From the beginning, there was a section of Deadwood into which respectable citizens would seldom venture, and, if they did, it was only under cover of darkness. That area of town was known as the “Bad Lands.” Chinese residents were relegated to that section of Deadwood Gulch, as well as most dance halls, saloons, and brothels. The Bad Lands attracted desperate and ruthless men and women convinced their criminal acts would go unpunished; that is at least until law and order could be firmly established in the unmanaged town. Soiled doves were often at the heart of the illegal activities. Some were thieves who stole from other prostitutes who worked with them at various houses of ill repute, some were perpetrators or victims of assault, and others were victims of murder or murderers themselves. The professional women who ran profitable businesses in the Bad Lands were subject to arrest and violence. Only the most brazen attempted to survive and some of them failed in trying. 

Belle Haskell had managed her own house, known as the 400, for more than a decade when one of the women in her employ was brutally killed by another prostitute working at the bordello. The well-known madam had opened the bordello in 1880 and, over the years, had been taken into custody for selling alcohol without a license, been beaten by inebriated customers, had her home vandalized and her possessions stolen. 

The news that Belle’s employee, Austie Trevyr, had murdered Maggie McDermott came as a shock to her and the other women at the house. The murder took place at the popular Badland’s tavern the Mascotte Saloon. Both Austie and Maggie had been keeping company with a gambler named Frank DeBelloy. According to the December 19, 1893, edition of the Daily Deadwood Pioneer Times, DeBelloy and Maggie became intimate in the spring of 1891, and for a time their relationship seemed unshakable. The trouble between the two began when DeBelloy took up with another woman. Maggie was slain by the insanely jealous rival, and the crime made headlines throughout the territory.

Three months after Austie Trevyr was arrested for premeditated murder, Belle suffered the loss of yet another of her girls. Nellie Stanley, a twenty-three-year-old woman from Chicago took a job at the 400 in January 1894. Her background was tragic. While still a teenager, her father had intimidated her into marrying a man that was physically abusive. Nellie traveled east to get away from her cruel husband. After a few weeks, she decided to return in hope that the thought of losing her had made him rethink his actions and change his ways. Time apart only made the man bitter and vicious. He refused to take Nellie back. Alone, with no prospects or money, she came west and took a job at a house of ill fame.

Nellie was a quiet, polite, and sad woman who kept to herself. On March 19, 1894, she informed Belle and her coworkers she wasn’t feeling well. She complained of having a sore throat and pains in her head. She retired to her room and took a lethal dose of Antikamnia, a drug to help rid sufferers of bad headaches and fever. Nellie was found later in the evening, unconscious. Doctors were called to Belle’s home to try and revive her employee, but they were unsuccessful. The women at the brothel who knew Nellie best believed she committed suicide because she was ashamed of the life she felt forced to live. 

For the most part, Belle ran an orderly house with few problems. Patrons came and went on a regular basis, never failing to pay for services rendered. Belle wasn’t always as quick to pay debts owed. In November 1895, local physician W. W. Torrence took the madam to court because she owed him for the regular examinations he gave her girls. The outstanding bill was $30.50. Legal action had to be taken to retrieve funds she owed at clothing and grocery stores in town, too. Belle had a habit of charging items to her account at various businesses and taking months to pay. 

It wasn’t as though she didn’t have money. The 400 was one of the most profitable bordellos in Deadwood. In the spring of 1892, Belle parlayed some of the sizeable income she had amassed to move to a larger house. After remodeling a mansion on Wall Street to fit her needs, she had each room furnished with new beds, sofas, and crystal fixtures. She then had fancy invitations made and sent to two hundred prominent men in the area requesting their attendance at an open house. The editorial staff at the Black Hills Daily Times speculated the event would be well attended.

