{"id":6910,"date":"2016-08-17T00:19:48","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T04:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=6910"},"modified":"2016-08-29T09:43:39","modified_gmt":"2016-08-29T13:43:39","slug":"pittsburghs-unseen-queen-of-the-underworld","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2016\/08\/17\/pittsburghs-unseen-queen-of-the-underworld\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh’s unseen “Queen of the Underworld”"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This <\/a>
This is as close as photographers ever got to getting a picture of Nettie Gordon. (The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nettie <\/a>
Nettie Gordon (left) and her counsel during a hearing in 1933. (The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nettie's <\/a>
Nettie’s residence on North Avenue. (The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Hundreds <\/a>
Hundreds gathered outside Nettie’s North Avenue house for the 1934 funeral. (The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div>
\"Hundreds <\/a>
Hundreds gathered outside Nettie’s North Avenue house for the 1934 funeral. (The Pittsburgh Press) <\/div> <\/div>
\""Gordon" <\/a>
“Gordon” is the only inscription on Nettie Gordon’s gravestone at Union Dale Cemetery. (Steve Mellon\/Post-Gazette) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

A small classified ad appeared in the back pages of The Pittsburgh Press on Feb. 14, 1903. \u201cLost — A French poodle from 11 West Canal St.,\u201d it read. \u201cHad shaggy hair partly shaved off on back. Liberal reward given if returned at once.\u201d<\/p>\n

For those in the know, the ad certainly raised eyebrows. The Canal Street address in what was then Allegheny City was notorious as a den of vice, and the woman who placed the ad was none other than Nettie Gordon, then 28 and well on her way to becoming queen of Pittsburgh\u2019s underworld. Nettie\u2019s army of friends had no doubt already mobilized to find her beloved poodle.<\/p>\n

Nettie came to Pittsburgh from tiny Frankfort, W.Va., sometime around 1900 and found work as a waitress, a profession too limiting for her ambition. Another business called, one that dominated entire blocks of Downtown and the North Side, one that offered real money to the bold and bright.<\/p>\n

So Nettie Gordon, daughter of a carpenter, became one of Pittsburgh\u2019s estimated 5,000 prostitutes. And, boy, did the city offer opportunity. In the early 1900s, so-called \u201cbawdy houses\u201d lined First, Second and Third avenues, from Ross Street to the Monongahela River. In the Lower Hill, bordellos clustered around Colwell Street. But the biggest section of the metropolitan area given over to prostitution was a 20-block section the lower North Side. That\u2019s where Nettie set up shop.<\/p>\n

Reporters described Nettie as tall and attractive. We\u2019ll have to take their word for it. Nettie hated to be photographed. Newspapers published hundreds of stories about her, but they never obtained a decent photograph of the woman they called a \u201ckeeper of a disorderly house.\u201d Photographers made a few futile attempts — as you can see in the pictures accompanying this post, Nettie proved adept at shielding her face from the camera.<\/p>\n

Reform-minded journalists like the PG\u2019s Ray Sprigle tried shaming Nettie in print, but she remained an unrepentant master of the craft of running an illegal business in a crooked city. And Pittsburgh in the 1920s was certainly crooked. At one time Nettie ran three houses, each paying $1,100 a month for protection from police raids. Civic-minded politicians attempting to shut her down were thwarted by Nettie\u2019s deep bench of powerful friends. After a warrant was issued for her arrest in 1926, police declined to send her to court in a police wagon; they instead allowed her to make the trip in her chauffeured limousine.<\/p>\n

Police sometimes performed unusual roles for Nettie. The PG observed in 1926 that an officer named John Haseman (badge no. 1269) sat on Nettie\u2019s Canal Street stoop and puffed a cigar while laughing and chatting with Nettie. When a client drove up in an expensive car, officer Haseman served as greeter. \u201cHe\u2019s one of my coppers,\u201d Nettie said to a visitor.<\/p>\n

Of course, Nettie\u2019s skills and ambition soon led her into politics. She served several terms as a Republican ward committeewoman with a reputation for delivering votes from from the populous 22nd Ward.<\/p>\n

By 1934, Nettie\u2019s health had failed. As she lay on her deathbed, she asked a nurse to fold up her silk negligees and put them away. Nettie would die wearing a cheap flannel nightgown.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of people packed the street outside Nettie\u2019s North Avenue home for the funeral. It was a noisy, curious crowd that included school kids, old men, wise-cracking toughs and mothers with infants.<\/p>\n

Inside the home and behind closed blinds, a Lutheran priest delivered the Lord\u2019s Prayer over Nettie\u2019s body, clothed in an orchid gown and resting in a $4,000 casket. Pittsburgh\u2019s motorcycle police sent a wreath (Nettie\u2019s brother was a member of the squad). Those invited were mostly elderly women, many wearing furs. They dabbed their eyes and listened while two vocalists sang Nettie\u2019s favorite hymns over the wailing of a baby in a nearby apartment. A telephone rang, then a large electric refrigerator rattled and hummed. Peace was hard to come by on the North Side.<\/p>\n

Photographers attending the burial service at Union Dale Cemetery in hopes of snapping a picture of the casket were disappointed — a 150-long canopy blocked the view. Nettie claimed one final victory over the camera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nettie Gordon proved untouchable as a keeper of bawdy houses.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesPittsburgh’s unseen “Queen of the Underworld”<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[947,1066,946],"tags":[959,988,1036],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/20160812DigsNettieGordon006.jpg?fit=2000%2C1320&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6588,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2016\/03\/09\/fainting-bertha-and-other-rats-of-pittsburghs-underworld\/","url_meta":{"origin":6910,"position":0},"title":"Fainting Bertha and other “rats” of Pittsburgh’s underworld","date":"March 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"She and her fellow \"dips\" were the most despised of the city's criminal element","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Digs.previewImage.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":265,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/09\/12\/pittsburgh-north-sides-legendary-boggs\/","url_meta":{"origin":6910,"position":1},"title":"The North Side\u2019s legendary Boggs & Buhl","date":"September 12, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"For 89 years, Boggs & Buhl department store stood as a beacon of cozy commerce on the North Side.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/tumblr_nbr3gpN0m51rr5swxo5_r1_1280.jpg?fit=1080%2C811&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":625,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/05\/28\/groundbreaking-ceremony-for-mellon-square\/","url_meta":{"origin":6910,"position":2},"title":"Groundbreaking ceremony for Mellon Square","date":"May 28, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Mellon Square has anchored Pittsburgh\u2019s business district since 1955 and hid behind its aesthetic shield one of the largest parking lots in the center of the city.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/tumblr_n68wkxY7mo1rr5swxo2_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C924&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":493,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/07\/07\/the-t-j-keenan-building\/","url_meta":{"origin":6910,"position":3},"title":"The T.J. 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