But there were, like the story of the two girls, darker rumors, too. Though soldiers had not reported until September, the workers who were actually building the camp had been there since July. There were rumors of suicides, sunrise shootings, and attempts at poisoning wells. Upton officials insisted that there were no violent murders, though there were plenty of drunk workmen causing trouble in the neighboring towns. The men were “raw recruits: mentally and physically.”
From the beginning, the army insisted that Camp Upton would not be located near any places where vice might thrive. At the same time, J. M. Power, a U.S. marshal, made a round of the surrounding towns, where it was rumored that houses of ill repute were preparing to establish business just as soon as the camp reached full swing. Traffickers in dope were said to be ready to devote all their time and energy to a new customer in uniform. After all, most of these men were from places like Brooklyn and Hell’s Kitchen. They were not all bank tellers and tailors. There were many brass knucklers, bootleggers, and gunfighters in their lot. They were regular fellers. The infamous Gas House Gang even had an Upton chapter within the camp itself.
That is what gave General Bell pause: the origin of this particular rumor’s blooming just before the soldiers arrived. The workers were a shady lot, and not just because they weren’t military. Greater Long Island was so worried about these Camp Upton builders that a local judge, Joseph Morschauser, and a sheriff, Amza W. Biggs, met to hold a public forum on morals at Upton before the soldiers even arrived. The justice said he thought that these conditions of vice existed; the sheriff said that he knew positively they existed.
“That is no Sunday school crowd out there,” he added. “If that isn’t the worst bunch of crooks that ever landed in one spot I’m no judge of human nature. They even take the tires off of your car while gasoline is being put into it.” The outlying counties threatened jail and physical punishment. “Give a few of these fellows the limit,” he said. “We’ve got a little room left in our jail.” Local officials’ only consolation was that Upton’s military police was largely made up of former members of New York’s finest. They would have to count on the police keeping the crooks in line.
*
Back at the hotel, after the Camp Upton room door closed on the young couple, a knock came. There were two men, one who identified himself as a Secret Service agent. They entered and saw the young girl look up at them. She was writing down a list of the items in the room. The man she was with stood near the bed, staring at them in disbelief. The agent asked if they were married.
The couple was arrested and separated. The men led the girl through the narrow spaces between the wooden buildings to the military police. The girl with the curls listened as she was arraigned. She did not say anything.
The officers did the same to the man, though they took him to a different room. When they asked how he knew the girl, the man said he’d been introduced to her at a party by another woman.
A woman dressed in black.
19
Army of One
“What is your name?” the Secret Service agent asked the man they had taken from the hotel.
“James C. Adkins,” he replied.
“When were you employed at Camp Upton?”
“Some time about the middle of August, as a carpenter.”
“What had you heard?”
“I had heard there was two girls found dead.”
“Where did you say they were found dead?”
“It was when I was working on the ice plant that I heard it. They didn’t say where they were found dead, only they said on the edge of camp.”
“Whom did you hear that from?”
“Some of the carpenters that I was working with.”
“Had they seen these two girls?”
“No: they didn’t say that they had seen them. They asked me if I had heard about the girls being found here. I said I did not hear about it.”
“And you told this to Mrs. Humiston?”
“And I told this to Mrs. Humiston that I had heard this from them, and she asked me what was said, and I told her what the boy had told me. I have his name: his name is Constable, as well as I remember.”
“About when was it that carpenter told you this?”
“As well as I remember it was about four or five days before he was laid off, or before he quit, rather.”
“You told Mrs. Humiston what you had heard from them about these two girls being found dead in the vicinity of the camp?”
“I told you I was working in the camp on the ice plant and one Sunday I did see some girls lying down on the ground and some soldiers sitting by them talking.”
“Where was that?”
“On the furtherside of the ice plant, where the trains come in.”
“What time of day was that?”
“About 2 o’clock in the afternoon.”
“That was the first day you saw Mrs. Humiston?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Then you saw her again?”
“I think it was two days later.”
“What did you say to her?”
“I told her I had been trying to find out about the crimes being done.”
“Where did you see her again?”
“Wednesday evening at the dance, at Terrace Garden.”
“What did Mrs. Humiston say then?”
“She said she had heard about the girls and who had taken their bodies away when she was going to investigate.”
“Did she say who took their bodies away?”
“No, she didn’t say that. I had met the civilians and I told her I had heard of men coming out here and registering at this hotel as brother and sister and also as man and wife.”
“When was the next time after that you were there?”
“I think yesterday at noon.”
“What did she say?”
“I think she said something about the boys going out and registering as brother and sisters and also as husband and wife.”
“What was the sense?”
“What I understood was that any one could come down here and register and stay overnight and go back the next morning to the city, and I think from that they come out here under the pretense of seeing friends. And I told her what I had heard. When I told her that she said something about my coming out.”
“And when you told her you would come out what did she say?”
“She said she had a girl she could trust.”
“To do what?”
“To come out to camp and ____.”
“Did Mrs. Humiston ask you if you would be willing to come out here at the camp and investigate what would happen if you called at the hotel for a room with a young woman and registered as man and wife?”
“Not in those words. She said that she would like to know the true conditions of this camp and as a citizen I was willing.”
“Was she to pay your expenses?”
“No, sir, I pay my own expenses. I done this as a citizen of the country to find out if the things here was true. That is what I want to know.”
“Let us resume with the question of providing the girl. Now, then, when you told her you would come out, what was it she said?”
“She said that she would get the girl. I didn’t know who the girl was to be only this afternoon. I met her at the Penn station.”
“At what time?”
“About 4 o’clock.”
“When you met them at the station what did Mrs. Humiston say?”
“She told me to find out about the conditions at the camp. First she introduced the girl.”
“What name did she give her?”