Ch4 Austin Hustlers Ep5 Hattie Ran the Best Lil Whorehouse in Tx

Dear Listeners - this tape is old - please take the extra care to make it out - One-of-a-kind first-hand stories of our most famous Austin Madame!
       Emmett Shelton Sr (1905-2000) tells of his experiences with one of the most famous Whore in Austin, Hattie Valdes. She ran a famous Austin whorehouse known as Hattie's Place. Texas legislators were rumored to be among her frequent customers. Hattie was well-known by most folks in Austin in the 1950s.
      Emmett tells of his first encounter with Hattie in 1929, she wanted a divorce but had no cash. She paid her bill with a fine set of bedroom furniture, but the bed came with bedbugs. Sometime later, Hattie wanted to draw up her Will to include her illegal whore house.
       Hattie's first of many arrests was in 1955 by her buddy Austin Sheriff T. O. Lang.  Eventually, District Atty Tom Blackwell filed for a permanent injunction to close her whorehouse, which Hattie promptly violated. Judge Garner ordered her to serve 3 days in jail and it wasn't the last.

Note: The Jan. 1961 issue of Time Magazine focused on the Texas Mystique. It included a one-sentence description of Austin --
"moonlight towers, broad and clean streets — and a well-known South Austin brothel where “the star attraction has a skunk tattooed on each buttock.”
       
P.S. Upon her death, Hattie left her three houses in So. Austin and the rest of her estate to her daughter, a Sister in the Order of the Holy Cross.

#Hattievaldez
#Austinhistory
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Music By: Best Little Whore House in Texas, Dolly Parton (Youtube)

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Stories told by Emmett Shelton / compiled and submitted by Cynthia Shelton.