The Long Beach ‘social vagrant’ investigations, 1914

From the Archives Long Beach man acquitted in sensational 1914 ‘social vagrancy’ trial

By Hailey Branson-Potts

Her­bert N. Lowe, a flor­ist charged fol­low­ing an un­der­cov­er op­er­a­tion tar­get­ing gay men in Long Beach, was ac­quit­ted after a tri­al that drew large crowds. Lowe was among 31 al­leged mem­bers of two private Long Beach clubs, the 606 Club and the 96 Club, who were ar­res­ted and ac­cused of “so­cial vag­rancy” and gay sex. Lowe’s at­tor­ney told the jury that the hands of un­der­cov­er Long Beach vice of­ficers W.H. War­ren and B.C. were “drip­ping with the blood of John Lamb,” who killed him­self after be­ing ar­res­ted in the po­lice raids and hav­ing his name pub­lished in The Times.

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Dec. 12, 1914