VICE IN NEW YORK

Hokitika Guardian, 5 March 1931, Page 5

VICE IN NEW YORK

TRAGIC DEVELOPMENTS. [United Press Association. —By Electric Telegraph.—-Copyright.] NEW YORK, March 4. The investigations being made into the city’s vice conditions reached pitiable climax to-night with the suicide by gas, of the sixteen-year-old daughter of a woman known ns Vivian Govdon, who herself was found strangled in Van Courtland Park a few days ago, after she had been telling the nuthorities that she would appear in the Courts and testify against policemen, who, she alleged, had “railroaded” her to gaol on false morality charges. The girl, who was living with her father and her stepmother, left a note in her diary as follows: “I can t far: the world any longer. I am going to end it all.” The city for weeks has been aroused by the exposure of “Graft Rings preying upon completely innocent' girls and women, as well as upon questionable girls and women, of whom a striking number are now attempting to gain freedom from charges that have allegedly been brought by members of the police, aided by “stool pigeons” who are paid a portion of the money forced from the women by threats of imprisonment. Mrs Vivian Gordon’s murder and its tragic climax are but one instance of shocking occurrences.