The Girl Who Was Rescued From A Brothel

This undated photo shows Sr. Gertrude Salitrik (left) and her friend Mary Mager (right). Mary and her family lived on Reppert Boulevard where it met Cycle Street in Uniontown, Pa. Mary Mager has gone down in Salitrik family history as "the girl Julia rescued from a brothel."

This is what my grandmother Julia Salitrik Lazor told me about the incident:  At some time in the late 1920s or early 1930s Mary Mager was hired by a man named Frank Monaghan, Sr. to work as a maid at his hotel.


At first, Mary's parents were pleased that she had the job--they were a poor family of Slovak immigrants and needed every penny Mary could earn. Monaghan seemed to be a decent boss--even generous. He gave Mary food such as sacks of potatoes to take home to her family on the weekends. But after a while Mary stopped coming home on the weekends, and when family members tried to visit her, Monaghan drove them away.

Distraught, Mrs. Mager went to her friends the Salitriks for advice. Julia, who spoke Slovak as a her first language, but like her siblings spoke perfect English, was urged to help. At the time she was working as a bookkeeper for Mundel's furniture store and was probably the family's major breadwinner.

After failing to get past Monaghan herself, Julia went to the district attorney and told him that a Slovak girl was being held against her will and her family was worried. The DA laughed and said "Don't you know who Monaghan is? I can't do anything." Monaghan was powerful local bootlegger and pimp who was known for his violent temper.

Julia was appalled by the DA's attitude, but she thought quickly and devised a brilliant bluff, based on the fact that her brother was a linotype operator at the Union-Herald newspaper. "I know people who work at the newspaper," Julia told the DA. "And I'm sure they'd love to know that you refuse to help this girl or her family." The DA assumed that Julia knew reporters and editors on the paper, so the ploy worked. The DA got Monaghan to return Mary Mager to her family.

A few years later, Monaghan was brought to trial for some of his criminal activity and Julia testified about the Mary Mager incident. Monaghan later confronted Julia in a courthouse hallway. "I'll remember you, and I'll remember that dress," he threatened. Julia was frightened; when she got home she immediately burned the yellow dress she had worn in court.

Fortunately for Julia, Frank Monaghan did not live much longer.  He was murdered in 1936 in the basement of the Fayette County Couthouse--the very building where Julia testified against him and where he threatened her. Monaghan was in police custody at the time and was beaten to death by cops while getting "the third degree." (Monaghan had cut a county detectives's throat from ear to ear and nearly killed him.) The murder of Frank Monaghan was a scandal and is still the subject of local conspiracy theories. A book called Screams from the Basement: The Monaghan Affair was published in 2001, but it's badly written and poorly organized.

Wartime Prayers: Lubbock, Texas circa 1944

Photo stamped Lubbock, Texas. Written in Sr. Gertrude's hand: "This is the WAC from Philadelphia. This is the church we go to every morning. I'm sorry the Blessed Mother [statue] didn't show. The WAC liked it and so do I."