The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-11-04
LIZZIE LANDRETTO'S STORY.

L
LIZZIE LANDRETTO'S STORY.
II you had witnessed a. play built around |
experiences such as Lizzie Landretto rected on
the witness stand in the Rock Island circuit |,
court yesterday you would probably have
charged the author with purposed exaggeration
in order to put theatrical punch in his narra-
tiSe. Lizzie Landretto told you what happened
to her, not in New York or Chicago. but right
here in Rock Island, small mid-western city
N OF IS, 900 people
Lizzie Landretto was brought to Rock
Island from her little home in the Italian quar-
ter of Chicago when she was is years Of age
and her body peddled in tie underworld TO earn
money for her betrayer and the resort keepers
who traficked in public prostitution. Lizzie
Landretto should still have been going to
school when she was led away from her home
freside to become chatte in the hands of the
vice vultures Of Rock Island Lizzie Landretto
might have been daughter Of your own house
hold.
Lizzie Landretto was in bondage during sew
eral years spent in the Rock Island under
world. Neither her body not her soul was her
4 own. You will say that she might have escaped
ii
to do Probably you would have done as
Lizzie did were you in her plight She had
been lured from her home by a man who
4 promised he would make her his wife, Lam
dretto regarded Lizzie not as an object Of love
and devotion, but as 4 plain heshly asset. He
\ cashed her in 10 the Rock Island underworld,
where she remained slave until she finally
took the courage to rebel and break for liberia
ton.
= Lizzie Landretto had three drivers while she
was in Rock Island among whom she shared
the earnings from the sale of her body. They
i were Sam LandrettO. who eventually went
through marriage ceremony with her to save
". himself from the of the law; Edith Ortell,
IA Ida Woods and Jennie Mills. Ida Woods is
.idtad, shot by jealous lover in her brothel on
# wenty-second street. Jennie Mills still holds
forth IN Twenty-second street Edith Ortell is
the wife Of Louis Ortell, underworld graft col
s=tector stool pigeon bondsman for underworld
criminals. hooch wholesaler to the officially
,-prptected bars OF Rock Island and vicinity and
One of the principals Of the local immunity
ring. When Lizzie Landretto divided her earn
=tnss with Edith Ortell the latter was conduct
ing house of prostitution on Second avenue
between Fifteenth and Sixteenth streets Mrs
=9rtell, with the profits that she wrung from the
body of Lizzie Landretto and other unfortunates
.suf her sex, was enabled to rise above the odious
classification of a mistress Of house of prosti-
tuition Lizzie Landretto helped Mrs. Ortell to
become political factor in this community of
$4,000 people. Today Mrs Ortell is able to pub
-liciy>threaten the defeat Of the city admin
Sistation and the dismissal Of members of the
police department because officials dare to in
yerfere with the activities Of the house Of Ortell
I'm the business Of selling hooch in defiance of
~&he constitution Of the United States. The
.Rrtells are persons who demand respect and
=xeqpgnition, official and otherwise, in the city
al Rock Island. Not only can they issue orders
=D the city administration-fOr Mrs. OrteM ad-
=4fts that che controls 1000 votes-hlt they
S1nblicly besmrch the names of good citizens of
mis- community through the columns of the
-Hthy organ of the Rock Island underworld
thai is weekly spewed from a press in the
3ooney vice vultures' roost The Ortels can
@oner insult to the decent people of this COM
@unoty because they hold club over the heads
=W oficialdom. The Ortells could publish ex-
-Dosures OF officials in the Shiny organ of the
underworld that might jnjure the public and
Social standing of men in the city hall It's
p do the bidding of the Ortells Just is it has
.4nrced them to do the bidding Of John Looney.
Sohn Looney has flown. fugitive from justice,
.&ht the Ortells still remain fighting to retain
the remnants of their waning powers power
3eit upon the dregs of the underworld, power
HAT Lizzie Landretto helped to accumulate by
Heddlins her body in a brothel presided over by
7aith Ortell, now woman who is growing
disturbed because she is no longer able to have
Aer commands obeyed in the city hall and the
by courts.
= Lizzie Landretto dissipated her youth in
gathering the nest Of the Ortells and in financ-
, the dissolute- enterprises Of the man who
aecame her husband to evade the law and from
dAom she is now seeking to be separated BY the
courts. Lizzie Landretto gave her body and
f0ul that the Rock Island underworld and its
4rasiticai lords might thrive and ride into
apwer as dictators Of a government meant to
a1nction In the interest Of the community vel
are Lizzie Landretto is but one Of hundreds
81 girls who have been similarly sold on the
action block Of the Rock Island underworld.
INT most Of the others were afraid to rebel As
Hzzsie Landretto has rebelled and their stories
ntHhidden away in their own memories There
are men and women lounging in comfortable