Helen Blazes and her Brothel at 7 Victoria Alley

 Helen Blazes brothel at 7 Victoria Alley
from SL Herald 1902-12-18

One of SLC’s more famous, and successful, brothel Madams was Helen Blazes. Of course, that was not her real name.

Her real name was Lillie. The history of her life is a bit spotty but there are glimpses with some good detail.

Lillie probably grew up in Ohio, lived through the Civil War, and married Dr. Leander “Lee” Hutchison when she was 19 in 1877. The following year she gave birth to her only(?) child, Blanche Hutchison. Lillie followed her husband to Kentucky where he earned his medical degree and then the family relocated to Olathe, Kansas where her brothers-in-law ran a newspaper.

The Olathe newspapers often wrote about Lillie and she was referred to as "Mrs Dr Hutchison." She seemed to have a respectable life and attended church. Her husband had a problem with alcohol and after a few years in Olathe, Lillie left him.

The next 10 years of Lillie’s life are unknown but by 1892 she was 33 years old and running a brothel house in SLC using the name Helen Blazes. Her young teenage daughter, Blanche, was living away from both parents and staying with relatives in Denver, Colorado. Perhaps Lillie decided to operate in SLC as it was close to her daughter but far enough away that Blanche would be shielded from the stigma.

Sanborn Map 1898

Lillie, now Helen Blazes, moved her business often, at times being on Main St, Franklin Ave (now Edison St), South Temple, and State St. In 1897 she moved to her famous location at 7 Victoria Alley.

Victoria Alley was a midblock alley between Main and State Streets and 200-300 South with a barely noticeable narrow 12-foot entrance located at 232 S State Street. This area is now wide open and occupied by the Gallivan Center; Helen Blazes brothel was about where the Gallivan Center stage is now located.

Helen Blazes catered to higher class clients and often served wine and fine liquors instead of the standard beer. 

When Belle London opened the Stockade in 1908 (see previous posts) Helen Blazes quickly closed her business and retired at the age of 49. She announced to the papers that Helen Blazes was off to Europe and would never return to SLC.

In reality, she stayed in SLC and started going by her legal name: Lillie Dreyfuss. She rented a modest house at 669 S Main St for the next several decades. She was often recognized as Helen Blazes and was the target of several burglaries in which diamond jewelry was stolen, one burglary was of several diamond rings and earrings worth $4K (~$110K today).

A few months after one of these home invasion robberies in which she was bound and gagged; Lillie Dreyfuss (aka Helen Blazes) shot herself in the heart on June 23 1932 at the age of 73. She left a note saying “I am through with life” and was found by her maid the next morning. 

Her daughter and sole heir settled her affairs and buried her mother, Lillie Dreyfuss, at Wasatch Lawn Cemetery.

Sources: Olathe Mirror 1882-03-30; Olathe Gazette 1882-11-30; SL Herald 1892-07-07; SL Trib 1897-02-22; SL Herald 1900-03-28; SL Herald 1908-02-07; SL Telegram 1909-06-17; Ogden Daily Standard 1913-09-20; SL Trib 1932-06-25; SL Trib 1932-06-30; Ancestry.com

Main Street and 700 South, from UDSH

Lillie T. Dreyfuss gravesite at Wasatch Lawn Cemetery, from findagrave

Mary Jane Smith: Utah's First Convicted Murderess

Scene of the murder. Victoria Alley, from SL Herald 1902-12-18

Mary Jane Smith (1864-1913) is notable for being the first woman convicted and sentenced for the crime of murder in the state of Utah. 

She was not the first Utah woman to be accused of murder, nor tried of murder… but she was the first to be convicted.  She was also an African American woman.

In 1902, Mary Jane Smith was down on her luck. She was working as a prostitute in Salt Lake's notorious Victoria Alley: a midblock alley on Block 57 (between Main and State Streets / 200 S and 300 S) with a barely noticeable narrow 12 foot entrance located at 232 S. State Street. This area is now wide open and occupied by the Gallivan Center.

Mary Jane was in need of rent money and decided she would rob one of her customers, a miner who had only been in SLC for two days- Daniel Ryan. She dosed his beer with morphine in an effort to knock the man out but not knowing the proper dose to administer she gave him too much. 

He lay in her bedroom at 47 Victoria Alley unconscious until Mary Jane asked her paramour, Mat Wilson, to remove the dying man. Mat Wilson put Daniel Ryan in the nearby outhouse and left him to die. The body of Daniel Ryan was found the next morning.

Mary Jane Smith was soon arrested and the evidence against her was strong, especially since two of her accomplices agreed to testify against her for dropped charges. When her trial for first degree murder was about to begin she plead guilty to second degree murder; she was told that she would likely receive a lighter sentence and her attorneys argued for leniency. 

 Unfortunately, Judge C. W. Morse wanted to make an “example of her for the future protection of society” and sentenced her to 20 years of prison at hard labor. The 20 years was within the allowable sentencing guidelines but it was seen by many as excessive punishment, especially as the victim was a transient and the perpetrator a resident of the tenderloin district where crimes were often overlooked.

Mary Jane apparently took the news of the sentence in stride as she was quoted in the newspapers as saying “I don’t care what they do because I’m going to live anyhow until I die.”

Prison life must have been lonely for Mary Jane. Sometimes there would be one or two other women in prison but mostly she was alone. She worked as a prison cook and laundress.

Mary Jane served 10 years of her 20 year sentence. She was pardoned and released at the end of November 1913 as she was ill and not expected to live. 

She died of cancer at the Salt Lake County Hospital on December 27, 1913. She is buried without a headstone at the northern edge of the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

1911 Sanborn map.
The red star is the location of 47 Victoria Alley.

Mary Jane Smith's unmarked gravesite in the SLC Cemetery. March 2020.