Times Crimes and the Tenderloin in Pre-Prohibition Toledo

<p>Times Crimes and the Tenderloin in Pre-Prohibition Toledo is a collection of stories that paint a vivid picture of the Tenderloin era in Toledo during the two decades before the passage of the 18<sup>th</sup> and 19th Amendments. As the country moved out of the rigid Victorian period and entered an era of airplanes automobiles and rapidly changing technology new-found social freedoms began to spin out of control.</p><p>Times Crimes and the Tenderloin in Pre-Prohibition Toledo follows the career of Toledo Captain of Detectives Lewis B. Tracy a tough but compassionate cop who was involved in most of the city's major crime investigations throughout his career. In 1915 he was placed in charge of Toledo's Red-Light District a seedy area south of the city also known as the Tenderloin or Vice Zone filled with brothels gambling joints saloons and dance halls. The area was populated by a dangerous array of streetwalkers prostitutes pickpockets dope fiends thieves and hustlers-and Tracy knew them all.</p><p>Over time Detective Tracy became known for his compassionate treatment of the unfortunates many of whom developed a deep respect for the kind-hearted officer they came to know as Papa Father or Cap. In 1918 as WWI was raging Tracy was placed in charge of the Slackers Bureau rounding up draft dodgers German sympathizers disloyalists and citizens who refused to buy war bonds. It was in this role that he became known as Loyalty Lou for his stern patriotic lectures to arrestees.</p><p>Over the span of his twenty-three-year career with the Toledo Police Department Detective Tracy was shot robbed bitten and assaulted but somehow he always managed to stay strong and get his man. Today the few remaining buildings of the Tenderloin have been reclaimed as shops restaurants and condos leaving little evidence of their former uses.</p><p>But the stories live on.</p>