little Hungary became an instant sensation. With the effervescence of bubbles rising to the surface of a champagne flute, Smith entertained reporters with her sharp wit, keen sense of humor and ever-present smile—a personality that made her the hostess of choice among brothel-goers. Once asked how she could remember the specific dates in which she gave “presents” to her “friends” on the police force but could not recall the conversations she had with them, she quipped, “Well, I did not get any receipts for the conversations, but I did get receipts for the presents I bought.” Smith’s wit had served her well in the dog-eat-dog world of red-light Detroit.

Despite her continual smile, Smith toted some heavy baggage. Born Ann Sprekner in 1878, she first married in 1892 at age fourteen. When her first husband left her a year later, she emigrated from Hungary to New York, where she went to work nursing an elderly woman. While in Buffalo working in an orphan’s home, she fell for a saloonkeeper named George G. Walter, who was living with a hooker named “Big Lil.” Annie ran off with him to Cleveland, where he changed his name to Jack Smith. The couple wed in 1902 and relocated to Toledo, where Annie Smith opened her first brothel.

Annie Smith was no stranger to a courtroom. In 1899, she worked at a resort on Merrick Avenue run by Mary Barber. She faced a larceny charge when she pilfered twenty dollars in clothes, prompting Madam Barber to call the police. In justice court, Smith claimed a girlfriend had hypnotized her, but the justice didn’t buy her novel excuse. He dismissed the case but insisted that Annie do a stint in the House of the Good Shepherd—a reformatory for prostitutes, delinquents and other wayward women.

It didn’t work; Annie emerged from the House, unreformed, and returned to the life. Within a few years, she would own her own brothel on Michigan Avenue, where her marriage came to an end when the “blue coats” nabbed her husband, Jack Smith, alias Walter, on a charge of highway robbery. It was the last straw for Annie, who had tired of her husband and his friends pestering her inmates and drinking her liquor. She immediately filed for divorce.

Eventually, Annie Smith’s red-light empire would expand into a network of saloons and brothels, including the most popular resort in Delray.

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