The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1930-03-13
Refuses to PLAY BALI in
Vice League, Despite
Persecution.
BRINGS FEDERAL EXPOSE
Oklahoma Boom Town Now
Model of Civic DeCenCy:
So Indicted.
BvNEA Serrice

After an unenviable reputation as
one Of the widest oil boom towns
in Oklahoma, Earlsboro stands to-
day as a model Of civic decency-
and all as the result Of one deter
mined woman's campaign for Law
and order.
She's Mrs. Ethel Renner. proprie-
treSs of the Renfred hotel, and al-
though she doesn't look the part
she's tWo-gun woman whom the
toughest hombreS in the oil fields
couldn't bluff.
The federal grand jury is getting
ready to meet and take up her dis
closures again, but here's the record
of what she has already accom-
plished in her cleanup:
l. Fifty-eight indictments on
whisky charges, all on evidence
obtained under Mrs. Renner's di-
rection.
2. Twenty eight confessions OF
guilt made by officials, ranging
from Mayor Homer Knappen-
berger and Police Chief Marion
Fuller, down to constables and all
sorts of individuals.
8. Twelve trials and eight con-
victions, the latter including
Sheriff Frank Fox. These refused
to plead guilty.
4. Testimony by Mayor KNAPP
penberger that he paid Oscar
Gordon, an assistant attorney
general of Oklahoma, $4,000 to
fend off prosecution after Cor
don had investigated conditions in
Earlsboro. Gordon has resigned.
Who is this woman who turned
nearly half the occupants Of a
county courthouse and a city hall
into federal jails?
Came From Illinois
She is a native of Champaign,
Ill, and she has been ION her own"
as she says, since she was IA. She
was born Ethel Peddicord, and in
comfortable circumstances. But the
loss Of the family fortune and her
fathers death came at about the
same time and she was left with her
mother and the other three children
to carry on.
She entered business in Chicago.
Twelve years ago she heard of oil
and opportunity in Oklahoma and
came here. She speculated in leases
and royalties and luckily acquired
an interest in the field about Earls-
boro before the first we'll came in.
With money from her royalties
she decided to build botel. That
was in February, 1927. AS the work.
men began she had her first contact
with a vice ring. A man approached
and told her she would have to get
"on the line" At first she didn't
know what he meant. She soon
found out he meant she would have
to sell liquor at the hotel, permit
gambling and harbOr girls and pay
a weekly fee to officials.
I'll paddock the hotel and leave
it to rot before I'll do it," she told
the ambassador of the vice lords.
Open Warfare Begins
After that it was open warfare.
The battle lasted two years, one
woman arrayed against a hundred
armed and desperate men.
The hotel plans called for a stucco
structure. Overnight the Earlsboro
city council passed an ordinance
prohibiting such construction.
Mrs. Renner and her architect
worked overnight, too, and changed
the plans to provide a brick build
ing.
The telephone rang with threats
of bodily harm unless she got "on
the line"
Mrs. Renner hung up. Messengers
brought written threats.
One afternoon drunken deputy
sheriff staggered to the door OF the
hotel.
do you know what I'm going to
do?" he shouted from the sidewalk.
I'm going to drag you down this
alley, throw you in jail and break
your damn spirit"
Mrs. Renner bent over the safe
and flashed back with two guns in
her hands.
See that plank across the door, Z"
she replied, pointing at his feet.
That marks the line between my
property and the city Of Earlsboro.
You now have two feet. When you
put one of them across that door
facing you, you will have but one
foot left. When you put both OF
them across you will have no need
of feet in the place I'll send your
cowardly soul"
Officer Retreats