In this week’s episode we discuss the case of Lorena Upper, a so-called "lady barber" accused of violating the “red light statute” here in Bellingham, Washington in 1922 and what it meant to work as a woman in a traditionally male occupation at the time.

In this week’s episode, we discuss a 1922 court case involving Bellingham’s “baddest” lady barber, Lorena Upper, accused of violating the “red light statute.”

From these articles, it appears that Lorena was harassed while she was with customers, peeped-on through a spy hole, beaten by her accuser, and the case against her relied entirely on eyewitness testimony that itself relied heavily on euphemism and innuendo. The city brought forth witnesses who were almost entirely local business men and whose testimony is dripping with hearsay.