Belle never promoted her business to be anything other than a brothel. She never promised the women who came to work for her a platform to sing or dance. She was welcoming to all who wanted a job at the 400 and offered them a safe, clean environment to entertain guests. Belle wasn’t particularly inquisitive and wasn’t always aware of the ages of the women working for her. It wasn’t until Lawrence County deputy sheriff James Harris paid Belle a visit in February 1898 to ask about one of the courtesans at the house that she learned a fifteen-year-old girl was in her employ. The young woman’s father had written a letter to law enforcement agents in Deadwood stating he believed his daughter was in the Black Hills and leading a life of shame and requested that she be found. 

Deputy Sheriff Harris’ search led to Belle Haskell’s place. When the girl was located, she agreed to leave Belle’s and stay at a more wholesome home until her father was informed and could get her. According to the February 9, 1898, edition of the Deadwood Evening Independent, the teenage girl had left home to live with her sister in Sundance after some “unpleasantries” with her father. From there she went to Spearfish, where she was supposed to stay until her brother came to take her home. She left before he arrived and made her way to Belle Fourche. She then traveled to Deadwood where she had been for three weeks prior to the authorities catching up to her. 

The young woman told Deputy Harris she would go home if her father sent her money, because she had no money of her own to pay for her travels. She told him her parents were poor and lived on a ranch in Montana. She didn’t believe they could raise any money to send her. Deputy Harris explained to her that he wasn’t sure how to proceed in case her father didn’t send money as the laws in South Dakota made no provisions for such cases from outside the territory.

The Salvation Army offered to provide the funds needed to pay the young woman’s transportation to a refuge in Omaha, Nebraska. The teenager’s father agreed that’s where his daughter should be sent because he feared she would run away again if returned to Montana. Even though the woman had been working for Belle, she did not feel compelled to contribute to helping her leave the area. The absence of the young woman meant a decrease in the money coming into the bordello. Belle’s focus was on running a profitable business, and little else interested her. Between 1898 and 1906, Madam Haskell increased the number of women at her house and reaped the financial reward. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred personally or professionally in Belle’s world until the winter of 1907, when she was once again tangentially involved in a murder. 

In late November, Belle was visiting her friend fellow business owner Benny Fowler at her room at the Mansion Hotel and Bar. The two had plans to go to dinner and attend a party afterward. Benny had traveled to Deadwood from Belle Fourche where she operated another brothel. The reason for the trip was twofold. Benny wanted to see Belle, and she wanted to get away from a man who had been bothering her. 

Prentice Bernard, alias Vinegar Rowan, a cowpuncher and sheepherder from Montana, had spent time with Benny in Belle Fourche and become infatuated with her. He challenged customers who visited her, threatening to beat the men if they didn’t stay away. She hoped when he passed through Belle Fourche again and learned she wasn’t there he would ride on and forget her. That wasn’t the case, however. When Vinegar learned where Benny had gone, he followed her. He was in trouble with the law in Deadwood a few times because he wouldn’t leave her alone. He was crazy with jealousy over the men she met and, on December 7, 1907, pulled a knife on a bartender whom he overheard talking about Benny and assaulted a cook named Dick Moran for the same thing.

Frustrated with Vinegar’s actions and his relentless pursuit, Benny hurried back to Belle Fourche. Again, she hoped her clear rejection would persuade him to drop his fixation and move on with his life. After a day with no sign of Vinegar, Benny thought the coast was clear and returned to Deadwood to continue her visit with Belle. She had no way of knowing that Vinegar had never left Deadwood. He was so distressed over the way Benny had treated him he decided to get drunk and stay drunk. The manager of the Mansion Hotel and Bar where Vinegar was doing most of his drinking demanded the rancher give him his gun while he was there. Vinegar did so but asked several times for the weapon to be returned. His request was denied because he was considered too drunk to handle a weapon.

On December 9, a sober Vinegar appeared at the bar shortly after 5:30 in the evening and asked again for his gun. He told the bartender he was going to take the train back to Belle Fourche and needed all his possessions before leaving. His gun was returned to him. 

