In 1916, a sensational trial was held in the United States District Court in Tucson. J. C. Traut was tried on charges of violating the Mann Act, also called the White Slave Traffic Act, which was passed in 1910.
The Mann Act made it illegal to transport a woman across state lines for "immoral purposes." Curbing prostitution was the goal of the act.
Complications about the case included a victim who didn't want to testify against her alleged trafficker and was sorry to have had him arrested, the wife of the man on trial who had several aliases and a bit of a sordid history and a defendant who managed to make himself sick enough to skip a morning of the trial by smoking a marijuana cigarette.
Some definitions that might be helpful:
A "restricted district" is the red light district of a town. Yes, Tucson had one, but in this series the one most mentioned is in Winslow.
People are also reading…
The "machine" (why does the Morgue Lady want to put the word "infernal" in front of the term?) is an automobile. The auto was a relatively new thing in Tucson, and was perhaps a bit scary, and thus often referred to as a "machine."
Another note: The defendant's name is J. C. Traut, but this is often misspelled in the articles as Trout.
