Known behind her back as "Fat Alice" or "Big Alice", Alice Abbott was about 6' tall and weighed better than 200 pounds. Before long, she established a very popular brothel at 19 South Utah Street and became known as the queen of the red light district.
Located across the street was Alice's competitor, Etta Clark. It's unclear why the two women first became bitter rivals, though Alice was quoted as having said, "Etta Clark was a whore to niggers" ... the ultimate insult in that prejudicial time period.
On 18 April 1886, an argument took place between Alice and one of her girls, Bessie Colvin, who wanted to leave and work for Etta. Bessie sought refuge in Etta’s parlor, with Alice in pursuit. Alice pounded on Etta’s door with her ham-like fists. When Etta finally opened the door, Alice punched her in the face. With great pain and anger, Etta turned and ran to grab a gun. The incident is reported as follows: "The weapon roared its authority, sending a bullet into Alice’s pubic arch. Clutching her groin, Alice screamed: “My God, I’m shot.” She lurched from the hall and staggered down into the street.” Etta shot again but missed. When Alice looked up, she caught Clark with a smile on her face as she went back in her house.
Alice survived the shooting, despite the risk of blood poisoning and chance of dying. Reported by newspapers as the incident as the "Public Arch Shooting", the widely circulated story caused the public to make fun of Alice, adding to her anger and hatred. To add insult to injury, it only took the jury only 15 minutes to find Etta innocent on grounds of self defense. Alice’s humiliation was now complete.
In the early hours of 12 July 1888 Etta Clark’s parlor house caught fire while she and all her girls were asleep. Everyone managed to escape, but the house and everything in it was destroyed. It was later determined that Alice had hired a couple of drunks to start the fire, but gaps in the evidence led to the acquittal of all accused.
Etta and her girls were reduced to the level of street walkers. Her luck changed with the appearance of J.P. Dieter, one of her adoring clients, who built her a new, huge parlor. His wife divorced him and took their children back east. Etta and Dieter lived as husband and wife without ever becoming married.
In February 1890 Alice leased her brothel to Tillie Howard. Alice died of a heart attack on 7 April 1896. She was buried in El Paso's Evergreen Cemetery. Her death went unreported in the papers because of widespread interest in a boxing match and municipal elections.
In 1904, Etta became ill and decided to run her business from the third floor of the Mayar Opera House, which caught fire and burned down in 1905. Etta barely escaped alive and suffered complications from smoke inhalation. In 1908, as a result of those complications, she died during a trip to see her sister in Atlanta.
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