The Queen of Hearts

CHAPTER IX-THE QUEEN OF HEARTS

IN A TRUNK IN FANNY'S ROOM was a pile of letters. One of them fell onto the floor. National Guard Major E. Ray Acton casually picked it up and began to read.

"Dear Pal," it said. "Just got a hot flash. As a matter of fact, just heard it myself a few minutes ago, Fanny Bell has had one of her front teeth pulled. Don't you know she looks a sight. I guess it doesn't make a lot of difference. As for myself, it wouldn't matter if she didn't have a tooth in her head. It's that good p of hers I love."

There, in an envelope, was the secret of Fanny Bell Chance's fatal charm for men. She had a popular commodity and she knew what to do with it to make it most effective.

Fanny Bell— Phenix City's original "Queen of Hearts"—came into possession of the letter the way she acquired many things. The man who received it was her sister's husband, a corporal, who forwarded the letter to Fanny from his station in Germany, He had gotten it from a soldier pal, one of Fanny Bell's several true loves whom she nourished and cherished.

Fanny Bell was a woman among women and a woman among men.

She knew what she wanted and she knew how to get it. She played her part to the hilt and kept the fires of love burning brightly in a half dozen masculine breasts simultaneously. All she asked in return was love and money, both given gladly, passionately, by the Don Juans who shared her bedroom,

Fanny Bell was not a whore, Not in the strictest sense of the word. She didn't sell her charms for cash to a different gent every night. Nor for her was the policy of love 'em and leave 'em. Her credo was love 'em and milk 'em and love 'em and milk 'em. One or two she loved for the simple joy of loving.

The voluptuous brunette, who knew how to get her point across, came to Phenix City in late 1950. She said she was twenty-nine, but she was being generous with herself. At least thirty five winters had come and gone since Fanny first breathed the air of this earth.

The mark of time was barely visible in the crow's feet about the eyes, the slight wrinkle of skin at the elbow, in the meaty section of the upper arm which showed the faintest indication of turning flabby. The girlish figure was with her yet and the slight signs that everyone, even Fanny, will grow old if they live long enough, affected her operations not at all.

Financial and social success for a B-girl or prostitute in Phenix City was unusual. Her income was split too many ways and her charms wore out too soon. By the time a hustler learned all the ropes, the ropes were pretty thin.

Not so, Fanny Bell. She went to work as a fourteen dollar a week B-girl. She played her cards close to her full bosom. Her husband, at that time, being a card sharp, had taught her this trick.

Fanny's husband when she flounced into Phenix was Patrick Chance, he was her fourth mate. They had been divorced and remarried, and when they hit Phenix City, Patrick Chance officially was husband Number Five. This state of matrimony ended on September 10, 1953, but although the bonds which had kept them together legally were cast aside, the two remained good friends, periodically declaring their undying love one for the other.

The fact that Fanny Bell married an Army sergeant on October 16, 1953, didn't put an end to her affairs with Chance at all. She didn't plan to give him up entirely. They corresponded regularly, met often, and loved frequently.

When Chance had a lucky day at cards, he'd send her money. It would come from Reno and Las Vegas and Miami and Chicago. There were times when he didn't win and Fanny Bell would play turnabout by banking him during his dog days.

By 1953 Fanny could well afford to do so. She had listened and learned as a B-girl on Fourteenth Street. Her marriage to the sergeant was a step in the direction she had determined to follow. Her boy friend, at the time of the ceremony, was stationed at Fort Benning, After living with him less than a week, Fanny talked her husband into applying for an assignment in Germany. She told him she always had wanted to visit in Europe. What he should do, Fanny instructed, was to get to Germany and make arrangements for her to join him and she would pick up and skedaddle across the ocean to him.

Off he went, good trooper that he was. There he remained. Fanny Bell stayed behind. Fanny Bell's prime interest in her new husband apparently had been the allotment check that would be hers as a dependent of a Gl. The check came to $140 and it came monthly. Within about two years of the marriage, Fanny Bell was minus Husband Number Six,

So versatile was the Queen of Hearts that there were times when she was receiving government allotment checks from six different soldiers at the same rime. This might constitute fraud against Uncle Sam. The soldiers, however, knew what they were getting.

Fanny Bell's romance with the Army was a continuous affair.

The sergeant hadn't been overseas long when the Queen picked up with another soldier who was stationed at Fort Benning. For a period of several months they shared the most intimate relations. Fanny signed love letters to him, '*Your future wife." When they were apart, Fanny wrote she hoped she was pregnant so she could have a little junior by whom to remember him. The GI bought a house in Columbus and deeded it to Fanny, When she traveled to Mississippi, after her position of affluence had reached the proper proportions, the dogface accompanied her.