Benny was upstairs in her hotel room dressing to go out with Belle, blissfully unaware Vinegar was anywhere around. At 5:45 P. M., she called out to Dick Moran who was in the room next to her and asked him to fasten the hooks on the back of her dress. He hurried to Benny and was standing behind her in front of a bureau buttoning her dress when Vinegar appeared in the door with his gun in hand.

“Without any warning he began shooting, the first bullet striking Dick Moran in the back,” the December 10, 1907, edition of the Daily Deadwood Pioneer Times read. “Moran fell, and he [Vinegar] turned the gun on Benny, firing two shots but missing her. She dropped to the floor and crawled under the bed but almost immediately came out at the foot and as she arose to her feet. Vinegar fired another shot which missed her and struck the wall a few inches over her left shoulder. She then grappled with him, turned him around, and forced him to the door. 

“Just as he crossed the threshold, the fifth shot was fired, which struck him on the right side of the upper lip and passed through his head, coming out on the left side above the ear. It was this last act that was witnessed by Belle Haskell who had just come from an adjoining room, on hearing the other shots. Vinegar fell forward across the narrow hall and dropped on his face, dead. 

“One of the bartenders was the first to reach the scene after the shooting, and it was a gruesome sight that met his gaze. Vinegar was lying in a deep pool of blood, his teeth scattered about the floor, and his brains oozing out from a ghastly hole in his head. Moran was lying on the floor of the room, supporting his head on his hand. As the bartender entered, Dick said, ‘I guess I’m done for, Bill,’ and asked for a cigarette which he smoked with apparent relish. 

“There was a scene of disorder and riot throughout the house among the women who occupied rooms on the floor, but it was quickly quelled when the sheriff and police arrived. Dr. Howe, the coroner, was called and, after a hasty examination of Moran had him removed to St. Joseph hospital.

“It is the opinion of those who have studied the features of the case, that Vinegar did not intend to shoot himself with the bullet which caused his death. It was evidently his intention to kill the woman, as he had already fired three shots at her, and it is not probable that he would have disposed of his own case, even though he might have contemplated ultimate suicide, until he had finished her. She was forcing him out of the room, walking behind and gripping him by the shoulders. He doubtless attempted to reach over his left shoulder and fire another shot at her, but in the uncertainty of the aim in that position discharged the bullet into this own face.”

Belle Haskell used the notoriety she gained from the various newspaper articles in which she was featured to her advantage. Curious patrons sought her and her house out to do business. 

Rumored fallen angels such as Maggie Broadwater tried desperately to avoid the limelight during her short career. The twenty-one-year-old woman’s occupation was only made public when she jumped from the window on the third floor of the Fairmont Hotel where she worked. Born in Callaway, Missouri, Margaret, or Maggie as she was better known, ventured west, and settled in Colorado where she found work at a house of ill repute. Eventually she relocated to Thermopolis, Wyoming, where she met a gentleman customer and fell in love. The couple parted ways, and Maggie traveled to Deadwood. Her profession remained the same, but she used the name Margaret Gillet while on the job.

Maggie attempted to drown her sorrows over the love she lost with alcohol, but it only made her feel worse. Consumed with remorse, she decided to take her own life. Maggie’s fall was cushioned by a patch of soft mud under her window, but she did sustain several injuries, including a compound fracture of the wrist, broken ribs, and a broken jaw. She was transported to St. Joseph Hospital where at first it seemed she would recover. The following day doctors determined she was suffering with serious internal injuries. One of her kidneys was ruptured and her liver was severely damaged. The August 31, 1907, edition of the Daily Pioneer Times reported that Maggie “suffered intense agony at times but remained conscious until within forty minutes of the time of her death.”

Maggie’s relatives in Colorado were notified of her demise, but never came to claim her body. She was laid to rest at Mount Moriah Cemetery. 

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