Stillwater’s Most Infamous Madam

WCHS Treasurer Tom Simonet gave a talk about Stillwater’s most infamous lady of the night Nellie “Red Nell” Mandeville. Red Nell became a businesswoman of sorts, hiring other area women to entertain male residents and visitors.

Red Nell’s appearance on the Police Register became as predicable as the sun setting. From August 1882 through July 1883, Nell was arrested ten times! Over this period, she paid $847 in fines but never spent one day in jail. She was charged for running a “house of ill fame.” Curiously, she was always arrested with a man named Mike Keogh, who was charged with the same crime. Red Nell’s colorful life weaves from her birthplace in Ohio in 1848 to her final resting place in Minnesota in 1888. Newspaper articles and history of other area madams show the difficulty of this high-risk lifestyle.