In his turn, the soldier would write fiery love letters to Fanny. He told her he was just an average man who appreciated sex in an average way. Then he met Fanny and after that he couldn't ever get sex off his mind.

While this great romantic love was transpiring between Fanny and her new friend, she entertained Chance as he came and went from Phenix City, and acquired a new and most helpful suitor, Willis M. (Buddy) Jowers, assistant chief and strong-arm boy of the city police department,

Fanny lived with her sister, Betty Jo Thompson, whose husband was in Germany and knew both Fanny's husband and Fanny's latest GI flame, It was through this arrangement that Betty Jo's husband received the letter from his pal at Fort Benning about Fanny's teeth, and forwarded it to Phenix City for Betty Jo to show to Fanny.

Betty Jo kept her husband advised of Fanny's activities, writing him on one occasion that "Fanny said to tell you that she's now seeing 'Buddy' every day and night, He got fired."

"Buddy" did get fired for politicking at the polls on election day, but that did not come until after he and Fanny had enjoyed each other's company for months. In between times, they plotted how they could best take advantage of the services the other had to offer. A decision was reached and they decided to buy a Phenix City night club. At first they considered buying the Hi-Lo Club from Ernest Youngblood but for reasons best known to themselves, they didn't go through with the deal. Instead, they purchased the Cotton Club, a Negro night spot which specialized in gambling and slot machines.

As assistant chief of the police department, Buddy could guarantee there would be no raids and no interference. The importance of this detail could not be overlooked. Profits of the club would be greater for the owners because they would not have to pay protection money. Profits also would climb if the customers knew they could gamble at the Cotton Club with complete immunity from the law.

This partnership with Buddy was Fanny's greatest personal triumph. From a fourteen dollar a week B-girl to a club owner was a gratifying accomplishment.

Fanny now could begin living in the manner to which she long had wanted to become accustomed. She acquired a comfortable home with air-conditioning units scattered throughout. She wore diamonds and she drove a 1954 Oldsmobile. All this and several lovers to boot. What more could a girl ask?

Chance seemed to be the one spark of true love Fanny let burn in her own bosom. All the rest of the men, she played for what she could get out of them: a house, an allotment check, protection in the rackets.

With Chance, matters were different. She didn't bleed him. Time and again she cautioned him in her letters to do nothing foolish because he was the real love of her life. Regardless of what else is believed about Fanny, this alone must have been the undisputed truth. For Fanny, the girl who took all and gave only of herself in return, her relationship with Chance was novel.

Chance was a shrewd individual who wrapped himself in an air of mystery. Major Acton— to learn more of Fanny's background— flew to Maxwell Field to visit Chance, where he was in federal detention, on Labor Day, 1954. Chance wasn't talking.

Why should I?" he asked Acton. 'There's nothing in it for me. What have I got to gain? I'm a man with a number."

And he didn't talk, not a word did he utter about his connections with the Queen of Hearts, or anyone else.

Chance seemed to be afraid of something or somebody. While he was in Las Vegas he wrote Fanny he was going to get himself jailed by the government. He went to a post office and, in the presence of witnesses, tossed a brick through a glass window. Sure enough, Chance was arrested and sentenced to a year and a day, but the judge thwarted him by putting him on probation. Chance had taken a gamble and lost. Not content, he violated his probation and was locked up at Montgomery, satisfied and happy, according to Acton.

As one of the brightest female lights in a city where too many women walked in the shadows, the Queen of Hearts was bound to be discovered during the National Guard clean-up.

She was arrested on charges of possessing a gambling table, possessing slot machines, operating a public tavern and knowingly operating a gaming table there. Her racket partner, Buddy Jowers, loaded himself into a vehicle one dark night and left Fanny to furnish her own protection in the future. Fanny soon took the hint. She shook the dust of Phenix City out of her hemlines and headed for parts unknown. Guardsmen said they knew where she was, perhaps by keeping check on her three children in Mississippi, and that's where they apprehended her later. She was fined and sentenced to a year in jail.

If Guardsmen hadn't known her whereabouts, they would have had a good idea where to look: around a military post.

If you see her, soldier, she's getting a little worn now. You can bet she'll try at one more fling before she descends to slinging hash or liquor. The Queen was sexy when younger. She's a brunette, about five feet four inches tall and weighs one hundred and twenty pounds in the nude.

Who knows? She may he the woman beside you as you read this.