Behind The Photo: Ethyl Doyle's mug shot (1904)

© 2020, Christian Cassidy

Previously, I wrote about Bloody Jack Krawchenko after seeing his wanted poster at the Winnipeg Police Museum during Doors Open. The museum also has a selection of  “mug shots” on display and I was attracted to the card for this fashionable looking lady in her fur coat and jaunty chapeau.

The image is of Miss Ethel Doyle, alias Ethel Clayton, and was taken after her arrest in April 1904 for “keeping a bawdy house”. The 24-year-old, originally from Owen Sound, Ontario, is described as stout, with a fair complexion, brown hair and brown eyes.

January 11, 1904, Manitoba Free Press

This was Doyle's second arrest in 1904. The first came on January 9 at a brothel or bawdy house on Thomas Street, now Minto Street. It was day after Thomas Street was dropped as a "segregated vice zone" by police. (More about that in my next post !)

To give a sense of how large the Thomas Street operation was, twelve "keepers", seventy-two "female inmates" and four "male inmates" arrested that night. One of the women was Ethel Doyle. She isn't mentioned specifically in newspaper articles from the raid, so it is not clear if wshe was an inmate or keeper.

The next day, Magistrate Thomas Mayne Daly fined the keepers $40 plus costs and inmates $20 plus costs. He reminded them all that Thomas Street was now off limits as a vice zone and warned the women not to come before him again.

April 7, 1904, Winnipeg Tribune

Around midnight on April 6, 1904, police raided a house in the 400 block of Pacific Avenue after a public tip. They arrested Doyle and another woman who were working there.

Doyle was charged with "keeping a bawdy house" and the other woman with working in a bawdy house. They once again came before Magistrate Daly and this time there was no fine option. The two were sentenced to jail for three and two months, respectively.

It was considered a very harsh sentence, one that was needed, said Daly, to be an example to others.

In the April raid police also found two men in the house. One was described as being “hauled from behind a bedstead where he was in scanty attire.” While the man was dressing, a cab pulled up with three more men who came into the parlour. The names of the five, “some who occupy prominent positions in the city”, were taken but the names are not released and it is unclear if they were also fined.

What became of Ethel Doyle is unclear.

Some in Doyle's profession would have changed aliases and continued working, though in this period after the end of the Thomas Street segregated vice era and the start of the Point Douglas one in 1909, the sentences seemed particularly harsh and it might not have been worth sticking around.

Another option, especially for those without ties to the city, simply moved further West to set up shop in newer towns. In some cases, their departure was induced by magistrates who offered to reduce or eliminate fines or jail sentences in exchange for a promise to leave.

1905 Henderson Directory of Winnipeg

Looking at the 1905  Henderson Directory, which would have been complied in late 1904 after Doyle's release, there is a listing for an Ethel Clayton, Doyle's alias. This name did not appear in the previous year's directory.

This Ethel Doyle is curiously listed as having both rooms 3 and 5 of the Johns Block, a 20-unit, working-class residential building at 314 1/2 McDermot Avenue near Main Street.   

In the following year's directory, Clayton is listed as being in just room 2 and there is an occupation noted that may explain why she would have had two rooms: dressmaker. This could be a coincidence and Miss Clayton the dressmaker had a separate residential suite and work studio in 1905, or it could have been our own fashionable Miss Doyle was using a cover to resume her trade. There's no way to know for certain.

Ethel Doyle last appears in the Henderson Directory of 1907, still as a dressmaker at room 2 of the Johns Block. A search of newspapers, census records and marriage certificates from the era give no clues as to what might have become of her.

Whatever happened, hopefully Doyle lived a long and happy life.

Related:
Winnipeg Police Museum
More "Behind the Photo" entries