Gillette v. United States

• Decision Date: 04 September 1916
• Docket Number: 4563.
• Parties: GILLETTE v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

236 F. 215

GILLETTE v. UNITED STATES.

No. 4563.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

September 4, 1916

George A. Bangs, of Grand Forks, N.D. (George R. Robbins, of Grand Forks, N.D., on the brief), for plaintiff in error.

Melvin A. Hildreth, U.S. Atty., of Fargo, N.D. (John Carmody, Asst U.S. Atty., of Hillsboro, N.D., on the brief), for the United States.

Before HOOK and CARLAND, Circuit Judges, and MUNGER, District Judge.

CARLAND Circuit Judge.

Gillette was convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary upon an indictment charging the following offense:

'Did unlawfully, knowingly, and willfully induce and entice, and cause to be persuaded, induced and enticed, a certain girl to wit, one . . ., to go from the city of Fargo, in the state of North Dakota, to the city of Moorhead, in the state of Minnesota, by, over, and upon the line of the Fargo-Moorhead Street Railway Company, for the purpose of debauchery and for an immoral purpose, to wit, that the aforesaid . . . should engage in the practice of debauchery and illicit sexual relations with the said Arthur Gillette and the said Arthur Gillette did then and there in furtherance of said purpose cause and aid and assist in causing said . . . to go and to be carried as a passenger over the line of the Fargo-Moorhead Street Railway Company, which was then and there a corporation engaged in the business of a common carrier of passengers in interstate commerce between the state of North Dakota and the state of Minnesota.'

The evidence at the trial, taken in its most unfavorable aspect against Gillette, was substantially as follows: The girl at the time of the alleged offense was in her nineteenth year. She was living with her mother, sister, and two brothers at Galesburg, N.D. On February 3, 1914, Gillette asked the girl to go with him to Fargo, N.D., and she consented. Gillette gave her $1.50 with which to pay her fare. They arrived at Fargo the same evening, and both registered at the same hotel, but occupied separate rooms. They attended the theater in the evening; came back to the hotel about 11 o'clock p.m. Gillette wanted to go to the girl's room, but she refused him this privilege. Gillette had offered the girl money at Galesburg as the price of sexual intercourse. On the morning of February 4, 1914, Gillette left the hotel after inviting the girl to dine with him in the evening. Nothing was said as to where they would dine.

About noon of the same day Gillette met the state's attorney of Traill county, N.D., at the Great Northern depot in Fargo, and went with him to the Comstock Hotel in Moorhead, Minn. Gillette at this time was in the employ of the state's attorney as a detective for the specific purpose of investigating the character of the house where the girl lived in Galesburg. The alleged reason for going to Moorhead was that their consultation would be more private. At about 5 o'clock of the day in question Gillette telephoned the girl from the Comstock Hotel in Moorhead, and told her to 'hurry up and catch that car for Moorhead; that he was at the Comstock, and for me to come there and have supper with him. ' The girl accepted the invitation and went to Moorhead. Meeting Gillette at the Comstock Hotel, they both went to the grill room and had supper at Gillette's expense. Both drank intoxicating liquor, and the girl became intoxicated. Gillette requested the girl to stay at the Comstock, but she refused. They both returned to the hotel at Fargo about midnight, and according to the girl's testimony Gillette had sexual relations with her that night. The girl had been living the life of a prostitute for about two years, and the house where she lived at Galesburg was adjudged to be a house of ill fame.

The girl testified on cross-examination that she really came to Fargo at the time in question to meet a man other than Gillette. The girl had visited Moorhead before for the purpose of eating and drinking. Gillette paid the girl $5 when he left the hotel in Fargo on February 5th.

The charge as pleaded in the indictment seems to be a combination of the first and second clauses of section 3 of the act of Congress approved June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. 825). That section, so far as the charge against Gillette is concerned, reads as follows:

'That any person who shall knowingly persuade, induce, entice, * * * or cause to be persuaded, induced or enticed, * * * any woman or girl to go from one place to another in interstate or foreign commerce * * * for the purpose of * * * debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose, or with the intent and purpose on the part of such person that such woman or girl shall engage in the practice of * * * debauchery, or any other immoral practice, whether with or without her consent.'

The indictment charges that Gillette--

'did unlawfully, knowingly, and willfully induce and entice, and cause to be persuaded, induced, and enticed, a certain girl to wit, . . ., to go from the city of Fargo to the city of Moorhead * * * for the purpose of debauchery and for an immoral purpose, to wit, that . . . aforesaid should engage in the practice of debauchery and illicit sexual relations with the said Arthur...